Table of Contents
With the recent crypto/mining crash last year, I thought it would be an interesting study to find out what gamers searched for online when looking to upgrade their desktop graphics cards in 2022.
Study introduction
The dataset you’re about to witness consists of 62 desktop graphics cards from the three major GPU manufacturers; AMD, Nvidia, and Intel with its Arc A-Series as of last year. I’ve included GPU series currently available on the market (used and new) but not older than 2017 for relevancy purposes, from lowest to highest budgets to determine which GPUs were the most sought-after in 2022.
TLDR: The winner was Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3060!
Results analysis and conclusion
Out of the 62 graphics cards used in the research, the green team (Nvidia) is clearly the winner by far with 78% of the total search queries, followed by the red team (AMD) with 21%, and the blue team (Intel) with a humble 1%.
Nvidia’s RTX 3060 is a winner in this study with almost 9% of the total search volumes for the 62 models, followed by the RTX 3050 with almost 7%. It seems like users were more interested in budget graphics cards from Nvidia rather than AMD or Intel.
Numbers 3 and 4 are held by the RTX 3080 and RTX 3070 for mid-high-tier gamers, while at number 5 we have the all-mighty RTX 4090, which in my opinion was searched so much out of curiosity rather than buy intent, with prices reaching up to $3,000 or even more…
In the top-range department, Nvidia wins with their latest RTX 4090 flagship GPU against AMD’s RX 7900 XTX with almost 7 times more searches. The same goes for the mid-high range when looking at the RTX 4080 vs the Radeon 7900 XT, about 6 times more searches for the green team.
*To be fair, a better comparison in terms of performance would be the RX 7900 XTX vs RTX 4080, and even so Nvidia wins across the board in video game benchmarks.
The top 10 most searched GPUs were almost held by Nvidia it wasn’t for AMD’s budget Radeon 6600 at #10.
When looking at Intel’s new GPUs, mainly the Arc A770 and Arc A750, they only got 0.6% and 0.1% respectively out of the total search volumes from the 62 GPUs dataset.
Full keyword research dataset
Worldwide search intent for GPUs in 2022 on Google search engine:
| Order | GPU | Searches | Percentage | MSRP | Launch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 | 1,467,000 | 8.74% | $329 | 2021 |
| 2 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 | 1,161,800 | 6.92% | $249 | 2022 |
| 3 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 | 1,006,500 | 6.00% | $699 | 2020 |
| 4 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 | 973,100 | 5.80% | $499 | 2020 |
| 5 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 | 822,600 | 4.90% | $1,599 | 2022 |
| 6 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 | 782,100 | 4.66% | $349 | 2019 |
| 7 | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 | 762,900 | 4.55% | $149 | 2019 |
| 8 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 | 695,400 | 4.14% | $1,499 | 2020 |
| 9 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 TI | 674,600 | 4.02% | $399 | 2021 |
| 10 | AMD Radeon RX 6600 | 533,600 | 3.18% | $329 | 2021 |
| 11 | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 | 329,080 | 1.96% | $219 | 2019 |
| 12 | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER | 327,700 | 1.95% | $229 | 2019 |
| 13 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 TI | 296,700 | 1.77% | $1,999 | 2022 |
| 14 | AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT | 296,600 | 1.77% | $379 | 2021 |
| 15 | AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT | 286,800 | 1.71% | $479 | 2021 |
| 16 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 | 285,300 | 1.70% | $1,199 | 2022 |
| 17 | AMD Radeon RX 580 | 285,220 | 1.70% | $199 | 2017 |
| 18 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 TI | 276,500 | 1.65% | $1,199 | 2021 |
| 19 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 TI | 275,700 | 1.64% | $599 | 2021 |
| 20 | Nvidia GeForce GTX1050 TI | 252,060 | 1.50% | $139 | 2016 |
| 21 | AMD Radeon RX 570 | 251,790 | 1.50% | $169 | 2017 |
| 22 | Nvidia GeForce GTX1050 | 250,400 | 1.49% | $109 | 2016 |
| 23 | Nvidia GeForce GTX1080 | 222,520 | 1.33% | $599 | 2016 |
| 24 | Nvidia GeForce GT 1030 | 212,990 | 1.27% | $80 | 2018 |
| 25 | AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT | 212,000 | 1.26% | $199 | 2022 |
| 26 | Nvidia GeForce GTX1060 | 206,320 | 1.23% | $199 | 2016 |
| 27 | AMD Radeon RX 550 | 205,060 | 1.22% | $79 | 2017 |
| 28 | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 TI | 195,380 | 1.16% | $279 | 2019 |
| 29 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 | 194,700 | 1.16% | $699 | 2018 |
| 30 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 | 194,080 | 1.16% | $499 | 2018 |
| 31 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER | 186,390 | 1.11% | $399 | 2019 |
| 32 | AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT | 180,100 | 1.07% | $649 | 2020 |
| 33 | Nvidia GeForce GTX1070 | 173,770 | 1.04% | $379 | 2016 |
| 34 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 TI | 165,990 | 0.99% | $999 | 2018 |
| 35 | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER | 163,190 | 0.97% | $159 | 2019 |
| 36 | Nvidia GeForce GTX1080 TI | 159,440 | 0.95% | $699 | 2017 |
| 37 | AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT | 158,300 | 0.94% | $999 | 2020 |
| 38 | AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT | 142,390 | 0.85% | $399 | 2019 |
