If you wanted an at-a-glance look at just how bad the RAM pricing crisis has got, a new offer at a major retailer underlines this rather effectively.

Over at Amazon in the US, you can see there's a flash deal (a price cut for a limited time) on a Corsair Vengeance DDR5 RAM kit which comprises of two 16GB memory modules (running at 6000MHz).

That 32GB dollop of memory – which will see you good to go for any everyday or gaming PC, it should be noted – now costs $345 in said deal, which is a substantial $55 discount (14% off) on the quoted list price of $400.

While that may sound like a half-decent deal on the face of it, the truth behind that asking price is that back in September 2025, this RAM was less than half the cost it is today – when it's reduced. In fact, this current deal on a solid DDR5 RAM kit is 2.5x the price it was only four months ago.

How's that for a bargain? Well, obviously through that lens, it isn't a bargain, but compared to the rest of the RAM landscape, it's about as good as it gets, sadly.

Even a DDR4 (last-gen) 32GB RAM kit will set you back $240 (at least) on Amazon currently (sticking to known brands, as I'd advise you should, rather than shaky sounding memory products). As we've seen recently, that older memory standard also getting much pricier is a more recent unfortunate trend.

Analysis: a note of caution for potential buyers

How did we get here? The price of system memory has shot up thanks mainly to a combination of two factors. Firstly, the exploding popularity of AI in all its various forms has led to a huge demand for RAM to fuel this (in data centers where AI workloads are handled). That's not just system RAM, but also video RAM (graphics cards are heavily involved in that processing, too).

What's made this worse is that memory manufacturers cut back on chip production in the past, as there was a glut of supply – meaning this spike in demand has been a lot harder to handle. RAM, and also storage, particularly with higher-end SSDs (these drives all use memory chips, too), have therefore seen huge price rises, as an unprecedented level of demand has been met with lean supply levels.

The other problem here is that correcting those chip stock levels is not an easy process, as memory makers can't magic extra production (huge factories, or fabs as they're known) into existence overnight. Bringing extra manufacturing capacity online is a long-term task, and the thinking is that while there are new fabs being made, they won't be in action and making a meaningful impact on the supply situation until 2028.

What this unfortunately means is that this year, and likely 2027 too, are going to be very difficult times for RAM supply, and consumers will certainly be getting the shortest end of the memory stick (PC makers and other bulk buyers, obviously including those data centers, are the priority). There are a lot of predictions that RAM price hikes are going to get worse before they get better or stabilize.

So, am I suggesting you buy this Amazon deal, then? I can't make that call for you, and in all honesty, it still feels bad to be forced to drop that much money on 32GB of RAM for your PC. On the other hand, as noted, this offer is as good as it gets (from what I can see at the time of writing for a decent DDR5 kit), and in a year's time, $345 might look like a bargain in the US (and the same might be true of the equivalent deals in your region right now).

However, that said, if you don't have a desperate need for RAM in the near future, and aren't planning a PC build for some time, I'd be tempted to hold out until prices start to normalize – which could happen sooner than the experts think, perhaps. As long as your computer will do for some time, being patient is likely still the best approach, and I won't be rushing to buy memory myself.

Storage, on the other hand, is likely to be a different matter. You can still get relatively palatable prices on lower-end SSDs, and if you think you might need one of those in the near future, I really would think seriously about buying now.

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The PC hardware market is arguably in its worst state in years due to the ongoing memory crisis, leading to price increases nearly across the board – and with a troubling case from a popular manufacturer, consumers may fear the worst.

That popular manufacturer is Samsung, and prices for its DRAM and SSDs have doubled or 'sometimes even tripled' in the last two months in South Korea, according to TheElec.

This is reportedly due to Samsung's focus on producing memory for AI enterprises, ultimately leading to a supply shortage for consumers, which sounds similar to Micron's approach in its push towards AI.

For example, a DDR5 RAM module was sold at 100,000 won in November, which is around $69. However, recently, the same Samsung RAM stick was sold for 400,000 won, placing it at around $278. That's a 300% price increase for only 16GB of memory.

Distributors are also buying both RAM and SSDs from Samsung at higher prices, which directly impacts consumer prices – and while this report focuses on the crisis in South Korea (where Samsung is based), it's not unreasonable to believe this will extend to other regions.

A Counterpoint Research analyst, MS Hwang, predicts that 30% of the total manufacturing cost for products will be on memory alone, as reported by TweakTown.

If this estimate is correct, we could essentially see all hardware that uses memory skyrocket in price, and with the current state of affairs, where most manufacturers are pushing for a greater focus on AI, it's not looking very positive for consumers in 2026 and beyond.

Analysis: I hope the AI push fails, and I'm not afraid to say it

There's no denying that AI has been beneficial for PC hardware, specifically for gamers, with Nvidia improving its DLSS upscaling models for better performance and image quality. However, I think AI is currently doing more damage than good for consumers, and I'm hoping the bubble bursts.

Prices are increasing at unprecedented rates for RAM and now, SSDs, with Best Buy's 2TB options far above normal pricing. A prime example is the Samsung 990 Pro 2TB SSD available for $399.99, which is the price you would normally find for a 4TB option.

AI is taking the reins of the PC hardware market and its trajectory, and I fear that the longer this continues, the more normalized it could become, until high prices for such hardware become irreversible.

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AMD has announced that its Ryzen 7 9850X3D processor – a chip that PC gamers are excited about as a step on from the 9800X3D –will be out in less than a week – and we've got a confirmed price.

VideoCardz reports that AMD's David McAfee, Corporate VP of the Client Channel Business, revealed on X that the "world's most advanced gaming processor just got faster" and that the Ryzen 9850X3D will retail at $499 in the US.

The CPU goes on sale on January 29, and pricing will be in line with that in other regions. To put that US price in perspective, it's just shy of a 5% increase on the MSRP that was pinned to the 9800X3D upon launch, and which is widely regarded as the current top gaming chip on the market.

The Ryzen 9850X3D offers an increase in boost speed to 5.6GHz, meaning it's 400MHz faster than its predecessor (which ran at 5.2GHz), which is a considerable bump. Other than that, though, it's the same spec as the 9800X3D.

Analysis: the price is right – assuming no stock woes or inflation

Some folks who have bought a Ryzen 9800X3D in the recent past may feel their noses have been put a bit out of joint. Especially considering that chip has held its value – it is still selling at close to MSRP – and the 9850X3D doesn't cost much more. At least not in theory, anyway, unless stock and availability issues inflate the price.

Ultimately, those who bought the 9800X3D have still got an excellent gaming CPU for their money, and the 9850X3D is essentially a higher-binned version (meaning a top-performing sample, capable of having the max boost speed pushed further, with no other changes in the spec elsewhere as noted). In fact, if you got lucky with your 9800X3D, it might even be close to the 9850X3D in gaming performance terms, anyway.

So, let go of any buyer's remorse, but that said, the Ryzen 9850X3D is a welcome option to have in terms of that faster boost. And with the price tag not being nearly as high as some rumors had us wondering about – some European retailers had pre-release pricing on their product listings as high as €700 (around $820, £600 or AU$1,200) – this is a great release for gamers who are after a fast CPU.

Although always bear in mind that the GPU is the more important part of the equation for gaming, and the processor only comes more to the forefront with certain games (or lower resolutions).

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Asus has issued a statement to acknowledge that it's investigating reports of problems where Ryzen 9800X3D CPUs are failing with its 800-series motherboards.

VideoCardz noticed the statement, which comes following a cluster of recent reports on Reddit detailing issues with these processors and Asus boards.

Asus informs us: "We are aware of recent reports concerning AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPUs and Asus AMD 800-series motherboards, and we have initiated an immediate internal review.

"Our teams are conducting preventive checks on product compatibility and performance, working closely with AMD to validate reported cases and ensure ongoing stability and quality. We are looking to provide timely solutions to ensure our products and services meet expected standards."

Obviously, it's good to hear that the worries here are being directly addressed. What's happening with these CPUs is that the reports (like this one on Reddit) indicate that they are dying and the system is failing to boot (naturally) with an error 'Q-Code 00'.

In the meantime, pending the results of the review, Asus advises those who own an 800-series motherboard to update to the latest BIOS to "help ensure system stability".

That goes for all motherboards, of course – the latest BIOS should provide the most reliable experience running your PC components (not just the CPU). Although don't confuse the 'latest BIOS' with any advance beta release – these aren't fully tested, and may cause more problems than they solve.

Stick to the latest full version, avoiding beta software, especially with something like the BIOS which is a sensitive area to be deploying technically still unfinished releases.

Analysis: a long-running saga

If all this sounds familiar, it's because there are long-running reports of problems with Ryzen 9800X3D processors falling over in this manner. In the past, these have been more of an issue with ASRock motherboards, although other brands have been hit – it's just there's a notable uptick right now with complaints around Asus boards.

Eventually, the problems with ASRock motherboards were put down to a "memory compatibility issue" with earlier BIOS versions, and that issue was fixed. Even so, after that fix, there have still been some 50 recorded cases of 9800X3D CPUs failing in the Reddit megathread about the problems with (mainly) ASRock boards. (A few of these past cases were Asus motherboards, too).

For some 9800X3D owners, the controversy continues to rage across social media posts, and there's some unhappiness (to say the least) about pinning down the root cause.

Although the truth is this could be a complex issue with multiple causes. And don't forget, the 9800X3D is the kind of gaming chip that's going to be tinkered with and overclocked – perhaps substantially by enthusiasts – which could certainly make these kinds of failures more likely to happen. (Other Ryzen 9000 chips have been affected by this problem, I should make clear, but it's mostly hitting the popular 9800X3D – perhaps partly due to its positioning with enthusiasts, as noted).

We can but hope that the investigation Asus is carrying out will shed some further light on the matter, especially seeing as there's a newcomer taking the baton from the 9800X3D now. This is the even faster, higher clocked, Ryzen 9850X3D, which AMD has just announced is coming out next week – with a more tempting price tag than expected.

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This is Shunsuke Nakato of Kioxia – a major SSD and NAND flash storage manufacturer – who is managing director of the firm's Memory Business Unit. As Tom's Hardware noticed, he spoke to Digital Daily, a South Korean tech news outlet.

Nakato observed that we're at the end of the era of affordable 1TB SSDs, and that: "To be honest, this year's production volume is already sold out. The days of cheap 1TB SSDs for around 7,000 yen (about $45) are over."

As Tom's Hardware points out, not so long ago, it was possible to pick up a 1TB solid-state drive for as little as $35 in the US. Right now, I'm not seeing anything less than $100 for a 1TB SSD at major US retailers – and many 1TB NVMe drives are at least $130.

The worry is that, given the chatter about spiking storage prices – which are following after RAM's lead – these SSDs will get a lot pricier soon. Nakato isn't the only person with industry knowledge sounding warning bells, and it's possible that while SSD prices haven't witnessed nearly as steep a climb as RAM, this could change as 2026 rolls on. Indeed, pricing pressure may well be felt throughout 2027, too.

So, the safest bet is likely to buy a wallet-friendly drive now, before all SSDs become distinctly more wallet-hostile, and not just high-end models (some of which have already doubled in price).

I'd be inclined to take this route, and to that end, if you're looking for a 1TB drive, here are my recommendations for what to grab right now.

Top 3 SSDs to consider now

These are my top three choices for the 1TB SSDs that you'll want to consider – though you may have to move very fast to snag some of them (one in particular). I've linked to US retailers for the deals you can get there, but you'll also find links to buy these SSDs in your region below, too, if you aren't in the US.

While these prices are already hiked to a degree, which may be off-putting, just bear in mind that the likelihood is they could seem cheap compared to the inflation the SSD market may incur over the next, say, six months.

WD Black SN850X 1TB: the drive to buy before it goes out of stock

This WD drive is a highly-rated NVMe SSD – we loved the base SN850 model, and there have been other versions since, like the SN850P and this SN850X, which is a slightly peppier, faster variant.

Priced at $109 at Walmart in the US as I type this, I don't think this SN850X will hang around long, given the value proposition it represents in a market where prices are rapidly inflating.

Crucial P310 1TB SSD: the cheapest you can get

If you want to buy as cheap as possible right now, the best deal I'm seeing – at the time of writing – is the Crucial P310. This is a nippy, power-efficient NVMe SSD that is priced at $106 at Amazon in the US currently.

Again, I'm not sure it'll be in stock for long at this price, mind. Technically, it's hardly cheaper than the WD drive above – and I'd definitely recommend that product over this SSD – but if the SN850X has sold out, this is still a great drive for gamers and everyday computing.

Samsung 990 Evo Plus SSD 1TB: a powerhouse drive with endurance aplenty

If you want to go a bit pricier, check out Samsung's 990 Evo Plus in its 1TB flavor, which is a relatively palatable $155 at Newegg. It doesn't make any sense compared to the WD Black SN850X in all honesty, but if that has vanished from Walmart's shelves (or the price has changed), this is a good alternative to the Crucial SSD.

Compared to the Crucial P310, the Samsung 990 Evo has a few advantages, including slightly faster performance, PCIe 5.0 support, and much better endurance (so the drive will last longer – it uses TLC rather than QLC NAND). The latter is crucial (ahem) if you'll be performing many write operations on the drive, and this Samsung model is the better bet for longevity.

However, from a pure value perspective for the everyday user, I'd still plump for the Crucial SSD at the current pricing (although as mentioned, the WD drive is still the top choice, assuming it stays in stock for any length of time).

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The RAM crisis just keeps getting worse, and we've started 2026 with a stream of bad news about the price hikes – and the US government is now throwing its weight around, threatening a move that could cause further pricing misery for consumers.

PC Gamer flagged a report from Bloomberg which quotes some stern words for two of the big memory makers uttered by the US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick.

Lutnick warned that South Korean and Taiwanese memory chip manufacturers – meaning SK Hynix and Samsung (not Micron, the third giant presence in this arena, which is US-based) – could face up to 100% tariffs if they don't invest more in the US to increase their chip production facilities in the country.

Lutnick said, "Everyone who wants to build memory has two choices: They can pay a 100% tariff, or they can build in America. That's industrial policy."

In other words, if SK Hynix and Samsung continue to manufacture RAM modules outside the US, in Asia, they could face those tariffs. A 100% tariff would effectively mean a 100% import tax on memory chips coming from abroad, which would, of course, be a hefty price to pay.

The idea, then, is to have these two companies ramp up chip production on US soil to avoid punishing tariffs when selling to this market. Note that what the US government wants is for SK Hynix and Samsung to actually manufacture RAM chips in the US (and not just package up the chips made in Asia, and then shipped over, which is what happens with the manufacturing plants that the two firms have currently in the country).

Even Micron doesn't produce all that much of its total memory chip production in the US, but it does have some manufacturing happening in the country – and plans to expand that considerably further. Indeed, Lutnick made his statement, as reported by Bloomberg, at the groundbreaking ceremony for a new $100 billion multi-foundry complex that Micron is building in New York (part of a $200 billion drive to build new manufacturing facilities in the US).

Analysis: how might this affect consumers?

There are some obvious problems here for US consumers, and possibly for the government, too.

For starters, if the US did instigate this 100% tariff move, who's to say it would have much effect in forcing the hand of either SK Hynix or Samsung in terms of expanding US manufacturing? To say that RAM is a seller's market right now is possibly the underestimation of the century in the tech world, so it's not like losing US customers is going to hurt these chip makers or deflate the massive profits they're currently enjoying.

Ultimately, though, it's not memory makers or laptop or PC manufacturers that'll suffer – the real pain will be inflicted on the average US consumer. As noted, the potential measure threatened is effectively a 100% import tax that will just be passed directly on to the buyer of the piece of tech that the memory is inside, as all these cost increases inevitably are.

We could end up in a situation where there's a forecast 50% price hike coming with RAM in Q1 of 2026, over the next couple of months, on top of the already miserably large increases witnessed in the final quarter of 2025. And then, on top of that, US consumers will have to pay more if what's effectively a 100% import tax on memory comes into force, meaning an increase on top of an increase on top of an increase.

More expensive storage, and much more expensive RAM, are going to push up the price of laptops and desktop PCs alike – GPUs are hit in this regard, too (as they have video RAM, which is also now in shorter supply, and therefore more expensive).

It's tricky to gauge how this might play out, and it'll vary a good deal from model to model, but the theorized tariffs might mean laptops get something like 10% pricier due to the extra inflation on the bill for RAM – on top of the already steep rises the memory shortage crisis is already causing. Higher-end laptops, and the likes of Copilot+ (AI) PCs, will be hardest hit, as they demand beefier and faster memory configurations.

We aren't at the point of the US government implementing these measures – they're just threats at the moment. But the administration clearly believes that leveraging tariffs works, so it's hardly inconceivable that Lutnick could follow through and enforce such measures – assuming some kind of deal can't be struck regarding investment in the US with the memory chip makers outside of Micron.

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Nvidia's big consumer chips for PCs, the Arm-based N1 and N1X, could finally be about to arrive if a new rumor is correct.

A report from DigiTimes (hat tip to VideoCardz) claims that laptops with Nvidia's N1X chip inside will be launching in the first quarter of 2026. So, within the next two months.

These will target the consumer market, and three other variants will be on sale in Q2, we're told. Presumably, that includes the base N1 chip, which is less powerful, but still intended for producing 'high-end AI computing platforms' – the N1X is the more performant CPU which will be aimed at notebooks for professionals, the report observes.

There's still some confusion around the naming and where exactly the N1 and N1X will fit into the CPU landscape, with some guessing that the N1 will be a desktop chip, and the N1X a mobile (laptop) chip. However, DigiTimes makes it clear that both the N1 and N1X will appear in laptops (add your own seasoning, naturally). That doesn't mean that there couldn't be a desktop variant of one of these chips as well, though, and perhaps that's still planned.

Following the N1 series, the next-gen N2 silicon will take the baton for Nvidia in the third quarter of 2027, the report claims.

Obviously, be skeptical about that timeframe in particular, because even if Nvidia has plans for these N2 chips, this schedule may end up going awry (what with the silicon still being relatively early in development).

Analysis: a chip to worry AMD, Intel, Qualcomm, and even Apple?

The rumor comes from supply chain sources, we're informed, and the delay of the N1 series – which was supposed to arrive late in 2025 as per the original speculation about Nvidia's Arm CPU – is due to Team Green fine-tuning these chips, and "Microsoft OS timelines", the report states.

The latter presumably refers to Windows 11 26H1, which is a new spin on the OS specifically for Snapdragon X2 chips – and seemingly Nvidia's N1 silicon, too, as that's Arm-based and a direct rival for Qualcomm's processors powering Windows 11 laptops. So, the launch of the N1 and N1X being put back to wait for this 26H1 update – which isn't being delivered to non-Arm Windows PCs (AMD and Intel) – makes sense.

Still, we must be cautious because, as already noted. I don't rank DigiTimes as one of the most reliable sources out there, but it can, on occasion, dig up useful and accurate rumors from the supply chain. The purported launch timing seems believable enough given what I've just outlined, and also we've heard rumors suggesting similar plans in the past – such as an Alienware laptop with an Nvidia CPU aiming for a Q1 2026 launch.

Those past rumors indicate why the N1X is a chip to get excited about, too, and why not just Qualcomm, but Intel and AMD (as well as Apple) might be very worried here. Remember that the grapevine reckons the N1X's integrated graphics are, in terms of raw core count, the equivalent of the RTX 5070 GPU. If you're expecting RTX 5070-level performance in a laptop, mind, think again – I've discussed why in the past (it's down to the power envelope and thermals, and also memory issues). But nonetheless, the N1X is still shaping up to be a highly performant chip for notebook gaming (or creative usage), make no mistake.

Back to the rumor from DigiTimes itself, and if you wanted to argue a case against this report, you might point out that this is a difficult climate to launch fresh laptop silicon, given the predictions of falling PC sales due to spiking prices of notebooks wrapped up in the current RAM (and storage) crisis. However, if Nvidia made the decision to wait, the trouble is how long would the company have to hang on? The RAM crisis isn't going anywhere in the foreseeable future – potentially lasting through to 2028 – so Nvidia biding its time until this all blows over isn't an option realistically.

A better question is if these laptops are that close, why didn't Nvidia show off the N1X at CES 2026 recently? I haven't got an answer for that one, except that maybe Team Green wants to carry out a standalone launch that gives the spotlight entirely to this new Arm-based silicon to make a big splash for the entrance of these laptops.

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As the RAM crisis appears to intensify on a weekly basis, a new report makes it clear that the results could have a more far-reaching impact for consumers than you might expect, leaving a range of tech facing price hikes in a similar scenario to the disruption that the pandemic caused to supply chains.

Tom's Hardware flagged the article from The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) which underlines just how bad the RAM crisis has gotten, and indeed how much worse it's likely to get.

We're told that according to Counterpoint Research, prices for memory are expected to increase by another 40% to 50% by the end of Q1 (March) 2026, with pricing already having risen by 50% in the final quarter of 2025.

This is all happening due to the AI boom, with memory being hoovered up by the data centers required to drive the ever-more-popular LLMs (Large Language Models) such as ChatGPT, Copilot and Gemini among others (such as DeepSeek and Kimi K2 in China).

The servers in those data centers need copious amounts of RAM, and the heavyweight graphics cards that are also key to driving the AI responses you may use on a daily basis also require video RAM (and lots of it). In short, AI is very RAM-hungry, and booming AI companies are paying out a lot of cash so they can keep driving growth.

As the WSJ report explains, the colossal buying power of AI is barging aside other industries trying to procure memory, and this could have a knock-on effect with all sorts of technology.

Meaning not just the RAM in your laptop or PC, or smartphone, but consumer electronics like TVs, cars, and, well, anything with memory inside – all of which are facing potential price hikes thanks to the wonky memory supply caused by AI. (And, it's worth noting, also caused by decisions made by memory chip makers some time back when there was a glut of inventory, and production was scaled back to correct that – with AI demand resulting in a massive overcorrection in the other direction).

So, talk has turned to this being another situation like the pandemic, where the supply chain is hit badly and prices rise (and certain products are difficult, or even impossible, to get hold of – we can already see this happening to some extent, such as with high-end GPUs).

As Avril Wu, a senior research VP at analyst firm TrendForce, puts it: "I have tracked the memory sector for almost 20 years, and this time really is different. It really is the craziest time ever."

Another analyst firm, IDC, is estimating that memory (and storage) price hikes will impact the sales of PCs and phones to the tune of a 9% and 5% dip respectively in 2026 (as those costs are inevitably passed on to consumers).

Furthermore, IDC notes that a "permanent reallocation" of supply is happening to favor AI firms, and obviously that'll be to the detriment of, well, everything else that uses memory. The prediction is that data centers (not just those for AI processing, but all of these facilities) will consume over 70% of the total supply of high-end memory chips that'll be manufactured in 2026. Ouch.

Analysis: AI is eating your RAM dinner

So, is there any hope to cling on to here for us beleaguered consumers in the face of the RAM-eating AI juggernaut?

Well, the big memory chip makers – Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix – have put the pedal to the metal in terms of accelerating the building of new production facilities to churn out more chips. However, the catch is that those plans are longer-term, and won't really have any bearing on the supply of RAM until 2028. Which, of course, marries with a lot of those predictions we've been hearing about the RAM crisis not just making itself felt for this year, but also throughout 2027.

Meanwhile, creative solutions may come into play, like reusing old memory chips. The WSJ points out the case of Caramon, a company that reclaims RAM from decommissioned servers, which has seen the value of its sales nearly double from $500,000 to $900,000 per month, in the space of the few months since the memory crisis took hold.

