Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
According to a new report of Liquid web.
Based on a survey of 1,000 PC players, Liquid Web found various conclusions on what affects players’ purchase decisions. And clearly, they are quite sensitive to prices now. Liquid Web has studied PC players to discover what motivates today’s graphics card decisions.
The company noted that the cloud game is a way for players to face the high costs of upgrade to a new GPU every few years. The survey revealed that 62% of players would go all in the cloud games if the latency disappeared. This represents a sober recalibration of value, performance and permanence in the game
World, said Liquid Web. Keep in mind that Liquid Web is a premium accommodation and cloud supplier
Infrastructure solutions for businesses, developers and digital creators.
The study explores how prices, performance and platform changes such as AI and Cloud computing affect loyalty, value perception and the future role of high-end GPUs.
IAU improvement is such a change. This automatic learning technology improves low resolution frames by predicting and generating high -time high resolution details. In addition to Cloud Gaming, this changes the way players assess upgrade needs.
Budgeting limits to the brand’s confidence, our results provide usable information on the priorities and pain points of modern PC players.
About 36% of players already use services like GeForce Now or XBOX XCloud. One in five estimates that high -end GPUs will be obsolete in the three years.
Death of the upgrade cycle?
About 57% of players say they were blocked by GPU purchases due to scalping or price hikes. And 43% postponed or canceled upgrades due to rent or invoices. Only 25% of players are ready to spend more than $ 500 on a GPU.
Influencers are the new benchmarks, said Liquid Web. About 35% say that influencers or criticisms have removed them from specific GPU marks. And 36% committed GPU marks during an upgrade, while 23% say that commercial controversies made them move away from certain manufacturers.
Liquid Web said that financial pivots and technological pivots create a lot of tension. The upgrade cycle is broken, because rent payments, cloud games and AI make GPUs less relevant to Gen Z. There is also the start of graphic game platforms like Roblox, Minecraft and Fortnite. These games have hundreds of millions of players, but they are not the most demanding with regard to graphic realism.
About one in three players said that he had abandoned a GPU brand due to influencers. It is not an easy thing to do, since there are only three major GPU brands: NVIDIA, AMD and Intel. Influence can beat players’ confidence specifications.
Methodology
Liquid Web interviewed 1,000 PC players based in the United States in May 2025 to understand their GPU habits, upgrade obstacles and openness to cloud-based alternatives. The average age of players is 34 years old, with 51% men, 46% women and 3% non -binary or other.
About 4% of those questioned were baby boomers, 18% were generation X, 56% were millennials and 22% were Gen Z. The coverage included the 50 American states and the best metropolitan areas. The survey included attitude issues, cloud use models and brand feelings. The analysis was supported by Google Trends comparisons of 318 terms of research linked to the GPU in the American regions and major cities. The respondents were projected for an active commitment of the games and a recent consideration or a property of the GPU.
Other results
Almost 3 out of 4 players (73%) would choose Nvidia if all the GPU brands also worked. More than one in four players (25%) say that $ 500 is their maximum budget for a GPU today. About 42% would skip future GPU upgrades if the AI or Cloud scaling services met their performance needs.
Liquid Web said that brand performance, price and loyalty decisions. Players are not only buying GPUs depending on the brand’s loyalty. They also weighed performance, price and confidence. Among the respondents, 36% had changed brands during an GPU upgrade, 78% citing performance and 69% citing the price as the main reasons.
A series of bar graphs shows the results of the GPU preferences survey, the factors in the choice of the best GPUs, the sources of trust and the upgrade frequency between PC players. The most favorite brand is NVIDIA, the most important factor is the performance, the most reliable resource is the Reddit / Online forums, and a large majority of players keep a 3 year old GPU before upgrading.
Nvidia remained the brand of choice for the majority, 73% of players selecting it as their favorite GPU if all the brands also worked. This preference was particularly strong in power users: 76% of users of ultrawid monitors and 66% of 4K players relied on Nvidia.
However, feeling is not settled in stone. About a quarter (23%) said recent controversies or commercial decisions made them less likely to support a brand. Influencers have also played a role, 35% of players saying that opinions or technological personalities have removed them from certain manufacturers.
Almost one in 10 player (8%) said that the regret of a GPU purchase. These feelings were most often due to problems such as: driver problems (especially for DMLA users); Horky overheating or cooling solutions; Disappointing performance for the price paid; Incompatibility with VR or specific games; short lifespan performance gains.
“Players are more pragmatic: value, reliability and innovation are more important than brand loyalty. Brands that embrace these changes will be distinguished in an increasingly demanding market, “said Brooke Oates, product manager at Liquid Web, in a press release.
While GPU prices continue to increase, budgetary constraints push players to used markets and upgrade delays. However, a GPU remains the most desirable upgrade for some.
Almost one in four (23%) said it would be their first choice if they could invest in a single component at the moment.
The survey data statistics show long -term confidence in GPU brands (NVIDIA is first), budgetary ranges (vary, 27% of respondents choosing $ 500 to $ 699) and GPU models with the best value for value (varying between NVIDIA models, with NVIDIA RTX 4070 TI first).
The purchasing behavior reflects the tight budgets of the players. Almost half (45%) have opted for models used or older, and 22% said they used fall trackers or alert services to monitor price changes.
Even for players ready to upgrade, 39% plan to wait one to two years, while 37% said they would only replace it if their current GPU fails.
One in 7 player said that GPU shortages had had an impact on their game or productivity in the past year. The players are divided on the sentence of new features. About half believe that GPUs have reached decreasing yields, while half do not. The list of the list of overestimated features was the 8K game (47%), the tracing of the shelves (17%) and the generation of frame (11%).
Cloud games are to reshape future demand
GPU demand among players in the future can be very different as AI cloud and technologies are improving. Many PC players already reconstruct the need for hardware upgrades.
The results of the investigation into players’ attitudes towards cloud games, 42% would ignore the GPU upgrade for the cloud if he corresponded to performance, and 62% would go to the cloud if the latency was zero. Nvidia GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming are the most reliable cloud game services, with 20% believing that Cloud Games will replace the GPUs in the future.
More than two in five PC players (42%) said they would skip a future GPU upgrade if the AI or Cloud scaling services met their needs. Almost two -thirds (62%), including 62% of the millennium and 61% of Gen Z players, would go to full -time cloud games if the latency was eliminated.
Young players have shown the strongest inclination. Among generation Z and generation Y, 21% thought that high -end GPUs would become less essential over the next three years. More than a third of respondents (36%) have already declared to use cloud games like GeForce Now or Xcloud occasionally.
If these trends continue, cloud performance can become a decisive factor on the GPU market, not only modifying how the games are played, but also if the expensive equipment remains relevant, said Liquid Web.
Even for players ready to upgrade, 39% plan to wait 1 to 2 years, while 37% said they would only replace it if their current GPU fails.
“With players increasingly open to Cloud and AI solutions, partnerships or innovation in these areas could position brands for the future,” said oats
Economic constraints push players to make more calculated choices. Tightened budgets, used markets and skepticism towards features such as 8K game signal a passage from prestige performance to practical solutions.
At the same time, emerging technologies such as AI and Cloud Improvement Services are the reshaping of expectations. While the hardware and software continue to evolve, the companies that win will be those that will offer an innovation with in -depth value, resolving real points of pain around access, longevity and performance without breaking the bank.
“GPU and game suppliers must rethink and approach their value proposals. Accessible prices, commercial programs or cloud game integrations could create long -term loyalty, “said Oates.
