2026 Is Going to Suck for PC Gaming
IGN • • technology
Key Points:
- Despite more affordable graphics cards like the Radeon RX 9070 XT and GeForce RTX 5090 compared to last year, overall gaming PC prices remain high due to rising costs of other components, particularly RAM and storage.
- RAM prices have surged about 4x since late 2025, driven by increased demand from AI data centers, causing a structural shift in memory consumption expected to last until 2027 or 2028, according to industry analysts.
- Prebuilt gaming PC prices are poised to rise soon as manufacturers face higher costs for memory and other parts, with flagship GPUs like Nvidia’s RTX 5090 already reaching prices near $5,000 due to expensive GDDR7 memory.
- The upcoming Steam Machine gaming PC may also