Consumers may look to buy used RAM on auction sites in a similar fashion, or even scavenge memory from an old PC at home for a new build (as a temporary stopgap).

And we could pin some hopes on the AI industry finding its own creative solutions to reduce the reliance on huge chunks of RAM – see this recent development with DeepSeek.

For now, though, the AI RAM monster is very real, and could be a punishing beast to deal with for consumers over the next couple of years.

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Nvidia's RTX 5090 has completely disappeared from the shelves of major retailers in the US, and the graphics cards that you can order from the likes of Amazon are exclusively from third-party sellers – and almost as pricey as a full PC that has the Blackwell flagship inside.

VideoCardz noticed that Newegg doesn't have any stock of Nvidia's Blackwell flagship GPU, and I've checked all the other major outlets in the US (such as Amazon, Best Buy, and Micro Center), finding that none of these big retailers have the RTX 5090 on sale themselves.

The only RTX 5090 models you'll find are from third-party marketplace sellers on these retail sites, and they are seriously pricey – and in fact, they're getting to the point where they almost don't make sense.

As VideoCardz notes, some of the cheaper prices you might find via the likes of price comparison sites are actually out of stock models, and the mentioned RTX 5090 graphics cards from third-party sellers start from around $3,500. The tech site did its scan a couple of days back at the weekend, and found that most of these flagship GPUs sat at around $4,000.

Looking now, I can see one model for $3,620 on Newegg, but the others are around the $4,000 mark – and these are mostly all shipping from outside the US.

Here's the kicker, then, which is that given those price tags, you may as well think about buying a full PC with an RTX 5090 inside (again, from a third-party seller) because they aren't that much more expensive than $4,000.

VideoCardz observes that prebuilt PCs with an RTX 5090 are being sold at these same big US retailers start from around $4,400 – and I just spotted that at Microcenter you can pick one up for $4,300. it's an HP Omen gaming rig, and admittedly, that PC is not available for online order, but it is marked as in stock at all bricks-and-mortar stores, so if you're near one, you can order and go pick it up – and it's supplied direct, not via a third-party seller.

Analysis: the weird world of severe price inflation and cheaper components for PC builders

If you're only effectively paying a few hundred dollars more for a full gaming PC, that's pretty ridiculous (this is made possible due to the prices that OEMs, or PC builders, pay for components bought in bulk with deals – and likely some time ago, of course). As obviously you're getting a lot more in addition to the RTX 5090 graphics card, and with the mentioned HP Omen 45L, that includes 64GB of DDR5 RAM (now worth a small fortune in itself), a 2TB SSD, and an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K flagship processor, as well as a liquid cooling system and a 1200W power supply (plus more besides).

If you just stripped out and sold the core components ('as new' on an auction site), and kept the GPU for yourself, you could likely make a good chunk of cash to offset the original asking price of the PC, potentially making this the cheapest way to purchase an RTX 5090 (albeit selling the parts is a headache).

To be clear, I'm not advocating that you do this, but the fact that it's getting to the point where a full system with an RTX 5090 is not a great deal more costly than a plain RTX 5090 on its own shows how out-of-whack high-end GPU pricing has got. The fact that there's simply no RTX 5090 stock available which is shipped via the retailers themselves is a new development for 2026, too.

As noted on this Reddit thread by multiple posters, some Micro Center stores had a fair collection of RTX 5090 models on physical shelves at the start of January, and these have now mostly disappeared.

It seems to be the case that folks were spooked by the talk of price rises for the Nvidia flagship as January began, and realized that if they wanted an RTX 5090 before price tags started to (possibly) shoot up, they'd have to move fast – and they did exactly that, leading to the situation we have now.

As the Redditor who started the above thread observes, they are getting 'launch day vibes' with the current situation of the flagship, referring to the initial release of the RTX 5090 when the GPU sold out in a flash, and couldn't be gotten anywhere.

If you're wondering about the rest of the world, the picture in the UK isn't as dire. In fact, Overclockers UK has quite a few RTX 5090 models in stock (shipping directly from the retailer). Scan isn't the same, mind, and is only offering two models for sale currently – a lot are sold out. Pricing starts at £2,700, and a good deal of the GPUs on sale are more like £3,000 (or more expensive), which is pretty eye-watering, but you didn't expect they would be affordable, did you?

All these prices are correct at the time of writing, but may change quite swiftly. Indeed, if the US is anything to go by, these RTX 5090 boards in the UK may not hang around for long, even at those prices.

And on a final note, I personally wouldn't buy from any third-party marketplace sellers (in the US, UK, or elsewhere), especially not with an expensive piece of tech like an RTX 5090. That's doubly the case for anything being shipped from overseas, and these sellers often ship from Asia – so if something goes wrong with the product, support and potentially having to arrange a return is going to be a real headache.

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Here's your weekly dose of bad news on the RAM front, with rising prices in Germany serving as yet another indicator that the price of system memory worldwide is likely to keep increasing – even from the exorbitant levels it's already reached.

VideoCardz spotted that German tech site 3D Center updated its 'memory crisis price index' which, as the name suggests, tracks RAM pricing at German retailers (and only retailers – third-party marketplace sellers or auction sites, also known as scalpers, aren't included).

The figures for January 2026 show that DDR5 RAM (in Germany) is now 4.4 times more expensive than it was in July 2025, just half a year ago (based on an average price of 20 different DDR5 products across various RAM kit capacities and speeds).

The good news – such as it is – is that DDR5 memory is not going up as steeply now compared to the previous month, notching a 27% increase, which sounds a lot, but not when viewed through the lens of the 93% hike from November to December.

Looking at older RAM, meaning DDR4 and also DDR3 memory – and the latter is growing increasingly popular as a budget alternative for some folks with the pricing crisis – these prices are rising faster than DDR5, but are still at a relatively lower level of inflation in total.

In January 2026, the DDR4 and DDR3 RAM kits that 3D Center monitored rose by 46% in terms of their cost, which was a faster rate of increase than the previous month, when their price inflation was 30%.

Compared to July 2025, these older standards of RAM are 3.2 times more expensive, so not reaching the same levels as DDR5 yet. But month-on-month increases are steeper, meaning DDR4 (and DDR3) is catching up with DDR5 for the overall price spike experienced.

Analysis: a global headache that isn't going away

Of course, it makes sense that with DDR5 having gone truly through the roof (and still climbing skywards), those who are thinking they may need an upgrade of their DDR4 memory are now watching the price of that RAM mirror the newer standard in terms of a meteoric rise – and likely deciding to pull the trigger before things get any worse.

On top of that, perhaps those who are building a new PC are simply electing to go the DDR4 route instead – or even DDR3, maybe, if they want a PC for basic computing tasks only. However, I still wouldn't recommend stepping back in time quite that far if you can at all avoid it, although these products remain very cheap (relatively) even with price inflation (which is obviously the attraction for a niche set of buyers).

While this is just one temperature taken in terms of how the RAM market is overheating right now, the German tech scene is the biggest in Europe, and it obviously reflects what's happening across the globe. While there will be slight differences from market to market, all of us are seeing huge price spikes, and elsewhere DDR4 pricing is likely to mirror what's happening in Germany now. We're all suffering from the same dwindling RAM chip supply, after all.

Meanwhile, 3D Center points out another worrying development which is fresh for this month – GPUs are rising in price and are up 14% (compared to September 2025). That sounds nothing compared to the RAM hikes, of course, but it's still a sizable jump for products which in many cases already cost a huge chunk of cash, and some high-end graphics cards in particular have been hit badly, as we've seen.

Storage is also witnessing large hikes, with SSDs up 79% in price according to 3D Center's stats, and hard disks now up 53% (compared to July 2025). Building a new PC from scratch is becoming a much pricier endeavor as a result, as you are paying a lot more for your system RAM and SSD, and a chunk extra on the GPU to boot.

The obvious prediction is made by 3D Center, which is that high prices are not going away, and if anything, they're going to get even worse. About the best we can hope for is a shift towards a plateauing of prices for the products that have seen near-vertical climbs in their cost, notably DDR5 RAM, and a fall in pricing would only be precipitated by some big event like the AI bubble bursting (which is not likely, to put it mildly).

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If you've ever wondered whether SSDs are more valuable than gold, gram-for-gram, in weight terms – and some folks have, following price inflation driven by the memory crisis – the answer is, rather incredibly, yes, for capacious high-end drives, anyway.

Tom's Hardware reports that a Reddit discussion sprang up around this topic, and our sister site ran some comparisons of the relative cost-to-weight ratios of 24k gold versus certain NVMe SSD models.

Those are the compact stick-style SSDs, of course, that plug into your motherboard via an M.2 slot. (It's worth noting that SATA SSDs, which are much slower than NVMe drives, are in danger of having the plug pulled by a major manufacturer, Samsung, as you may have seen recently.)

To work this out, Tom's collated a list of SSDs (over 100) from major US retailers (Newegg, Microcenter, Best Buy, and Walmart), which were all PCIe 4 or 5 models with at least 4TB capacity (and currently in stock). These were all consumer models, with pricey enterprise drives (laden with a bunch of extra bells and whistles), not considered as they'd throw out the overall value equation.

And obviously, no SSD with a heatsink was included as that ramps up the weight a lot (which averaged around 8 grams for 4TB models, and only slightly more at 8.2 grams for 8TB drives).

With the 8TB models, Tom's worked out that the average price is now $1,476 with their sample. And the price of 8.2 grams of gold? That's about $1,200, based on a price of $148 per gram at the time of compiling the comparison.

So, these top-end SSDs are more than worth their weight in gold, quite literally.

As for the 4TB SSDs, they aren't there yet with their average price, but a few of the very top models edge past the price of the equivalent weight in gold.

Analysis: storage pain

Storage is unfortunately following in the footsteps of RAM. While the price of SSDs hasn't shot up as much as system memory has, matters have already gotten pretty bad.

Tom's shows us a graph of 4TB NVMe drive pricing from PC PartPicker, and you can clearly see that prices rose considerably in December, and there's been an even sharper uptick in the first half of January. Hence, this eyebrow-raising comparison to the price of gold, and it's even worse with faster 8TB models.

Where are we headed from here? I don't think it's too controversial a suggestion that the only way is up. It's just a question of what the flight path might be from here and how steep a climb.

So, if you're needing an SSD for an upgrade or a new PC build, you may want to pull the trigger on a purchase sooner rather than later (no matter what the size, but certainly with top-end models). For example, you can still get a Samsung 9100 Pro for $600 at Newegg in the US, and while the same drive was $400 on sale for Black Friday just a couple of months ago, odds are it could increase in price at a rate of knots from here on out.

Looking at our favorite SSD, the WD Black SN8100, the 2TB model was $220 during Black Friday, but is now – wait for it – $499 on Newegg. Ouch. Western Digital models seem to be riding the crest of the price hikes, Tom's observes, though that could partly relate to the popularity of the drives and how fast stock is selling through as a result.

It's nasty out there in storage land right now, but it could well get worse – and it very probably will. Meanwhile, we might see some creative solutions floating around, and as we made clear earlier this week, those who are on the hunt for an SSD for their PS5 could look at an alternative way to fix their storage predicament.

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Nvidia's supply of chips to its graphics card-making partners is rumored to have been dropped by a considerable chunk, and there will be no new GeForce GPUs this year, we're told.

The latest nugget of GPU misery comes from leaker MegasizeGPU, who, as Tom's Hardware noticed, posted on X to say that Nvidia GPU supply has been cut by 15% to 20%.

In other words, the bundles of chips and video RAM that Team Green makes and sends to its third-party partners who actually build GeForce graphics cards (Asus, Gigabyte, MSI and so on) have been reduced to the tune of a fifth.

That's a sizeable drop, although the good news the leaker points out is that Nvidia is still supplying chips with the necessary VRAM alongside them. (Another rumor suggested this would not be the case, and I'll come back to why that's important later).

So, while that's something of a relief to hear, the leaker finishes on a sour note: "The bad news is that there will be no new product in 2026."

In other words, you can forget those RTX 5000 Super refreshes which the grapevine has down for a late 2026 release, after being 'delayed' from an expected late 2025 arrival timeframe, which was what the initial rumors insisted. Although of course, all of this is speculation, so season everything mentioned here, and season it liberally.

Later in the thread on X, another poster raises the possibility of RTX 6000 graphics cards arriving early in 2027, and MegasizeGPU tells them this isn't happening – and that they don't know when Nvidia's next-gen GPUs will turn up, as it's "too early to talk about it" yet. (That seems fair enough, though other chatter suggests a late 2027 launch is possible for these cards).

It's also worth noting that in a fresh development on the AMD front, a Gizmodo interview from CES 2026 has been aired (which was only published yesterday, as flagged via VideoCardz) in which an exec from Team Red made reassuring noises about the supply of Radeon GPUs.

The comments from AMD's David McAfee, who is Corporate VP of the Client Channel Business, echoed what he said in another interview at CES regarding having "very strategic partnerships" with DRAM makers to ensure that "both the amount of supply that we need and the economics of what we're able to buy from them are what we can support in our graphics business".

However, McAfee added that he can't predict the future (obviously), but that AMD has been trying to work with its graphics card making partners to maintain prices close to what Team Red suggests (the stated MSRPs).

Analysis: 16GB could be a challenging loadout for this year

As far as Nvidia goes, the good news in this bundle of rumors is that the company is still supplying VRAM alongside graphics chips for its third-party card-making partners. If that wasn't the case – as another recent rumor suggested – it would have been a killer blow for smaller manufacturers. They would have really struggled to source their own GDDR7 memory in the current RAM crisis (which is why I was never overly convinced that this rumor had much in the way of legs, anyway).

The overall picture painted here, though, is rather dire. RTX 6000 GPUs aren't even on the radar yet (though that's no real surprise), and RTX 5000 Super refreshes are not coming in 2026 at all, if MegasizeGPU is correct. And a production hit to the tune of up to 20% in terms of the supply of Blackwell graphics card would be nasty – with fewer GPUs coming onto the shelves, prices would be likely to rise (especially with video memory getting pricier anyway, due to the mentioned RAM crisis).

All this comes against a backdrop of rumors that Nvidia is effectively giving up on a couple of mid-range Blackwell models that have 16GB of VRAM. Namely the RTX 5070 Ti and the version of the RTX 5060 Ti with 16GB (there's another flavor of the latter with 8GB) – but this is something Nvidia has just denied is the case. According to Team Green, it is continuing to ship all current GeForce GPU models, and it's "working closely with our suppliers to maximize memory availability".

The trouble is that the world of RAM is clearly suffering – really badly – and AI GPUs are a priority because they make lots of money (not just for Nvidia, and I'll return to that). Given that, it's easy enough to believe that production levels of Blackwell GPUs could be hit in quite a nasty way, so that while the RTX 5070 Ti may be available and in production still, it might be very thin on the ground (and subject to going out of stock, and the price being hiked, as a result). In other words, technically Nvidia may still be pushing out the mentioned 16GB graphics cards, but it may be very tricky to get hold of them (at anywhere near the MSRP).

We're in hypothetical territory here, of course, but a world where 8GB GPUs are the main choice – aside from the RTX 5070 12GB (and not counting the RTX 5080 and 5090 because they're just too pricey for mainstream consumers) – is a prospect that isn't a comforting thought for many PC gamers. Those who argue 8GB is just not enough these days, and we've covered that ground a lot recently (although it's true that DLSS and frame generation can really help, at least with some games).

As to whether AMD might be able to capitalize on any wonky supply levels that Nvidia suffers, Team Red is, of course, facing the same VRAM woes too. It will surely be feeling the pressure with its own 16GB gaming GPUs, and the pull of making AI accelerators that use plenty of VRAM and are way more profitable products.

AMD might be making all the right noises about keeping prices close to MSRPs, but RDNA 4 GPUs have risen a good deal above those suggested price tags in the past, and that's without all the complications of the RAM crisis.

All of which is to say that if you're mulling a GPU upgrade in 2026, and you can find the graphics card you're thinking about at anything like what seems a decent price, I'd probably buy now rather than hold on. And if your decision is based on waiting for the RTX Super refreshes for Blackwell, it's looking more likely that these GPUs could be a long way off – if they even arrive at all.

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Update: Tom's Guide reports that Nvidia replied to them regarding this rumor, denying that any current GeForce graphics card is no longer shipping. Nvidia stated that: "Demand for GeForce RTX GPUs is strong, and memory supply is constrained. We continue to ship all GeForce SKUs and are working closely with our suppliers to maximize memory availability."

Original story follows below...

Nvidia's RTX 5070 Ti graphics card, as well as the RTX 5060 Ti with 16GB, are seemingly on borrowed time according to a new rumor.

YouTube channel Hardware Unboxed tells us Nvidia has "essentially killed off the RTX 5070 Ti" – even if this isn't officially the case as we've heard nothing from Team Green to that effect – because there's a widespread shortage with this GPU.

In fact, supply of the RTX 5070 Ti is now so thin that we're told Asus has placed the model in 'end of life' status, meaning this big graphics card maker is officially done with the Nvidia GPU (add your own seasoning, as ever, with all this).

To underline what this means, Asus is, in theory, not going to produce any more of its various RTX 5070 Ti models. Whatever Asus RTX 5070 Ti graphics cards are left on shelves now (and in warehouses) represent the remaining inventory from the company, and once that's gone, there'll be no more.

Furthermore, this chimes with what Australian retailers are saying about the RTX 5070 Ti, namely that they can't buy this graphics card from their distribution partners. Hardware Unboxed claims that these retail outlets are expecting this to remain the case throughout the entire first quarter of 2026, so through to April, at the very least.

As noted at the outset, the same is broadly true of the RTX 5060 Ti with 16GB VRAM, of which supply has been "significantly reduced to the point of being effectively discontinued". The YouTube channel informs us that Asus said this model is also in 'end of life' and will not be rolling off production lines going forward.

Retailers are again saying similar things about trying to procure the RTX 5060 Ti with 16GB, and that it's not going to be possible to buy supply of this particular GPU during this quarter – and that it might be even more unlikely to come back into stock than the RTX 5070 Ti.

Asus says it's going to focus on making other Blackwell GPU models, and that'd likely be the RTX 5060 Ti with 8GB, and the RTX 5060 (which also runs with 8GB).

We're told that the graphics card in-between all these mentioned models – the RTX 5070 vanilla version – is still being made, but at a lesser rate of knots than it was being cranked out before.

Analysis: a Blackwell hole in the mid-range – and a potential opportunity for AMD

This mirrors what we already heard from sources over in China earlier this week, and reinforces that rumor – with direct comments from Asus, and various retailers, lending even more weight. When multiple sources start to say the same thing, we obviously need to sit up and take more notice.

We'd be foolish to take this all at face value, but we'd be equally silly to ignore it – and the fact that it's all very believable. After all, in a climate where memory has become seriously problematic in terms of supply and pricing, and that includes video RAM, it's obvious there will be ramifications (ahem) for GPUs. And cheaper graphics cards that stack up VRAM – the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB in particular – make less and less sense given such prevailing conditions, where AI demands are pushing consumer GPUs onto the sidelines.

For the affected GPUs, the RTX 5070 Ti (with 16GB) and RTX 5060 Ti 16GB are still in stock – well, in the US, anyway, though Hardware Unboxed observes the latter board is going out of stock in Australia.

These GPUs are now being hit with price rises, though, in the US and Australia, to the tune of 10% to 15% or thereabouts. This is a situation that could worsen soon, if stock is going to become leaner and leaner. 20% price hikes may not be out of the question before long, and indeed Australian retailers are predicting this is what will happen to the vanilla RTX 5070, too (which is still being produced, as noted, but in smaller numbers according to the YouTube channel). As you probably already saw, RTX 5080 and 5090 pricing has already got nasty in 2026.

Ultimately, what we might be left with is a pair of 8GB-toting RTX 5060 models – the vanilla 5060 8GB, plus the 5060 Ti 8GB – holding the fort at the lower end, and the RTX 5080 and 5090 at the high end, with the RTX 5070 limply hanging on as the only option in the middle-ground from Nvidia. All GPUs are likely to get more costly, even those 8GB models – which haven't meaningfully increased in price just yet – as the RAM crisis takes further hold on the broader industry.

This could be a big opportunity for AMD's RDNA 4 GPUs to attack at the mid-range, which will be a definite weak spot for Nvidia if all this pans out, but whether that actually happens – we'll just have to see. AMD's Radeon graphics cards will face the same VRAM supply and cost pressures as Nvidia's (or indeed Intel's) GPUs, of course, but the difference is that Team Red's boards are using more affordable GDDR6 memory (rather than cutting-edge GDDR7 as employed with Blackwell graphics cards). So, there could be room for AMD to take a shot at grabbing some GPU market share back from Nvidia here.

Meanwhile, if you have your heart set on a 16GB graphics card from Nvidia – either the RTX 5070 Ti or the RTX 5060 Ti – it seems that you better make your move now before stock theoretically dwindles, and pricing potentially starts to spike.

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The RAM crisis continues to rage, and some consumers are still raging too, remaining unhappy with Micron ditching its Crucial brand last month – but the memory maker has just been defending this decision.

Wccftech interviewed Christopher Moore, who is VP of the Marketing, Mobile, and Client Business Unit at Micron (hat tip to VideoCardz). The tech site asked the executive a range of questions on the current RAM shortage as it relates to consumers and AI demand (as the profits made due to the latter are the reason system memory is getting thinner on the shelves for consumers).

The first, and primary, question Wccftech posed was about the backlash and negative sentiment around Micron's decision to shutter its Crucial consumer brand in favor of selling RAM to data centers for AI usage.

Specifically, the tech site asked about "whether memory suppliers are inclined towards catering to the AI sector, leaving consumers behind", and Moore took what might seem a surprising angle initially.

The VP said, "Well, first I would want to try to help everybody understand that the perception may not be exactly correct, at least from our point of view. So I would never want to tell someone what to think or that they're wrong, but our viewpoint is that we are trying to help consumers around the world. We're just doing it through different channels. We still have a very sizable business in the client and mobile markets. We are also, of course, servicing our data center customers.

"And what's going on right now is that the TAM [total addressable market] and data center is growing just absolutely tremendously. And we want to make sure that, as a company, we help fulfill that TAM as well."

Of course, Micron representing its Crucial shutdown as "trying to help consumers" has not gone down well, since, on the face of it, this nugget of a statement could feel like doublespeak or PR nonsense.

However, there's a fair bit to dig into behind what Moore means here, and Micron's broader presence in the consumer RAM market.

Analysis: Crucial isn't the big deal here – but it's still a psychological blow

When Moore says Micron is "trying to help consumers" but is "doing it through different channels", what the VP is referring to is the memory maker supplying PC manufacturers (OEMs) with RAM modules for their desktop computers and laptops (the "very sizable business in the client and mobile markets").

Micron is one of the biggest suppliers of RAM in this regard, so what Moore is arguing is that this is still supporting consumers, rather than abandoning them – even though the Crucial brand, the RAM sticks on shelves that people can buy directly (as opposed to in a PC), is going away.

Of course, the argument then becomes that average consumers still want to buy directly, off retail shelves, themselves, and that just supporting OEMs (for consumer PCs, which of course does still benefit everyday folks) is robbing them of this ability – and so this is still a 'ditching' of support for the average PC owner.

What we can't forget, though, is that Micron also sells memory chips to other third-party consumer RAM brands, and in theory, there may now be more supply available to them (rather than it appearing under the Crucial label, from Micron, it'll just have a different badge on it).

