As time goes on, you can expect PC components to improve in every way. Performance, value, features, efficiency or flexibility, PC hardware is supposed to move forward. However, over the past 10 years, the industry has gone decidedly backwards in many departments, calling it progress rather than what it really is – low end. GPU manufacturers do their best to extract more money from you for the least upgrade they can offer. Motherboard ports are cut to provide consumers with less functionality, not more. In laptops and compact computers, modular memory has been replaced by soldered options, and the budget segment is gradually being eliminated with each passing year. It seems that the transition of the personal computer equipment industry to the shell of its former origins is complete.
Motherboard brands keep costs down with low I/O
Consumers are getting less value than ever
In the past few years, PC users have finally had access to faster USB speeds. Having been stuck with USB 2.0 and 3.0 for a long time, having USB 3.2 Gen 2 and Gen 2×2 ports on the motherboard feels like a significant upgrade. However, not everyone can enjoy these high-speed USB ports, as they are rarely used on budget and low-mid-range motherboards. These boards rarely get enough USB ports, forcing users to constantly unplug things when they need to connect to something else. Even multi-gig Ethernet isn’t as common on motherboards as it should be.
In the name of modernization motherboard I/Omanufacturers add one or two 5Gbps and 10Gbps USB ports, a single USB-C port, and BIOS flashback. And then they remove the basic functionality that users pay for. Modern motherboards are supposed to have a better I/O stack than older models, but manufacturers are very busy cutting costs, and I/O is one of the first things they target. You won’t need to spend more than $200 to get a half-decent motherboard in 2026, but here we are.
Solder RAM replacing modular memory
It’s all for performance and design benefits, right?
In another move by manufacturers to increase profit margins, modular RAM is being replaced with larger form factors than before. What started with Apple’s MacBooks has been adopted by everyone under the pretense of offering thinner and lighter laptops. Soldered RAM in LPDDR4/LPDDR5 form factors has over time replaced SODIMM not only in laptops but also in mini PCs and AIO PCs. These non-upgradable variants offered better performance, lower power consumption and a compact design to usher in a new era of ultrabooks. However, advantages of solder RAM don’t deny that it takes customer control out of the equation. Once you’ve chosen your storage configuration at purchase, you can’t just add it whenever you want. This forces customers to pay more upfront, forever removing the option of sticking with entry-level configurations, as most people will opt for more storage to avoid a complete device replacement in the future.
Solder RAM is another way for manufacturers to promote planned obsolescence and increase overall lifetime value to each customer. Module CAMM2 and LPCAMM2 RAM are next generation form factors that give me hope for the near future as they finalize the JEDEC DDR6 memory standard. These modules will combine the performance and size advantages of soldered RAM with the upgrade of DIMMS and SODIMMS. Let’s hope manufacturers don’t find a way to prevent this next-generation form factor from becoming widespread.
AI powered frameworks replacing hardware innovation
As the hardware hits the wall, the choice of GPUs is slim
GPU manufacturers, talking about getting more money out of consumers for less value, have found an elegant way to disguise stagnation as progress. They call Frames generated by AI The future of gaming instead of admitting that hardware-powered profits have hit a wall. They call it democratizing performance at every price point, when budget GPUs don’t even have a high enough base frame to make it worth building a frame. Today, PC gamers can’t even dream of enjoying high-end games with ray tracing effects on affordable GPUs. Gimmicks like framing are used to trick players into paying more than usual for gear that may not provide commensurate value.
Plus, each GPU tier is severely undercut compared to the flagship SKU. This GPU throttling It’s clear as day if you compare the 80 and 70 class Nvidia GPUs to their respective 90 class counterparts from the last six generations. You pay the same amount (or more) for a relatively inferior product when it appears alongside the respective flagships. And to hide these shady tactics, GPU companies use artificial frames to make their products look better than previous generation models. Artificial intelligence may not be going away anytime soon, but GPU makers should at least stop pretending it’s progress.
High-end GPUs with low VRAM
What explains expensive GPUs not having enough memory?
GPU companies want you to buy more, and artificial segmentation is a neat way to get you to do so. It seems clear to me that higher-end SKUs deserve more VRAM than their lower-end counterparts, but Nvidia disagrees. While the RTX 5060 Ti has a 16GB variant, the 30% faster RTX 5070 is left with only 12GB of VRAM to contend with. Sure, the RTX 5070 Ti has 16GB of VRAM, but the top-of-the-line RTX 5080 also has it, how inexplicably so. Even the latest generation RTX 4080 and RTX 4080 Super have 16 GB of memory; why isn’t the heir more? The simple answer is that Nvidia is by far the market leader and can do whatever it wants, in this case forcing consumers. Pay more for the RTX 5090 If they want anything more than 16GB of VRAM.
The argument isn’t whether 16GB of VRAM is “enough” for 4K gaming on the RTX 5080. The thing is, after paying $1,000 (usually more) for a GPU, you don’t have to worry about whether the most demanding games of the era will run. insufficient VRAM or not. Nvidia is content to sell its AI performance to claim VRAM efficiency, so it can continue its artificial segmentation strategy. In 2026, 16GB of VRAM should be the minimum on GPUs over $500, but currently only AMD offers gamers this privilege. High-end GPUs have nothing to do with 12GB or even 16GB of VRAM. Nvidia has normalized poor VRAM capacities over the past 5-6 years, but this is not a sign of progress.
Depreciation of budget equipment
The word is ready to lose all its meaning
Amidst all the hype surrounding 4K gaming GPUs, Ryzen X3D processorsand with photorealistic graphics, the industry seems to have forgotten the budget segment. There was a time when a $250 GPU and $150 CPU were enough to enjoy the latest games of the time at reasonable frame rates. You can barely run the most demanding titles on budget GPUs today. Manufacturers have successfully extended definition of “budget GPU”. covering more expensive SKUs than before. GPUs like the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB have never been priced below $470 The DRAM crisis inflated prices across the board. If you want decent 1440p performance without running into VRAM issues, this is the lowest-end GPU you should buy. Even AMD’s RX 9060 XT 16GB has never sold below $400, which doesn’t really belong in the budget segment. However, GPU companies have raised the base level to $400, and even then, you’re getting a lower value compared to previous-generation models.
A “budget” CPU is essentially deadThanks to the fact that 6-core chips cost more than $200. And even those 6-core CPUs don’t offer enough gen-on-gen gains to justify the upgrade. One need only look at AMD’s Zen 5 or Intel’s Arrow Lake lineup to see stagnant performance. The world’s fastest gaming processors may excite everyone, but building a PC has become too expensive for the average gamer. The industry is slowly working towards eliminating the budget segment altogether. In the name of advancing personal computer hardware, manufacturers hope to forever erase the minimum budget that consumers set aside for a personal computer. They have already changed what “budget equipment” means – now they plan to remove the word from the consumer’s mind.
Progress should not mean an attack on the fundamentals
PC manufacturers will go to great lengths to claim that their products are better than ever. They will invent problems and offer solutions to extract more money from consumers. However, no amount of marketing can change the fact that manufacturers have been resorting to stagnation and cheap gimmicks in the name of progress for some time now. CPUs, GPUs, RAM, motherboards – you name it, they’ve made it worse. Today’s hardware can be more powerful than ever, but without compromising value for money or moving the goalposts.
