I pitted my dream PC from 2017 against an RTX 5090 monster in 2026 in a fight to the death - here's what happened
10 years is a long time in computing, so how does one of the most powerful PCs of 2017 fare against 2026's best hardware?
In 2017, a custom gaming PC built around Intel's Core i7-7700K processor and Nvidia's GTX 1080 graphics card cost around £1,700, which is roughly equivalent to the cost of a flagship graphics card alone in 2026. The graphics card that was once the pinnacle of consumer ambition in 2017 has now become cheaper than a mid-range graphics card in the present day.
To compare the performance of the 2017 PC with a modern high-spec gaming rig, the author has set up both systems side by side, featuring the RTX 5090 and the GTX 1080 Ti, respectively. The 2017 PC boasts an Intel Core i7-7700K processor, Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti graphics card, 16GB DDR4-3000 RAM, and a Samsung 960 Evo SSD, while the modern rig is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D processor, Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 graphics card, 32GB DDR5-6000 RAM, and a Lexar NM790 4TB SSD.
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