Like many of you, I love upgrading my PC and anything to do with my gaming setup. And in my privileged position as a PC Gamer hardware writer, I often get my hands on the latest gear for the purposes of review.

But in terms of what I’ve spent my own cash on this year, and my own personal possessions, the biggest upgrade I’ve made to my gaming setup in 2026 is this cushion:

Despite appearances, this is not for legitimate medical reasons. I am afflicted with a bony arse, a critical lack of junk in my personal trunk. And gaming chairs these days have a tendency to be hard as rocks, which leave my cheeks feeling sore after a long day.

So, I gave in and bought a cushion. It’s magnificent, and has improved my comfort levels at least ten-fold in comparison to the firm seat of my steely-buttocked gaming chair. It also cost me £40, because the UK listing came with a lumbar support cushion that I swapped out for one I already owned.

Which also makes it one of the most expensive upgrades I’ve bought this year. Because 2026 has been the year of stupendous price rises across many sectors of the PC gaming hardware market, and I haven’t been able to open my wallet wide enough to pay for component upgrades. So, for the most part, I’ve stuck with my rig as it is.

I’m lucky enough to own a good gaming PC already, and it doesn’t struggle with the games I want to play. I’m also not averse to a dose of DLSS or frame generation to help boost the frame rate in the really demanding stuff. But I have to wonder how many people are out there, like me, waiting out this pricing storm. And how long we’ll wait for, before we decide to bite the bullet and pay up for a component upgrade.

Still, when 64 GB of decent DDR5 costs well north of $800, I’m really not looking to upgrade from my 32 GB kit, bought for $100 or so three years ago. My SSD is a 2 TB model, which cost me $130 at around the same time. I’d love a 4 TB drive—but when the good ones cost upwards of $400 a pop, I really can’t justify it.

Graphics cards? If I needed one right now, I’d be buying an RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB or an RX 9070 GRE, the two of the last GPUs still available for somewhat sensible money relative to their performance. Both represent good value given what’s going on with GPU pricing at the moment, and I highly recommend them. But I can’t believe how far we’ve fallen, when Nvidia’s current “mid-range” option, the RTX 5070, costs $779.

And that’s the cheapest version we can find. In this sort of market, getting by with what you’ve got often makes the most sense.

There is a saving grace on the horizon. Well, potentially, anyway. We’re about to enter the major sales season, with October Prime Day and the juggernaut that is Black Friday beginning to loom into view. And I’m hoping, with all of my fingers crossed, that we still see some significant discounts on hardware this year—despite everything going on in the industry right now.

As any good hardware nerd will tell you, finding the right upgrade for your setup is one of the great joys of PC gaming. And I’m sure plenty of you are trucking along with rigs that would have otherwise received some new hardware by now, if AI server demand hadn’t ravaged the consumer market behind so much of our hobby.

The other upside (and I’ll take any I can get) is that gaming monitors, mice, keyboards, and controllers have resisted the tidal wave of price increases this year. We also tend to see major discounts on these items over the big sales season, so some sort of meaningful upgrade should be achievable for many of us—even if it’s not the new GPU or memory kit our hearts may desire.

I really don’t blame you if, like me, you’ve been sticking with what you’ve got for longer than you expected. Here’s hoping we get some sort of relief this sales season—because personally, I feel like I’ve been sitting on my hands (and my now-cossetted butt) for a little too long.