It’s been about a year since AMD and Nvidia released the Radeon RX 9070 XT and GeForce RTX 5090, respectively, and this would usually mean that gaming PC prices would start to normalize a bit. And while graphics cards are more affordable than last year – at least for now – other components are ramping up the prices so much that it’s still hard to put together an affordable gaming PC.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like this is going to stop any time soon. I’ve been told by multiple manufacturers that prices for prebuilt PCs – which are usually the economic option in times like this – are going to start going up. Once that starts happening, it’s going to be incredibly hard for anyone that doesn’t already have a decent gaming rig to get in on the action.
The RAM-Shaped Elephant In The Room
I remember when I first got into PC gaming, buying a more capacious kit of RAM was the cheapest way to make a small upgrade to my gaming PC. It wasn’t exciting, but it did make a difference, for much less than buying a new CPU or GPU. But, that has been completely flipped on its head.
Back in November, RAM started getting more expensive, due to vastly increased demand from AI data centers. Most AI models, you see, are incredibly memory-intensive, and these datacenters that are going up everywhere need more and more of the stuff. And because the companies that are making these data centers have more cash than you or I, the memory manufacturers have shifted their priorities to these enterprise buyers. Hell, Micron even announced that it was shuttering Crucial, its little subsidiary that made some of the best budget RAM on the market.
It’s now at the point where this simple 32GB kit of DDR5 RAM from G.Skill will cost you at least $360, whereas in October 2025 it was about $90, according to Camelcamelcamel. That’s a 4x jump in price, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down any time soon. I reached out to Anshel Sag, Principal Analyst at Moor Insight and Strategy, and he told me to expect this memory shortage to extend into 2027 or 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 told me, “but with AI we might see a structural change to how memory is consumed.”
We’re already seeing this memory shortage affect other PC components, too. SSDs, for one, are already starting to see a similar rise in price. The 1TB Silicon Power UD90, which is supposed to be a budget SSD, has already increased to $144, from $60 just a few months ago.
While it’d be nice to just accept these price increases as “the inflated component of the week”, RAM and storage are such an important part of any piece of tech, whether or not it’s for gaming, that other prices are sure to rise in the future.
Prices Will Rise On Other Parts and Prebuilts
I’d hesitate to call prebuilt gaming PCs affordable right now, but it’s still clear that the price increases really haven’t hit them quite yet. Right now you can still get this Cyperpower PC with a 5070 and an RTX 5070 and a Ryzen 7800X3D for about $1679, which is about $100 cheaper than putting it together yourself right now. That’s not a huge savings, but hey, a hundred bucks is a hundred bucks.
Last week at CES, though, I was told by multiple manufacturers that price increases on prebuilt systems are around the corner, and that shouldn’t be too surprising. These companies typically buy their components in bulk, and once they need to restock on now-expensive memory, they’re likely to pass that price increase on to consumers. Anshel Sag agrees, telling me “basically everything will be impacted, smartphones and PCs will see the biggest impact”, but that it’s very likely even the upcoming consoles will likely be affected in some ways, though “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 just complete systems. There have been rumors swirling around that Nvidia is going to be bumping up the prices on its Blackwell graphics cards, particularly the RTX 5090, because of how much GDDR7 memory is strapped onto it. Nvidia’s flagship has 32GB of the stuff, so it wouldn’t be surprising if Team Green raised the price of the already-expensive card to $5,000 as Newsis (via TechPowerUp) suggests.
What’s worse is that we’re almost there. At the time of writing, the cheapest RTX 5090 I can find will set you back $4,111 on Newegg, and that’s one listing, and it’s from a seller with less than perfect reviews. There are other listings that put the RTX 5090 at around $4,600, with some already reaching the $5,000 price point that leakers warned about a couple weeks ago.
Luckily, it doesn’t seem that these huge price increases are hitting more mainstream graphics cards just yet. The RTX 5070 can still be found around $570-$600, which is only slightly higher than its $549 MSRP. Team Red is faring a little worse, but even at $600, the Radeon RX 9070 is still within striking distance of its $549 starting price. I don’t expect that this will continue to be the case for much longer, but the less memory a GPU has, the less it’ll likely be impacted by these pricing woes.
Is the Steam Machine a Silver Lining?
None of this exactly bodes well for the Steam Machine. Valve announced its mini gaming PC back in November, and said it’d launch in January or February of this year. But as that vague launch window inches ever closer, it’s looking more likely that the Steam Machine is going to be more expensive than many were probably hoping it’d be.
When the Steam Machine was first announced, I assumed it would be around $800, given its moderate power, but with memory prices being what they are, I wouldn’t be surprised if it started inching towards a fourth digit. Recently, a Czech retailer posted an early store listing, spotted on Reddit, for the Steam Machine that priced it at around $950.
When I first saw these posts I was immediately skeptical, but if the Steam Machine was initially supposed to target a price of around $800, bumping up the price to $950 in response to increased memory prices would make a lot of sense. Only time will tell if these leaked prices are in any way accurate, but I’m not exactly hopeful about it.
When Will This End?
This is hardly the first time RAM has seen a massive price increase. RAM prices tend to fluctuate over time, depending on demand. But this time might be different. Not only are AI data centers gobbling up memory, but pretty much every device under the sun is using more of it as well.
“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 only way I really see us getting out of this RAM shortage any time soon is if memory manufacturers like Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix ramp up production to get more DIMMs on store shelves. But with AI companies buying up all of this memory even with the increased prices, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
