The first few months of 2025 briefly felt like a turning point for people interested in building gaming PCs. Graphics card reviews finally started to paint a reasonably positive picture: performance was strong, and midrange GPUs aimed at 1080p and 1440p gaming were often landing close to their official suggested prices. For the first time in years, it seemed possible to recommend specific graphics cards without immediately needing to add caveats about extreme shortages or wildly inflated costs. Unfortunately, that short-lived window of normalcy closed quickly as prices for memory and storage surged, reshaping the economics of PC building and making 2025 yet another frustrating year for enthusiasts and first-time builders alike.
The sudden shift came from unprecedented price increases in RAM and SSDs as demand from AI data centers began to strain global supply. Kits that had been firmly in budget territory during the summer suddenly became luxury items by early winter. In some cases, mainstream DDR5 kits more than tripled or quadrupled in price compared with just a few months earlier, and even relatively modest DDR4 kits followed a steep upward trajectory. At the same time, common NVMe SSDs, once a default “cheap and fast” upgrade, started pushing into price brackets that made them feel more like premium components than routine purchases. By the end of the year, the memory in a system could easily cost more than the processor or even the graphics card, completely inverting the way people usually plan their builds.
This transformation can be seen plainly when comparing past and present prices for popular parts. Entry-level DDR4 kits that hovered in the few-dozen-dollar range at the end of summer were suddenly priced close to or even above the hundred-dollar mark by December. Midrange DDR5 kits showed an even more painful climb, to the point where configurations that once made sense for a mid-budget build now looked extravagant. On the storage side, SSDs in the 500 GB to 2 TB range climbed from straightforward recommendations to tough sells, often doubling in cost relative to their August prices. The cumulative impact of these increases turned what had briefly been an “okay” time to build a PC into one of the least appealing periods of the decade for budget-conscious gamers.
Adding to the pessimism is the fact that major memory manufacturers do not expect relief anytime soon. Companies supplying DRAM and NAND have openly warned that they cannot produce enough memory to satisfy the exploding appetite of AI-focused data centers, even after scaling up capacity and prioritizing high-margin enterprise products. Forecasts now suggest that constrained supply and elevated prices will likely persist through at least 2026, with some executives indicating that they may only be able to meet a fraction of total demand. Consumer-focused brands are being trimmed or retired, not expanded, and the knock-on effect is that home builders increasingly find themselves competing with massive server deployments for the same finite pool of memory chips.
Manufacturers and resellers have hinted that prices may “stabilize” at some point, but there is little expectation that this will mean a return to pre-spike affordability. Instead, stability is more likely to mean that current elevated levels become the new normal. This leaves PC builders needing to make tougher choices about where to spend their money. A build that once would have comfortably included 32 GB of relatively fast RAM and a sizeable SSD now forces more cautious compromises: stepping down to lower capacities, slower speeds, or fewer drives just to stay within a sensible budget. Even shoppers looking for pre-built systems are feeling the squeeze, because vendors must absorb the same component cost increases and pass them along through higher prices or reduced specifications.
All of this stands in stark contrast to the broader state of PC gaming, which in many ways is better than it has ever been. Game releases that once skipped the PC or arrived years late now routinely show up on the platform alongside their console counterparts. Large publishers that were historically hesitant about PC ports have warmed to the platform and increasingly treat it as a core part of their release strategy. The blurring of lines between console and PC ecosystems is especially clear in the way some console makers now support PC releases for formerly exclusive titles, and in the growing technical and design overlap between living room hardware and desktop systems. As rival consoles converge in capabilities, the PC has emerged as a kind of neutral ground that benefits from both sides.
On the software side, the landscape is similarly encouraging. Traditional Windows setups remain the default choice for many buyers and builders because of broad compatibility and familiar tools. At the same time, alternative approaches to PC gaming have grown more robust and user-friendly. Linux-based platforms, powered by gaming-focused distributions and compatibility layers, now support a surprisingly wide library of modern titles. Handheld gaming PCs and living-room-oriented machines built around customized operating systems provide more console-like convenience while still tapping into the broader PC ecosystem. Even mainstream operating systems have begun to adopt more streamlined, controller-friendly interfaces tailored for gaming scenarios, making it easier to treat a PC as a dedicated entertainment device when desired.
For people who already own a reasonably capable gaming PC, this moment is paradoxically quite good. A system with a competent recent processor, at least 16 GB of RAM, and a halfway modern graphics card can handle the vast majority of current games quite comfortably. In that context, incremental upgrades—especially graphics card swaps—can still make sense, particularly before inflation in memory pricing starts to trickle more aggressively into GPU and pre-built system costs. A user in this position can enjoy the benefits of the current software environment and game library without needing to shoulder the full burden of today’s inflated RAM and SSD prices.
The situation is much harsher for those attempting to build a gaming PC from scratch. The cost of a decent memory kit alone can approach that of an entire modern console, and by the time storage and a video card are added, the total often feels disproportionate to the performance gained. Put simply, the value proposition that once made building a PC a clear step up from buying a console has been eroded. While the flexibility, openness, and long-term upgradability of a PC still hold appeal, they are now weighed against steep upfront costs that are increasingly hard to justify for casual or first-time buyers. The dream of a reasonably priced, well-balanced gaming rig now takes more deliberate planning and a greater tolerance for compromise.
One of the few bright spots in this environment is the continued viability of slightly older but still capable processors, particularly in the midrange. Mainstream desktop CPUs from recent generations remain excellent options for gaming and general use, and their support for DDR4 memory can soften the blow of high DDR5 pricing. Boards and chips based on such platforms still offer strong single-threaded performance and enough cores for modern workloads, and they pair well with a wide range of midrange GPUs. For many users, combining one of these established processors with more affordable DDR4 memory can yield a system that performs well without venturing into the most expensive tiers of the current market.
Given all these pressures, anyone thinking about building or upgrading now needs to approach memory decisions more carefully than usual. Capacity, speed, and platform choice are more tightly interlinked with budget than they have been in years, and a thoughtful balance between what is ideal and what is affordable is essential. Lower-clocked DDR5, smaller kits with the option to expand later, or leveraging the relative stability of DDR4 on supported platforms are all avenues that can keep costs under control. In parallel, it is worth closely monitoring component prices over time, because volatility can sometimes present brief but meaningful opportunities to buy critical parts at less punishing levels.
