In a piece of in-depth analysis that will have very few of us reeling, tech analyst firm Gartner has revealed that it believes "the sub-$500 entry-level PC segment will disappear by 2028," based on its latest research. This milestone in the steady rise in the cost of PCs is because of the 130% increase in the combined cost of memory and SSDs, and which will result an overall 17% increase in PC prices compared to 2025. Gartner doesn't single out AI as the reason for these increased component prices, or at least it doesn't in the overview of this report, but instead merely cites "soaring memory costs" and the fact that the net effect of these price increases and reduced supply will be a 10.4% drop in PC shipments this year. As if generally high GPU prices weren't already making the best gaming PCs very expensive, memory and SSDs are now piling on the pain.