79% of PC Gamer readers already have 32 GB or more RAM in their gaming rigs

A PC Gamer reader survey on RAM capacity has produced a pretty surprising result: the memory crisis gripping the PC hardware market hasn't caught most readers off guard, because the majority of them were already sitting on large RAM kits well before prices started climbing.

The numbers flip the expected distribution on its head. A full 50% of respondents have 32 GB of RAM in their main gaming PC — the single largest group by a wide margin. Only 18% are running 16 GB, which is actually fewer than the share running 64 GB. Add it all up and 79% of readers are at 32 GB or above.

The backdrop here is a genuine supply crunch. AI datacenter demand has been hoovering up DRAM production from Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron faster than it can ship, and retail memory prices have been climbing as a result. For anyone who hasn't upgraded recently, buying a 32 GB kit today costs noticeably more than it did a year ago — which makes the survey results all the more striking. PC Gamer's hardware team ran the poll specifically because rising RAM prices have been a persistent concern, and they expected to find readers split roughly evenly between 16 GB and 32 GB configurations.

That expectation was wrong by a significant margin. Whether PC Gamer's readership skews toward enthusiast builders who tend to over-spec their machines, or whether 32 GB has simply become the new baseline for serious gaming rigs, the data suggests this particular audience is largely insulated from the immediate sting of the memory price surge — at least until their next upgrade cycle rolls around.