Not convinced about any of that? Well, the indisputable thing is that there will be a certain amount of RAM supply produced for consumers in 2026 (by which I mean the memory modules that end up on retailer shelves, whether in online stores or bricks-and-mortar shops). That will be less this year, because there's a RAM supply shortage, and AI is a far more profitable sector to sell to versus consumers (for everyone, not just Micron) – that's a fact. And crucially (ahem), whether or not Crucial exists arguably won't (meaningfully) affect those availability levels (and therefore consumer pricing). As noted, whatever supply is available for RAM on retail shelves (not a great deal) will get out there, whatever label it has slapped on it.

Further, remember that Micron hasn't said it is favoring OEMs more (over consumers) now – it has always done so anyway – although we don't know what's really happening behind closed doors in meeting rooms and on the production lines in the big factories (and if there has been any shift in that respect).

Some RAM clarity, please

Am I trying to defend Micron here? It might seem that way, but I'm just attempting to clarify where the firm is coming from, and to make the point that the exit of the Crucial brand isn't really the primary pain point to focus on.

These overarching RAM woes are being caused by the galloping success of AI, which shows no signs of abating – but it's also partly the fault of memory makers (Micron, along with its rivals) for their past actions in terms of trimming down production too much in tougher times (when there was an excess of supply). Let's not forget that. That's a major factor as well as the AI boom itself, as the RAM industry started well on the back foot with too lean an inventory.

Ultimately, as with any business, decisions are made largely on the basis of profit, and with only so much RAM supply to go around – which is to say not nearly enough – AI will get the lion's share, as there's far more money in it, and consumers will get the crappy end of the deal. That's just the cold world of business.

All this said, I can see why Moore's comments are not going down well with some folks (see this Reddit thread, for example), and why the closing down of the Crucial brand seems very much like a blow, as it's a very negative signal about how Micron feels about its consumer stock and sales. That's undeniable, hence the negative reaction in turn towards Micron from those consumers, who are seriously (and rightly) frustrated with the situation as regards system memory (or indeed VRAM) right now.

Meanwhile, Moore notes that Micron has moves afoot to boost its production capacity, but those expansion plans won't see any meaningful impact on RAM supply until 2028. Again, that's another warning signal that memory woes could last not just throughout this year, but they could remain a big problem next year, too. In fact, that's seeming more and more likely by the day.

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Rumor has it that Nvidia could be recalibrating its production strategy for RTX 5000 GPUs, switching away from making affordable models with 16GB of video RAM (VRAM), in favor of 8GB graphics cards at these mid-to-lower tiers.

This is due, as you might have guessed, to the RAM crisis, which also affects VRAM supply and costs. VideoCardz reports that a post from the Board Channels forum in China (where supply chain rumors are regularly aired) claims Nvidia is reducing production of the RTX 5070 Ti and 5060 Ti graphics cards with 16GB of VRAM.

Team Green will seemingly shift to favor production of the RTX 5060 Ti model with 8GB of VRAM, and also the RTX 5060 (which also has 8GB of VRAM, with no 16GB variant available for this one).

Those two RTX 5060 GPUs are identified as the two key models for Nvidia's GeForce GPUs in the Chinese market, and by extrapolation, it'd be surprising if the rest of the global picture didn't mirror that to a reasonable extent.

Analysis: is 8GB still enough in 2026?

It has been rumored for a while that Nvidia could shift its focus away from more affordable GeForce graphics cards that load up on larger amounts of VRAM relative to their price bracket, so this is not exactly a surprise. While we have to treat the source with some caution – I'm always a little wary of the Board Channels, though this forum can carry accurate info – it also makes sense that Nvidia would do this.

Nvidia won't want to 'waste' cutting-edge (GDDR7) VRAM, which has become a much scarcer commodity, on lower-tier graphics cards, especially seeing as the rising cost of that video RAM will be felt even more keenly proportional to the price tag of an RTX 5060 16GB. A sharper price hike isn't a good look, of course, and it's worth noting that this same post suggests price increases haven't been ruled out for Nvidia GPUs in the "next quarter", so Q2 might be a bit painful in that respect, which again would be no surprise.

And so with a potential shift back to producing more 8GB graphics cards, this begs the oft-repeated question: is this enough VRAM for a modern GPU? On the one hand, it's true that an 8GB GPU can actually be pretty decent for many contemporary games, as we discovered testing the RTX 5070 laptop GPU with that amount of video RAM. When using DLSS (and especially frame generation, where supported), you can get great results with a relatively affordable 8GB GPU.

However, not every game supports DLSS or frame gen, and there are some titles that really struggle with an 8GB allocation – even today, without considering where games are going in the future.

And that's the key issue with the 8GB of VRAM arguments: future-proofing looks wobbly to say the least. You expect a graphics card to last a good few years – preferably five in my book – and it won't be long before those GPUs with 8GB are going to start falling by the wayside with the increased demands that future games will doubtless make.

Personally, I wouldn't buy an 8GB GPU at this point, but if needs must and you have no option, it may be the case that you can get by okay for some time yet with this VRAM configuration – especially by leveraging DLSS.

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For the uninitiated (although I doubt you clicked on this article if you don't know what frame generation is), what this essentially means is that only one in six frames is actually computed and rendered by your graphics card when playing, with the other five interpolated and inserted by a complex AI model running locally on your Nvidia GPU. In other words, going from 4x to 6x should theoretically give you a 50% boost to your average framerate.

In practice, frame-gen isn't quite that impressive – at least, not from what I've seen during my own testing with the RTX 5060 and RTX 5070. You'll get a boost, but it varies massively depending on a range of factors, including the other specs of your build, the target resolution of your monitor, the DLSS mode being used, and the graphical settings of the game you're playing. It does work, even if you're unlikely to get the perfect lab-tested performance results Nvidia likes to tout.

Real or fake?

I should immediately address the fact that frame-gen has proven to be a highly divisive topic within the PC gaming community. Some merely consider it to be a useful tool for boosting performance; others decry the involvement of AI, calling the interpolated images 'fake frames', or view it as another crutch (like DLSS upscaling itself) that allows developers to skimp on proper optimization for the PC versions of games.

I do consider these concerns valid, and when frame generation first debuted with DLSS 3 I wasn't too impressed. I'm not violently anti-AI (though I do have my reservations about how it's used), but frame-gen seemed a bit like a pipe dream – especially since it's locked to newer RTX GPUs, removing any potential benefits for those running on older hardware. And looking at the current spiking prices of PC components due to AI demand, the accessibility of this tech... isn't great.

But Nvidia has now had three major DLSS updates to get a handle on its frame-gen tech, and it's starting to feel like we might need to collectively admit that it's not actually a Big Bad Evil Thing. With the reveal of the new 6x MFG mode in the DLSS 4.5 update, my first thought wasn't 'oh, 6x sounds great' – instead, I thought 'huh, I should give 2x another go.' As my favorite YouTuber loves to say, let's get to the numbers!

Real-world performance

With the RTX 5060, at 1440p output resolution with DLSS set to Balanced and frame-gen off, I was getting about 40 frames per second on average in Alan Wake II at the Medium graphics preset. Turn frame-gen on to 2x mode, and that average bumped up to 55fps, with extremely minimal loss in visual clarity – nothing that would impact my enjoyment of the game in the slightest.

4x mode took my framerate into triple digits – but unfortunately, this did impact how the game actually looked. Despite the reported framerate being much higher (according to Nvidia's own app overlay, since Alan Wake II lacks a built-in fps counter), the game felt worse to play; ghosting, blurring, and artifacting were immediately visible, combined with a slight but noticeable input latency that – while not rendering a single-player game like this unplayable – would definitely be a problem in a faster-paced title.

Avowed gave me similar results. At 2x I wasn't really able to register much of a difference in visual sharpness or glitching, despite a hearty framerate boost of about 25fps on average, but cranking MFG up to 4x turned the screen into a blur-scape of Dali-esque proportions. Doom: The Dark Ages fared better, but I still felt like 4x was struggling a little to maintain good clarity during busy moments (which is most moments, since it's Doom), while 2x and 3x looked consistently great.

Jumping up to the RTX 5070, the difference was even more significant. Frame-gen relies on the base framerate produced by the GPU to perform better; you're obviously going to see a more significant boost if you're rocking a more powerful GPU to start with. If you're already struggling with sub-30fps, frame-gen isn't going to save the day.

But if you're starting comfortably above 60, as the 5070 did in Alan Wake II, you're going to get a more significant boost. Turning on 2x frame-gen took me from a 66fps average all the way up to 90, and again, it still looked fantastic. Switching on ray-tracing caused the framerate to take a significant hit, but 2x FG kept it above a stable 60fps, which is fine for a single-player game like this. Avowed hit 100+ fps with 2x mode, again with virtually no visual issues.

Yes, 4x was still wonky in some games, though it's a bit less horrible than it is on the 5060. But that's okay – much like the earlier generation of DLSS, there's still work to be done here, and we shouldn't decry the base version of Nvidia's FG tech because of that. It's also important to bear in mind that MFG depends partially on developer implementation; it's still relatively early days for the tech's use within the wider gaming industry, and we can likely expect it to improve as it becomes more normalized.

The future of frames

After all, DLSS upscaling itself wasn't an overnight success. Gamers are a fickle bunch, sure, and we typically approach each new technology with caution – but Nvidia's own usage data shows that the vast majority of PC gamers with RTX GPUs are now regularly utilizing DLSS. So if 2x FG combined with DLSS can get you a decent framerate bump at no extra cost, why wouldn't you use it?

As Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said during his CES keynote, "computing has been fundamentally reshaped" by the arrival of modern AI, and that doesn't have to be a universally bad thing. Of course, Nvidia is somewhat responsible for the present situation of the GPU market, so there's a rather delicious paradox here where Team Green is pushing impressive new AI-powered software that few people can actually use because it requires hardware that is currently all being sucked up... to power AI software.

Back on topic... I don't expect 6x MFG to blow me away when I first get to test it out. When you consider that frame-gen in its most basic 2x form is essentially producing a single interpolated frame to insert between every two frames your GPU spits out, it's easy to imagine that visual accuracy is going to take a hit when you suddenly start trying to AI-generate five frames to cram in there instead. But I'm going to be patient with Nvidia on this one, and I won't hear any more slander about 2x FG.

I think it's about time we put the whole 'fake frames' thing to bed, honestly. I mean, it's not like the regular frames are hand-made by Tibetan artisans from only the finest naturally-sourced pixels. If you can see them, they're real enough. And if your PC game runs like crap without upscaling and frame-gen? That's not on Nvidia – that's on the game devs, sorry.

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FSR 4 upscaling has already made huge advancements compared to FSR 3.1. I covered this a long while ago and highlighted that its super-resolution image quality was great, even surpassing Nvidia's DLSS 3 (which was more relevant at that time), but still trailed behind DLSS 4.

Now, FSR Redstone is another attempt to improve upon FSR 4's image stability, especially when using ML Frame Generation, and I'm happy to report that Redstone has succeeded in that attempt, as I noticed that previous issues like ghosting and artifacts are less noticeable in motion.

Having very briefly tested Nvidia's DLSS 4.5, AMD still has a way to go in catching up to Team Green, not only in super-resolution image quality, but also with frame generation. However, FSR Redstone is a sign for me that AMD shouldn't be written off completely, and it's great to see that it isn't giving up on improving its upscaling tech for gamers.

ML Frame Generation's image quality is a huge improvement

Thanks to help from AMD and Razer, I was able to get my hands on an ASRock Challenger Radeon RX 9060 XT and the Razer Core X V2 for testing – and on this occasion, I used my Lenovo Legion Go S Z1 Extreme running the eGPU on Windows 11.

Now, I'm fully aware that this isn't the best benchmark to run, as there's a clear bottleneck with a RX 9060 XT and Z1 Extreme setup. However, image quality was my main concern, and I wanted to see how good FSR Redstone would be in a plug-and-play handheld gaming scenario.

With that in mind, I still got great results, because while running Marvel's Spider-Man 2 using the new ML Frame Generation, I hardly noticed the issues of ghosting that FSR 3.1's Frame Generation (Analytical) presented when using it with the RX 9060 XT.

With the previous model, characters and other fast-moving objects on screen would leave behind noticeable trails, and while this isn't completely absent with Redstone, it's not nearly as evident.

It might not be entirely noticeable in the screenshots above, but swinging across skyscrapers in Insomniac's massive open world was enough for me to realize that AMD has done a great job at cleaning up the frustrating artifacts frame interpolation introduces, but unfortunately, it's not all great news.

Frame pacing is still an issue and a dealbreaker

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm very happy with what FSR Redstone presented me, and particularly with how it transforms handheld gaming performance (despite the very obvious bottleneck). I mean, this eGPU dock setup makes ray tracing possible on a portable device that isn't a gaming laptop.

However, the major downside of FSR Redstone is, unfortunately, its frame pacing issues. It seems as though these problems have carried over from FSR 3.1 and remain the one problem FSR just can't shrug off.

Yes, you can say that my CPU bottleneck in this test has a part to play in these frame pacing issues, but I've tested this at higher resolutions where the CPU bottleneck is less of an issue, and also seen the same complaints from several users and reviewers, so I know I'm not alone in what I witnessed when testing.

If you look closely enough, you will likely notice a spiky frame time graph when using FSR Redstone ML Frame Generation, which results in gameplay that doesn't feel as smooth as it should, even with a high frame rate. Screen tearing and noticeable input lag are telltale signs for me, and Digital Foundry, Hardware Unboxed, and many more have highlighted the same problem.

While these frame pacing problems can be mitigated via enabling v-sync on a driver-level or in games that frame gen and v-sync work simultaneously, this will significantly increase input lag. The same can be done by limiting frame rates, but this defeats some of frame gen's purpose, which is to massively boost frame rates.

What makes matters worse is that Nvidia recently launched DLSS 4.5, which is already being praised for the improvements in image quality, thanks to its 2nd gen transformer model, and its super-resolution is available to all RTX GPU users (even if it supposedly has worse performance on older cards).

AMD's FSR 4 and FSR Redstone are exclusive to RDNA 4, so consumers with older Radeon GPUs won't even be concerned with upscaling until it's officially backported to RDNA 3. Team Red deserves credit where credit is due for the improvements made with Redstone, but it still has work to do if it wants to catch its rival.

As integrated graphics take further leaps forward in terms of performance – with the latest being Intel's Panther Lake CPUs – talk has again turned to when discrete GPUs might become effectively irrelevant.

And according to Asus, in an interview with Tom's Guide at CES 2026, we're now getting into the territory where it's possible that integrated graphics could be the future of PC gaming.

For the uninitiated, a discrete GPU, as the name suggests, means a standalone graphics card, as opposed to integrated graphics built into the CPU, and obviously, with a full, separate expansion board to work with, you can get a lot more powerful performance levels.

Dedicated gaming laptops still use discrete GPUs for that reason, but how close are we getting to the point where these standalone boards are going to be effectively sidelined?

Tom's Guide asked Sascha Krohn, Director of Technical Marketing at Asus, about whether integrated graphics on laptops represented the future of PC gaming.

Krohn replied: "I would say we're definitely getting into the territory where that becomes a possibility. I think that's something that, in the past, you couldn't really do, but I think now we're getting to the point where, and just the fact that you're asking the question – you're not the only one – it shows that if you follow this trend, it is probably going to happen. And it's just a matter of time.

"Are we there right now? I'm not sure if we're already there right now. It's going to be very interesting in the end how the market reacts, like how end users react to this."

Analysis: Panther Extreme Halo effect

It's a bold statement, as while Krohn says he isn't 'sure' that we're at this point, the doubt implies that we might just be – or at least be coming close. The new integrated graphics on Intel's Panther Lake chips are impressive, and the same is true for Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme, and indeed AMD's Strix Halo, the beefiest integrated graphics of them all, featuring jaw-dropping performance (albeit with caveats in terms of higher power consumption and its priciness).

Krohn points to Cyberpunk 2077 running impressively on integrated graphics these days, which is remarkable. But the question of when integrated GPUs might effectively barge aside discrete boards is a knotty one, as the Asus exec acknowledges.

Krohn observes that on the subject of integrated graphics: "And I think it really depends on who you ask, right? I think there's a lot of people who will say yes, this [integrated GPU performance] is good enough for me, this is totally fine. I don't need more. But calling that a dedicated gaming device is a whole other story, right?"

He continues: "I think the expectations, once you call it gaming laptop, are probably higher. Gaming laptops are not going to go away anytime soon, even in the long term. And dedicated GPUs are going to still be around for many years. How many people are going to go for dedicated GPUs and how many people are going to go for integrated GPUs, that's something that everybody has a different take on."

And that's the crux of the matter – we aren't talking about the death of the discrete GPU here, because that's a long, long way off. If it ever happens, as enthusiasts will always want better, faster GPUs to get 4K gaming running fluidly, at native resolution (with no AI tricks), with all the bells and whistles turned on. Similarly, discrete GPUs will continue to get faster, as well as integrated solutions. Discrete will continue to sit at the top of the tree, naturally.

So, what we're really talking about is when integrated graphics become good enough so that the vast majority of gamers will be happy using them, and granted, that point may not be so far off into the future. But I do think it's still a good way off, and while integrated graphics will doubtless continue to progress nicely in terms of performance, as noted, so will standalone GPUs. Although it's true that, in laptops, within the confines of the chassis, ever-higher power consumption could be a problem for discrete GPUs, advances in cooling solutions may help.

It's a difficult call, for sure, but I think Asus is veering somewhat onto the optimistic side of the fence here. In the end, one factor that could be key for discrete GPUs is whether there will even be the willingness to keep developing faster and faster models, because if AI continues to boom, the drive behind GeForce gaming GPUs could falter. It's not difficult to envisage Nvidia throwing all its weight behind AI at the expense of gamers, and folks have been theorizing for a while now that Team Green may not continue its GeForce gaming line forever.

TechRadar will be extensively covering this year's CES, and will bring you all of the big announcements as they happen. Head over to our CES 2026 live news page for the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything we've seen.

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It finally seems like there could be some good news for PC gamers, as a reliable hardware leaker has suggested that Nvidia’s next generation RTX 60 series graphics cards will launch in the second half of 2027.

While that might still seem like quite a wait, it’s roughly what we’ve been expecting, as the current generation, the RTX 50 series, launched last year, and Nvidia usually waits a few years before launching brand-new architectures.

If this leak is accurate, then it could mean new Nvidia RTX 60 series GPUs, such as the RTX 6090, could launch around the same time as the rumored GTA 6 PC port. That would be great timing, as the highly-anticipated game will likely be a graphical tour-de-force, and many PC gamers will want to update their rigs with cutting-edge tech.

As Notebookcheck.net reports, hardware leaker ‘kopite7kimi’ posted on X, formerly Twitter, replying to a user who asked if the RTX 6090 is coming out in 2028. Their rather blunt reply of ‘2027H2’ suggests that the flagship RTX 60-series GPU, presumably alongside other expected GPUs like the RTX 6080, will launch later next year.

With RAM prices currently skyrocketing, there has been concern that Nvidia could delay the launch of the RTX 60 series until supply issues are sorted. There’s been no sign of Nvidia’s mid-generation RTX 50 series ‘Super’ GPUs, which were missing in action at CES 2026, with many people assuming that the global memory shortage has forced Nvidia to delay their launch.

If ‘kopite7kimi’s rather cryptic post is accurate, it does suggest that fears that Nvidia could delay its next-gen GPUs are (at the moment, at least) unfounded.

Time to get excited?

While it’s encouraging to think that Nvidia’s upcoming generation of GPUs won’t be delayed, I wouldn’t get too excited yet.

Although ‘kopite7kimi’ has a pretty good track record of accurate leaks, their post doesn’t give any indication of where they are getting this information, and it’s not entirely clear if they are talking about the RTX 6090, or the RTX 60 series as a whole.

Since we’ve only just started 2026, the second half of 2027 is far enough away that there’s still plenty of time for some unexpected delays to crop up, especially as the RAM price crises shows no sign of ending any time soon.

The RTX 60-series launching around the same time as GTA 6 on PC might also be a bit of wishful thinking on my part. Rockstar, the company behind the iconic franchise, has not mentioned anything about a PC release. I’m still hopeful that GTA 6 will end up on PC, as every other main entry in the series has done (in fact, the original game started off as a PC game), but there’s no guarantee it will launch in 2027, despite being a year after the (much delayed) release on consoles, which is due later this year.

Not to be too negative, but even if the RTX 60-series does indeed avoid delays due to the RAM price crises, there could still be repercussions, with Nvidia’s already-expensive GPUs possibly getting even pricier.

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Nothing much has been happening with handheld gaming PCs at CES 2026, but Intel has hinted at the potential for a raft of major new launches later in 2026.

As reported by Notebookcheck, Intel has promised that handhelds are coming which are built with its Panther Lake series of processors. This potentially includes partnerships with the likes of MSI, Acer, GPD, Microsoft, and Onexplayer, with further updates set to be revealed later this year.

With both Lenovo and Asus recently launching the Legion Go 2 and the ROG Xbox Ally X respectively, this leaves both of those manufacturers effectively out of the picture for a handheld refresh powered by these new Intel chips – new devices surely won't be coming for some time on those fronts.

Essentially, this leaves room open for one of the big players, namely MSI, to make a successor to the Claw AI+ handhelds that use Intel's Core Ultra 7 258V processor.

Based on Intel's performance claims for Panther Lake's Arc B390 integrated GPU, which is said to be 73% faster than AMD's Radeon 890M while running at a lower power usage, it's safe to say that Team Blue could give Team Red a run for its money in the handheld space here.

If it was built around a Panther Lake CPU, we could see a new MSI Claw device with significantly better performance than most of the current-gen mainstream handhelds. As Intel claims, this is supposed to be next-gen handheld gaming performance (see the graph above).

It also helps that XeSS 3 (supported by Panther Lake and older Xe integrated graphics) comes with the benefits of multi-frame generation, a technology that we've only seen Nvidia utilize for its RTX 5000 series GPUs (although it's also possible via Lossless Scaling on Steam).

More importantly, in the grand scheme of things, the battle between AMD and Intel in the handheld market is on.

Analysis: Intel is making a stronger name for itself in the gaming market

While AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ 395 APU essentially provides gaming laptop-tier performance for the GPD Win 5 and other premium handhelds, Intel's Core Ultra 7 258V is still the most impressive chip overall for me.

It's the processor used in the MSI Claw AI+ handhelds, and the MSI Claw 8 AI+ is the best handheld I've used to date. Yes, the Claw's $899 price tag was a point of contention for me, but with Max+ 395 handhelds costing nearly $2,000, there's a clear winner in terms of value.

If Intel's generational performance leap claims are accurate, we'll be in for a far more powerful successor to the MSI Claw 8 AI+ with a Panther Lake chip as its engine. And Intel will further establish itself as more of a presence when it comes to hardware for gaming – especially since its upcoming Arc B770 discrete GPU has leaked, supposedly packed with 16GB of VRAM.

There's plenty to look forward to from both AMD and Intel, not only in the desktop GPU department, but also for SoCs and their powerful integrated graphics for handhelds. I'm pumped to see what happens in 2026.

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An AMD exec has assured PC gamers that there won't be stock shortages of its Radeon graphics cards due to the RAM crisis, but there can be no guarantee that pricing for these GPUs won't rise.

David McAfee, who is Corporate VP of the Client Channel Business at AMD, was interviewed by TweakTown at CES 2026, and he had some interesting revelations regarding Radeon GPUs and the memory crisis as it pertains to VRAM.

TweakTown raised the issue of the current huge RAM price hikes, and how they might affect AMD's GPUs in terms of cost, or certain models being 'put on hold' due to supply or production difficulties around securing VRAM (all this is happening against the notable backdrop of a bunch of rumors around AMD Radeon price hikes, and speculation that some more affordable GPUs could be ditched by Team Red).