| 39 | AMD Radeon RX 6800 | 140,180 | 0.84% | $579 | 2020 |
| 40 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER | 125,690 | 0.75% | $499 | 2019 |
| 41 | AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX | 120,410 | 0.72% | $899 | 2022 |
| 42 | AMD Radeon RX 560 | 117,290 | 0.70% | $99 | 2017 |
| 43 | Intel Arc A770 | 102,240 | 0.61% | $329 | 2022 |
| 44 | AMD Radeon RX 6400 | 93,090 | 0.55% | $159 | 2022 |
| 45 | AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT | 90,800 | 0.54% | $279 | 2020 |
| 46 | AMD Radeon RX 5700 | 88,520 | 0.53% | $349 | 2019 |
| 47 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER | 87,050 | 0.52% | $699 | 2019 |
| 48 | AMD Radeon RX 590 | 85,830 | 0.51% | $279 | 2018 |
| 49 | AMD Radeon RX 6700 | 72,110 | 0.43% | $439 | 2022 |
| 50 | AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT | 63,750 | 0.38% | $169 | 2019 |
| 51 | Nvidia GeForce TITAN RTX | 59,500 | 0.35% | $2,499 | 2018 |
| 52 | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1630 | 56,090 | 0.33% | $139 | 2022 |
| 53 | Intel Arc A380 | 49,920 | 0.30% | $139 | 2022 |
| 54 | AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT | 48,780 | 0.29% | $399 | 2022 |
| 55 | AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT | 47,640 | 0.28% | $1,099 | 2022 |
| 56 | AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 | 47,090 | 0.28% | $399 | 2017 |
| 57 | AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT | 44,340 | 0.26% | $999 | 2022 |
| 58 | AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 | 44,010 | 0.26% | $499 | 2017 |
| 59 | AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT | 40,380 | 0.24% | $549 | 2021 |
| 60 | Nvidia GeForce GTX1070 TI | 34,020 | 0.20% | $449 | 2017 |
| 61 | Intel Arc A750 | 23,540 | 0.14% | $289 | 2022 |
| 62 | Nvidia GeForce GT 1010 | 8,950 | 0.05% | $70 | 2022 |
Credit: Study conducted by Raul Bilc for razzem.com
Legend
Order – The order of graphics cards by their search volume.
Graphics card – The model name of each GPU used in this research.
Searches – Number of average monthly searches consisting of 5 cluster keywords.
*See the explanation below in the Research methodology segment.
Percentage – The percentage from the total searches of each GPU.
MSRP – Recommended launch price for each base model GPU.
Launch – Initial release date for each base model GPU.
Research methodology
- The keyword research was conducted using a combination of 3 premium SEO tools: Ahrefs, SEM Rush, and Google Ads. The data is gathered over the entire period of 2022, from 1 January to 31 December.
- There weren’t used any location targeting filters, all research is done worldwide.
- We used data gathered exclusively from the Google search engine.
- GPU series used in this research:
Nvidia GeForce 10, 16, 20, 30, and 40 series
AMD Radeon 500, 600, 5000, 6000, and 7000 series (RDNA 3)
Intel Arc A-series
*These were the most relevant and popular GPU series that are still available either new or used to buy in retail stores or online but not older than 2017. - There were 5 cluster keyword variations used for each graphics card model in an effort to gather as much data as possible:
Generic: “rtx 3070” / “rx 6700”
Price: “rtx 3070 price” / “rx 6700 price”
MSRP: “rtx 3070 msrp” / “rx 6700 msrp”
Alternative: “geforce rtx 3070″ / “radeon rx 6700”
Alternative 2: “nvidia rtx 3070” / “amd rx 6700”
Alternative 3: “nvidia geforce rtx 3070” / “amd radeon rx 6700“
- Graphics card models with different memory were not included in the research as they would complicate and dilute general results. The number of searches resembles the general model searches (the same goes for MSRP, see below).
- MSRP is tied to the base model of each graphics card. For example, if the MSRP for the RTX 3080 is listed as $699, that price refers to the base 3080 model with 10 GB of memory.
Other things to consider
- These numbers do not represent actual sales numbers for 2022, just user search intent on Google’s search engine.
- Obscure graphics cards such as the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 Liquid or the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary Edition have been removed from the research due to low/insignificant search volumes.
- The all-new RTX 4070 Ti, which is actually a renamed RTX 4080 with 12 GB of ram, was not included in this research as the GPU was launched in January of 2023.
Sources:
Nvidia 10 series MSRP and launch date: wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_10_series
Nvidia 16 series MSRP and launch date: wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_16_series
Nvidia 20 series MSRP and launch date: wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_20_series
Nvidia 30 series MSRP and launch date: wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_30_series
Nvidia 40 series MSRP and launch date: wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_40_series
AMD Radeon 500 series MSRP and launch date: wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon_500_series
AMD Radeon RX Vega series MSRP and launch date: wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon_RX_Vega_series
AMD Radeon RX 5000 series MSRP and launch date: wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon_RX_5000_series
AMD Radeon RX 6000 series MSRP and launch date: wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon_RX_6000_series
AMD Radeon RX 7000 series MSRP and launch date: wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon_RX_7000_series
Intel Arc-A series MSRP and launch date: wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Arc
