Best cheap gaming PC deals

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Under $1000
$1,000 - $2,000
$2,000+
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Gaming PC deals

Gaming PC group shot — (Image credit: Future)

1. Quick links
2. Under $1,000
3. $1,000 – $2,000
4. $2,000+
5. UK deals
6. GPU hierarchy

If you're seeking the ultimate PC gaming experience without breaking the bank, these cheap gaming PC deals could be precisely what you need. They balance performance and affordability perfectly, ensuring you can enjoy immersive gameplay no matter the budget.

There's no getting away from it; PC gaming is an expensive hobby and though the games can be cheap the systems themselves rarely are. And that's where the guidance of expert tech bods proves invaluable. That's precisely where we come into play—we've scrutinized the newest systems on sale this week, allowing you to make informed decisions about where to invest your hard-earned money.

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Our gaming setups are categorized into three clear tiers: entry-level, sweet spot, and luxury. The sweet spot, nestled within the $1,000 to $2,000 price range, is where you'll encounter numerous gaming systems that deliver exceptional value. However, regardless of your budget, we aim to ensure you get the most bang for your buck.

RTX 50-series and RX 9000-series graphics cards are now with us, and we're finally seeing prices on these new GPUs that make previous generation builds seem pretty redundant. Occasionally there's a good RTX 40-series build that pops up, though. If you want more guidance, check out our picks for the best gaming PCs. It'll give you a good idea of how the rigs we've spotted on sale stack up in terms of performance.

Five things I always tell people before they buy a new gaming PC

1. Start by choosing a graphics card

2. 16 GB of RAM is fine on a budget, but try to get DDR5

3. Make sure it has an NVMe SSD with 1 TB capacity or more

4. Consider your CPU's general performance and socket upgradeability

5. Remember you can always upgrade later

Gaming PC deals — quick links

Amazon - Save on Nvidia RTX gaming PCs
Newegg - Save hundreds on some of the best gaming PCs in the Fantastech II sale
Best Buy - Big savings on some beefy gaming PCs
Dell - Alienware Aurora desktop PCs
iBuyPower - Up to $450 off ready-made RTX 50-series PCs
Lenovo - RTX 50-series gaming desktops and more
HP - Up to $920 discount on gaming desktops and laptops
NZXT - RTX 5060 gaming PC for $999
Walmart - Plenty of gaming PCs with big savings
B&H Photo - Gaming machines starting at $880

Nvidia GeForce-powered gaming PCs

RTX 5060 - Yeyian gaming PC | $760 @ Newegg
RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB - Ningmei Gaming PC | $1,120 @ Walmart
RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB - ABS Aquilon Aqua | $1,200 @ Newegg
RTX 5070 - iBuyPower Element Pro| $1,299 @ Walmart
RTX 5070 Ti - Alienware Aurora | $1,630 @ Dell
RTX 5080 - Alienware Aurora | $1,900 @ Dell
RTX 5090 - Yeyian Mirage S | $3,700 @ Newegg

AMD Radeon-powered gaming PCs

RX 9060 XT 8 GB - AVGPC Mini-X SFF | $899 @ Newegg
RX 9060 XT 16 GB - SkyTech Crystal | $1,000 @ Best Buy
RX 9070 XT - iBuyPower RDY Element 9 Pro R07 | $1,599 @ iBuyPower

Under $1000

This gaming PC is a great entry-level choice. You're not sacrificing a discrete graphics card like you are with some cheaper ones, and the RTX 5060 is actually very capable at lower resolutions. You're also getting 32 GB of RAM here, unlike many at this price range. Bear in mind it's DDR4 memory, though, which won't get you as much mileage and means you'll have to upgrade your motherboard if you decide you want to swap out in future.

Key specs: Core i5 14400F | RTX 5060 | 32 GB DDR4-3200 | 1 TB SSD

This is most certainly an entry-level gaming PC, but it's cheap enough and small enough to be worth a look. The RX 9060 XT is very capable for a budget card, even this version with 8 GB of VRAM. But we're dealing with an older platform with the DDR4 RAM and 5000-series Ryzen CPU. It'll get you by doing some lite to moderate gaming at 1080p and 1440p, and that Cooler Master chassis is a big selling point as you're getting a dinky little build, which usually means slapping a SFF tax on top.