McAfee said: "As we look at it, we've got very long-term deep partnerships with all of the DRAM manufacturers to make sure that our needs are met in terms of DRAM supply for our [Radeon] GPUs, to make sure that we're building what gamers need."

He continued: "From that point of view, I'm not concerned that current constraints will lead to a shortage of GPUs in the market. I think we've got long enough, deep enough, and strategic enough partnerships, and that's a critical problem that we're working with those partners day in and day out."

So, McAfee seems confident that AMD isn't going to stumble in terms of procuring VRAM, or having enough to maintain production volumes for Radeon graphics cards going forward. There's certainly no talk of ditching budget models, of course.

However, TweakTown then touched on the subject of price, where the news wasn't quite so positive.

McAfee prefaced the catch here by noting that AMD is going to do everything it can to fight price hikes for its GPUs, saying: "Our value proposition with Radeon is delivering end users more for their money, and as things change in the market, we want to make sure that we continue to do that and deliver the best performance per dollar that we can to gamers. Even in spite of increasing component costs, we're going to drive that as aggressively as we possibly can. To make sure we're maximizing the performance per dollar."

However, then came the sting in the tail, with McAfee adding: "I'm not going to say prices across all these components will remain flat. I think inevitably, something's going to happen. And we're trying to mitigate that as much as possible to ensure that we maintain that great value for end users."

Analysis: weathering the RAM storm

So, on the one hand, the exec is saying that AMD is in a good position supply-wise for VRAM, and will try to do everything to mitigate any price hikes for Radeon GPUs to ensure the value proposition of these products is maintained.

However, on the other hand, McAfee notably refuses to say that there won't be any price hikes, and moreover, indicates that it's inevitable that "something's going to happen" on this front.

The upshot, then, would appear to be that some price increases are very likely to happen, but they will hopefully be relatively contained and modest – and stock issues shouldn't compound them.

Of course, this is just a prediction, albeit from somebody inside AMD who is in a very good position to make that assertion (though equally, he's obviously someone who needs to talk up Radeon products, too). How the memory crisis is going to unfold throughout 2026 – and quite possibly beyond – will be key, and nobody really knows how it's going to play out longer-term yet.

Short-term, RAM price rises have been a massive shock, and not one that's going to fade anytime soon. Some forecasts suggest we won't be going back to normal with system RAM or VRAM prices this year, and things won't start to normalize until 2027 – and others even foresee a rocky road for RAM through to 2028.

Elsewhere at CES 2026, other AMD execs have been drawn to talk about the RAM crisis, and another noteworthy report comes from Tom's Hardware.

Our sister site spoke to another (Senior) VP at AMD, Rahul Tikoo, who said about the RAM crisis: "I think that people who need the technology [a PC] need the technology, and they’re going to buy the technology – though consumers might decide that they have a choice to make on how much memory, what CPU," and that "consumers have a wide assortment of choice available for all kinds of price points that they can buy for this coming year".

The long and short of it is that people who must buy a PC this year are going to have to eat the cost of more expensive RAM – that's just a fact – and either compromise by having a lesser quantity of system memory, or by cutting corners elsewhere. Which is what Tikoo's reference to the choice of CPU is about: buying a cheaper processor than intended to save money which can then be put towards affording that pricier RAM.

Tikoo isn't suggesting this is an ideal scenario, but just that if people must buy a PC this year, in this climate of rising costs, there are options – although the unspoken suggestion is that they'd probably be better off waiting if they have the choice.

However, for those who aren't trying to build or buy a PC, and just want to upgrade their graphics card, the news is more positive for would-be Radeon owners. Mostly, anyway, although as noted, some price hikes are still likely in this case, but hopefully they'll be minor bumps, and certainly nothing like what we've seen with RAM (which has been ludicrous, frankly).

More broadly, AMD appears to be well braced to weather the RAM storm this year, at least going by the various comments from its top brass at CES.

TechRadar will be extensively covering this year's CES, and will bring you all of the big announcements as they happen. Head over to our CES 2026 live news page for the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything we've seen.

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We've had our experts all over the big launches as well as the smaller stuff tucked away at the back of the halls, and we've chosen our 25 favorite products of the show. We're covering a wide gamut of consumer tech here, so make yourself a coffee and dig into what we loved, and why it stood out to us.

Want to watch along and see more of the tech we loved at CES? Check out the video below!

Best phone

Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold

• A phone that really turns into a tablet
• Impressive camera system, too
• Read more: I finally tried the Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold and couldn't believe my eyes

We finally got to try Samsung's first double-folding phone (it may be called the TriFold, but there are two hinges…), and we called it a "remarkable feat of engineering that offers the potential of truly pocketable big-screen tablet productivity". When folded, it isn’t meaningfully thicker than regular phones, and it has a 6.5-inch screen… but then it becomes 10-inch tablet – so truly tablet-sized – in an instant when you fold its two sides out.

It's not just a one-trick pony, though – the TriFold has five cameras in total, to make sure it can deliver all the flexibility you want from a modern phone. There's Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy customized powerful processor, and a generous 5,600mAh battery. It's the clear stand-out among CES's phones this year.

Best earbuds

Shokz OpenFit Pro

• Shokz' first open earbuds with active 'noise reduction'
• Great fit and sound quality
• Read more: I’ve worn the all-new Shokz open earbuds for 4 days and the ‘noise reduction’ is so good, I forget they’re open-ear

The best open earbuds have become incredibly popular, but Shokz has making them for longer than most, and the new OpenFit Pro proves that it's good to be the veteran. Crucially, these are the company's first with active noise cancellation – even though Shokz doesn't want to call it that, because not having an in-ear seal means it's not quite as effective as what people think of for ANC. No, this is 'noise reduction'.

Well, we've tested them, and actually the noise reduction is as good as a lot of ANC earbuds. It's really effective, and paired with impressive sound and high levels of comfort, these are really impressive.

Best stereo speakers

Cambridge L/R Series

• 3 sizes of wireless stereo bookshelf speakers with huge power
• Dedicated bass drivers with passive radiators
• Read more: Cambridge has unveiled three active bookshelf speakers at CES and it’s not hard to see the KEF resemblance

British hi-fi company Cambridge launched its first wireless stereo speakers, and despite being modest in size, they are huge in sound. There are three sizes – the L/R X is the biggest, the L/R M is the medium, and the L/R S is the small – and it's amazing how much oomph they provide.

We heard the L/R X going hard, and the bass is enough to shake the room, despite not being that big. A big down-firing woofer and dual passive bass radiators get it to this point, delivering an amazingly full sound, with tons of detail and finesse to it as well. And they're great-looking, too.

Best Bluetooth speaker

Fender Audio Elie 6

• 3-way speaker system in a small body produces great sound
• Connections for guitars and mics, and great wireless options
• Read more: Fender just released new wireless headphones and Bluetooth speakers

Fender Audio launched two speakers and a pair of headphones at CES, and all are interesting in various ways, but during our ears-on time it was the Elie 6 that really impressed us. It's a pretty small unit, but it packs in a tweeter, full-range speaker and down-firing bass driver, meaning the sound is amazingly full and impactful – especially in stereo mode, with two units connected wirelessly.

They have interesting features, too – a combined XLR and 1/4-inch port for connecting a mic or guitar directly, and even two wireless buttons for a specific connectivity feature Fender is planning to work with wireless mics. We like the design too, with a solid carry handle.

Best headphones

TDM Neo

• Headphones that 'twist' to become a portable speaker
• 200-hour battery life in headphones mode

We love seeing something totally new at CES. The TDM Neo work like a regular pair of on-ear wireless headphones. You put them on, you enjoy some nice bassy music. But when you take them off, you can twist the flexible headband and connect the earcups together magnetically, to form a small round device. As soon as you do this, they start playing music out loud, as a Bluetooth speaker.

They have two sets of audio drivers to make this happen: one for headphones mode, and a more powerful set for speaker mode. And they're really thoughtfully designed – the headband hinges attach to each other when you twist, so you know you've done it correctly, but then they become a flat surface you can stand the speaker on.

If you prefer, you can also change the behavior so that when you twist, they pause instead of auto-switching to speaker mode. And because the speaker mode requires more power, they have huge batteries, and can deliver a colossal 200 hours of life in headphones mode.

Best toy

Lego Smart Play

• A classic Lego brick, now with sound and light magic
• All the tech is under the hood – no screens required

At first glance, Lego’s Smart Brick looks like a regular 2x4 Lego brick. Aside from a transparent top, you’d never know it’s any different. But bring a Smart Minifigure close, and that's where the magic starts to happen. If Darth Vader approaches, the Imperial March starts up. Move R2-D2 nearby and you’re greeted with frantic boops and flashes of blue light. Same goes for a Smart Tag to identify what the Lego build is – say, an X-Wing or Tie Fighter.

All of this is powered by a custom chip hidden inside the brick, along with sensors, a gyroscope, non-invasive microphones, and a sound synthesizer. Together, they let the Smart Brick understand what’s around it and respond with the right sounds and lighting effects, without adding a screen or changing the core Lego experience. For now, it’s limited to a handful of Star Wars sets, but it’s a smart, confident foundation – one that enhances play rather than distracting from it.

Best OLED TV

LG W6 Wallpaper TV

• LG's best OLED panel, in a super-thin 9.9mm body
• Uses a wireless connections box to keep it aesthetically pure
• Read more: LG announces new OLED TVs at CES

The LG W6 is a stunner in more ways than one. It uses LG's most advanced OLED panel – the new Primary RGB Tandem 2.0 also used in the LG G6 – but in a design that's just 9.9mm thick. It's also totally uniform, meaning it can be as invisible on the wall as pretty much any TV can be these days. In the image above, you can see how well it blends in using a photo of the wall behind it. To help this minimalism, it uses a wireless connections box that's capable of full-quality 4K HDR pictures, but without the tangle of cables running to the TV.

It looks like it'll be a fantastic TV, thanks to the panel and LG's latest-gen image processing, and should only cost a little more than the G6 does. That means you'll be getting something super-impressive and premium at a still-realistic price.

Best RGB TV

Samsung R95H

• Stunningly rich color and fantastic contrast
• Available in realistic sizes, and shown in an amazing 130-inch model
• Read more: Samsung's enormous micro-RGB TV is coming to smaller screen sizes, and it borrows one great feature from Samsung OLED TVs

CES has been dominated by RGB TVs this year. These are basically mini-LED TVs with a new more colorful backlight behind the pixels, meaning they offer a greater range of colors, and can be even brighter. Having seen them in action, our pick of the bunch is the Samsung R95H. It looks so lush and colorful, with impressively inky black tones, and Samsung's anti-reflective screen ensuring you can see everything, without distractions.

More than that, this is a TV available in realistic sizes – Samsung showed off 75-inch and 85-inch versions, but overall its RGB TVs will come in sizes starting from 55 inches – while still feeling cutting edge. However, for good measure, Samsung also showed an amazing 130-inch version of this TV.

Best Mini-LED TV

TCL X11L SQD MiniLED

• A twist on traditional QLED mini-LED TV tech
• Astoundingly bright, with 20,000 dimming zones
• Read more: TCL launches next-gen SQD mini-LED TV at CES – the ‘best TV in the market’ for 2026

TCL has put a fascinating twist on its flagship TV here. It uses more traditional mini-LED tech rather than RGB mini-LED – but only sort of. TCL is employing a single-color mini-LED backlight, but has applied a layer of 'Super Quantum Dots' (the SQD part) directly over the top, which filter the color before – rather than after – it reaches the LCD layer.

This means it kind of works like an RGB TV, but TCL says this approach means it can pack in way more LEDs. It can produce 10,000 nits of brightness and 20,000 dimming zones for probably the best contrast we've ever seen from a mini-LED TV. Based on early impressions, this is the closest we've seen to mini-LED beating the blooming problem completely.

Best projector

Hisense PX4-Pro

• Ultra short throw laser 4K projector with amazing brightness and color
• Up to 200 inches projected with the device just inches from the wall
• Read more: Hisense unveils two 4K laser projectors — a 300-inch beast with huge brightness, plus the sequel to the best ultra short throw projector

The PX4-Pro is the follow-up to the projector we rate as the best ultra short throw projector overall right now, so we were excited to take a look, and it lived up to our expectations. Its picture looks beautifully bright with a good light-rejecting screen – closer than ever to TV brightness – and eye-grabbingly rich color.

But it can now project up to 200 inches in size still from right near the wall, while maintaining immersive brightness and color depth, and all still in the same size of projector package. CES is full of projectors this year, but this one popped for us.

Best soundbar

LG Sound Suite H7

• The world's first Dolby Atmos FlexConnect soundbar
• A powerful all-in-one, and you can add more speakers in any position
• Read more: LG’s 2026 TVs and soundbars get the Dolby Atmos FlexConnect treatment

Dolby Atmos FlexConnect is a really interesting technology that means you can place home theater speakers wherever is convenient for your room, and the system will configure their sound to create immersive spatial audio, even if they're not in the 'ideal' spot.

LG's Sound Suite H7 is the first soundbar to include the tech, delivering 9.1.6 channels of Dolby Atmos sound on its own. However, you can add a sub and satellite speakers that are positioned anywhere in the room, and the soundbar will automatically optimize them and create the ideal immersive system. It sounds amazing, and the freedom of placement is a game-changer.

Best smartwatch

Pebble Round 2

• The original smartwatch returns!
• E-paper screen means a week of battery life
• Read more: Pebble unveils Pebble Round 2 — and fixes all the original's major pitfalls

Pebble holds a strong place in the heart of tech lovers – it was the first smartwatch that really took, and now it's back with its coolest model yet. Pebble Round 2 is a sleeker, rounder watch, and using a color e-paper helps it deliver a week of battery life per charge.

Naturally, it does some fitness and sleep tracking, and there's a big range of apps and watch faces, thanks to the ongoing commitment to having open source software on the Pebble range.

Best fitness tracker

Noise Luna Band

• A screenless health-tracking band
• No subscription needed – a rarity these days

We've enjoyed the Luna Ring models, and now the brand has the Luna Band. It's a Whoop-like fitness tracker, meaning there's no distracting screen. It doesn't really feel like tech, and that's a good thing – you just live your life, and the Luna Band will offer helpful updates on your diet, workouts, sleep, mood and more. You can use your voice to tell it what meal you ate, to log your workouts, or how you're feeling – and then you can review them later on the app. The one downside is that this function uses Apple's Siri, which means it's iPhone-only for now.

Perhaps the best part is that it doesn't require a subscription on top of the device cost to do all this – people are tired of being nickel-and-dimed, and so the Luna Band looks like it'll help you stay zen in more ways than one.

Best exercise tech

Merach W60 Walking Pad

• "Treadmill-grade engineering" for a low price
• Auto-incline or manual incline options

Walking pads are getting more and more popular, especially for people who work from home and want to get some exercise in during the work day. Merach's new model promises to help you do this more easily and reliably than ever. We love the promise of "treadmill-grade engineering" for a super-sturdy feel, and Merach says it will have a 2,000km warranty.

It's available in two options: one with an auto-incline feature, and one where you'll have to manually set an incline. There's also RGB lighting and Bluetooth speakers built in, if you want to set a mood. Starting from just $299 for the manual version and $329 for the auto-incline version, this really looks like it could be the new standout walking pad on the market.

Best wellness innovation

Nuralogix Longevity Mirror

• A smart mirror that can detect blood flow in your face to give health insights
• Everything from physiological age to mental health

This smart mirror has cameras built in that combine with an AI algorithm to work out a surprising amount of health data just from your face. It's not looking at your features – it's detecting blood-flow patterns, which it can make a variety of sophisticated estimations from.

These include your heart-rate, your physiological age (as in, is your body working as well as it should for your 'real' age?) and your mental health. It appears to be pretty accurate based on early testing – it seems like an incredibly clever system.

Best laptop

Dell XPS 14

• Smart new design with usability improvements
• Intel's new Core Ultra 3 chips inside
• Read more: Hands on: Dell XPS 14 2026 and XPS 16 2026

Without question, the most exciting laptop of CES 2026 was the Dell XPS 14. While many a reviewer and tech journalist is praising the return of the XPS brand itself, what matters most – in our opinion – is the redesign of the laptop. The last Dell XPS 14 and 2025's Dell 14 Premium (the short-lived successor to the XPS 14) were both fantastic laptops that were hamstrung by some major design flaws; namely, the virtual function keys and ‘invisible’ trackpad that turned out to be an accessibility nightmare.

Those have now been fixed with a new design that is also thinner and more modern-looking than its predecessors. And with the new Intel Core Ultra series 3 chips, it’s even more powerful and better equipped to take on the Apple MacBook Air for the 'thin and light' laptop crown.

Best gaming laptop

Lenovo Legion Pro Rollable

• A 16-inch display that expands to a 24-inch display
• The flexible OLED screen literally rolls out like a scroll
• Read more: Lenovo officially unveils the rumored Legion Pro Rollable gaming laptop with expanding screen

The Lenovo Legion Pro Rollable, previously rumored but officially unveiled at CES 2026, is easily one of the most intriguing gaming laptops we’ve ever seen. Its screen expands horizontally from a 16-inch display to 21.5 inches, then once more to a 23.8-inch panel at max extension – all from a quick keyboard shortcut.

The Legion Pro Rollable is an exciting prospect for PC gamers who travel often and want desk-like levels of screen space without attempting to cram a massive laptop into their bag. Gaming aside, it also brings benefits to everyday browsing and productivity, giving you more space to organize windows at the click of a button. It’s only a proof of concept at the moment, but we'll be following it closely to see if the Legion Pro Rollable hits mainstream production.

Best computing innovation

Core Ultra series 3

• Excellent performance in thin-and-light laptops
• Particularly impressive GPU means great gaming on ultrabooks
• Read more: The Intel Core Ultra series 3 processors look impressive enough, but the Arc B390 iGPU is the real game-changer here

We’ve been waiting for the Intel Core Ultra series 3 for several months now, having seen pre-launch builds of Intel Panther Lake last year. Now the Core Ultra series 3 has launched, every laptop we’ve tried with the new chips just reinforces how well Intel has stuck the landing on this release.

This is especially true when it comes to the graphics performance of the higher-end 12 Xe core Arc B390 iGPU, which delivers high-quality 1080p PC gaming on an ultrabook – no other chipmaker even comes close in 2026. If you’re looking to upgrade to a premium thin and light Windows laptop, there’s little reason to buy anything other than a laptop with an Intel Core Ultra series 3.

Best action camera

Dreame Leaptic Cube

• Tiny modular 8K action camera
• Clip to a screen module, or just a battery

Dreame is best known for its vacuum and cleaning tech, but it used CES 2026 to announce its entry into a ton of other product categories. And one of the coolest things we saw at the show was this tiny action camera. The core here is a really small action cam with up to 8K recording, or 4K in HDR if you prefer.

But the clever part is its modular design. It has a little docking system, and Dreame showed it running into two modes: one with a clip-on battery, keeping the whole thing at a small size; and one with a touchscreen module that's larger. You can imagine all the possibilities for accessories from here, all enabling smart extra functions, not just attaching dumbly.

Best gaming accessory

Razer Project Madison

• The ultimate immersive gaming chair
• Surround speakers, haptic feedback and RGB lights all react to games

Razer has decided to throw every kind of immersive gaming chair tech into one product here. This chair uses sight, sound and touch to create something totally enveloping, taking features from Razer's products including the Freyja haptic gaming cushion and Clio headrest speakers.

This chair has speakers behind your head, which combine with front speakers to create a true 5.1 or 7.1 surround system. It has lights that react to compatible games, creating the feeling that events are happening around you, not just on the screen. And the built-in haptics deliver sensations and impacts during play. It looks like the best way to get truly lost in a game.

Best gaming innovation

Neurable / HyperX headset concept and priming software

• A brain-reading gaming headset to improve your performance
• Helps you lower reaction times and improve accuracy
• Read more: I tried a prototype brain-scanning headset designed to make you better at Valorant — and it actually works

Brain-scanning company Neurable has worked on headphones that can scan your brain activity using EEGs to help you focus and prevent burnout in the past. Now it's bringing these ideas to gaming headsets, in a collaboration with HyperX – but the focus is on improving your focus and performance in games.

We tried it out, and it really makes a difference. Using a 'priming' exercise before playing, where you have to focus your mind to shrink a cloud of dots down to nothing, we improved accuracy by a few percentage points, and the company's research has shown it can reduce reaction time by around 40 milliseconds. For esports players, this is a big deal, and the software can track your focus and cognitive load levels while playing, to potentially help with coaching and to prevent tilting.

Best robot mower

Mammotion LUBA 3 AWD

• Offers ±1 cm positioning precision via an upgraded LiDAR, RTK and Vision navigation system
• Can make decisions almost instantly with a 10 TOPS AI chip
• Read more: I just watched Mammotion's new flagship lawnbot scale an astroturf mountain, and it was mesmerizing

There were a lot of incredible robot lawn mowers on show at CES this year, but the one that really stood out to us was the Mammotion LUBA 3 AWD. It builds on the success of the excellent LUBA 2 AWD that precedes it, and is one of the most all-round capable lawnbots we've seen.

At the heart of the design is an upgraded 'Tri-Fusion' navigation system, where the bot will switch between LiDAR, RTK GPS and AI Vision depending on what's most appropriate for the situation. That means it's unlikely ever to get itself lost – the brand promises positioning accuracy to ±1 cm. Mammotion has also upgraded the processing system with a powerful AI chip that can handle 10 trillion operations per second, meaning it can make smart mowing decisions almost instantly.

Best robot vacuum

Roborock Saros Rover

• It's a robovac with actual, proper legs
• It can climb stairs, duck and dive, and even hop
• Read more: I saw Roborock's new robot vacuum with legs, and it promises to make no-go zones a thing of the past

This one is still in the middle of development, but is so cool already – and, admittedly, a little weird. This robot vacuum uses two extended legs that make it look like a Star Wars droid to get around your house more easily. Having articulated legs means it can climb stairs – including spiral staircases – cleaning them as it goes.

In fact, stairs are just the start. Roborock says the Rover is designed to be able to tackle any kind of terrain or home layout, no matter how awkward. Think of it like a 4x4 for cleaning.

It has some fancy object avoidance tech that means it can duck and dive, weave and jump, remaining completely stable throughout. We're not sure exactly what this is for, but it sure is impressive to watch. This maybe the most that a robovac has looked like a pet – it's got personality, it's useful, and we love it.

Best haircare tech

L'Oréal Light Straight +

• A straightener that uses infrared light tech to straighten effectively at lower temperatures
• Avoids the high temperatures that damage hair
• Read more: L'Oréal exec on why its new glass, infrared-powered hair straightener is so exciting

This innovative hair straightener promises to be three times faster at straightening hair, and yet will leave hair twice as smooth as regular plate straighteners do. And at the same time, it can do this at a lower temperature – always under 320°F / 160°C, compared to 365°F / 185°C for typical models. High temperatures break down hair, so reduction is a long-term good for your hair's health.

We got to try them out on – and this has been the first time we've ever used this phrase – human demo hair, and they certainly seemed to work incredibly well. This could be a huge change for a long-running industry, and that's what CES is all about.

Best smart light

IKEA Varmblixt LED Lamp

• It's a glowing, color-changing donut
• Works with IKEA's smart hub, or a Matter home system
• Read more: IKEA just revealed a new donut-shaped smart light – and it'll look sweet on your tables or walls

Sometimes, you've just got acknowledge when something is charming as hell, and that's what we're talking about with the new IKEA Varmblixt. It's a revamp of an ultra-popular lamp IKEA launched in 2022, but this new version is all about the color options, using an array of LEDs to create a beautiful soft toroidal glow.

