Gaming PCs — ‘Too High a Barrier to Get Into Now’? 5ch Erupts Over Pricing

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The story

On a gaming hardware industry board, a debate broke out over how high the barrier to entry for gaming PCs has become. It started with a post claiming ‘it’s way too much of a hurdle to get into PC gaming now,’ which snowballed into posters trading specific build lists and prices for a roughly 200,000-yen self-built PC, along with the specs needed to run GTA6 comfortably. Opinions split further over cost-performance compared to the Switch 2 and PS5, and whether 16GB of RAM is really enough, keeping the thread buzzing for hours.

What people said

1AnonymousAug 30, 2026 18:01
It's way too much of a hurdle to get into PC gaming now.
Or are you gonna tell me a PC is still the way to go?
11AnonymousAug 30, 2026 18:10
PCs are basically a necessity right after smartphones.
Glad I made that big investment.
18AnonymousAug 30, 2026 18:15
Re: #11
That 'necessity' PC you're picturing is a business laptop, though.
75AnonymousAug 30, 2026 18:54
Apparently we're supposed to judge things by worldwide sales now — or so says some poster people mockingly call 'Shou-chan'

11 Anonymous (Desperate as usual) 2026/08/29 (Sat) 21:01:16.92 ID:VuonMVFN0NIKU
Is GTA6 gonna end up with a unit count this lame too?

Red Dead Redemption 2 PS4 — 227,842 units

13 Anonymous (Desperate as usual) 2026/08/29 (Sat) 21:15:15.64 ID:955V0GSj0NIKU
Re: #11
I only ever bought PlayStation up through the PS4, but man — limiting the count to domestic-only sales is so small-scale. These days you're supposed to look at worldwide sales.
13AnonymousAug 30, 2026 18:11
Sure, performance-wise it's unbeatable,
but paying 300k yen for gaming? Most people are gonna balk at that.
It's just out of step with what's normal.
27AnonymousAug 30, 2026 18:21
Re: #13
It's not even 300k though.
Better to buy a PC than get suckered into 'cheap now, costly later' with a Switch 2 or PS5.
33AnonymousAug 30, 2026 18:24
Re: #27
Yeah, yeah, sure.
Go ahead, try selling your friends on gaming PCs with that logic.
34AnonymousAug 30, 2026 18:25
Re: #27
For someone buying a PC today, how much would it actually cost to run GTA6 comfortably at 60fps?
35AnonymousAug 30, 2026 18:25
Ma-@SnoBure/MonGirl/NIKKE/Azur Lane @Foxy_MN
Tried pricing out what a generic homebrew 'Steam Machine' would cost 🤔
ASRock DeskMeet X600 — ¥35,000
Ryzen 5 7500F — ¥25,000
RX 9060 XT 16GB — ¥50,000
RAM 16GB — ¥30,000
SSD 1TB — ¥25,000
SteamOS (free)
Comes out to about ¥165,000
Better GPU, better SSD — isn't this just fine already? (*´ω`*)
39AnonymousAug 30, 2026 18:29
Re: #35
Why don't you all just subscribe to GeForce NOW instead?
45AnonymousAug 30, 2026 18:34
Re: #35
And can that actually run GTA6 comfortably at 60fps?
55AnonymousAug 30, 2026 18:41
Re: #35
Isn't the RX 9060 XT 16GB more like ¥70,000?
I bet what's selling in the ¥50,000 range is the 8GB version.
84AnonymousAug 30, 2026 18:58
Are PC users gonna have to go buy an Xbox just for GTA6?
85AnonymousAug 30, 2026 18:59
Re: #84
Apparently they'll just watch a video to 'beat' it.
101AnonymousAug 30, 2026 19:06
Re: #85
Over 90% of that channel's audience is Nintendo fans though.
338AnonymousAug 30, 2026 23:28
Re: #85
A poll from a console-war streamer is never gonna give you anything but a biased result.
94AnonymousAug 30, 2026 19:04
Not really the place for this, but if you actually splurged something like 500k yen on a gaming PC, would you even play that much?
Honestly, I don't think I would anymore, so I can't pull the trigger.

Though if you're a hardcore gamer who's grinding through a ton of high-spec titles, sure, go for it.
112AnonymousAug 30, 2026 19:13
Re: #94
Once you buy it, you actually do end up playing it.



But I will say this:
buy a good monitor too.
175AnonymousAug 30, 2026 20:35
You always see the pitch 'you can build one for under 200k!'
but it bugs me that lately that build always seems to lean on DDR4 or a mix of used parts like it's the default.
187AnonymousAug 30, 2026 20:48
Re: #175
Building fresh on AM5 doesn't even hit 200k.
Reuse some parts and it's even cheaper than that — honestly, you console-war uncles don't even know real PC prices.

