Is this RTX 3050 prebuilt gaming PC as good as it gets under $1000?
Is budget gaming over for good?
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The gaming PC in question is a Skytech Shadow system, a desktop featuring an old Intel Core i5-10400F, 8GB of RAM, an RTX 3050, and a 1TB NVME SSD. There are few custom builders offering this level of spec for the same price but it feels like this is the new benchmark for under $1000. Pay $100-$200 more and you may get 16GB of RAM and a 12th-gen Intel processor, pay $100-$200 less and you end up with an entry-level GTX 1650.
Skytech Shadow Gaming PC (3050)
CPU
Intel Core i5 10400F
GPU
RTX 3050
RAM
8GB
Storage
1TB NVME SSD
What should you do? As it stands, this is one of the best gaming PCs for its price, and that even takes a small RAM upgrade into consideration. A full 16GB kit would cost somewhere between $50 and $80 depending on the brand, speed, and timings. You also get to take advantage of ray tracing, with the accompanying DLSS technology, something we haven’t had in the budget/ under $1000 PC market before.
Building your own PC is still the answer, even in this market, offering your wallet some respite. The main issue when building at this price point is the jump in price for the latest 30-series budget option. The RTX 3050 is far more expensive than its previous-gen counterpart and just doesn’t feel as worth it as an RTX 3060+.
