For the past several years, creating a custom gaming PC has been an excessively pricey endeavor, mostly because of GPU costs that have skyrocketed. The availability of GPUs was so pitifully low and the cost so exorbitantly high for the majority of last year that purchasing a graphics card seemed illogical. Therefore, if you care about getting your money’s worth in the slightest, you should probably avoid creating a PC from scratch and instead consider hiring a custom gaming PC builder. Prebuilt desktops were also overpriced over the past couple of years, but sometimes not as much overall relative to individual graphics cards themselves, making the traditionally lopsided debate between building vs buying PCs a much more even contest.
In some cases, you might have even been better off buying a prebuilt gaming PC instead. However, PC construction has finally made a comeback in 2022, and it is once again the obvious choice for anyone looking to get the most bang for their buck. And these are the primary three explanations:
Marching Towards Normalcy in the GPU Market
Cryptocurrency miners, who were a major contributor to the recent GPU shortage, snatched up every available card to use in their mining rigs and farms, leaving gamers with the dregs in the form of the occasional free GPU here and there. Now that we’ve arrived at a much more pleasant time, the GPU market is finally in a decent place as of Q2, 2022.
Since January of this year, there has been a steady, consistent reduction in GPU pricing, and there is now a healthy quantity of supply available for all classes of graphics cards, from entry-level to high-end. This is the first time customers can afford to buy graphics cards in a very long time. As experts here express with skill, March and April 2022 have been exceptionally favorable, with many cards coming close to (or even hitting) their original MSRPs.
Although mid-range and low-cost GPU prices have also somewhat stabilized in recent months, the more expensive high-end cards have experienced the biggest price cuts.
A Stable, Competitive CPU Market (= Value)
Despite occasional modest price hikes and availability issues caused by the continuous global shortage of computer chips, the CPU market remained relatively stable in terms of pricing in relation to product MSRPs throughout the past two years while the GPU industry went through hell. However, the tough, healthy competition between Intel and AMD, which is always beneficial for the user and results in more competitive prices and a wide range of options, remained constant during this turbulent period for consumer hardware.
According to historical precedent, the CPU industry is currently offering very good value for money in 2022, with top-value chips like the Intel Core i5 12600K, i5 12400 and i3 12100, for instance, providing you with a lot for your money. Additionally, AMD has reduced the cost of its Ryzen 5000 series chips, making products like the Ryzen 5 5600X, Ryzen 7 5800X and 5800X3D excellent overall values.
This Year, New NVidia GPUs Are Likely to Launch
The fact that NVidia’s upcoming RTX 4000 series may launch before the year’s end is another factor that suggests 2022 will be a strong year for PC makers. The wait for RTX 4000 (or RTX 5000, as it may be named instead), which would presumably lower prices of the existing (but still extremely powerful) GeForce RTX 3000 and Radeon RX 6000 series even further, has been prolonged due to the recent disaster in the GPU market.
Then there are AMD’s next cards, the Radeon RX 7000 or whatever name they wind up having. However, considering how recent RX 6000 cards are, we may have to wait awhile for those. Just let’s hope that these forthcoming GPU releases will be better than the previous ones in terms of gamers being able actually to purchase one at or shortly after launch.
Final Words
Throughout the entire process of building your PC, you will have fun. Sure, there may be a few setbacks or snags along the way, but those difficult aspects add appeal. In general, creating a computer is not a challenging procedure. It only requires your focus and ability to adhere to directions closely.
