How PC Tiers Organizes Its Gaming PC Builds

PC Tiers groups its gaming builds into logical tier steps that run from extreme budget up to Tier 1, and each tier is defined by a target resolution and quality level rather than by raw price alone. That means you pick a tier by asking what you want to play and at what settings, then check whether the listed parts and reference prices fit your budget. The site currently warns that memory and SSD prices are unusually high, so the build lists are not being updated much and the pricing is volatile — treat the numbers as reference points, not fixed quotes.

The tier ladder at a glance

The builds are ordered as a progression, with each step buying a specific jump in capability:

• Tier 1 – Budget Entry: 1080p mid-high, with 1440p low-medium possible in many games. Reference total around $650.
• Tier 2 – Performance Entry: 1440p mid, 1080p high. Reference total around $930.
• Higher tiers continue upward toward the best Tier 1 builds, with the same pattern of naming the resolution and quality target first.

The naming convention matters more than the numbers. A tier tells you the experience it is built for, so you can compare your monitor and the games you actually play against the tier's stated target instead of guessing from the price.

What each tier entry contains

Every build lists the same component categories with a specific part, key specs, and a reference price:

Tier 2 follows the same layout with a Ryzen 5 7600X on AM5, a Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB, an ASRock B850M-X WiFi board, 32GB DDR5-6000, a 2TB NVMe SSD, and the same 550W PSU, at roughly $930 total.

Because the format is consistent, you can scan down a tier and see exactly where the money goes, then compare two tiers category by category to see what the extra spend actually buys.

How to choose your tier

Work backward from your display and your games:

1. Check your monitor's resolution and refresh rate. A 1080p 60Hz panel does not need a 1440p-tier build.
2. Check the games you play most. The Tier 1 notes are explicit that most games run at 1080p high or 1440p low-medium, but "next gen" titles like Starfield or any Unreal Engine 5 game should be expected at 1080p low/medium.
3. Match the tier's stated target to that reality. If your library is mostly demanding modern titles, the budget entry tier's ceiling is lower than its headline suggests.
4. Sanity-check the total against your budget, remembering that the site's prices are reference values during a volatile market.

Notes and cautions the site attaches to builds

The build notes carry practical warnings that are part of the tier logic, not fine print:

• Do not buy the Arc B580 above MSRP. The site states it should be around $250 and says not to pay more than $260. It is often out of stock because of its popularity.
• Memory and SSD pricing is the current wildcard. The site reports RAM and SSD prices at 5–7x what they were toward the end of 2025, driven by AI companies buying up memory supply, and suggests waiting for it to blow over. It also says the builds will not be updated much during this situation because the volatile pricing throws off the numbers.
• The last update noted is March 2nd, 2026, so any price you see should be re-checked before you buy.

Other sections on the site

Beyond gaming builds, the navigation covers GPUs and Market Prices, Workstation Builds, Laptops, and Monitors. If your goal is not gaming — or you need a machine for a different workload — those sections are the relevant starting points rather than the gaming tier ladder.

The short version: PC Tiers answers "what should I build?" by fixing the resolution and quality target first, then listing parts and reference prices to hit it. Use the tier targets to filter, use the component tables to compare, and treat every price as something to verify yourself while the memory market is unsettled.