Key specs: Ryzen 7 5700X | RX 9060 XT 8 GB | 16 GB DDR4-3200 | 1 TB SSD

It was looking shaky for a moment, when the last sub-$1,000 RX 9060 XT 16 GB machine ran out of stock, but swooping in to save the day is SkyTech with its good-looking Crystal system. It's got the desirable 16 GB version of AMD's mid-range GPU, but I'd want to start off with more than 16 GB of RAM in these troubled memory times. Still you are getting a decent 8-core, 16-thread Zen 4 CPU and a 1 TB SSD to fill out the rest of this affordable spec.

Key specs: Ryzen 7 7700 | RX 9060 XT 16 GB | 16 GB DDR5 | 1 TB SSD

$1,000 - $2,000

It's not every day we find an Alienware rig at the same price as all its best competitors, but that's what we have here. An RTX 5070 Ti gaming PC priced under $1,700 is very reasonable, though you'll have to configure it with the specs below yourself to hit the price. The RAM isn't the fastest, but it does come with 2 TB SSD upgrade for free, and the CPU and GPU combo should have you gaming at 1440p easily, and even at 4K in many games.

Key specs: Core Ultra 7 265F | RTX 5070 Ti | 32 GB DDR5-5200 | 2 TB SSD | 750 W PSU

Finding an RTX 5080 rig for less than $2,000 is very rare right now, and Alienware knows how to put together a good gaming PC. What's even more surprising is that, despite memory shortages, you can upgrade to 32 GB of RAM for $100 (which I've done here), and you can double the storage entirely for free. Well, for the base price of the rig, but the upgrade costs nothing. You will have to configure this yourself, but the below specs will get you to the impressively low price target.

Key specs: Intel Core Ultra 7 265F | RTX 5080 | 32 GB DDR5-5200 | 2 TB SSD | 1000 W PSU

$2,000+

The Hyte Y70 is a lovely big chassis to fit all that hulking great, powerful PC gaming hardware in it. The pick of the lot is the pairing of RTX 5080 with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D; this GPU/CPU combo is arguably the high-end gaming setup of choice. Unless your bathroom has solid gold taps and you then obviously want an RTX 5090. But this is the discerning gamer's combo, and when paired with 32 GB of fast DDR5 and a 2 TB SSD, you've got a great combo. Use coupon code CYBERWEEK to get the final price.

UK gaming PC deals

Scan: Gaming PCs from £820
Overclockers UK: Prebuilt PCs with £100s off
Chillblast: Tons of high-end gaming PCs
Cyberpower PC: RTX 5060 Ti PC for £1,109
Ebuyer: Great prices on gaming PCs
CCL: Gaming PC with an RTX 5070 for £1,500

This is a great price for all you SFF (small form factor) lovers. You're getting an older and not very powerful CPU, and only 16 GB of DDR4 RAM, but for a cheap, portable gaming system these should serve just fine alongside the RTX 5060. Usually you have to pay the SFF tax for a mini PC, so it's great to see such a low price on this one. Don't expect miracles with this hardware, but for some light gaming and a small physical footprint, look no further.

Key specs: Ryzen 5 5500 | RTX 5060 | 16 GB DDR4-3200 | 1 TB SSD

This isn't the most up-to-date spec, with a Ryzen 5000-series CPU and 16 GB of DDR4 RAM, but you are getting a good budget GPU with the RTX 5060 Ti, and importantly, you're getting absolutely everything else with this build. It comes with a 24-inch monitor, headset, keyboard, mouse, and mouse pad. So, if you're getting into PC gaming for the first time, or buying for someone else who is, this should have everything you need.

