60% of PC gamers have no plans to build a new PC in the next two years — AI pricing crunch on RAM and other components paralyze enthusiast market

60% of PC gamers have no plans to build a new PC in the next two years — AI pricing crunch on RAM and other components paralyze enthusiast market

Stephen is Tom's Hardware's News Editor with almost a decade of industry experience covering technology, having worked at TechRadar, iMore, and even Apple over the years. He has covered the world of consumer tech from nearly every angle, including supply chain rumors, patents, and litigation, and more. When he's not at work, he loves reading about history and playing video games. ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-23/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Stephen Warwick Social Links Navigation News Editor Stephen is Tom's Hardware's News Editor with almost a decade of industry experience covering technology, having worked at TechRadar, iMore, and even Apple over the years. He has covered the world of consumer tech from nearly every angle, including supply chain rumors, patents, and litigation, and more. When he's not at work, he loves reading about history and playing video games.

Arkitekt78 AI: so so so many downsides, almost zero upsides. What an unbelievable waste of time, money, and resources. Reply

Dr3ams It's not just the expensive hardware. For a while now I haven't found a game I like that has required an upgrade. All the games I've purchased recently on Steam run just fine on my current machine. So, unless Bethesda craps out Skyrim 6 or Fallout 5 this year, I don't plan on buying any new hardware. Reply

Notton When RTX 60 series is pushed back until 2028, and AMD 10000 series, along with PS6 and Xbox Helix are also slated for 2028… and none of the current gen gaming GPUs have reasonable price/performance, what do you expect? Reply

usertests Notton said: When RTX 60 series is pushed back until 2028, and AMD 10000 series, along with PS6 and Xbox Helix are also slated for 2028… I think some of that stuff will come in 2027. It's just 2026 that is a dead year with few significant launches. Reply

el.nomikos And here i am with a 14 year old pc-state of the art pc back in 2012-trying to buy a new pc but boycotting gpu/ram/hdd inflation and profiteering :cautious::mad: Reply

KarlGraves So almost half are planning to build a completely new PC? That sounds like the exact opposite of the market being paralyzed. Not that these polls are usually reliable. Reply

waltc3 Smart people, imo, will not be buying all new components every couple of years, but they will upgrade their hardware piecemeal, instead, buying new individual, compatible components when the mood and the price and the hardware all persuade them to do so…;) In fact, many people already own rigs that far exceed the maximums their software demands. The price gouging that AI is currently creating is certainly a negative factor, but supply and demand dictate that when demand falls, prices also fall in response, as we've seen with many of the new combo offers coming down the pike. It will be interesting to see how all of this shakes out. Reply

LordVile KarlGraves said: So almost half are planning to build a completely new PC? That sounds like the exact opposite of the market being paralyzed. Not that these polls are usually reliable. Not really. 75% are no within the next year and if prices don’t improve and no new hardware is launched what’s the likelihood that aren’t planning to this year will next? Most people will be on a modern platform at this point too so it’s only a GPU upgrade Reply

hotaru251 won't just be PC gamers. Next gen consoles are going to be too costly to sell well due to the component cost being so high…and they quit selling em at a loss. next gen is going to sell poorly compared to current and past generations. Reply

CelicaGT I keep -almost- buying an RX9070XT and it's not the cost that stops me. It's the fact that none of them will fit in my 14 year old PC case and I'm too lazy to build into a new one. So not really cost related. Though, with the newly announced glass shortage I expect PC case prices may skyrocket *eyeroll* Reply

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