Best gaming PC under £1,500 (2026)
Under £1,500 in 2026, the sweet spot is a self-built Ryzen 7 7700 with an RTX 5060 Ti 16GB and 32GB of RAM. This delivers proper 1440p gaming with ray tracing in most modern AAA games. Below the cost of the lowest-tier UK custom-built PCs, but a step up in capability over the sub-£1,000 tier.
The self-build we'd put together
Mid-tier
1440p · 60fps
- CPU
- AMD Ryzen 7 7700
- GPU
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB
- RAM
- 32 GB
- Storage
- 2TB NVMe SSD
The sweet spot self-build for 2026. The 5060 Ti at 1440p with DLSS 4 handles every major modern release, including Cyberpunk with ray tracing on Medium. 32GB RAM is the right amount for 2026.
Build this at Create PCs →Components only. Track current pricing via PCPartPicker UK or similar.
What you can expect at this budget
- 1440p high to ultra settings in all 2026 AAA titles
- Ray tracing enabled at 1440p with DLSS Quality
- 4K achievable in older or well-optimised titles
- 4–5 years of comfortable gaming at high settings
- VR-ready with current-gen headsets
Games this PC handles well
When to step up to a custom-built PC
Around the £2,000 mark, custom builders like Create PCs become a genuine contender. You get proper component matching, full assembly, a three-year warranty, and configurations tuned for specific game workloads. For an upgrade-and-forget gaming PC, that's a sensible place to spend.
Frequently asked questions
- Is the RTX 5060 Ti worth the extra money over a 5050?
- Yes. The jump from the 5050 to the 5060 Ti doubles VRAM (8GB to 16GB) and lifts raster performance substantially. That extra VRAM is what unlocks ray tracing in modern titles without texture compromises.
- Why 32GB of RAM?
- A few specific games in 2026 (Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Star Citizen, modded Starfield/Skyrim) genuinely use 24GB+. For most games 16GB is still enough, but at this tier 32GB removes that as a future bottleneck.
- Can it do 4K gaming?
- In older or well-optimised titles (Forza Horizon 5, Witcher 3), yes, 4K/60 is achievable with DLSS. In demanding 2025-2026 releases, you'll be playing at 1440p upscaled to 4K. That looks excellent on a modern monitor.
- Should I self-build at this budget or buy custom?
- At sub-£1,500 the self-build maths still wins on raw component value, but only just. If you don't want to assemble it yourself, custom builders like Create PCs become a sensible call from around £2,000, that's where the QA, warranty and build quality genuinely justify the premium.
- Should I get a 1440p or 4K monitor with this PC?
- 1440p OLED at 144Hz+ is the right pairing. The 5060 Ti drives that comfortably across most games. A 4K monitor will leave you running everything at 1440p upscaled via DLSS anyway, so just go 1440p natively.