Prices are going up all over, but full PCs are still lagging behind. These are my favorite PC picks to beat the RAMpocalypse

(Image credit: Skytech | ABS)

Jump to:

The RAMpocalypse is growing ever more powerful, absorbing more and more products with ever higher pricing into its swirling vortex of doom. No, you're hyperbolizing. Whatever, prices are brutal right now, so if you were planning a PC gaming upgrade this year, it's going to be tough to do for a reasonable outlay.

So, we're back to the ol' staple advice for when component pricing goes nutso: take a look at full systems instead. The buying power of system integrators means they're usually going to have a better chance of picking up graphics cards and RAM cheaper than you will buying single kits from Amazon, which means they can swallow the price rise better than DIY PC builders.

The quick list

The PCs

At $1,200, this machine has a lot going for it, most especially that CPU and GPU combo. Let's start with the graphics card, because that is the hero product for a gaming PC, and the RX 9060 XT is definitely a bit of a hero. It absolutely slays the performance of the RTX 5060, the chip you'll find in PCs around this point in the market, and gets very, very close to the performance of the RTX 5060 Ti, too.

It's an RDNA 4 chip as well, which means it has baked-in support for AMD's latest FSR 4 technologies, featuring machine learning powered upscaling and a far superior frame gen tech to what the Radeon cards have been able to offer before.

It's also the 16 GB version, which means you're getting just that little bit of future proofing against 1440p gaming getting too much for 8 GB cards. And, sadly, 8 GB cards are going to become even more prevalent as prices for these more affordable 16 GB versions get priced out of all contention, and even disappear from sale.

Alongside the GPU, you're getting a full eight-core, 16-thread CPU of last-gen AMD Ryzen power and 16 GB of DDR5. A lot of cheaper systems are sporting older platforms, too, but with DDR4 memory; this at least gives you a decent upgrade path, even if we'd rather have 32 GB of the RAM stuff.

Get 'em before they're gone... These 16 GB graphics cards, particularly the more affordable ones, such as the RTX 5060 Ti and RX 9060 XT, are rapidly going up in price and going out of stock across retailers. So, the last chance of getting hold of a VRAM-stacked affordable GPU might well be in full systems. This Skytech machine is a good price, too, with its $220 discount, balanced out with an older CPU and RAM, though you are getting 32 GB of the pricey memory stuff here.

Key specs: Core i5 14400F | RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB | 32 GB DDR4-3200 | 1 TB SSD | 650 W PSU

If you're determined to stick with team green, then the RTX 5060 Ti-toting Skytech rig is the most affordable I've found this week to pack in a genuine 16 GB GeForce graphics card. And we know those are going to become far more rare as that level of VRAM becomes more prioritised for the pricier GPUs in Nvidia's stack.

The RTX 5060 Ti will often outperform the RX 9060 XT, and you get the added bonus of DLSS4.5 and its associated featureset. The flipside here is that you're looking at an older Intel platform, which has no future except some other old CPUs, though you do get 32 GB of DDR4-3200 into the bargain, which will count for something.

Here's another RX 9060 XT rig, and you might be questioning just why you'd spend another $100 on a system with the same GPU and only a six-core, 12-thread CPU. But I would point to the RAMpocalypse sign again, and note that a 32 GB DDR5-6000 kit at the moment retails for between $300 and $400 right now.

Finally, here's the most powerful sub-$1,500 gaming PC I've found in my travels this week. I gave the RTX 5070 a real roasting when it launched last year, delivering a poor generation upgrade over the RTX 4070 Super, especially against the RX 9070 competition.

In 2026, however, with prices rising across the board, this RTX 5070 machine is far cheaper than any RX 9070 or RX 9070 XT PC I've found on sale at the moment. They have more VRAM—16 GB vs. 12 GB—but you're still going to get good gaming performance out of this card at 1440p.

Throw in a 20-core, 28-thread Intel CPU of the last generation and 32 GB of DDR5-6400, and you've got a really high-spec gaming PC that will hopefully see out the RAMpocalypse and come out the otherside smelling of roses. Or thermal paste. Whatever.

Check out all the gaming PC deals at Best Buy

Best gaming PC 2026

1. Best overall:
HP Omen 35L

2. Best budget:
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i

3. Best high-end:
Corsair Vengeance A7500

4. Best compact:
Velocity Micro Raptor ES40

5. Alienware:
Alienware Area-51

6. Best mini PC:
Minisforum AtomMan G7 PT

👉Check out our full gaming PC guide👈

Dave has been gaming since the days of Zaxxon and Lady Bug on the Colecovision, and code books for the Commodore Vic 20 (Death Race 2000!). He built his first gaming PC at the tender age of 16, and finally finished bug-fixing the Cyrix-based system around a year later. When he dropped it out of the window. He first started writing for Official PlayStation Magazine and Xbox World many decades ago, then moved onto PC Format full-time, then PC Gamer, TechRadar, and T3 among others. Now he's back, writing about the nightmarish graphics card market, CPUs with more cores than sense, gaming laptops hotter than the sun, and SSDs more capacious than a Cybertruck.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.