PC Gamer argues that good-value pre-built gaming PCs have effectively disappeared as component shortages and rising costs push prices up across the market. This matters because buyers may now need to accept weaker specifications for more money, while those on the tightest budgets could be priced out altogether.

The article attributes the change chiefly to a global memory shortage, higher storage and GPU costs, and demand linked to the AI boom. An RTX 5060 Ti PC that cost about $1,000 last year now starts near $1,200 and may use older DDR4 memory; a comparable RTX 5070 Ti system has risen from $1,900 to around $2,400, while cheaper AMD alternatives also offer less RAM or storage.