Steam players are reverting back to GTX 1660 graphics cards, despite Nvidia's best efforts

gamesradar.com:

The Nvidia GTX 1660 released back in 2019, but Valve’s latest Steam Hardware Survey figures suggest people are still buying the graphics card. Rather than necessarily jumping from lower spec favorites like the GTX 1650 to the new RTX 4060, players appear to be sticking with the GTX line of GPUs for the most part.

I’m hesitant to call the Nvidia GTX 1660 one of the best graphics cards around, but its price makes it a top option for budget gaming PC builders. That said, I’d be careful when shopping around for one on Amazon, as while you can snag one for as little as $165.99, most of the cheaper options are by brands I’ve never heard of. Don’t get me wrong, Asus, MSI, and Zotax will also hook you up, but pricing is what makes the apparent shift towards the GTX card in 2023 quite interesting.

According to Steam Hardware Survey results for June, the number of GTX 1660 GPU users on the platform jumped by 1.82%. That might not sound like much, but even under 2% of the service’s 120 million monthly users is a pretty big figure. Not to mention that increases across every other popular graphics card failed to see usage increases above 1%, with the Steam Deck Van Gogh APU coming in second. 

It’s needless to say that the Nvidia GTX 1660 is one of the cheapest graphics cards still on the market, and it’s still capable of a lot today. However, the new PC games are more demanding than ever, and you won’t find the card on many system requirements lists in 2023. Not to mention it lacks any sort of AI upscaling support, and while you might not like the fact, features like Nvidia DLSS are a godsend if you’re trying to run new releases on entry-level hardware. 

Of course, Nvidia would also prefer you to opt for something with DLSS