PC gaming has a pricing problem, and the memory crisis is compounding it in a way that's utterly heartbreaking for our hobby
Money, money, money.
(Image credit: Future)
Occasionally, on one of my rare jaunts out into the real world, someone will ask me what I do for a living. "I write for PC Gamer," I invariably respond. "Oh that's cool," comes the reply. "I'd like to buy a gaming PC, but I looked at the prices recently and…"
You get the idea. I'm also constantly asked by gamers, both online and in the real world, what PC they should buy on a budget, and my response often starts with: "What do you mean by budget?"
You can still buy a sub-$1,000 prebuilt with great specs, but that's while current stocks last. All indications suggest that, come 2026, DRAM prices are going to bite so hard when it comes to memory modules, SSDs, and even VRAM, that a decently-powerful rig for less than a grand is going to be very hard to find. And in terms of the DIY market? We're already in deep… waters.
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Two years ago, I paid around $100 for the 32 GB Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5-6000 kit currently sitting in my machine. Yesterday, I found it for $425. Today, I can't find it in stock anywhere, despite it being, until very recently, one of the most affordable memory kits on the market.
In fact, the cheapest 32 GB DDR5 kit I can find on Amazon at the time of writing is this G.Skill 5400 MT/s set for $340. That's budget DDR5, for mainstream graphics card money.
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Speaking of graphics cards, we've seen the prices stabilise over the past few months after the ludicrous retailer markups the market was subjected to earlier this year. You can now find most current-gen GPUs for around their MSRP, but that's still cold comfort for those looking to build a machine on a tight budget.
(Image credit: Future)
You can pick up an 8 GB RTX 5060 for sub-$300 prices, but it's still pretty thin-going if you want to turn the settings up in the demanding stuff at anything over 1080p. DLSS upscaling and Frame Generation help, no doubt. But it's not exactly a graphics card we're jumping up and down over—and should you wish to make the jump to the mid-range, an is still $500 at best.