It can be controlled with a remote, or you can connect it to IKEA's Dirigea home hub, but it also works with any Matter-ready smart home control option.

Nvidia might consider bringing back some older GPUs as part of a strategy to deal with the current supply and pricing pressures around graphics cards – and another possibility is to bring frame-rate-boosting tech (DLSS and the features therein) to more past-gen models.

Tom's Hardware questioned the CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, directly during a Q&A session at CES 2026.

Our sister site noted the current situation around spiking gaming GPU prices – and supply and production woes, bound up with the rising cost of video RAM – then asked Huang: "Do you think that maybe spinning up production on some of the older generation GPUs, on older process nodes where there might be more available production capacity, would help that, or maybe also increasing the supply of GPUs with lower amounts of DRAM? Are there steps that could be taken, or any specific color you could give us on that?"

Huang replied: "Yeah, possibly, and we could possibly, depending on which generation, we could also bring the latest-generation AI technology to the previous-generation GPUs, and that will require a fair amount of engineering, but it's also within the realm of possibility. I'll go back and take a look at this. It's a good idea."

So, there are two parts to this answer. First, the CEO acknowledges it's a possibility that older models could be resurrected as a stopgap to fill the current holes in GPU supply that are causing price rises.

Second, the other potential route for Nvidia is to use the "latest-generation AI technology" with older ranges of GeForce graphics cards. And by that, Huang presumably means the exclusive features for RTX 5000 GPUs, as seen with some pieces of the frame-rate-boosting puzzle that is DLSS 4 (which just got a bump to DLSS 4.5 at CES 2026).

Analysis: vague and cagey

This is a cagey answer, of course, and you can almost hear the cogs whirring in the background of Huang's mind as to exactly how to couch his response.

Given the tentative phrasing, it feels more like the idea of firing up production lines to make old GPUs that were previously discontinued is a remote possibility, frankly. And that a more likely sticking plaster is to bring DLSS features to more GPUs in an effort to regain some popularity with the gaming public, who are again getting the short end of the graphics card pricing stick thanks to external circumstances beyond their control (the AI boom in this case).

Still, this is at least an admission that the concept of older Nvidia GPUs returning to the fray hasn't been completely ruled out, in theory.

Regarding helping out older GeForce boards on the software side, we've already seen some movement on that score, with DLSS 4.5, which has just been revealed as mentioned, providing a 2nd-generation transformer model to older RTX GPUs. That new transformer model is fully compatible with RTX 4000 as well as RTX 5000 graphics cards, but it works with RTX 3000 and 2000 GPUs to a lesser extent. (Although in the latter case, early testing shows it's considerably less performant to the tune of a 20% drop – but that still represents a boost, even if it's a more modest uplift).

And that highlights the central catch with making cutting-edge AI-powered features available to older Nvidia GPUs. Namely that it's a lot of work – or as Huang puts it, such efforts "require a fair amount of engineering" – to get that kind of functionality working okay on past-gen graphics cards so it provides a notable boost (and no additional wrinkles).

Still, there's certainly been hope from some quarters that frame generation could eventually come to RTX 3000 models (and Multi Frame Generation might be made available outside of RTX 5000 GPUs), but hardware limitations could prove too much of a blocker to overcome.

Nvidia is at least making some positive noises about potential solutions for now, but it all remains rather vague. Meanwhile, the prices of Nvidia GPUs are climbing the walls and going through the roof – much like the collective temper of PC gamers – with an RTX 5090 flagship hitting frankly ridiculous levels (mirroring system RAM). Other models like the RTX 5080 are being hit hard too, and rumors abound regarding further supply woes to make this situation worse.

TechRadar will be extensively covering this year's CES, and will bring you all of the big announcements as they happen. Head over to our CES 2026 live news page for the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything we've seen.

You can also ask us a question about the show in our CES 2026 live Q&A and we’ll do our best to answer it.

And don’t forget to follow us on TikTok for the latest from the CES show floor!

I've been testing and reviewing laptops for more than half a decade now here at TechRadar, and I've said in more ultrabook reviews than I could count that gaming isn't a consideration. So much so that we don't even really do official gaming benchmarks on iGPUs for our reviews because there really wasn't any point.

This year, however, I'm going to have to completely overhaul our entire laptop testing process because of a single iGPU: the Intel Arc B390.

I got to play around with the Intel Core Ultra series 3 processors last Summer, back when they were known as Intel Panther Lake, and I came away very impressed by the performance of the 12 Xe core iGPU.

I still wasn't prepared, however, for what Intel has been cooking up in its fabs, and now that the Arc B390 is official as of this week, I've had a chance to give its gaming performance a closer look - and I love what I see.

High FPS 1080p gaming without a discrete GPU is now a reality

When I first played Painkiller 3 on Intel Panther Lake back in 2025, the controls were smooth, and the visuals looked fantastic for a game playing on a thin and light laptop. But this was just one game, and it was a game built and optimized for fast-paced first-person combat, so it wasn't the most visually demanding of games I could have played.

Here at CES 2026, however, Intel let me test out more resource-intensive games like Dying Light: The Beast and Battlefield 6, and without question, the Arc B390 iGPU in the Intel Core Ultra series 3 chips has the juice.

With base rendered framerates of 45-50 fps for Battlefield 6 and 60-70 fps for Dying Light: The Beast in my time with the two games (running at 1080p on High Quality settings without RT, and Intel XeSS 3 set to Balanced), the raw performance of the iGPU is unmatched for a thin and light laptop.

Add in 4x MFG, and I was seeing 160-170 fps in Dying Light: The Beast and as high as 205 fps in Battlefield 6. And with such high rendered framerates to work from, perceived latency was effectively non-existent in most of the games I tried.

The outlier was Marvel Rivals, unfortunately, at least at the high-quality settings that the demo I played was using. But if you were willing to make a couple of graphics sacrifices (or you're not a serious esports player in ranked matches and you're just looking to have fun), the performance on offer provides a great experience for most people.

What's more, games that already support Intel XeSS 2 can be made to support Intel XeSS 3 with MFG through the Intel Graphics app override, so a lot of games will be able to support the kinds of triple-digit framerates out of the gate, with more to come in the weeks and months ahead.

The Intel Arc B390 alone makes the Intel Core Ultra series 3 the laptop and mainstream desktop chip to beat in 2026

Having seen the AMD Radeon 890M, Apple M5, and Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite in practice, an Intel Core Ultra series 3 with B390 iGPU is going to be the chip I recommend to anyone looking to buy a new laptop, mini PC, or AIO PC in 2026, purely on the power of the Arc B390.

I haven't seen the GPU performance on the new Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite or Elite Extreme chips yet, so I'll reserve a definitive judgment on those chips until I do.

But unless Qualcomm has cooked up the computing surprise of the century and hasn't bragged about it to anyone yet, I expect those chips to seriously improve on the Snapdragon X Elite's GPU performance but still fall well short of consideration here, given how the previous-gen flagship chip's GPU starts off being a complete non-factor when it comes to gaming. I expect the X2 Elite Extreme to be competitive with Apple's M5 or a lower-tier Radeon 800-series iGPU, but that's about it.

All that said, it's important to note that the Arc B390 is the 12 Xe core iGPU for the Core Ultra series 3, so the 8 Xe core iGPU—which hasn't been named yet, but I can guess will likely be the Arc B370, given it would be the follow up to the Arc A370M from the last generation—is still something of a mystery and so I can't speak to how that iGPU stacks up against its rivals yet. As such, the lower-end Core Ultra 5 300-series chips might not be all that much better than their AMD, Apple, and Qualcomm counterparts. Time will tell.

But for the Arc B390, there's nothing I've seen from any of Intel's competition that comes close to its gaming performance in a thin and light form factor. It's simply astounding that I'm able to play some of these games at frame rates this high and have them look this good on a laptop or mini PC so small.

The Arc B390 won't ever be able to replace the best gaming laptops on the market with modern discrete GPUs, but for the first time, high-quality PC gaming in full HD on a tiny 14-inch ultrabook isn't just possible, it's a reality with the B390 iGPU, and it honestly makes it hard to justify buying a premium thin and light laptop without one in 2026.

CES 2026 is well underway, and while Nvidia has held back on any new GPU announcements, there's plenty for gamers to be excited about in 2026 regarding DLSS 4.5 and improvements to motion clarity when gaming.

Nvidia has unveiled its new G-Sync Pulsar technology, set for launch on January 7, with brand new Acer, Asus, AOC, and MSI Pulsar-compatible gaming monitors launching on the same date. This new technology seeks to evolve Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) to eliminate motion blur issues while allowing users to benefit from smooth gameplay.

G-Sync in its current form has been around for a long time now, and this new version was previously teased at CES 2024 - but now it's finally ready and being released in new monitors for gamers to enjoy.

With VRR, monitors usually work to ensure that your frame rate in-game matches that of the GPU's frame rate, helping to reduce visual issues like tearing and stuttery gameplay. It was a successful addition, but not without issues of motion blur coming into play.

Nvidia previously launched Ultra Low Motion Blur (ULMB and ULMB 2) models to address motion blur issues, but this only worked at fixed refresh rates and would cause flickering if not used at those fixed rates. This ultimately prevents it from working alongside VRR (aka Nvidia's G-Sync) since that includes a dynamic adjustment of your display's refresh rate.

Now, Team Green has found a new solution with G-Sync Pulsar. This only works on Pulsar-compatible displays (of course) via multiple horizontal backlight sections, which each utilize pulsing via a 'rolling scan'. Nvidia states that these pulses happen at '25% of the frame time', giving pixels enough time to stabilize before being backlit.

Essentially, this provides much better motion clarity, as you can see in the image above, since motion hold times are four times shorter than they were previously (which were the cause of motion blur). What this means in simpler terms is gaming at 250fps will feel like gaming on a 1,000Hz monitor when using G-Sync Pulsar.

It's a huge advancement in VRR technology for Nvidia and one that monitor manufacturers should include going forward – fortunately, that starts with the likes of the Asus ROG Strix Pulsar XG27AQNGV, and others starting at $599.

This is the next generation of motion clarity, and while Nvidia's focus is on AI, G-Sync Pulsar and DLSS 4.5 indicate that it's not leaving gaming behind completely – and I'm certainly glad about that.

TechRadar will be extensively covering this year's CES, and will bring you all of the big announcements as they happen. Head over to our CES 2026 live news page for the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything we've seen.

You can also ask us a question about the show in our CES 2026 live Q&A and we’ll do our best to answer it.

And don’t forget to follow us on TikTok for the latest from the CES show floor!

We're at CES 2026, and it's unsurprisingly another big one for Nvidia. Team Green had a staggeringly good year in 2025, now sitting pretty as the most valuable company in the world (worth a mind-blowing $4.5 trillion). It's no shock, then, that Nvidia has a lot to show off at CES this year.

Leading the presentation was the reveal of an upgrade to Nvidia's DLSS upscaling tech for PC gamers, but don't get too excited; DLSS 5 isn't here just yet, but rather DLSS 4.5. It's an iterative upgrade, delivering a 2nd-generation transformer model (which was originally introduced with DLSS 4) and general improvements to ghosting, pixel sampling, and temporal stability.

Most interesting is a boost to the Multi Frame Generation feature (MFG), which takes the maximum mode from 4x frame-gen to 6x - a significant leap, though my current experiences with the 4x mode on an RTX 5060 and 5070 have been spotty (I've been sticking to the original 2x mode in most games). That being said, if the new transformer model makes the 4x mode more stable, it could be a huge step forward for DLSS. The new-and-improved MFG will be able to intelligently target a framerate that matches your monitor's refresh rate, further optimizing performance.

The time is Now

Hot on the heels of the DLSS 4.5 announcement, Nvidia also unveiled some sweeping improvements to the GeForce Now game-streaming platform, which allows users to pay a subscription to play their own games with the power of RTX graphics via cloud streaming.

A new top tier, featuring RTX 5080-level performance, will effectively replace the existing $19.99 a month RTX 4080 tier for the same price (regional pricing has yet to be confirmed, but will likely remain the same as the existing top tier). Nvidia is advertising up to 5K at 120 FPS or 1080p at 360 FPS for this new tier.

GeForce Now will also be getting native clients for Linux and Fire TV, the latter of which is likely to be of interest to couch gamers who want to play PC titles but don't have a living-room PC. Expanded controller support is also on the way; racing wheel and flight stick controls are first in line.

Additionally, Nvidia G-Sync is getting an upgrade. The new G-Sync Pulsar technology offers improved sharpness and smoother gameplay compared to existing G-Sync displays, and will be available from January 7th in a select number of monitors from Acer, Asus, AOC, and MSI.

These new monitors will reportedly be 27-inch 1440p 360Hz displays, targeted towards serious esports gamers, and are claimed by Nvidia to offer "1000Hz+ Perceived Motion Clarity," which I'm sure will mean something to the aforementioned serious esports gamers. 360Hz sounded high enough to me, but then again, I'm absolute dogwater at Counter-Strike.

The GPU problem

Of course, those fancy DLSS 4.5 upgrades won't mean jack to the average PC gamer if they can't get their hands on an RTX 5000 graphics card, and the current RAM crisis is already having a significant impact on GPU pricing. Needless to say, it's not looking great - prices are skyrocketing, stock is thin, and it's not been harder to pick up a high-end GPU since the crypto craze.

Nvidia is part of the problem, unfortunately. The recent spike in component demand has been largely driven by a fresh need for AI datacenter hardware, and Team Green is deeply entrenched in the AI market at this stage.

Indeed, the company's CES presentation was also chock-full of AI advancements, with half of the slides dedicated to how RTX 5000 benefits AI-powered content creation, LLM performance, and other AI tools. It's no doubt going to be another profitable year for Nvidia, but I can't help but worry that PC gamers will end up being left in the dust - and with GeForce now providing a tempting alternative for those without their own hardware, Nvidia is poised to win either way.

Starting with the 9850X3D, it is essentially a faster version of the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, featuring the same number of cores, the same cache and TDP, but with an extra 400MHz max frequency. That might not sound like a whole lot, but the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is arguably the best gaming processor ever released, so making it even faster is going to garner a lot of interest.

I will say, though, that the Ryzen 7 9850X3D is going to be largely overshadowed by the other major CES announcement from AMD, specifically the Ryzen AI 400 series laptop processors. As Team Red’s answer to the new Intel Core Ultra 300 series processors announced last year, these chips are looking to take some of the wind out of Intel's sails to start off the year.

The AMD Ryzen AI 400 series is here to bring the fight to Intel Panther Lake

With a lot of anticipation around the new Intel Core Ultra 300 series, AMD is picking the right time to launch its new lineup of mobile chips.

At the top of the stack, you have the Ryzen AI 9 HX 475, a 12-core/24-thread chip with a boost clock of 5.2GHz, up to 54W cTDP, 36MB of cache, and a 60 TOPS NPU, which AMD notes is the most powerful x86 NPU you can get. Rounding it out is a Radeon 890M iGPU with 16 compute units and a GPU boost clock of 3.1GHz.

The next step down is the Ryzen AI 9 HX 470, which looks almost identical to the HX 475 except for a slightly slower NPU with 55 TOPS. The rest of the stack fills out as expected, as you can see below.

I can’t say much about the performance claims AMD is making for these processors in their presentations and press materials, such as the purported 71% faster average performance in content creation or the 29% faster average multitasking performance for the HX 470 versus the Intel Core Ultra 9 288V.

It’s a bit of an odd comparison, since the 288V is an Intel Lunar Lake chip meant for thin and light laptops, as opposed to the more powerful Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, which is really the more appropriate comparison here, since these are the chips you’d find in gaming and creator laptops.

Will that make all that much difference in the end? We'll see once we get them all in for testing in the coming months, as the numbers will ultimately tell the tale.

AMD's new chips offer more than just added AI noise in 2026

As expected, the new lineup of AMD processors at CES 2026 leans heavily into the current AI ‘environment’ and for a lot of PC enthusiasts and gamers out there hoping for more, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D might not be enough to fully satisfy consumers.

However, the mobile landscape certainly looks much more competitive for Intel as laptop makers get ready to launch Intel Panther Lake-powered laptops over the next few months, and there’s a lot to be excited about if you’re looking to upgrade your laptop in 2026.

TechRadar will be extensively covering this year's CES, and will bring you all of the big announcements as they happen. Head over to our CES 2026 news page for the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything from wireless TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI.

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Jim Johnson, Intel's Senior VP and General Manager for Intel's Client Computing Group, said at the company's CES press conference that Intel 18A is the center of the company's effort to reestablish its leadership position in the semiconductor industry.

The major rearchitecting of the SoC promises better power efficiency, better performance, and lower power overall.

Intel says its most excited about the new integrated GPU in the Intel Core Ultra Series 3, with the 12 Xe3 core GPU branded as the Intel Arc B390.

Importantly, this new GPU will be the first integrated GPU to feature multiframe generation through Intel XeSS 3. Intel says this will allow a game like Battlefield 6 run at 147 fps at 1080p on its highest graphics settings (Overkill settings).

Intel also revealed that it is developing an entire PC gaming handheld platform around Intel Core Ultra Series 3 that its partners like MSI, Acer, and others can use to develop their own products.

This is a major challenge to AMD's APU dominance for handhelds with its AMD Ryzen Z-series chips. Details on this framework are a bit light at the moment, but I can assume we're going to hear a lot more about this in the weeks and months ahead.

As for AI, Intel promises that its deep collaboration with its software ISVs, including Microsoft, will give Intel Core Ultra series 3 chips a definitive advantage over AMD and Qualcomm for on-device AI applications.

What those applications will be remains to be seen, but if AI really is the future of computing, Intel feels very confident that it is best positioned for it.

We're reporting live from Nvidia's CES 2026 keynote in Las Vegas. Nvidia is one of the biggest and most important companies in the tech world, so anyone who has an interest in AI and PC gaming in particular should tune in when its 'GeForce On Community Update' starts at 9pm PT / 12am ET January 5 / 5am GMT / 3PM AEST January 6.

It's always worth watching Nvidia's keynotes at CES, as the company often announces exciting new products, and while we don't expect any new graphic card announcements this year (last year's CES saw Nvidia launch its RTX 5000 series of GPUs), we're hoping to hear about new features the company is working on to make playing PC games on its hardware even better.

Nvidia is also a major player in artificial intelligence, and we expect to hear a lot about AI during this keynote as well - but hopefully Nvidia doesn't forget about its PC gaming roots.

You can watch along below, and throughout the keynote our computing team at Las Vegas will be updating this live blog with their reactions and expert opinions on what Nvidia shows. If you have any questions, make sure you go over to our CES 2026 Q&A, where you can ask our experts about anything you've seen at this year's event.

Honing in on Nvidia Live with Jensen Huang

Hi folks, Marcus Mears III here at CES 2026.

We're just over an hour away from the Nvidia Live keynote here in Las Vegas, and the city is buzzing with tech enthusiasts from the world over.

I'm excited to see what Team Green is cooking up this year. I expect a lot of talk about AI of course - you can't get away from it nowadays - and hopefully some great new features for PC gamers.

I'll bring you my thoughts on the event as it happens, so stay tuned.

Nvidia Live wrapped

I'm back from Nvidia Live, where Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang presented several new AI-powered endeavors, including a new open-source model for autonomous vehicles, improvements to agentic AI models, impressive hardware upgrades for factories, and even some new adorable robotic friends.

It wasn't without resistance, though, as Huang went head to head with technical difficulties during the presentation - nothing major, just some presentation malfunctions.

I'll break down the key points here.

Nvidia unveils Alpamayo for autonomous vehicles

Nvidia seeks to change the way self-driving cars see and interact with the world through an open-source AI model dubbed 'Alpamayo.'

The presentation video showed a human driver who didn't touch the wheel a single time, letting Alpamayo do all the work as the autonomous vehicle traversed busy intersections, recognized potentially perilous situations like a ball rolling into the street (a warning that a child may soon run into the street after it - and one did), and safely arrived at the destination.

The idea behind Alpamayo is to bring "humanlike thinking to AV decision-making," meaning the system doesn't just react to the environment around it, but instead uses the environment to reason, predict, and maneuver.

And after 8 long years of waiting, we're finally getting an Nvidia-powered self-driving car in the 2025 Mecedes Benz CLA.

Robots on stage!

Jensen Huang was joined by two incredibly cute robot companions on stage - they operated autonomously thanks to Cosmos AI and are the closest thing we have to real life Star Wars droids.

They're not just cute little robots, though. They're a sign that autonomous robots are a reality, and little winks and waddles are the tip of the iceberg for what they can do.

Huang also shared how similar AI infrastructure will be employed in robots for companies like Uber Eats, LG, Caterpillar, and Boston Dynamics.

The RAM crisis has proved hugely damaging for the PC hardware market, with the price of memory skyrocketing due to the ongoing AI boom, and the worst may be yet to come regarding the impact on GPUs.

As reported by Notebookcheck, a German seller (Gb2753 on Reddit) is stating (add your own seasoning) that they are facing supply issues for Nvidia RTX 5000 series GPUs, specifically the RTX 5070 Ti, RTX 5080, and the flagship RTX 5090.

In an email shared by the seller, their supplier stated that none of those Nvidia GPUs are available to be ordered. However, the RTX 5070 is the exception and can be shipped out, albeit with a limit of five units per model.

This is likely due to the shortage of GDDR7 VRAM used in Nvidia's RTX 5000 GPUs, as supply of video memory is skewed towards AI products for use in data centers.

It's worth noting that this is just one source, and there's still a decent amount of stock available for most RTX 5000 series GPUs, at least for now.

However, this report may serve as a warning sign of incoming stock issues for consumers. Furthermore, GPU prices are now getting out of hand, notably with Nvidia's RTX 5080 and RTX 5090.

At Best Buy in the US, the Asus Prime GeForce RTX 5080 is currently $1,599, while the retail price for most RTX 5080 GPUs starts at $999. That's $600 more that consumers will have to pay for the GPU, while no Founders Edition cards (which are at the $999 MSRP) are available direct from Nvidia.

The same applies to the Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 that I recently highlighted as part of the rising RTX 5090 prices. Since then, it has been further hiked from $3,610 to $4,209, pushing the price closer to the $5,000 mark which rumors have previously suggested that Nvidia's flagship GPU will end up costing.

Frankly, there won't be many PC gamers willing to pay obscene prices for these GPUs, but it doesn't look like the hikes will stop anytime soon.

Analysis: high pricing and supply woes

The situation just seems to be getting worse and worse around the RAM crisis, and these apparent knock-on effects for GPUs could be very painful. Major graphics card shortages could see the return of scalping, and we may have a repeat of what we witnessed during the global pandemic.

People looking to buy a gaming PC, or those wanting a hardware upgrade, could be hard-pressed to find an Nvidia GPU without overpaying. While the RTX 4000 series isn't completely discontinued, these last-gen Nvidia GPUs were wound down last year, and it's tough to find any at retailers now.

So essentially, the only options for consumers are RTX 5000 GPUs or rival Intel Arc or AMD Radeon GPUs, with the latter rumored to also be seeing major price hikes (while also potentially slowing production of budget cards due to RAM costs).

The RAM crisis looks like it's going to have a lasting effect on PC gaming, and unfortunately, as long as the AI bubble doesn't burst, price hikes and supply shortages will reign supreme.

