2026 Is Going to Suck for PC Gaming

It’s been a few yr since AMD and Nvidia launched the Radeon RX 9070 XT and GeForce RTX 5090, respectively, and this is able to often imply that gaming PC costs would begin to normalize a bit. And whereas graphics playing cards are extra inexpensive than final yr – a minimum of for now – different elements are ramping up the costs a lot that it’s nonetheless arduous to place collectively an inexpensive gaming PC.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear to be that is going to cease any time quickly. I’ve been advised by a number of producers that costs for prebuilt PCs – that are often the financial choice in instances like this – are going to begin going up. Once that begins occurring, it’s going to be extremely arduous for anybody that doesn’t have already got a good gaming rig to get in on the motion.

The RAM-Shaped Elephant In The Room

I keep in mind once I first bought into PC gaming, shopping for a extra capacious package of RAM was the most affordable option to make a small improve to my gaming PC. It wasn’t thrilling, however it did make a distinction, for a lot lower than shopping for a brand new CPU or GPU. But, that has been fully flipped on its head.

Back in November, RAM began getting dearer, on account of vastly elevated demand from AI information facilities. Most AI fashions, you see, are extremely memory-intensive, and these datacenters which can be going up all over the place want increasingly more of the stuff. And as a result of the businesses which can be making these information facilities have more money than you or I, the reminiscence producers have shifted their priorities to those enterprise consumers. Hell, Micron even introduced that it was shuttering Crucial, its little subsidiary that made a few of the greatest finances RAM in the marketplace.

It’s now on the level the place this simple 32GB kit of DDR5 RAM from G.Skill will price you a minimum of $360, whereas in October 2025 it was about $90, based on Camelcamelcamel. That’s a 4x leap in worth, and it doesn’t appear to be it’s going to decelerate any time quickly. I reached out to Anshel Sag, Principal Analyst at Moor Insight and Strategy, and he advised me to anticipate this reminiscence scarcity to increase into 2027 and even 2028. “It’s important to remember that in past memory crunches or gluts, they were purely cyclical and the industry was very boom or bust,” Sag advised me, “but with AI we might see a structural change to how memory is consumed.”

We’re already seeing this reminiscence scarcity have an effect on different PC elements, too. SSDs, for one, are already beginning to see an analogous rise in worth. The 1TB Silicon Power UD90, which is meant to be a finances SSD, has already elevated to $144, from $60 only a few months in the past.

While it’d be good to only settle for these worth will increase as “the inflated component of the week”, RAM and storage are such an essential a part of any piece of tech, whether or not or not it’s for gaming, that different costs are certain to rise sooner or later.

Prices Will Rise On Other Parts and Prebuilts

I’d hesitate to name prebuilt gaming PCs inexpensive proper now, however it’s nonetheless clear that the value will increase actually haven’t hit them fairly but. Right now you may nonetheless get this Cyperpower PC with a 5070 and an RTX 5070 and a Ryzen 7800X3D for about $1679, which is about $100 cheaper than placing it collectively your self proper now. That’s not an enormous financial savings, however hey, 100 bucks is 100 bucks.

Last week at CES, although, I used to be advised by a number of producers that worth will increase on prebuilt techniques are across the nook, and that shouldn’t be too shocking. These corporations sometimes purchase their elements in bulk, and as soon as they should restock on now-expensive reminiscence, they’re more likely to move that worth enhance on to shoppers. Anshel Sag agrees, telling me “basically everything will be impacted, smartphones and PCs will see the biggest impact”, however that it’s very seemingly even the upcoming consoles will seemingly be affected in some methods, although “though they will likely use unified memory across GPU and CPU, potentially reducing the need for separate system and GPU memory”.

But it’s not simply full techniques. There have been rumors swirling round that Nvidia goes to be bumping up the costs on its Blackwell graphics playing cards, significantly the RTX 5090, due to how a lot GDDR7 reminiscence is strapped onto it. Nvidia’s flagship has 32GB of the stuff, so it wouldn’t be shocking if Team Green raised the value of the already-expensive card to $5,000 as Newsis (through TechPowerUp) suggests.

What’s worse is that we’re nearly there. At the time of writing, the most affordable RTX 5090 I can discover will set you again $4,111 on Newegg, and that’s one itemizing, and it’s from a vendor with lower than excellent evaluations. There are different listings that put the RTX 5090 at round $4,600, with some already reaching the $5,000 worth level that leakers warned a few couple weeks in the past.

Luckily, it doesn’t appear that these enormous worth will increase are hitting extra mainstream graphics playing cards simply but. The RTX 5070 can nonetheless be discovered round $570-$600, which is simply barely greater than its $549 MSRP. Team Red is faring a bit worse, however even at $600, the Radeon RX 9070 continues to be inside placing distance of its $549 beginning worth. I don’t anticipate that this may proceed to be the case for for much longer, however the much less reminiscence a GPU has, the much less it’ll seemingly be impacted by these pricing woes.

Is the Steam Machine a Silver Lining?

None of this precisely bodes properly for the Steam Machine. Valve introduced its mini gaming PC again in November, and stated it’d launch in January or February of this yr. But as that imprecise launch window inches ever nearer, it’s trying extra seemingly that the Steam Machine goes to be dearer than many have been in all probability hoping it’d be.

When the Steam Machine was first introduced, I assumed it will be round $800, given its reasonable energy, however with reminiscence costs being what they’re, I wouldn’t be shocked if it began inching in direction of a fourth digit. Recently, a Czech retailer posted an early retailer itemizing, spotted on Reddit, for the Steam Machine that priced it at round $950.

When I first noticed these posts I used to be instantly skeptical, but when the Steam Machine was initially supposed to focus on a worth of round $800, bumping up the value to $950 in response to elevated reminiscence costs would make numerous sense. Only time will inform if these leaked costs are in any means correct, however I’m not precisely hopeful about it.

When Will This End?

This is hardly the primary time RAM has seen a large worth enhance. RAM costs are likely to fluctuate over time, relying on demand. But this time may be completely different. Not solely are AI information facilities gobbling up reminiscence, however just about each machine underneath the solar is utilizing extra of it as properly.

“Just look at how much DRAM is in phones today versus a few years ago,” Sag confirmed. “The same applies to laptops and the 16GB minimum threshold for CoPilot+, as well as gaming handhelds like the ROG Xbox Ally X, which has 24GB in a handheld.”

The solely means I actually see us getting out of this RAM scarcity any time quickly is that if reminiscence producers like Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix ramp up manufacturing to get extra DIMMs on retailer cabinets. But with AI corporations shopping for up all of this reminiscence even with the elevated costs, I wouldn’t maintain my breath.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC elements queen. You can comply with her @Jackiecobra