The latest Steam hardware survey figures have been released, and it looks like good news for Microsoft. Despite Gabe Newell's own labelling of Windows 8 as a "catastrophe for everyone in the PC space", the survey shows a definite uptake, with Windows 8 becoming the fastest growing OS among Steam users. With 4.69% of Steam users now operating the interface formerly known as Metro, it's even overtaken the combined Mac OS X variants.

Windows 8 is only the fourth most-used OS on the hardware table, but month-on-month growth is where it's really performing. Even the mighty Windows 7, currently used by just under three quarters of Steam users, experienced a 0.85% decline in users, while Win8 picked up a healthy 2.66% growth on the previous month's total. Bizarrely, the 64-bit variant of Vista also saw a meagre 0.03% increase. Who's still buying Vista? Why?

Unfortunately we can only see growth and percentage totals, with exact figures being unavailable. Steam's monthly hardware survey is an opt-in service, so the polled data only reflects those happy to show off their components.

Elsewhere, the hardware survey continues to be a fun little tool for comparing your rig against millions of gaming neighbours. For instance, a quick browse of most used components reveals that not many people are prepared for Cysis 3's hefty high performance specifications .

Thanks, Neowin .