Key specs: Ryzen 5 5500 | RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | 16 GB DDR4-3600 | 1 TB SSD

We now have some entry-level RTX 50-series graphics cards on the market, and with it we're seeing builds like this pop up which should offer decent current-gen gaming performance without breaking the bank. The RTX 5060 Ti in this is paired with a previous-gen Intel CPU that has 6 P-Cores, which should be more than enough for mainstream gaming. Just bear in mind you're only getting 16 GB of DDR4 RAM here. It'll almost certainly be worth upgrading to 32 GB of fast DDR4 RAM when you can.

Key specs: Core i5 14400F | RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB | 16 GB DDR4 | 1 TB SSD

Check out our dedicated WhatsApp channel for the latest PC hardware deals.

Graphics card hierarchy

The most important component for any gaming PC build will always be the graphics card. That will give you the best idea about how one machine matches up with another just in terms of raw gaming performance.

Below, we've listed the slew of GPUs we've had over the past couple of years listed in terms of their Time Spy Extreme index score as a way to put them in some consistent hierarchy.

Should I build my own gaming PC or buy a prebuilt?

One of the biggest advantages of putting together your own budget gaming PC build is the ability to choose every single component in the system. This allows you to shop around for deals and find the perfect combination of parts to fit your budget and performance needs. The downside for most inexperienced builders is that this whole process can take some time and has the potential to cause quite a headache if something goes wrong. This is where prebuilt gaming PCs really shine.

When you pay the premium to configure or purchase a prebuilt PC, you pay for more than just the parts. You are paying for warranty service, support, and the peace of mind that professionals put your system together. These are some of the things we value highly when considering the best budget gaming PCs. We also look at other unique selling points like design, upgradability, and anything you couldn't do when building it yourself.

Now that graphics cards are regularly available and the silicon shortage is starting to clear up, building your own PC is much easier than it was before. A prebuilt rig is still a reliable way to get your desired graphics card.

For most users who don't have the luxury of spending over $1000 on a prebuilt gaming PC, upgradability and performance per dollar are paramount. When we decided to choose our top choices for budget prebuilt gaming PCs, we looked at almost every major manufacturer and system integrator to find the best combination of value, reliability, customer feedback, design, and performance under $500 and under $1,000.

We still highly recommend the experience of building it yourself, but if you can't do that, one of the systems above will have you gaming in short order.

What is a decent price for a gaming PC?

The $1,000 - $1,500 mark is probably around the sweet spot for a new gaming PC. That will get you a graphics card that can nail 1440p at solid frame rates and a really good supporting spec. That should mean a relatively sizeable NVMe SSD, around 500GB, as well as 16GB of speedy memory and a modern CPU.

Is PC gaming better than console?

Unquestionably. In real terms, it's more expensive in terms of hardware, but there is a games library stretching back decades that no other gaming platform can possibly match. Games are also regularly cheaper or free on PC, too.

The PC is also more capable of doing more things than a games console, too. Try browsing the web on your PlayStation, and you'll know what we mean. It can also be portable, in either laptop or Steam Deck style.

What PC is equivalent to a PS5?

We suggest that the AMD RX 6700 GPU will deliver around the same level of raw graphics performance as Sony's PS5. That's an OEM part, so you'll only find it in a prebuilt gaming PC, but it's an 11.3 TFLOP GPU versus the 10.3 TFLOP of the PS5.

Those numbers aren't wholly comparative, but you would also need an 8-core CPU, 16GB of memory (though the PS5's is spread between GPU and system), and a 500GB+ SSD.

TOPICS

Jacob got his hands on a gaming PC for the first time when he was about 12 years old. He swiftly realised the local PC repair store had ripped him off with his build and vowed never to let another soul build his rig again. With this vow, Jacob the hardware junkie was born. Since then, Jacob's led a double-life as part-hardware geek, part-philosophy nerd, first working as a Hardware Writer for PCGamesN in 2020, then working towards a PhD in Philosophy for a few years while freelancing on the side for sites such as TechRadar, Pocket-lint, and yours truly, PC Gamer. Eventually, he gave up the ruthless mercenary life to join the world's #1 PC Gaming site full-time. It's definitely not an ego thing, he assures us.

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