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With CES 2026 on the horizon, as well as gaming and AI giant Nvidia present, AI may be set to take center stage. Unfortunately for PC gamers, it could mean hopes of an RTX 5000 series refresh may be off the cards for Team Green, and recent rumors seem to corroborate that.

As reported by Uniko's Hardware on X, an Nvidia RTX 5080 GPU with 32GB of VRAM was supposedly planned for cloud services, notably gaming (via GeForce Now), but its BIOS was leaked to the consumer market. It's also been rumored that a 32GB edition of the Blackwell GPU already exists in China, but isn't available for purchase yet.

It's also worth noting that this supposed RTX 5080 32GB model isn't ready for sale, as its BIOS apparently hasn't been signed, and the GPU won't post when attempting to boot the PC. Chinese markets already have modified RTX 4080 GPUs that utilize 32GB of VRAM, so it's seemingly not impossible for the 4080's successor.

Based on numerous rumors surrounding RTX 5000 Super GPUs with higher VRAM capacities potentially launching, it's safe to say that there's at least a decent level of validity to an RTX 5000 refresh being a part of Nvidia's plans.

However, with some claiming that this card was initially planned for cloud services only, and the ongoing RAM crisis, it seems extremely unlikely that we're going to see a launch anytime soon.

Reports hint at both Nvidia and AMD potentially discontinuing budget GPUs to reduce costs, due to the increased demand for RAM. With RAM prices skyrocketing for consumers, the next category of PC hardware to be heavily affected is GPUs (as they use VRAM), and that's why it's hard to see Team Green releasing an updated GPU with more VRAM in such an unstable market.

Analysis: I'll be shocked if we get an RTX 5080 32GB at all in 2026

It's not a secret at this point that Nvidia's main focus is no longer on the PC gaming market, as it's gone full steam ahead with AI. That's not to say that it's done with PC gaming entirely, either, but the drop in focus has been enough for consumers to take notice, and with this RAM shortage in full swing, I don't see any refresh of RTX 5000 consumer-grade GPUs in the near future.

I could be wrong; after all, CES 2026 is right around the corner, and there's always room for surprises. However, even if there was a shock announcement, it's probably going to come at a cost for consumers, and a huge one at that.

Third-party models of the Nvidia RTX 5090 are facing significant price hikes across multiple retailers, and some rumors even point toward Nvidia raising the price to $5,000. Frankly, I don't think we'll see such a drastic price hike (150%!) from Nvidia, but the consistency in these rumors should ring some alarm bells.

It's unclear just how drastic the changes for PC gamers will be in 2026 and beyond, but if the current trend continues, we should be very worried.

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We're officially in 2026, and last year's rumors regarding GPU price hikes on Nvidia and AMD GPUs (due to the ongoing RAM crisis) appear to be accurate, which may prove very unfortunate for PC gamers.

As reported by VideoCardz, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 prices have increased significantly above the original retail pricing, with models reaching up to $4,000 across multiple retailers. The GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition is still priced at $1,999 / £1,799 / AU$4,039, so the price hikes appear to be coming directly from retailers and private sellers.

RAM kits have become much pricier over the last few months, due to the current AI boom, and appear to be the reason behind these GPU price increases (since GPUs also use VRAM).

It's likely resulted in retailers seeking ways to get customers to pay more for PC hardware across the board due to higher demand, and the looming threat of potential price hikes directly from Team Green and AMD on RTX and Radeon GPUs, respectively.

A prime example is on Best Buy, with the Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 now available for a staggering $3,610.78, almost double the Founders Edition's MSRP, and a significant chunk above the third-party GPU's standard pricing (around $2,799.99).

The same price jumps above MSRP have occurred with AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT GPUs long before the RAM crisis, and have continued – the XFX Mercury Radeon RX 9070 XT OC Edition on Best Buy is now at $849.99, up from its $599 retail price.

None of these price hikes come straight from Nvidia or AMD (yet...), and despite recent rumors suggesting that Team Green plans to raise the RTX 5090's MSRP to $5,000, there's no confirmation of that – and frankly, it's unlikely that we'll see such a ludicrously aggressive price increase.

If there is anything to blame, though, it's clearly the meteoric rise of AI technology. AI training and operation datacenters have increased the demand for RAM (and some other components) to unprecedented levels, which has ultimately trickled down to impact consumers, and it doesn't seem like it's slowing down any time soon.

Analysis: Nvidia isn't fully absolved from blame, but you should be more mad at AI

While Nvidia does have an indirect part to play in these price hikes due to its heavy involvement in the AI boom, it's not solely responsible; there's been a concerted push to develop and use AI from numerous companies around the globe, and they're all jointly at fault.

Desktop DDR4 and DDR5 RAM play a significant part in PC building, more so than GPUs; basically, you can build a PC without a discrete GPU, but with no RAM, good luck getting your PC to boot.

With the AI boom making RAM far more expensive than it should be for consumers, it's enough to leave worries that this could become the new normal in 2026 and beyond - effectively killing the custom PC gaming dream for all but the wealthiest gamers.

The heavy reliance on AI is becoming more noticeable as time goes on, and as it continues, I can certainly see prices for all PC hardware increasing from retailers and private sellers. It's an incredibly problematic situation, not only for high-end PC gaming, but also for those looking to dive into the PC gaming ecosystem for the first time. If you've been contemplating building your first gaming PC, I'd do it fast; these prices are likely to keep climbing, at least for now.

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Tan's time at the helm has already been marked by some distinct turnarounds and progress, albeit there has been pain elsewhere, particularly on the job loss front. Let's dig into the ups and downs for Intel in 2025.

Another Arc Battlemage desktop GPU turned up – and XeSS 3, too

As the year kicked off, in the world of discrete GPUs, Intel followed the successful Arc B580 – which arrived late in 2024 – with a second Battlemage offering, the B570. It pitched up in January 2025, and we liked this graphics card, but not as much as its beefier sibling. As we observed at the time, the savings to be made on the B570 just aren't worth the drop in performance compared to the B580, and that remains true based on their relative pricing as this year comes to a close.

Still, both are good GPUs – particularly the B580, priced at under $250 in the US – and they were bolstered by the announcement of XeSS 3 in October. This represented a new take on frame rate boosting from Intel, complete with Multi-Frame Generation (similar to Nvidia's tech) that notably supports older Arc GPUs. While XeSS 3 still hasn't debuted yet, it's imminent, and the other good news is that it'll be compatible with all current XeSS 2 games.

Not a lot else happened with Arc on the desktop, though, and sadly that theoretical Arc B770 discrete GPU – the higher-end offering which was much-rumored throughout the year – never showed up. However, even as this year rolled to a close, there were still hints dropped that the B770 remains inbound, but add plenty of seasoning to that assertion.

Intel's laptop chips went from strength to strength

Following a limited launch late in 2024, Intel's Lunar Lake laptops truly arrived in numbers as we headed into the second quarter of 2025, and these excellent (and supremely efficient) chips proved to be a big win for Team Blue.

On top of that, we witnessed Arrow Lake mobile processors being revealed at CES 2025 to offer a higher-tier of more powerful laptop CPUs for enthusiasts.

Intel built up more excitement later in the year with the revelation of Panther Lake, the mobile range to take the baton from Lunar Lake – and it's set to do an even better job, by all accounts. We were very impressed by our early glimpse of these processors in October, and a particular strong suit for Panther Lake is its Xe3 (next-gen Celestial) integrated graphics, offering what Intel claims to be a 50% performance boost on the already impressive Battlemage (Xe2).

Panther Lake is now imminent (with an official launch at CES 2026) and looking extremely strong in terms of providing gaming chops to thin-and-light laptops, particularly when combined with the aforementioned XeSS 3 frame generation as a further speed boost (for supported games).

Intel's desktop CPUs continued to come under fire – but there were signs of a turnaround

Last year was a disastrous one on the desktop CPU front for Intel, as some buyers of 13th-gen (Raptor Lake) and 14th-gen (Raptor Lake Refresh) chips suffered serious stability problems with them. On top of that, the successor to Raptor Lake Refresh, Arrow Lake, also stumbled on launch with disappointing performance levels (particularly with gaming).

While Arrow Lake didn't recover its reputation with gamers in 2025 – and performance question marks remain on that front – these processors did gain favor in terms of their performance in professional and creative workloads (with some meaningful honing reported), and indeed for everyday use.

Not everyone is a gamer, of course, and late in the year, we witnessed Arrow Lake processors become a compelling purchase towards the budget end of the desktop CPU spectrum. Products like Intel's Core Ultra 5 245K looked very good value compared to rival AMD Ryzen processors as 2025 rolled to a close, and Team Blue is now delivering peppy levels of multi-core performance for not a lot of money (not much more than $200 in the US).

This represents a distinct turnaround – and perhaps even the start of a bigger turning point next year for Intel. Especially as people buying or building PCs may be looking to save money on other components like the CPU, as RAM and storage prices continue to be hiked in a ridiculous fashion.

Intel also announced an Arrow Lake Refresh (for 2026) late in the year, but there wasn't much to shout about here, as the next-gen range is looking like a minor performance bump. Nova Lake CPUs will be the true next generation for desktop chips (as Panther Lake is for laptops only, like Lunar Lake).

Big job cuts and big deals

As mentioned at the outset, there was a change of leadership for Intel as Lip-Bu Tan took the reins in March 2025.

Part of Tan's business strategy involved serious cost-cutting by enacting a series of major job losses, which included some 22,000 job cuts in April and 5,000 more in July. The stated goal was a 15% overall reduction in Intel staff, and "streamlining the number of management layers by about 50%" as part of a drive to "eliminate bureaucracy".

On top of that painful bedrock of streamlining came a bunch of deals that Tan cut. That included multi-billion dollar funding from the US government (in exchange for Intel stock), a deal with Softbank to the tune of $2 billion, as well as putting out feelers in terms of AI acquisitions to make some effort to catch up on that front. Intel has even reportedly been (and perhaps still is) talking to AMD about a plan to manufacture Ryzen chips for its big CPU rival (believe it or not – albeit not higher-end silicon).

However, Intel's most eye-opening deal for 2025 was with another major rival, Nvidia, whereby the latter pushed a huge $5 billion investment in Team Blue's direction. The partnership means that Intel will be manufacturing custom x86 CPUs for Nvidia's data center (AI) efforts, alongside consumer chips, too. The latter will be Intel SoCs with integrated Nvidia RTX GPU chiplets – although that does throw some question marks over how this will pan out in terms of Intel's own Arc integrated GPU efforts, of course.

Intel: in conclusion

There was a definite feeling of Intel regrouping this year, albeit at quite a cost in terms of major job losses. Clearly the new CEO has a vision, though, and those huge deals that were cut with Nvidia and the US government (and others besides) were critical to Intel's viability going forward.

Lunar Lake laptops proved popular this year, and rightly so, with Intel's revelation of Panther Lake promising even more along the same lines: powerful mobile processors that are seriously power-efficient, too.

The Celestial integrated graphics that Panther Lake packs are a particularly exciting development, given the potential of ushering in more wallet-friendly thin-and-light laptops that are capable of doing PC games justice. That said, there's something of a muddying of the GPU waters with that massive chip deal struck with Nvidia, where RTX chiplets provide the integrated graphics, not Intel's Arc range. (And the lack of any further Battlemage discrete releases since the Arc B570 casts doubt on Team Blue's desktop GPU ambitions, as well.)

However, with something of a resurgence in desktop processors, too – as Intel started to carve out territory for Arrow Lake in the more budget-friendly CPU space – it's clear that on balance, 2025 was a much better year for Intel compared to 2024. That said, there's plenty of work still to be done in terms of a fuller recovery here.

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Those RTX 5000 GPUs debuted with quite some teething troubles, though, and later models came unstuck around VRAM issues, too – but despite definite setbacks, Nvidia maintained its graphics card dominance. And, as you likely didn't fail to notice, the company's AI juggernaut continued on its merry way, amassing ever-more profit as its seemingly unstoppable wheels rolled onwards.

Let's break down 2025 for Nvidia looking at all the highs and the lows, before drawing a conclusion about how Team Green has fared this year – and what that might mean for the future.

Nvidia's Blackwell gaming GPUs arrived led by a mighty flagship

Nvidia began the year with the long-awaited reveal of its new generation of Blackwell desktop GPUs at CES 2025.

There were four initial models: the flagship GeForce RTX 5090, the RTX 5080, and then the RTX 5070 Ti and vanilla RTX 5070, plus Team Green also unveiled laptop versions of those graphics cards at the show, too.

The desktop gaming GPUs were first to muscle onto the scene, with the mobile variants following later in a staggered release schedule throughout the first quarter of the year. (Mostly – save for the laptop RTX 5070 which didn't pitch up until April, and the desktop version was slightly delayed, too – it was pushed back from late February to early March).

The RTX 5090 and 5080 were first out of the gate, and the new flagship GPU blew us away. We dubbed it the 'supercar of graphics cards' and noted that it was so powerful, this GPU was capable of 8K gaming (in native resolution, without DLSS, for that matter). The main point of contention was whether this Blackwell monster was too powerful for most gamers and just plain overkill, with an eye-wateringly weighty price tag attached.

Nvidia's RTX 5080 was an equally impressive second-tier offering, albeit it was still expensive – but when considering that this GPU almost matched the RTX 4090 for gaming frame rates, it was a relatively more palatable effort price-wise.

The RTX 5070 Ti followed (though there was no Founders Edition in this case, with it being the odd GPU out in that respect with this first batch) and outdid both of its more powerful siblings for pure punch in terms of value proposition. Indeed, it delivered what we described as "absolutely incredible performance for its MSRP" hitting frame rates akin to the RTX 4080 Super.

Unfortunately, the most affordable of these initial Blackwell GPUs hit a sourer note. Where the other RTX 5000 offerings all managed to score 4.5-stars (out of our 5-star maximum), the RTX 5070 was adrift with just 3-stars, an average rating. This GPU – the most crucial for many given its more mainstream price bracket – just wasn't enough of an advance compared to the RTX 4070 Super, and Nvidia also hampered it by limiting the VRAM pool to 12GB (a move that did not go down well).

Overall, though, Blackwell established itself with a strong, if pricey, line-up, but there were two big problems aside from the cost of these GPUs: stock and bugs (or indeed outright technical fails).

Early Blackwell GPU stock nightmare

Supply problems were predicted before a single Blackwell graphics card was released, and the doom-mongers were sadly very correct on this score.

Stock issues quickly became apparent with the arrival of the RTX 5090 and 5080 at the end of January. This pair of GPUs had a deeply troubled early existence, with supply very thin on the ground, and Nvidia being accused of having a 'paper launch' (in other words, a launch just for show, without any meaningful levels of inventory to back it).

And guess what? This meant that these already seriously pricey graphics cards suffered from price inflation, meaning that if you wanted one, you were scrambling to buy at an extortionate level – unless you lucked out (quite literally as some retailers resorted to a kind of lottery system where you had to win the right to buy a Blackwell GPU). The RTX 5090 in particular ended up at ridiculous price tags, which partly helped to solve the problem of stock vanishing instantly, as the cost eventually climbed so high that even keen enthusiasts couldn't be tempted.

The RTX 5070 Ti arriving didn't help much – stock shortages hit that GPU, too – and frankly the whole first quarter of Blackwell availability was woeful. Things did ease a little at the very end of Q1, and supply levels picked up some steam thereafter, with asking prices finally relenting somewhat as we rolled towards May, but really, the whole launch was a nightmare from an inventory perspective.

And don't forget that other RTX 5000 nightmare in the first half of 2025 – all those bugs

Stock wasn't the only problem with Blackwell GPUs in the initial stages of their existence, and if you were lucky enough to grab an early slice of the RTX 5000 action, you faced an entirely different specter – a minor avalanche of bugs and glitches.

Before we get to the dire state of Nvidia's graphics drivers with Blackwell in some respects, the biggest fail of all here was the fact that some of these early GPUs had a literal hole in their hardware specs.

This was the case of the missing ROPs, where due to a chip-level fault, the RTX 5090, 5080 and 5070 Ti (but not the 5070, or any laptop GPUs) suffered from some missing rendering pipelines (Raster Operations Pipelines or ROPs). That meant somewhat slower performance in PC games, with a variable impact on a case-by-case basis, though of course, regardless of the level of slowdown, people were outraged to have been sold a (very expensive) graphics card with a hardware flaw baked in by Nvidia.

Okay, so it was a rare fault, and anyone affected could get a replacement GPU (as you'd hope), although the latter endeavor was something of a hassle that was made worse by the scarcity of replacement graphics cards to go around (as stock woes were still very much in full swing when this fault came to light).

Most people didn't suffer a ROPs crisis, though, but all Blackwell buyers were driven to distraction by all the bugs hitting Nvidia's shiny new expensive GPUs. That included games crashing, black screen lockups and worse (like the graphics card not being recognized by the host PC any longer).

This led to Nvidia pushing out fixes on a scale I've never witnessed before, and gamers being very wary of going near freshly deployed GeForce driver versions from Team Green – a sad state of affairs indeed.

Mid-range Blackwell arrived – and VRAM proved a thorny issue

As expected, Nvidia followed up its initial RTX 5070 and higher-tier releases with RTX 5060 models to round things off. These also arrived on the laptop front, too, to flesh out the mobile offerings, and we were treated to an RTX 5050 as well – with a desktop version this time around (the RTX 4050 was laptop-only, if you recall). By July 2025, with the kick-off of the second half of the year, we had a full Blackwell range consisting of the RTX 5050 and upwards, for both desktop and mobile.

Nvidia still had a shaky time of it with these fresh RTX 5060 and 5050 launches, though. Bugs were still kicking about when the RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti hit the shelves, and sadly stock problems still made life difficult for would-be buyers of these mainstream Blackwell workhorse GPUs.

And there was another fly in the rendering pipelines with the RTX 5060 models, too, in that Nvidia only equipped the vanilla model with 8GB of video RAM. There was also one flavor of the 5060 Ti with just 8GB of VRAM, too (funnily enough, there weren't stock issues with that spin on the GPU at launch).

With the RTX 5070 already seen as stiffing PC gamers due to being equipped with just 12GB at its not inconsiderable asking price, an RTX 5060 Ti with 8GB was deeply frowned on by many – as was the allocation of that same amount of video memory for the base RTX 5060.

8GB just wasn't enough, gamers complained, and yes, while DLSS 4 certainly helped the RTX 5060's cause (I'll discuss that tech in a moment), the overall consensus was that this GPU fell short. That's especially true when you view 8GB through the lens of any kind of future-proofing.

It's also worth noting that there was another wrinkle with the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB GPU in the form of the 'motherboard tax' whereby those with an older motherboard using PCIe 4.0 (rather than PCIe 5.0) suffered a performance hit, too, thanks to Nvidia's design decisions here.

Nvidia continued to dominate the GPU world

At this point, you're probably thinking that looking back on all this, Nvidia's 2025 feels pretty terrible and packed with fails – but of course that wasn't the case in the latter half of the year.

As 2025 progressed, and stock problems plus price inflation settled down, Blackwell graphics cards carved out a considerable market for themselves. At heart, these are good GPUs – with some mostly VRAM-related exceptions – even if the top-tier models are admittedly very pricey.

GPU market share figures continued to reflect Nvidia's desktop dominance, with research firm JPR showing that Team Green had never been more secure in its lead over AMD than this year. Now, there are caveats to those stats, namely that these are shipments (not sales) for the whole market for discrete graphics cards – meaning not just gaming boards, but data center GPUs (which skews the figures towards Nvidia more).

So, we need some seasoning in that regard, but other sources, such as the Steam hardware survey, also showed RTX 5000 products establishing themselves nicely throughout 2025. As of November 2025 (the latest Steam stats at the time of writing this), Blackwell desktop GPUs are in approximately 7.5% of the gaming PCs running Valve's platform, whereas AMD's rival RDNA 4 GPUs are nowhere to be seen. Indeed, the most popular Radeon desktop GPU isn't even in the top 30 of Steam's rankings for graphics cards (and that's a last-gen model).

True, the RX 9070 XT is a great GPU – it was our top graphics card overall, in fact, for 2025 – and it made the list of top 10 graphics card bestsellers with popular retailers this year. However, despite that, it doesn't seem to have moved the needle in the overall desktop GPU stats – not yet, anyway. Nvidia remains the totally dominant force looking at that overarching perspective, and the victory for Blackwell versus RDNA 4 going by Steam's stats is clear enough to see.

DLSS 4 triumphs and other software wins

One of the drivers (no pun intended) of the success Nvidia had with Blackwell sales in 2025, despite that very rocky start to the year, was DLSS 4. This was a major leap forward for smoother gaming (with supported titles) and we were very impressed with the progress that Team Green made with this particular technology.

For starters, DLSS 4 improved image quality drastically with Nvidia's new transformer model, which we called a "genuine game changer" offering far better clarity and stability in fast motion scenes.

Then Multi Frame Generation (MFG) also stepped up to the plate in a big way to speed up frame rates (check our experiments with 8K gaming) with a bigger boost than Nvidia's previous frame generation tech. MFG proved to be amazing, frankly, in some games like Doom: The Dark Ages. There are notable caveats, though, in terms of RTX 5000 exclusivity for MFG, and needing a decent base frame rate to begin with – if you're playing a stuttering mess in the first place, MFG is not going to work well.

Overall, though, DLSS 4 was nothing short of a triumph for Nvidia, and it seriously bolstered the appeal of Blackwell graphics cards. And while as noted, game developers do need to support DLSS 4 to give you the benefit of all this goodness, Nvidia also introduced DLSS Override this year – which is a way to force the tech on with an unsupported game (for both DLSS 4 upscaling, and MFG).

The catches are that DLSS Override only works with certain games (those with DLSS 2 upscaling, or DLSS 3 with frame gen if you want MFG), and even then, you get mixed results – some games encounter much less glitching than others. However, it's a great option to have where override is available in the Nvidia App.

On top of this, Nvidia also provided Smooth Motion tech for boosting frame rates in all PC games (at a driver-level), initially for RTX 5000 models, but this was later expanded to include RTX 4000 GPUs. In short, this allows for frame generation outside of DLSS games (though it's not as good as the frame gen you get with DLSS, of course).

No sign of rumored RTX 5000 Super refreshes – and worrying VRAM rumbles

Throughout this year, there were consistent rumors that Nvidia had some RTX 5000 Super refreshes planned. These were the purported RTX 5070 Super with a supposedly much-increased 18GB of VRAM (a 50% boost on the vanilla variant), and an RTX 5070 Ti Super plus RTX 5080 Super (both with 24GB of VRAM). Despite the GPU grapevine insisting on a late 2025 launch – which was still the theory in September 2025 – as we know, this never happened.

As things stand now (at the time of writing), rumor has it that these Blackwell Super refreshes won't happen until late in 2026 – and those hefty VRAM plans could be the reason for this. The price of video RAM has spiked – as part of the overall memory pricing crisis – and so this does make sense. As do some of the worrying rumors that were circulating about Nvidia heavily cutting GeForce graphics card production in 2026, as scant RAM allocations are slanted to favor AI GPUs in a predictable, profit-led scenario.

All of this is just chatter from the rumor mill, mind, but RTX 5000 Super refreshes were a strong bet for this year, and they never landed.

AI, AI, and more AI

Naturally, 2025 was a major year for AI with Nvidia, just as 2024 was before it (last year the company exceeded a market cap of $3 trillion). Driven further by huge AI profits, Nvidia hit a fresh high with a $4 trillion valuation in the middle of 2025, and then blew past $5 trillion in October, rather incredibly.

How do you spell 'bubble' again?

Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang was unsurprisingly keen to dismiss talk of an AI bubble and any comparisons to the epic Dotcom deflation which were inevitably drawn this year. Huang instead painted a picture of long-term success and talked of AI being about "fundamental changes in computing infrastructure", but he would say that, wouldn't he?

Yet AI momentum doesn't show any signs of diminishing in the slightest, it must be said. Nvidia's various advances on this front were pretty remarkable, too, in terms of its new Blackwell Ultra GPU series, representing the firm's most powerful AI hardware yet – alongside the DGX Spark mini PC that's "built to bring AI experimentation to your desk".

Conclusion

While Nvidia's Blackwell GPUs got off to a distinctly dodgy start in terms of stock and pricing, plus all those bugs, these graphics cards were, in the main, compelling products for gamers – when all the dust settled later in the year. DLSS 4 and associated frame rate boosting tech was a big win for Nvidia, too, and the company remained dominant in the world of desktop GPUs.

My main worry, though, remains AI. Is Nvidia deprioritizing gaming GPUs in favor of AI products that are far more important and profitable to Team Green? It's entirely plausible that this is happening to a greater extent now, particularly given the memory crisis affecting VRAM supply, and the potentially vast amount of money to be made from AI, which is a seemingly endless fountain of wealth.

Looking at how those new Blackwell gaming GPUs came off the rails with hardware faults, and seriously glitchy drivers, early in the year – the launch of these graphics cards was pretty baffling in this respect. Could this be a side-effect of said shift in priorities towards AI GPUs?

Nvidia has been historically favored by gamers due to the stability of its drivers versus AMD – whether you feel that's justified, or not, it has been a general longstanding perception – but after Blackwell, that feels like a far shakier notion than ever.

As a result, there are serious concerns over what 2026 might bring in terms of Nvidia taking its eye of the ball with gaming GPUs – making those rumors about GeForce cards having their production levels slashed next year believable enough, frankly.

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You might be wondering why that matters in regard to the MSI Katana 15 HX B14W gaming laptop. Powered by the Nvidia RTX 5070 (laptop GPU), the Katana 15 HX B14W is also limited to 8GB of VRAM.

Now that last mention might throw most consumers off of purchasing, as 8GB of VRAM isn't desirable for game performance, considering the high system requirements from newer titles. Games are gradually becoming VRAM hungry, and with only 8GB of VRAM, users have to be reasonable with graphics settings and resolutions, especially when using Frame Generation, which utilizes more VRAM.

Also, in case you're unaware of how I've felt about 8GB VRAM GPUs in both laptops and gaming PCs, I'll say this: I don't like them and have always pushed for 12GB to be the new minimum.

However, the MSI Katana 15 HX B14W proved me wrong in some areas, with results ending up different from what I was expecting, even in a few of the toughest scenarios that would usually spell a complete collapse on low VRAM GPUs. However, it's not all great, and there's a reason why 8GB of VRAM is frowned upon.

Maybe 8GB of VRAM isn't so bad after all?

It's not unreasonable to expect an 8GB GPU to provide good performance in games that don't have demanding system requirements, but the real question is, how well can it perform in some of the most demanding games of the last decade?

That's exactly what I put to the test; in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p using DLSS balanced on the ultra graphics preset, I managed an average of 90fps, which is very impressive considering how great Nvidia's DLSS 4 is in image quality, thanks to the transformer model replacing the former CNN (Convolutional Neural Network) model.

A step up to the ultra ray tracing graphics preset gave me an average of 54fps, and it's no secret that Cyberpunk 2077's ray tracing is no easy hurdle for any graphics cards to jump over, so that's another positive for the Katana 15 HX's RTX 5070.

Enabling Frame Generation (not Multi-Frame Generation) made performance results much better in Cyberpunk 2077, with an average of 115fps. Since the base frame rates were high enough, enabling frame gen wasn't going to significantly worsen image quality (although visual artifacts are still somewhat noticeable), and gameplay felt smooth and responsive.

It's worth noting that not all games tested feature ray tracing and DLSS Frame Generation technology. Titles such as Shadow of the Tomb Raider ran exceptionally, with an average of 160fps at 1440p ultra graphics settings using DLSS on balanced, with frame gen absent.

Performance in most titles also got better at 1080p, and a prime example is Monster Hunter Wilds. At 1440p DLSS Balanced on ultra settings, I got an average of 55fps, and saw a 21% performance increase when dropping down to 1080p, with a 66.51fps average.

However, as expected, 8GB wouldn't be a point of contention for consumers for no reason, and my tests in VRAM-hungry games like Black Myth Wukong, Monster Hunter Wilds (in central hubs), and Assassin's Creed Shadows proved that.

When attempting to use Frame Generation in Black Myth Wukong, VRAM usage would hit 7.1GB, using almost all 8GB, – not ideal for performance. A similar case was present during testing of Assassin's Creed Shadows (a game that has ray tracing enabled by default), where base frame rates were low, and enabling Frame Generation hardly increased the frame rate, but only significantly increased VRAM usage.

In cases of poorly optimized games, like Monster Hunter Wilds, stability and performance with constant stutters got worse as VRAM was almost maxed out when in central hubs and camps in-game, without using Frame Generation.

8GB VRAM isn't future proof, and the RAM crisis is a major worry

While I'm impressed with how well 8GB of VRAM is able to hold up for gaming based on the Katana 15 HX benchmarks, it doesn't mean I'm particularly happy with it. Games are becoming more demanding on system requirements year by year, and while we can see that such configurations can handle heavy games like Cyberpunk 2077, it's also evident that 8GB is close to hitting limits in games that need more VRAM.

With the current RAM crisis leading to price hikes across the board, recent reports estimate that we'll be seeing more 8GB RAM specifications on laptops and PCs, which would ultimately reduce manufacturing costs. If 8GB of VRAM is already showing signs of being insufficient for modern gaming, then a return to 8GB system RAM will only make performance worse.

Games are already beginning to launch with system requirements that include a need for at least 16GB of RAM, and 32GB is being pushed as the ideal amount for good performance, so 8GB alone could cause significant problems for stable performance.

It's not just the fall back down to 8GB for VRAM and RAM that's an issue, but also the potential that these systems would cost more than they normally would, significantly reducing bang-for-the-buck.

I'm not suggesting that the MSI Katana 15 HX is a bad gaming laptop, no. It's more than enough for budget gamers who don't mind gaming at 1080p or 1440p resolutions while using upscaling.

After all, the RTX 5070 is a midrange laptop GPU. However, this gaming laptop and many others that use 8GB specifications will more than likely struggle with upcoming games – and unfortunately, I don't think we'll be seeing the end of 8GB VRAM or RAM configurations any time soon.

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Browse retailers like Amazon and Best Buy, and you'll find that a decent number of systems come kitted with DDR4 RAM instead of DDR5. On the surface, this may seem like a reasonable compromise in performance for the benefit of a lower barrier to entry.

But in reality, you're the one left holding the bag.

There goes your upgradeability

The biggest issue with swapping DDR5 kits for outdated DDR4 memory is how it impacts upgradeability.

One of the most attractive aspects of building a PC, as opposed to buying a console, is the incremental upgrades you can make to keep your system relevant. If you need more storage, you toss in a new, faster SSD. If you haven't upgraded your CPU in a few years, you find a current-gen processor on sale and get a major performance boost without having to buy an entirely new system.

But if you have DDR4 RAM, this isn't the case.

DDR4 memory is only compatible with outdated motherboards and, in nearly all cases, outdated CPUs. You may come across an affordable prebuilt PC that boasts modern Nvidia graphics, 32GB of RAM, and a relatively recent Intel CPU. An enticing offer in today's market.

What that tempting offer isn't telling you, though, is that there's almost no opportunity to upgrade down the line.

DDR4-compatible motherboards are not compatible with DDR5 memory. If you want faster memory in the future, you now have to upgrade not just the RAM, but also the motherboard.

Not to mention, most modern gaming CPUs support DDR5 memory exclusively. All AM5 processors (Zen 4 and Zen 5 CPUs like the Ryzen 5 7600X and Ryzen 7 9800X3D) are incompatible with DDR4 memory, meaning you're locked into the AM4 chipset if you buy one of these DDR4 systems. The same applies to Intel Core Ultra series chips, which are also DDR5-dependent.

So, if you want to upgrade your memory, you must also upgrade your motherboard. If you want a newer CPU, you have to upgrade your motherboard and your RAM.

DDR4 performance woes

Upgradeability aside, DDR4 is also significantly less performant than current DDR5 kits.

DDR4 speeds typically top out at just 3600MHz (with overclocked kits touching 4000MHz), whereas DDR5 RAM reaches up to 6400MHz (and even 7000MHz+ when overclocked).

Yes, the CAS latency of DDR4 RAM is technically lower than that of DDR5. But that comes at the cost of far lower bandwidth, eliminating any practical advantages that lower CL would provide.

This is especially prevalent in low FPS scenarios. If you have DDR4 RAM, you may notice far more stuttering and frame tearing in resource-intensive areas of your game, where DDR5 would pull through with smaller FPS drops rather than full-on stutters.

Plus, as discussed in the previous section, DDR4 memory locks you into older CPU generations. Your GPU doesn't care what type of RAM you have - you could be rocking a 5000-series Nvidia graphics card with DDR4 RAM - but your CPU does.

If you try to pair a modern GPU with an outdated CPU and RAM, you're going to face major bottlenecks, especially in CPU-heavy games like Sid Meier's Civilization and Minecraft.

Should you buy a gaming PC with DDR4 RAM?

In my opinion, no, you shouldn't buy a prebuilt PC with DDR4 RAM – even with the lower asking price. It severely stunts upgradeability and locks you into lower performance.

So, what should you do instead?

Well, you have a few options. You could bite the bullet and get a prebuilt PC with DDR5 RAM. This will be the best move in the long run, as you preserve your ability to modernize your system and keep up with rising performance demands.

Or, if you don't have the extra capital to meet the current asking prices, you could opt for a handheld gaming PC.

These handhelds, like the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally X, provide a far better cost-value proposition than gaming laptops nowadays. And while you won't get 4K 60+ FPS at Ultra settings with ray tracing enabled in Cyberpunk 2077, you will get to play just about any game you want at reasonable settings.

You can even hook a handheld gaming PC up to a monitor, mouse, and keyboard (by attaching a USB adapter) and have yourself a decent entry-level rig for a fraction of the cost of current prebuilt PCs.

The last option I'd recommend is the toughest, but may make the most sense in the long run: just wait.

We've seen RAM prices skyrocket in the past, and who can forget the chip shortage that ravaged GPU prices during lockdown? What these price hikes taught us is this: it may take time, but PC component prices eventually return to normal.

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And with a looming GPU shortage coming in 2026, it's only going to get worse for prospective PC builders.

So I decided to take a look at the 20 most popular PC games of the year (by player count) to determine how much RAM you actually need in your gaming rig. If the games on this list are available in your library and you meet at least the minimum recommended RAM, I'd strongly suggest holding off on any purchases until prices settle back down.

But if you just can't wait to build or upgrade your PC (I know how exciting it is!), let this list act as a guide to your RAM purchasing needs.

Not a gamer? Skip ahead to the how much RAM do I need on my laptop section.

RAM requirements for the top 20 most popular PC games

Note: Statistics for this list were pulled from Steam's "Top 100 played games by Daily Players" list and estimates from activeplayer.io's "Top 15 Most Popular PC Games of 2025" list. They are not sorted by total player count. RAM requirements were collected from the system requirements sections.

As you can see from the table above, 8GB is by no small margin the most common minimum RAM requirement for modern games.

In the past, I'd recommend a minimum of 16GB of DDR5 - and that's still what I ultimately think you should aim for, and what shows up most prevalently in the Recommended category - but with memory prices the way they are now, you may be able to skate by with half that. At least until RAM prices stabilize again and you can think about upgrading.

Unfortunately, only a few games list a "max" configuration requirement, but those that do all specify 16GB.

It's also important to note that if you run other programs, such as Chrome and Discord, for music and comms while you game, you'll need to factor that RAM usage into your setup.

Google Chrome sucks up a ton of free memory - of course, some browsers are better optimized - but you may run into bogged-down performance if you're running a resource-intensive game at high settings with these other programs in the background.

There are also a few exceptions I'd like to highlight from the list, namely Minecraft and Roblox. Both of these games are essentially playgrounds for mods, and if you're playing a particularly impressive Roblox game or one of Minecraft's many massive modpacks, you're going to need more RAM than just 1 or 2GB.

How much RAM do I need on my laptop?

If you're not a gamer and mainly use a laptop for work and media, my recommendations remain the same as they have for the past few years.

8GB is a solid minimum to shoot for - unless you're using a Chromebook, in which case 4GB is sufficient thanks to ChromeOS optimizations. 16GB is better if you push the limit on open Chrome tabs or run heavier programs like Photoshop. You may need 24GB if your job involves video editing or working with LLMs.

Anything more than that is a superfluous cherry on top.

How much RAM do I have?

If you want to find out how much RAM you currently have in your system, it's quick and easy - here's how.

• For Windows 10 and 11, open the Windows Start menu from your taskbar (or by clicking the Windows button on your keyboard). Then, type in "About your PC." Your RAM is shown under "Installed Memory."
• For macOS, click the Apple icon at the top left of your screen, then select "About this Mac." Your RAM is displayed by "Memory."

This is also where you can see your CPU, GPU, device model, and operating system version.

To see how much of your RAM is currently in use on a Windows machine, open Task Manager (right-click the taskbar and select "Task Manager"), then go to the Performance tab (second option in the left-side navigation).

On macOS, open the Spotlight search bar (Command + Space), then type in "Activity Monitor." Click the Memory tab in the top navigation bar to view your current RAM usage.

This is a good way to see if your usage habits bump into the higher end of your total installed memory, which is an indication that it may be time for an upgrade.

Maingear has revealed a new scheme to give the buyers of its prebuilt PCs a possible workaround for the increased cost of these computers due to RAM price hikes – it's called BYO RAM.

I guess that should be BYOR, technically, but the principle is as you'd expect – you're providing the system memory for the PC Maingear is selling you.

The prospective scenario is as follows: obviously buying a PC with 16GB (or 32GB ideally) of contemporary system RAM is a lot pricier now, with hikes meaning the cost of DDR5 memory has shot up at an unbelievable pace.

So, you pick a Maingear PC with no system RAM, and you send memory you already have – either already-used memory from another PC, perhaps, or a RAM kit that you've bought having got a good deal online (or what passes for one these days) – to the system builder. Maingear then uses that DDR5 RAM in the build, fully tests it as normal, before supplying you the machine (with no charge for the RAM, obviously).

This service is available now, and you can configure your BYO RAM build at Maingear's website, choosing from a variety of base Maingear custom PC builds – just pick the BYO option in the memory drop-down. (Currently you'll save $300 on the price for dropping 32GB of DDR5 RAM, so if you can score your memory for less than that, you're onto a winner).

In its press release announcing the scheme, Maingear makes it clear that these custom PCs still go through "standard validation before shipping", meaning the various testing processes to make sure the computer works fine.

Analysis: potential issues with BYOR

Can we expect more custom PC builders to offer similar workarounds for sky-high RAM pricing? Quite possibly, indeed I wouldn't be surprised at all, but this is a somewhat complicated way of working things, as you can imagine.

One obviously key issue is whether the RAM is compatible with the motherboard and PC build, and Maingear provides a step-by-step explainer on ensuring that this is the case. It's also possible to send in multiple RAM kits, if you have them, and Maingear will select the best option (and return the others to you along with your newly built PC). If you're unsure about anything, you can contact Maingear with questions, and I'd definitely advise you to do so if you have any doubts.

Maingear also clarifies that your "system warranty and lifetime support are unaffected" by supplying your own RAM, although any warranty for that memory is down to the original supplier (retailer or manufacturer).

Should your RAM fail during testing for the PC build, Maingear says: "We will tell you what we found and help you pursue a manufacturer warranty claim when applicable, as well as provide additional in-house RAM options."

Although RAM that works fine when it's sent out and is damaged during transit could prove to be a rather thorny issue.

Still, clearly it's good to have additional options for a prebuilt PC, particularly if RAM prices get even more inflated – which may well happen, as this memory pricing storm could get more intense before calmer conditions prevail. That said, one of the more sensible options for now may be to wait all this out, providing your current PC can last, and isn't in desperate need of replacement.

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We've recently witnessed a number of costly RAM purchases gone wrong, and here's another tale of memory woe.

Whereas previously we've reported on RAM scams that've happened via retailers, as VideoCardz reports, the buyer in this case was dealing directly with the manufacturer, or so the post on Reddit tells us.

The Redditor says that they bought a 96GB RAM kit from Corsair – we don't know the exact model, but these DDR5 products now start at $999 in the US, after the ridiculous price inflation for memory over the past few months – and had to return it as one stick of RAM wasn't working.

It was sent back to Corsair for a replacement, but when the new DDR5 RAM arrived, it wasn't DDR5 RAM at all. In fact, as pointed out by others on Reddit, what the poster of the thread received was a Corsair lighting enhancement kit. If you have empty RAM slots, these dummy modules are designed to slot into them, simply to provide the illusion of full banks of premium memory (and bolster the RGB lighting effects inside your PC).

Of course, on their own, these RGB modules aren't good for anything, as they're empty and don't actually contain any memory chips.

They're also a tad cheaper at $35 compared to the grand that the Redditor forked out for their 96GB memory kit.

Analysis: be extra careful out there

While the RAM and other hardware scams (often GPUs) we've seen at the likes of Amazon are not exactly uncommon, it's more unusual to see this happen when buying direct from the manufacturer. In fact, you wouldn't expect this at all.

It is, of course, possible that there's been a glitch in Corsair's internal system and a shipping mistake. Or that, in the same vein as many (purported) Amazon scams, a bad actor could have bought the DDR5 RAM and the empty lighting modules, then initiated a return for the memory and sent the latter in its place – and Corsair didn't pick up on the fraud. All of this is just speculation, of course.

At any rate, the good news is that a Corsair rep has got in touch on Reddit, and has a ticket number from the buyer, so is now investigating this incident with the company's support team – and the Redditor should be contacted soon. Hopefully, a resolution is close at hand, then.

The Corsair rep has also just responded to another thread on Reddit, and yet another reported Amazon scam, whereby someone ordered Corsair DDR5 RAM and got old DDR4 memory instead. In this case, these were memory sticks that worked, and a less tech-savvy buyer may not have noticed any difference.

We can expect more of these kind of stings to happen going forward, no doubt, especially if RAM gets even pricier (which is a possibility, believe it or not, in the near-term).

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With the price of RAM increasing so fast it's dizzying, in an unsurprising turn of events, scammers are trying to take advantage of the new and frankly ridiculous premiums that system memory is commanding.

Guru of 3D flagged up an incident whereby somebody purportedly purchased Corsair Vengeance DDR5 RAM sticks from Amazon, only to find out that the memory which arrived was DDR4 (which is quite a bit slower and cheaper).

And last week, VideoCardz reported a similar (but worse) scenario whereby a buyer of RAM from Amazon in Spain found an Adata XPG DDR5 kit actually contained DDR or DDR2 (positively ancient) system memory.

In the former case, it was a more sophisticated case of fraud where the modules had been replaced with the older RAM, though in the latter incident, the scammer had simply slapped a fake sticker that said DDR5 RAM on the very old memory sticks.

It's not clear what the outcome was in the second case yet, but in the first one, where the DDR4 modules were switched in, Amazon has actioned a replacement (as a refund wasn't much good, seeing as the price of the product had spiked again since the purchase).

Note that these were products bought directly from Amazon (and shipped by the retailer), not a third-party seller. So how come they are fake, then? What generally happens in these cases is the scammer buys the genuine product from Amazon, and files a return, switching the fake RAM in, and keeping the real sticks for themselves.

This should be picked up by Amazon, of course, but in these cases, the retailer may have somehow missed, or not properly checked, the return – hence it was sold again to some unfortunate soul, or that's the best-guess theory.

How can you avoid being scammed like this?

I'd expect Amazon will make good on any incidents like these, but obviously you want to avoid falling victim in the first place, if possible – and make sure you have hard proof of a scam to rely on, if you run into any trouble making your case to the retailer (whether that's Amazon, or any other retail outlet).

So, in terms of making sure you aren't a victim, don't buy high-value tech products like RAM or graphics cards (which are also regular targets for these kind of stings) from a third-party seller on Amazon (or elsewhere). When you're spending a lot of money, it just isn't worth the risk.

As we've seen, though, even if you do buy a product sold and shipped by Amazon, things can still go awry. That's why it's very important to do one thing with high-value items like DDR5 kits or GPUs – and that's record your unboxing of them. It might sound over-the-top, but if you have video evidence, that's obviously hard proof of what has occurred with the purchase.

So, when you take delivery of an item, get your phone out and video the package (including the labels on top), then keep it recording as you open the box, take out the product, and remove your purchase from its own box. This way, if there's a rock or metal weight in the box (which has happened with GPUs), or false RAM sticks with a badly plastered DDR5 sticker on them, you have an actual recording of this coming out of the shipped box (showing the relevant labels with product and serial numbers on the hardware itself). This way, should you run into any trouble with the complaints or return procedures, you've got this video to back you up.

Adata has subsequently issued some advice on how to see if memory modules are genuinely made by the company, which is helpful with double-checking anything you feel is somewhat suspect, but it won't help you avoid a scam like this in the first place.

These scams certainly suggest that Amazon needs to tighten up its policing of returns to ensure genuine products aren't being switched out for fakes by nefarious buyers. Either that, or it's possible that someone else is swapping out the real goods for a counterfeit at some other point in the supply or retail chain, although that seems a less likely prospect.

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Origin Code is a lesser-known RAM brand that has a rather novel take on DDR5 RAM modules that the firm is planning on debuting at CES 2026.

We've heard about Origin Code's Vortex DDR5 memory before, but the manufacturer will be demonstrating the RAM at CES in January, as VideoCardz reports – and the unique touch here is that the memory has a three-fan cooling system.

We can expect demos focused on "sustained overclocking" in real-world workloads, showcasing what Vortex DDR5 can do.

The active cooling for this memory is a triple-fan unit that mounts on top of the RAM modules and is removable. The available kits start from 2 x 16GB modules (32GB total), going up to quad configurations such as 4 x 48GB (for a total of 192GB).

We might also get pricing details from Origin Code at CES 2026, and needless to say, given the current price crisis with RAM, which has hit a ridiculous high at a jaw-dropping pace, this could be a shock.

Analysis: Honey, I shrunk the graphics card fans

Regarding that price, this is fancy, high-end RAM – which is already getting stupidly expensive, as noted – with an innovative custom active cooling system on top, so there's no telling how high the cost might run. Expect something along eye-watering lines, naturally.

Is a cooling system like this even necessary for system memory? Well, obviously, it's somewhat over-the-top, but it could be valuable for enthusiasts, who are the target audience, perhaps.

Origin Code is clearly confident it'll make a difference for high-end PC builds, seeing as the company is going to be showing off an active versus passive cooling comparison to demonstrate the effectiveness of the former. The marketing claim is that the fans offer a 40% improvement in cooling performance, presumably compared with passive cooling when the fan unit is removed.

And I've got to admit: making your RAM look like a little graphics card, nestling in the middle of your motherboard with those three fans atop the modules, is pretty cool in terms of pure visual appeal. But yes – that price is going to be quite something to see, no doubt (if we see pricing at all).

Although you could view this product from another perspective regarding cost, namely that a few months ago a cooling add-on like this would've jacked up the price of DDR5 modules considerably.

