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5 reasons I am done with PC building
I've been building PCs for almost 20 years now. I started with a Core 2 Duo build, and my current rig has a Ryzen 7 5700X and an RTX 3080. I have enjoyed the ride, but it's time to get off. PC building has become unsustainable, not that it was terribly better in the last few years. The writing has been on the wall for some time now, but this generation was the final straw.
I'm finally done putting up with ridiculous prices, minor generational gains, and buggy hardware. PC games, too, have turned into tech showcases with awful optimization. I'll still use my existing PC for the foreseeable future, but building a new rig doesn't seem on the cards anymore.
Unfinished and buggy hardware
Being first matters more
The PC hardware industry seems to be churning out half-done components with the intention of fixing things later. However, this strategy doesn't quite work when your products have fundamental engineering flaws, made clear by the infamous Intel Raptor Lake overvoltage scandal. Even the company's new Battlemage GPUs seem to have a performance overhead issue when paired with budget CPUs.
Nvidia's RTX 50 series graphics cards brought burning connectors back into the community consciousness, launched with missing ROPs, and were riddled with driver issues and black screens on many systems. Even AMD's Zen 5 processors had to be patched post-launch to bring their performance to respectable standards. It's like these companies have stopped caring enough about quality control, banking on the fact that unprecedented demand will compensate for any mishaps on their end.
I, for one, don't intend to spend thousands on a new gaming PC only to deal with multiple hardware faults. I'd rather spend my money on something else — maybe a gaming handheld or a flagship smartphone.
Poor generational gains
Keep using your existing PC
When PC components don't have crippling faults, they manage to disappoint users with middling generational improvements. What's the point of spending a bomb on a new graphics card or processor for essentially the same experience? Nvidia's Blackwell GPUs banked on AI-generated frames to market insane generational gains, but were little more than a refresh of the RTX 40 series cards in terms of raw performance.
AMD's Zen 5 chips, famously dubbed "Zen 5%" by the community, still don't make any sense over the Zen 4 CPUs. And Intel had the worst showing, thanks to its Arrow Lake CPUs, which ended up slower than the 14th Gen Raptor Lake processors. It seems the days of tangible improvements from one generation to the next are behind us. Manufacturers are relying on software-based improvements instead of raw hardware innovation. Moore's Law is supposedly dead, and everyone is supposed to be okay with whatever is available, not that availability is breaking any records.
Even mid-range parts are too expensive
And MSRP is a myth
You might argue that high-end hardware has always been expensive. Sure, but even mid-range components have crept up in price over the last 3 to 4 years. The mid-range GPU segment that once belonged to the $400–$500 range has jumped to $600–$700 in 2026. Even the dependable 6-core and 8-core processors have become too expensive for gamers who just want a decent current-gen chip for their gaming rigs.
High-end hardware isn't required for high-end gaming, but what is one to do when the definition of mid-range keeps expanding to include more and more expensive components? Today, you need to spend at least $600 on an RX 9070 XT or $750 for an RTX 5070 Ti, and that is if you can even find one in stock at anywhere around these prices. The age of MSRP is dead, and consumers are simply left to grab whatever they can at seemingly arbitrary prices.
Amid all this, no one is even thinking about budget gamers. Except for Intel's Arc B580, which is only found at over $350 instead of the $250 MSRP, there's no new budget GPU on the market that can be deemed worthwhile.
Games have sky-high requirements and poor optimization
A tale of two shitties
The PC hardware alone is only half the picture. The PC gaming industry is giving it tough competition when it comes to launching unoptimized titles that demand the world. Minimum and recommended requirements have never been higher, and for what? The performance of PC games has never been worse — titles that look worse than previous-gen games now demand much more power to run.
The prices of games are also at an all-time high, but what do you get for that? — a broken mess that needs dozens of patches to spit out playable framerates. You do get some gems now and then, but by and large, PC gaming has become a headache. Dumping $2000–$3000 on a high-end gaming rig only to suffer through a horribly optimized game on day one is no one's idea of a "PC master race."
A next-gen console plus my current PC is all I need
I don't need a new rig for gaming
Owing to everything I listed above, I have decided not to waste money on a new gaming PC. That doesn't mean, however, that I'll compromise on gaming. My existing PC is more than capable of the games I want to play, and it's my work device as well. I'm even ready to spend another $500–$600 on the PlayStation 6 whenever it arrives. Between the PS6 and my current PC, I don't feel the need to build another expensive and disappointing gaming rig.
I'm even thinking of buying a VR headset instead of upgrading my PC, since it'll provide me with a far more exciting and immersive experience. I've never dabbled in VR gaming, so an affordable VR headset is bound to deliver enough ROI. PC building has been one of my most-loved interests, but after all this time, it's time to say goodbye.
PC building is dead, long live PC gaming
The time for building new PCs is over, at least for me. It's not that I'll give up on PC gaming. I'll simply integrate a next-gen console and maybe a VR headset into my lifestyle and continue to enjoy PC games on my existing PC. Any revival of the PC hardware market looks far into the future right now, so my decision to abandon PC building will probably stand for some time. If things improve, however, I'm willing to come back to one of my favorite interests.
