For all of you who have been wanting to upgrade your PC or build a new one this year, I truly sympathize. I, too, had some plans for my rig, but they're all on the back burner, as we're all trying to shield our wallets from the effects of the RAMpocalypse. Thanks, AI.
Nearly all components are affected by this point, but DDR5 RAM itself is through the roof. Unless you enjoy paying an extra $300-$500 for RAM compared to this time last year, it's just not a great time to build a new rig.
Against all odds, our team here at PC Gamer has been hard at work digging up some of the best Prime Day PC gaming deals for you over these past couple of days, and bar the occasional glimmer of hope here and there, it's pretty grim out there. So much so that I decided to check out the DDR4 situation instead.
And guess what, it's actually ... not terrible?
Have a look at all the best Prime Day PC gaming deals here.
Scaling back down to DDR4 is not the worst thing that can happen to a PC gamer. If you put the savings into a better GPU, you'll be far better off as long as gaming is your main goal. And anyway, capacity is king; fast DDR4 RAM is really nothing to turn your nose up at. You may not find these DDR4-powered rigs in our best gaming PC builds roundup, but they're still valid, and they still show a lot of promise.
The long and short of it is that choosing DDR4 in 2026 is a good way to build a budget-friendly gaming PC that'll still last you for years. More importantly, it can still be upgraded over time, but you'll probably have to choose Intel for substantial upgrades and savings.
The reason is simple: Intel's LGA 1700 socket still supports DDR4. For AMD, you'd have to go all the way back to the AM4 socket, with the only upgrade path being the iconic Ryzen 7 5800X3D or perhaps the Ryzen 7 5700X3D. That's all well and good, but you can get a better PC right now by sticking to Intel.
With Intel's LGA 1700 combined with DDR4 RAM, the savings are in the hundreds of dollars. Buy a cheaper CPU today and upgrade it to the 14700K or even the 14900K one day, which will still be a much more powerful chip than the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, even though the Ryzen chip certainly ranks among the best CPUs for gaming.
The deals
The information
The alternatives
Of course, there are alternatives. You can pick up an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X during Prime Day deals, which is now down to $147.99, and build a new PC around the AM4 platform with DDR4 RAM. You'll still save money, but you'll have a less impressive and promising upgrade path. There's even the humble Ryzen 5 5500, now just $87.95 with a 45% discount.
Ultimately, with either rig, you'll be locked to a specific motherboard and will need to make big moves to upgrade to a current-gen CPU.
Newegg has something fun going on now, too: You can build your own PC bundle with savings all around. Click around and see if you can't find a better deal than what I managed to dig up from the depths of the RAMpocalypse for you here.
The bottom line is that when times are tough and everything is overpriced, getting creative is the way to go. DDR4 RAM might be the key to getting you a great gaming PC, and even if it's not the top option right now, it's more than good enough when paired with the right GPU. Shop now while Prime Day deals last, because after that, the prices will get even worse.
👉Shop all of Amazon's CPU deals here👈
1. Best CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
2. Best motherboard: MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk WiFi
3. Best RAM: G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 32 GB DDR5-7200
4. Best SSD: WD_Black SN7100
5. Best graphics card: AMD Radeon RX 9070
