PC gaming has become an expensive hobby; I'm experiencing that firsthand. Still, hardware occasionally drops to a more sensible price, and it can happen where you least expect it. Walmart's 'Deals & More' event is still live, running until October 11, and I spotted some tempting discounts for gamers.

• Shop Top 100 Tech Deals at Walmart

Indeed, we already passed the cutoff for Amazon's 'Big Deal Days' pseudo-Prime Day tease, but Walmart constantly surprises me with how much PC hardware it stocks. If you're looking for a new portable rig or just an upgrade to your existing desktop, I've hand-picked a few obvious winners, like MSI's RTX 5070 gaming laptop for $1,349.00, down from $2,099.00.

MSI is synonymous with these kinds of events, almost always appearing with more affordable gaming laptops. The 15.6-inch Cyborg AI gets its name from the AMD Ryzen 7 260 processor, which includes an NPU for local AI tasks, though its other hardware is far more interesting.

You'll get an FHD (1080p) display that supports up to a 144Hz refresh rate, backed up by NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5070 mobile GPU and the DLSS upscaling technology that helps it reach those kinds of matching frame rates. Essentially, it's a mid-range gaming laptop that's fallen below its typical price range.

Its 1TB SSD has plenty of space for games, and 16GB of DDR5 RAM is a good match for its components, all packaged in an RGB-laden chassis. Wi-Fi 6E means fast wireless networking, though you can always rely on the included Ethernet LAN port for the fastest possible wired speeds.

If you already have a gaming laptop or a desktop PC with limited storage space, you could always upgrade it to a hefty 2TB with the Optimus GX 7100 for $399.00. It's a PCIe Gen 4 drive, which is about as common as it gets, though it'll still work in a PCIe 5.0 socket if you don't need anything faster — and frankly, most of us don't.

And, once again, I'm advocating for 1440p monitors as the best balance of clarity and value. At 27 inches, this $269.00 Acer Nitro QD-OLED display offers up to a 240Hz refresh rate, which is arguably more beneficial than pushing higher resolutions. I've seen enough QD-OLED panels to know that the increase in contrast is totally worth it over IPS LCD, if you can stretch your budget for it.

Peripherals make for the best value upgrades

Sure enough, sometimes all you need is a new mouse or a controller. It depends on how you play; if you're mostly sticking to cloud gaming, then the $39.99 GameSir G7 HE joypad is a wired option with drift-proof Hall-Effect sticks that should last for years and years.

Otherwise, the $49.99 Razer Viper V3 HyperSpeed is a wireless esports option that we called an "affordable gaming mouse that reigns supreme" in our review, and that's even more relevant now that it's dropped from its original $69.99 launch price.

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The last thing I want to hear again is how high RAM prices have become due to AI's unrelenting pressure on component markets. Nevertheless, there's something curious happening, as evidenced by Steam's September 2026 hardware survey update.

In the System RAM section, which covers the spread of how many gigabytes are in use in a single PC, the three segments directly above 16GB grew. While 24GB and 48GB only climbed by 0.34% and 0.26% respectively, systems with 32GB of RAM jumped significantly, up 4.77% in September to hit a total of 42.22% of all polled Steam users.

The rise of 32GB systems had a direct impact on the 16GB section, which actually fell by 3.38% to land at 37.82% overall. This swing has placed the 32GB segment well in the lead.

Why are there now fewer PCs with 16GB of RAM than 32GB of RAM?

What's going on here? Shouldn't the segment of gaming PCs with less RAM be growing? You'd think so, but that's not the case at all. Systems with 8GB of RAM fell by 0.99% (despite the host of new Windows laptops shipping with that exact amount), while 12GB PCs also fell by 0.29%.

Looking at other sections of the Steam hardware survey, there were some other significant jumps in September. NVIDIA RTX 5060 Ti adoption rose by 1.46% to hit 3.87% overall, with the RTX 5060 pulling in another 1.22% to hit 4.20% overall. The RTX 5070 saw the biggest climb at 2.30% to hit 5.86% overall.

Elsewhere, total hard drive space above 1TB rose by 3.79%, and 1440p displays also climbed by 5.18%.

These are larger swings across segments than I'm traditionally used to seeing, which generally means that something is going on behind the scenes. Checking out the Language section of Steam's survey, the share of Simplified Chinese users indeed grew by 7.42% in the same month.

If I were a betting man, that's where I'd put my money. An influx of new Chinese players with rather high-end systems could have skewed Steam's numbers. I'm not saying this accounts for all of the changes, but it certainly aligns with the major swings.

It wouldn't be the first time the Steam survey has had some noisy elements that stand out.

In March 2026, for example, PCs with 32GB of RAM fell by a whopping 20.31%, only to be picked back up the next month with more realistic numbers.

That's exactly what I'm expecting to happen with next month's Steam hardware survey, at least unless users are actually gobbling up expensive 32GB RAM kits and RTX 5070s at a far healthier pace than I imagined.

I've been keeping an eye on memory prices this week as it collides with Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days, and there's honestly not much to talk about. RAM is still stupid expensive, even with "discounts," and I don't expect anything much to change despite the promos happening at major retailers.

Do you agree that the major swings in Steam's September hardware survey are likely caused by an influx of Chinese players? Or do you think there's something else going on in the world of PC building? Let me know in the comments section below!

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