New Steam survey results

I'm asking just to see how much behind the numbers can lag due unused accounts.
I for example had old account once, created new one on new machine (didn't have any bought games on the old I think), and I'm sure there's plenty of others like me

I for one am quite positive those 4% of machines with DX8 hardware aren't in active gaming use anymore

 

If you had your account in May 2006 and you participated in the survey then, your data is only connected to May 2006. If in August 2006 you were asked again on the same account with the same machine, that other distinct date (data, datum) is only connected to August 2006. If in March 2008 you were asked again on your new account with your new machine and you participated, that new date (data, datum) is only connected to March 2008.

There is no data evaluated across months. The counters are reset to zero each time a new month begins. And another random (some number fe: ) 10000 points are sampled over the timespan of that month.

If you have been chosen randomly and you are not logged in, and and you don't for a few days, you're out; and the system randomly chooses another account. (I don't really think Valve holds any of that data, I would fetch it from client machines always, there's no point in storing it)

Even though Valve would have the technical possibility to include just about every account in the survey, it's not necessary for getting solid statistics; it only creates a great deal of infrastructure (to handle it) and bandwidth occupation as well as binds more people to verify the consistancy and correctness of the survey.

What's imaginable is that Valve run's two (or more) pools for the survey to form a control-mechanism. If the deviation between the groups is beyond some threshold some adjustments have to take place (for example continue running all pools untill deviation is below the threshold).

Based on feeling? Intuition? Logic?
I can say my neighbour here (3rd world) has probably a DX7 machine and uses Steam. Our government runs in part on W98 machines.

I'd tend to believe that the offer from steam is sufficient broad and good that even poor people without hardware-updates for years can take advantage of their services.

 

IIRC every Steam account is asked to participate on average once a year. Steam survey request can also sometimes be triggered by change in HW in PC where its already installed (last time I participated was 5 weeks ago when I upgraded MoBo (old mobo died). All my previous HW survey requests were in January/February of each year.

 

What if you use your account on several different computers? I have a couple of notebooks and ~3 different desktops which I use on and off. I don't remember the last time it asked me about the survey.....

I want to turn the survey in from my "new" Prescott box with 1GB, XP and a Radeon 8500. (am I strange?) Actually, maybe I could get it going on my P3 on a 440BX mobo with a Voodoo5. 3dfx needs presence. Some of my Steam games would run on that.

 

Well, to be counted I'm pretty sure they must at least have the Steam client running.

 

The minimum req to run the Steam client is DX7?
http://www.steampowered.com/Steam/Messages/minimum_req/index.php

 

Then that computer counts. This is not Big Brother tracking you personally, it's random sampling of data to obtain average results. You (as an individual) can't skew the statistics in any way.

Damn, now I start talking in facts. There is no proof Valve does the survey like I said, but it's the right way to do and has the described implications, and I have the hope Valve get's it's thing done correctly.

 

Steam client itself probably only uses GDI to draw its interface. DX7 is most likely required by Flash which is used in some places to do things like play videos.

 

There's something seriously wrong with the Steam survey results.

Month ago, Windows 7 x64 was the most used OS according to Steam.
Now, however, Windows XP (x86) has few percents lead despite the fact that the numbers say Win7's percents grew, while XP's lowered.

 

For some reason changes in stats often jump significantly during first week of the month and later they slide back.

 

The latest numbers are out:

http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/videocard/

The GTX 460 isn't even listed in the DX 11 category, with "other" making up 0.17% of the DX 11 market. I guess it may not be all that successful after all…

 

HD58x0 had 0.20% overall Steam share in in October:
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showpost.php?p=1364634&postcount=253

 

Funny that many of these new DX11 games are TWIMTBP, considering the vast majority of DX11 hardware is ATI.

Anyhow, over 60% of systems are DX10 capable at this point. And it looks like Win7 64bit will surely be the most popular OS by next month (currently standing at 30.74%, with XP 32 at 30.89%).

 

Considering the majority of that 40% likely have outdated hardware anyway, now might be a good time for developers of high end games to start ditching DX9, or at least switch their focus to DX11. I don't think there's many gamers with 8800GT/C2D or better hardware that regularly buy modern releases that are still on XP at this point.

 

It already was the most popular in July if you looked in early August instead of late August, when XP had magicly passed it by notable margin in July numbers

 

With XP no longer being sold to OEMS after October 22nd and Vista being EOS for retail, there's no reason at all to further develop for a dwindling user-base.

 

Agreed. I was making that very argument in the Starcraft 2 thread (not that they should drop DX9 completely, but at least shift the focus to DX10+).

 

???
460 is 3.43%. It almost caught up with 480.
It is selling very well.

 

It wasn't there when he wrote that. It was added afterwards.

 

Yep, wasn't there when I looked either. Not bad for less than two months of sales.