AM5 motherboard — ¥8,980
CPU (9500F) — ¥27,580
RAM 8GB x2 — ¥31,800
SSD 1TB — ¥17,980
GPU (RTX 5060) — ¥60,800
CPU cooler — ¥1,873
PSU 650W — ¥4,400
Case — ¥2,980
OS — ¥14,847
Total: ¥171,240
194AnonymousAug 30, 2026 20:54
Re: #187
I feel like storage definitely needs to be more, and 16GB RAM is basically my build from a while back — without an iron will to never open anything but the game, it chokes constantly.
Running that build for real, it's genuinely rough.
224AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:08
Re: #187
Well, this is the board where some guy insists the PS5 Pro is basically on par with an RTX 5080.
Someone even started a thread claiming the RTX 5070 Ti is the bare minimum, right when the PC version of GTA6 dropped.
Guess they'll pull their usual disappearing act though.
208AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:00
You can build a PC cheap if you grab used parts off Mercari (Japan's big resale marketplace app).
Even a 2TB SSD goes for under 30k that way.
210AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:02
Re: #208
Someone who's clearly never actually bought one shouldn't be recommending that so confidently…
213AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:04
Re: #210
Lol, that's a weirdly desperate reply.
Does it really bother you that much that a PC can be cheap?
216AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:05
Re: #210
If you don't want to play GTA6 at 30fps on WQHD, you don't have much choice but to buy one.
No real gamer's skipping the new TES or Fallout either.
260AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:33
Base OS usage: 4.5GB, Wilds left idling in the background: 6-8GB, browser with like 20 tabs open: 2-4GB, misc background standby stuff: 2GB.
Being real, that's my actual breakdown — even accounting for Wilds' terrible optimization, 16GB isn't exactly 'plenty,' but it's absolutely not 'not enough' either.
And technically that background standby stuff isn't even necessary, so drop it and you fit right in the budget.

Sure, thinking long-term I'd want 24GB, but that's a 'deal with it once things settle down' kind of thing.
You can always add more RAM later anyway.
262AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:34
Re: #260
'You can always add more' only holds up if you're fine running 4 sticks, though —
otherwise you're just buying all-new RAM regardless.
269AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:42
Re: #260
People have been saying 16GB is fine for ages.
Checked it myself too — didn't run into trouble even without bumping up to 32GB.
276AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:46
Re: #260
Yeah, this is basically the answer from anyone who actually owns a PC.
If 16GB isn't enough for gaming, what exactly are you even playing?
You can tell in two seconds just by opening Task Manager.
It's really just 'maybe 16GB won't cut it someday down the road' — that's all this is.
261AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:34
They say PC prices aren't coming down anymore, so for anyone outside of smartphones who wants a big-screen, rich gaming experience, the Switch 2 is really the only option, don't you think?
At least in Japan — this has been the trend for a while now, but it feels like it's completely locked in at this point.
264AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:35
Re: #261
Exactly this.
The PS5 still had a shot if they hadn't killed the disc drive,
but they blew it, and now it's just a straight-up gimped PC.
Absolute worst cost-performance, total garbage.
279AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:48
Re: #261
That's true, for sure.
But I'd bet more people just quit gaming altogether
or drift toward free-to-play stuff instead.
277AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:47
Lol

https://n.picvr.net/2608302034033311.jpg
https://n.picvr.net/2608302034039448.jpg

https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/2094025915886080000/vid/avc1/1280×720/2rcZe2W1FcJahcQV.mp4
299AnonymousAug 30, 2026 22:08
It's a hassle, it's expensive, it's complicated, and you can't even buy a game without an internet connection and some way to pay online.
You've got to clear hurdle after hurdle just to game on PC.
PC gaming's had decades of history, and it still never went mainstream.
300AnonymousAug 30, 2026 22:10
Re: #299
Huh?
Capcom's sales are overwhelmingly PC-first though?
307AnonymousAug 30, 2026 22:16
GTA6 isn't even playable on 11/19 —
so what are you even buying an expensive PC for?
315AnonymousAug 30, 2026 22:22
Re: #307
VR stuff, probably.
320AnonymousAug 30, 2026 22:27
Re: #307
Sorry, I'm not poor enough to settle for 1440p at 30fps……

Background and Key Points of the Debate

Price arguments over gaming PCs crop up on 5ch regularly, and the sticking point almost always comes down to ‘what assumptions the estimate is built on.’ The roughly ¥170,000 self-build listed in the thread assumes 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, prompting pushback that adding more storage or memory would push the real cost higher. There was also disagreement over the actual street price of the RX 9060 XT 16GB — self-build estimates like these tend to swing by tens of thousands of yen depending on the exact model and stock availability. Underlying all this is rising interest in what specs are needed to run the PC version of GTA6 comfortably, given its reported November 19 release date. The phrase ‘leather jacket guy,’ used to vent frustration over NVIDIA’s rising GPU prices, is a standard bit of sarcasm referencing the CEO’s trademark outfit, and it shows up constantly in PC-related threads on 5ch.

※This article was compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Console Wars)) thread ‘[Breaking] Nobody’s Left to Recommend PCs Anymore‘.

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