Whereas now, the RAM sticks themselves are going to be so expensive, that the triple-fan topper isn't going to mean nearly as much of a hike in percentage terms compared to the total cost of the Vortex memory. So this innovation kind of makes sense in the contemporary market, in a strange way.

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While the ongoing RAM crisis that has impacted pricing for manufacturers has also affected consumers, it's not the only knock-on effect that will occur leading into 2026, and a popular game developer's CEO has spoken up.

In an interview with The Gamer, Larian Studios CEO, Swen Vincke, stated that the RAM price hikes will impact game development, specifically with extra work required for game optimization on the newly announced Divinity game. It comes shortly after reports suggest we could be seeing more 8GB RAM and VRAM configurations in 2026.

With costs rising for consumers, 8GB of RAM and VRAM (in GPUs) for custom gaming PC setups may become common, as any hardware with higher capacities will likely cost a fortune. This has already started, with some RAM kits costing more than entire consoles. Vincke fears that this will complicate game development, and it's a reasonable assessment.

"Another [issue Larian is facing] is really the price of RAM and the price of SSDs," Vincke said. "It's like, literally, we've never had it like this.

"It means that most likely, we already need to do a lot of optimization work in early access that we didn't necessarily want to do at that point in time."

It's a tough pill to swallow for the game developers working on Divinity, and many other games in production across several studios. However, this may turn out to be a massive win for PC gamers.

There's no denying how poor PC ports (and some console ports) have been over the last few years, with many games launching with performance and optimization woes, and a heavy reliance on upscaling and frame generation from Nvidia or AMD via DLSS and FSR, respectively.

With more 8GB configurations on the way, especially Valve's Steam Machine, which will launch using 8GB of VRAM, the RAM crisis will force game developers to focus on optimizing games for devices with more limited specs, which in turn will hopefully prevent games from launching in shoddy states along with promises of future patches to fix issues, and using frame interpolation as a band-aid fix.

Analysis: The RAM crisis is awful news for gamers, and this is the only win I can see

The AI boom isn't slowing down any time soon, by the looks of it, which is the main cause of the RAM crisis. I fear that so far, we haven't seen the full scale of the impact it will have on PC and console gaming, and the only positive sign that I'm seeing right now is the potential of better game optimization.

Now, there's always a chance that upscaling and frame generation will be relied on even more once 8GB configurations become the focus for game developers. However, I've seen the limits of 8GB VRAM on even the best gaming laptops and other gaming PCs (with discrete desktop GPUs) being maxed out in demanding games, and that's not going to go down well with gamers.

Better game optimization not only benefits consumers with lower-end hardware, due to steady and stable frame rates, but it's also a bonus for high-end users, who have spent hundreds on powerful hardware, only to suffer from poor performance due to a lack of optimization.

It will be a move in the right direction for developers and consumers, and perhaps encourage gamers to call out bad PC ports more often.

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This is a fantastic price for a reasonably sized and fast portable SSD that is more secure, provides fast access, and has no recurring subscription fees compared to cloud storage.

If 2TB of storage isn't the right fit for you, then other sizes are available and also discounted. 1TB can be snapped up for just £68.99 (was £81.99), while the larger 4TB now costs £199.99 (was £239.99).

Today's best portable SSD deal

If you've never heard of Crucial, don't worry; the company is backed by Micron, one of the world’s largest NAND manufacturers. The parent company has been operating since 1978, which not only provides a lot of expertise but also that precious peace of mind to you, the customer.

This particular SSD from Crucial is fast, topping 1.05GB/s in read/write benchmarks. If you need superfast, then you'll need to go for an SSD that supports USB 4 or USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 SSDs, but the X9 should be more than capable for most tasks.

If you'd like to see what else is out there, then our guide to the best SSDs should be your first port of call. While you're at it, you might want to explore our guide to the best laptops if your machine needs an upgrade.

Want more gloomy news about PC components? Of course, you don't, but sadly, a new rumor has emerged claiming that Nvidia will make around a third fewer RTX 5000 gaming GPUs in the first half of 2026 than this year.

OC3D flagged up an article from Chinese tech site Benchlife, which in turn highlights a post on the Board Channels forum over in China. That post asserts that Nvidia is drastically reducing the supply of its current-gen GeForce graphics cards for the first half of 2026 by 30% to 40% compared to the same period in 2025.

Obviously, take this report with a couple of fistfuls of seasoning, as the Board Channels is not always the most reliable source to go off – but at the same time, it has been on the money in the past.

The reason for the severe adjustment in production, we're told, is due to VRAM (video RAM) price hikes and supply woes, which are part of the current overarching memory crisis.

Analysis: video RAM killed the GPU star?

While we must be skeptical, as noted, it does make sense that if VRAM is getting a fair bit thinner on the ground – and this is happening for sure – then Nvidia would prioritize AI graphics cards over gaming GPUs. The former are a lot more profitable by an order of magnitude, after all.

On top of that, we've already heard speculation that Nvidia could stop supplying VRAM alongside its GPU chips (in bundles) when providing third-party graphics card makers with that silicon – and this could mean fewer Blackwell graphics cards on shelves. (As smaller partners won't be able to secure their own video RAM in this turbulent market).

There's also been speculation that Nvidia (and AMD) could do away with some low-to-mid-range gaming GPUs – those that use a disproportionate amount of video RAM compared to their MSRP.

Benchlife further notes that it has sources from board makers in China, and also those in the GPU supply chain, who are claiming that Nvidia will initially adjust the supply of two Blackwell graphics cards in particular. Apparently, these are the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5060 Ti with 16GB of VRAM, and the latter fully makes sense in light of the previous rumor about GPUs with too heavy a video RAM allocation relative to their price bracket.

It all sounds plausible enough, frankly, but let's not get carried away at this point. This also throws an increasing amount of doubt on the likelihood of Nvidia's rumored RTX 5000 Super refreshes, which are theorized to really load up on the VRAM. The possibility that these new Blackwell products could be cancelled was even raised last month, but the consensus of the grapevine has settled on a delay – but maybe a very lengthy postponement (to late in 2026) given what's happening with the RAM crisis.

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Yes, the RAM crisis is in full swing right now, with prices skyrocketing as demand spikes due to AI datacenters needing massive amounts of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM). I've been following the situation closely, and it's been shocking to see the shift in consumer pricing; a DDR5 kit that might've cost $60 to $100 earlier this year is now likely to drain your wallet to the tune of $300 or more.

But I'm not panicking, and you shouldn't either. Things are bad right now, I won't dispute that, but as a seasoned tech journalist and PC builder, I've seen this kind of thing before. Remember the COVID chip shortage? The GPU chaos caused by crypto mining back in 2022? Graphics card prices were truly out of control back then, but have largely stabilized since (except for high-end GPUs like the Nvidia RTX 5090). Hell, back in 1995 the Kobe earthquake caused a massive bump in RAM prices since Kobe was a major hardware distribution center.

What I'm getting at is this: the present situation is just the latest in a long series of bumps in the road for the PC-building community, and I want to urge restraint right now. Please don't panic-buy that DDR5 kit for four times its original value; that price will come down again in time, and unless your desktop has actually exploded, you can probably manage just fine with the hardware you have for now.

The root causes

It's important to consider that the current explosion of AI spending isn't the only reason why RAM is in such short supply right now. We're in the midst of a massive industry shift from an old memory standard: even though DDR5 RAM was introduced to the consumer market more than four years ago, the process of transitioning the entire computer hardware industry from DDR4 has been a gradual and challenging process.

Looking back, it took more than two years for DDR4 itself to reach anything approaching widespread adoption, and that memory standard entrenched itself more than previous DDR3 or DDR2 RAM. You can pretty easily still find DDR4-compatible products (not just memory, but processors and motherboards) for sale at major component retailers, and even budget laptops sporting DDR4 memory aren't an uncommon sight today.

Because of this slow adoption process, memory manufacturers haven't been able to simply leap forward and shift their entire production process to DDR5; there's still a demand for DDR4 RAM kits, as PC builders typically upgrade their rigs piecemeal, with the motherboard often being the component that goes the longest without a replacement (since it typically demands a concurrent upgrade of your CPU and perhaps other components as well). I myself am still rocking a 32GB DDR4 kit with my AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D processor.

Granted, those solid specs mean I'm in no rush to upgrade, and not everyone will be lucky enough to be in my position. If you're trying to refit a desperately outdated desktop or building a brand-new PC from scratch, I feel your pain - but I beg of you, bear in mind that buying RAM at the current ludicrously inflated prices will only validate those price hikes in the eyes of sellers.

We've not had the worst of it

Industry analysts have actually suggested that the desktop PC space may not even be the worst-affected area. Phones and laptops (especially more affordable ones) are expected to be hit hard by the RAM shortage in the first half of 2026, as manufacturers struggle to fulfil orders for more powerful devices. Microsoft may have encouraged a recent shift to 16GB of RAM as the new standard for laptops, but we're probably going to see a lot of 8GB models in the immediate future.

The good news for PC builders is that since desktop RAM was hit first, it's likely to be the first to recover. In a recent interview, Edward Crisler (the PR manager of GPU manufacturer Sapphire) claimed that "within six to eight months, we're going to see the market begin to stabilize," and urged PC gamers, "don't buy because you have to buy. Put your money away. Relax. Play some games. Enjoy the system you've got right now."

It's a sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with, though Crisler did note that GPU prices are likely to rise in 2026 (since the current situation directly affects the industry price of VRAM for graphics cards too). At the end of the day, most of us in the PC-building game might want to upgrade, but probably don't need to upgrade. There are plenty of useful hacks for boosting your performance that don't require new components, too.

Looking for alternatives

If you are in a situation where you need a new gaming PC yesterday and are genuinely considering plumbing the troubled depths of the RAM market right now, there are other options you ought to consider.

It looks like the shortage hasn't significantly impacted the price of the best gaming PCs yet, so that's one potential avenue. Gone is the era when building your own system was always the cheapest option; many pre-builts these days offer excellent value for money, and might even work out cheaper than DIYing a PC right now. Of course, it's likely that we'll see the knock-on effects of the RAM crisis in the pre-built PC market early next year, which has even led to some on the TechRadar team contemplating a move to console gaming instead. Even as a die-hard PC gamer, I can't really dispute the value for money offered by the PS5 right now.

Another alternative is to opt for a gaming laptop instead. Many of these systems offer power rivalling that of desktop gaming PCs, and can effectively function as a desktop replacement system (especially if you already have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse set up). I'd personally recommend a handheld gaming PC if you only want a device for PC gaming - I own an Asus ROG Ally, and I love it.

Ultimately, though, the best advice I can give is the same as Edward Crisler's: just wait it out. As any market analyst worth their salt will tell you, it's not a question of whether the AI bubble will burst, but when. This sudden demand for RAM will wane - we're just going to have to be a little patient.

There's yet more worrying news on the cost of RAM, as Samsung is rumored to be seriously increasing the price of DDR5 memory (and DDR4 pricing is still rising, too).

Notebookcheck.net spotted that leaker Jukan on X posted an article from a Taiwanese tech news site (Technowvoice.com), which claims Samsung has just ramped up the contract price of the DDR5 chips it supplies to memory manufacturers.

Obviously, take this with some skepticism, but the claim is that Samsung is now charging a contract price of $19.50 (per 2GB memory chip) for 16GB of DDR5, which is more than double what it was previously when this rise came in at the end of November, we're told.

Let that sink in – pricing has more than doubled (it was $9), and while this is for the cost in the supply chain, as ever, this hike will be passed on to consumers who will foot the bill in the end.

Technowvoice describes the RAM industry as being in a state of "structural disruption" and that, regarding this latest price rise, Samsung simply told its downstream customers that there's simply "no stock!" (although note that the article is translated from Chinese, so some nuances may be lost in terms of the original meaning).

The report further notes that last-gen DDR4 RAM has quadrupled in price following the withdrawal of Samsung and most of the other major players from the market, and the contract price for this slower memory has also risen to $18 as of the end of last month.

Analysis: no sign of a predicted stall in price rises

It's clear a severe disruption is underway, of course, as we've seen in the ridiculously steep – indeed near-vertical – rise in the price of RAM sticks at retail since late September. I don't think I've ever witnessed such a fast rise in pricing for any type of PC components (except for maybe the most high-end GPUs when stock was short during the crypto craze).

This report from Technowvoice further observes that the hope was that in December 2025, RAM price hikes might start to calm down, and that we could have seen the worst of the increases throughout October and November. However, that isn't happening; instead, we're getting even more pronounced spikes in pricing.

The report also notes that memory makers have nowhere to turn, as whether they are manufacturing DDR4 or DDR5 RAM, the prices have gone sky-high.

In short, the likelihood is that system RAM is going to get even more expensive – as if it wasn't already pricey enough – and storage is suffering a similar fate, to boot.

If you're thinking of buying DDR4 or DDR5 RAM, the best advice for now is seemingly to wait and hope that some of the more pessimistic forecasts – claiming these price increases could last through until 2027, or maybe even longer – turn out wrong. But system memory is priced at crazy levels right now already, so buying seems a foolish move unless you can somehow find a reasonable deal out there. (Storage and SSDs are a different case, mind, particularly for budget drives – and you may want to move now, or quickly, on that front).

The trouble is that the cost of RAM isn't just affecting those building a new PC, or upgrading the memory in their existing computer – it's also going to have a major impact on the price of prebuilt devices, and notably laptops.

With this fresh bad news from Samsung, it seems the situation could be worse than we thought, and the price of RAM and laptops alike could be considerably inflated as next year rolls into town. I definitely wouldn't bet against that happening.

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Concerns of RAM prices spiraling out of control due to the AI boom are running rampant among PC consumers, especially with estimates of more 8GB configurations than usual in 2026. Fortunately, a major manufacturer has introduced some calm to the raging storm.

As reported by TweakTown, Sapphire's PR manager, Edward Crisler, has predicted pricing stability for RAM in 2026 and urged consumers to avoid panic buying in an interview with Hardware Unboxed.

This comes after estimates and predictions suggest that the RAM crisis may last beyond 2026, and speculation that AMD Radeon GPU prices will increase next year. Crisler took the opportunity to reassure consumers in the PC market, despite acknowledging the uncertainty.

"I truly believe that within six to eight months, we're going to see the market begin to stabilize," Crisler said. "We've got to stop the panic. There's a lot of good news for PC gamers that don't realize it exists right now."

Crisler reiterates that gamers shouldn't be compelled to jump to upgrades on new hardware due to sudden price hikes, stating, "Don't buy because you have to buy. Put your money away. Relax. Play some games. Enjoy the system you've got right now, and then, when this [RAM crisis] calms down, now you can make educated guesses as to where [upgrade] you go next."

It's a very fair request from Sapphire; unless consumers urgently need an upgrade or there are a few who are looking to enter the PC gaming ecosystem, this RAM crisis shouldn't be too impactful – especially, if Crisler's prediction of stability after six months becomes a reality.

With the AI boom still going strong, it's no surprise to see the demand for RAM skyrocketing, but Sapphire's positive stance of patience on the matter seems to be the most sensible and reasonable one among all the chaos.

Analysis: Patience is a virtue, and that applies to this RAM crisis

Fortunately, GPUs haven't seen a massive impact from the RAM crisis yet. Prices for Radeon and Nvidia's RTX GPUs are higher than MSRP (and RRP), but this has been the case since launch in 2025.

However, price increases for GPUs are likely going to occur in 2026, as this situation directly affects VRAM. We've already heard rumors of both AMD and Nvidia potentially discontinuing some of their budget GPUs to save costs on RAM, so it wouldn't be a far fetch to suggest that the GPU market won't go unaffected.

If you're in dire need of a PC hardware upgrade, specifically a new GPU, I would still advise keeping an eye out for reasonable winter discounts, but it's only a matter of time until the AI boom begins to slow down, ultimately decreasing the high demand for RAM, as Sapphire's PR manager highlighted.

Panic buying may only make matters worse, as it will encourage scalpers to take advantage of consumers, so it's best to spend wisely at this stage.

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The PC market is in a shaky state due to rising RAM prices, and while rumors suggest SSDs are next to be affected, a new report hints that the RAM crisis will only worsen.

As reported by Wccftech, a new report from TrendForce estimates that a wider adoption of 8GB RAM specifications for Notebooks will make higher-end 16GB (or more) RAM configurations unaffordable, beginning in 2026.

While this appears to be an estimate solely on system RAM, it could very likely spell the same fate for VRAM in gaming laptop GPUs. Prices for RAM kits are already exceeding those of entry-level gaming PCs, ultimately leading to price hikes on the latter.

Prices for DRAM have increased for manufacturers, so aiming to provide the cheapest specification (8GB) will help in damage control by keeping consumer pricing as low as possible. It may explain exactly why Valve has decided to opt for 8GB of RAM for the upcoming Steam Machine, to ensure that consumers don't end up paying obscene prices.

For gaming laptops, the move to more 8GB configurations will be a major issue for game performance. 8GB of VRAM is already a dealbreaker for most gamers, since it's not future-proof, and can struggle in modern games that are VRAM-hungry (which is a lot of them), but with a push down to 8GB of system RAM, gaming performance will be heavily bogged down.

It could feel like a huge step backwards if a move back down to less RAM for most systems does become a reality, especially since there's plenty of triple-A games launching with the system requirement of 32GB of RAM for higher graphics settings, and 16GB as a minimum for medium to low graphics settings.

RAM bottlenecks could easily become a bigger issue now; usually, GPU or CPU bottlenecks were more common, but the tables may be turning, especially for PC gaming newcomers.

Analysis: Whatever you do, don't let go of your RAM kits

At this rate, the AI boom isn't going to slow down, and that means RAM pricing is only going to get worse. To put it simply, if you still have any spare RAM kits lying around, whether 8GB or not, it would be in your best interest to keep hold of them, because this crisis may become a normality if it sticks around long enough.

It could be months or years before we see any stability return to this region of the PC market, and the last thing you'll want to deal with is paying more than you would for a new GPU, on a new set of RAM.

Gaming isn't getting any cheaper, and while RAM is the main PC component being impacted, the same could soon apply to SSDs and GPUs, and the latter has already seen a fair share of price hikes over the last year.

If you're unlucky not to have acquired a RAM kit before the crisis, it would be ideal to keep your eyes peeled for any potential winter discounts and strike fast before stock disappears.

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There's some more bad news on the SSD front to join yet another worrying development in the RAM world, both of which relate to supply difficulties and increased prices for these PC components.

First off, the main event here, which is the SSD gloom. It comes via a new video courtesy of Moore's Law is Dead (MLID) in which the YouTuber provides a rumor about budget Samsung SSDs (as TweakTown highlighted).

We're told that one of MLID's trusted sources in distribution claims that Samsung is about to cut off SATA SSD production, and an announcement to this effect will be coming in January.

These SSDs are cheaper models that use the slower SATA interface, as opposed to NVMe SSDs which are the more modern, much faster storage medium, using PCIe lanes (and usually plugging directly into the motherboard in an M.2 slot).

Another of MLID's sources, this time in retail, backs up this idea, telling the leaker that SATA SSDs will be harder to get by the middle of 2026.

On top of that, VideoCardz reports that SK Hynix, a big memory maker, is expecting supply of consumer RAM to remain tight through until 2028 – which isn't the first time we've heard that prediction. This is based on a leaked slide purportedly from SK Hynix aired on X by BullsLab Jay.

Analysis: SSD – scarce supply drives?

Of course, take this with some seasoning, and just because Samsung might be pulling the plug on SSD production soon – in theory, and that may not happen straight away – there will still be existing contracts to fulfil, and stock to sell through.

Still, the message is clear enough: SSDs of the SATA variety are on borrowed time. And even though some of you might be thinking "good riddance, who uses these slow old drives now, anyway?" – well, yes, they are outdated, but there are still buyers looking for budget-friendly SSDs who go this route.

That could be especially true if people building a PC are forking out a fortune for RAM, as the price of that potentially shoots up further next year, and folks look to make savings elsewhere.

As to the reality of how many buyers of SATA SSDs there are, MLID theorizes that it's something in the order of 20% of the solid-state drive market, pointing out that some of the top sellers on Amazon are SATA drives. Samsung likely represents something like half of those sales, so these drives disappearing from shelves could account for the supply of budget SSDs drying up as 2026 rolls onwards. Fewer cheap SSDs could also put pricing pressure on more affordable NVMe models, too.

Why is Samsung making this move? That would be because NVMe drives are simply more profitable, with higher premiums to be charged – as they are a lot faster than SATA products – and they're easier to manufacture, too (as a bare board that plugs into the motherboard, as opposed to a full drive with a case).

Samsung is going to be focusing on making HBM4 memory and GDDR7 video RAM, as well as NVMe SSDs, all of which are more profitable enterprises, particularly given the current AI boom.

Needless to say, if you're looking at buying an SSD, now is likely the best time to act, especially if you can find anything in the way of a holiday deal on a drive – because as of Q1 2026, prices could head upwards quite quickly, particularly for budget SSDs.

Most predictions have memory supply levels being tight until 2027, if not longer – and MLID reckons we're looking at maybe late in 2026, possibly through to mid-2027, before pricing woes settle down somewhat.

Don't forget that storage and RAM price hikes don't just impact those individual components and prebuilt PCs, but also laptops.

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With portable experiences becoming an integral aspect of gaming thanks to the resurgence of handheld gaming PCs and more powerful laptops, eGPUs have become vital for better performance – and a reputable manufacturer has joined the market.

As reported by VideoCardz, UGreen has launched a new eGPU Linkstation dock in China for around $325 (based on a conversion from the China price), featuring Oculink and USB 4 ports, and, most importantly, a built-in 850W power supply.

This is a big move from UGreen, which is better known for manufacturing docks (non-eGPU), chargers, and USB hubs, but now it's diving into docks built for GPU connections on portable hardware like handheld gaming PCs, mini PCs, or laptops.

While there's no current indication of a launch in other regions, its price is within the ballpark of Razer's Core X V2 eGPU dock, which is $350 / £329 (around AU$530), so with taxes included, the UGreen Linkstation shouldn't be much more expensive.

The two biggest advantages of UGreen's Linkstation dock are the 850W power supply, alongside the USB 4 and Oculink connection options, with the latter providing 64Gbps connection speeds.

The Razer Core X V2 does not ship with a power supply or an Oculink port, which was a dealbreaker for many consumers when Razer unveiled the dock.

The chassis takes on a desktop PC-like design, with what appears to be a mid-tower case, but with the GPU mounted vertically. It supports graphics cards up to 370mm, and the 850W power supply should be enough to power a wide range of GPUs, especially because this is solely for a GPU, not an entire PC configuration.

Analysis: The UGreen Linkstation eGPU dock looks great, but I'd still choose the Razer dock

There are plenty of eGPU docks available on the market, from popular manufacturers and smaller brands alike, that ship with built-in power supplies. However, the Razer Core X V2, despite not coming with one, still has one big advantage in terms of design.

I've mentioned this before, but I'd much rather not have my GPU exposed to any potential fall damage or accidents, and the Core X V2 (as well as the previous Razer Core X) is designed to prevent that. This is especially the case if you plan on using your eGPU dock setup with your handheld gaming PC or laptop in-hand, as any accidental wire pulls could lead to some serious damage.

While UGreen's design is better than other eGPU builds, the LinkStation dock is still somewhat exposed, and Razer is the only manufacturer I've seen so far to build a full chassis enclosure for the desktop GPUs, in the same manner that any desktop PC case would house a GPU.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not writing off the new UGreen option, but since I luckily have a few spare power supplies hanging around, the fact that Razer's Core X V2 dock doesn't have one isn't a big deal for me – I doubt that would be the case for most consumers though.

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