By Tony Polanco
Publication Date: 2026-03-06 18:11:00
I’ve been covering Apple’s MacBook Neo all week, and it’s great being able to tell folks about such an affordable laptop. Unfortunately, I can’t do the same with PC gaming. Thanks to the ongoing RAM crisis, it seems the days of the budget gaming rig are officially numbered. While Apple has found a way to bring costs down (at least with the Neo), the world of PC gaming is heading in the opposite direction.
If current trends continue, PC gaming enthusiasts who love building, tweaking, and upgrading their kits could be priced out in the next couple of years. We’re not just talking about a slight bump in inflation — we could see a future where an “entry-level” gaming PC starts at $2,000 or more.
Here’s why PC gaming could become an even more exclusive club.
RAMageddon strikes again
As Gartner reports, surging memory costs are already choking the market. The firm predicts that skyrocketing DRAM and NAND flash prices will lead to a significant reduction in global PC and smartphone shipments throughout 2026.
This is a double-whammy for PC gamers. Not only do we need memory for our system RAM, but we also need it for our GPUs and high-end NVMe drives. With the cost of raw materials rising, manufacturers pass those increases directly to consumers.
We’re already seeing “budget” GPUs ship with less VRAM just to keep prices somewhat stable, and Gartner’s data suggests that even…
