Do you remember the time you got your first computer or laptop? Maybe you built it, or perhaps, it was a pre-built system purchased from Best Buy. Maybe you got it for Christmas, or you saved up enough money to buy one. Either way, it was surely expensive and not something you could just purchase on a whim. Now, recall that price, especially if you were someone who built a computer and had to purchase the individual parts. Multiply that price by about two or three, and that sums up how 2026 is looking in regards to computer gaming.
If you’ve recently been on websites, such as Amazon, the Best Buy marketplace, Corsair, or eBay, and you’ve been looking for computer parts like Random Access Memory (RAM), you may have noticed a dramatic price hike compared to what those parts cost originally. The reason behind this is companies’ obsession with AI. There’s been higher demand in RAM from AI and data centers which has created a shift from manufacturing memory for individual consumers towards now giving RAM to those data centers. This shift has also become a problem in the production of graphics processing units (GPUs). Companies like Nvidia, which is the biggest GPU-manufacturing company in the world, are cutting back on GPU production in order to reallocate resources towards the prioritization of AI chips. Nvidia, specifically, has cut back on GPUs by about 30-40%, mostly cutting back on their RTX 5000 series.
All of this just to go towards creating higher-end generative AI. For context, generative AI, as the name suggests, is any form of generated AI content, including videos, pictures, messages, etc. That means all of those cheap AI advertisements you may have scrolled through on YouTube or Instagram, or those AI videos you see being mistaken for real videos on X are some of the things that are benefiting from this. To truly encapsulate the current problem with AI and the computer industry, in order to purchase a 32GB DDR5 RAM kit for your computer back in early 2025, you may have been looking at a price range of around $200-$400. If you’re lucky, you may still find deals like this. However, if you’re like the vast majority of people, you may be looking at prices of around or barely below $800. $800 is the equivalent of buying an entire budget gaming computer, meanwhile, in 2026, that seems to be just merely the price of the computer’s memory itself.
The original purpose of artificial intelligence, or AI, has always been to create a more efficient society through teaching machines how to mimic human intelligence, solve more complex problems in a quicker amount of time, and automate tasks to boost productivity and performance capabilities. With this purpose, you would think that AI should be making our lives easier. However, now it’s beginning to look like machines take priority over human consumers. Let’s not overlook the fact that AI has always had a place in computers and gaming. Nvidia actually integrates AI into their GPUs for faster speeds, better graphics, and better productivity capabilities. When this was all there was to it, everything was fine. But, AI should never be prioritized over selling to humans. In fact, just recently, Trump gave the greenlight for Nvidia to begin selling their powerful AI chips to China, which has also sparked another issue entirely over America not winning the supposed “AI race”.
In my opinion, GPU companies, like Nvidia, and DRAM companies, like Crucial and Micron, need to re-enter the business of primarily selling to human consumers. Some people wait and save up money for years in anticipation of building their first computer, but with the way prices are now, this dream is becoming increasingly more difficult to achieve. Even if you aren’t looking to ever try building a computer, prebuilt systems will be impacted and may include less storage and memory, leading to worse performance. The more computer gaming suffers, the more attractive cloud gaming and console gaming becomes. People are already beginning to make the switch to those alternatives, especially since cloud gaming allows you to play games online without the need for expensive hardware.
To anyone looking towards building a computer or buying a prebuilt system, I’d suggest holding off for a while and waiting to see if prices go down. You’re going to have to either work with what you have currently, or follow the route of everyone else: opt towards cloud gaming or console gaming.
