Forget What You Heard, There's Plenty Of PC Hardware To Be Excited...

RAM, Shmam. These are things to get genuinely excited about this year.

With yesterday's hangover still in the back of their mind, bleary-eyed engineers and product managers sit down to hash out the details and delivery dates for their upcoming products in 2026. The cycle begins again. New hardware is coming, look busy.

Look past the dire news of extended memory shortages through this year and into the next and there are promising products on the horizon. Some quality-of-life improvements for our trusted peripherals, and other major industry trends that dare to shake up the definition of a gaming PC. Yeah, it's all happening—let's dive into what's coming and what I suspect might show up.

TMR, or Tunnel Magnetoresistance, is a technology that we're already beginning to see in gaming peripherals. We've reviewed a few controllers using TMR sticks, such as the 8BitDo Ultimate 2 Wireless and Gamesir G7 Pro. My guess is we'll see more gaming keyboards making the most of TMR throughout this year.

TMR is available in gaming keyboards already—MonsGeek have a handful available, among others—but generally you'll find most offer Hall effect switches. The most frequently cited benefits of TMR are a more consistent response and lower power consumption versus Hall effect, and while I doubt players on existing Hall effect keyboards will notice any difference, that's never stopped peripheral manufacturers from jumping on a bandwagon before. No, if someone does it, more will follow.

With TMR already making inroads into the market, it makes sense to expect more to follow. From speaking with Wooting, Cherry and Razer about new switch types, I don't suspect we'll see this lot switching over anytime soon. Cherry seems quite interested in induction, but is facing financial difficulty, and Razer is head over heels obsessed with optical switches. Wooting prefers long-term support and will stick with Hall effect for the foreseeable future. But there's usually a moment when keyboard makers can source a new part reliably enough to ramp up production, and that's when we'll see greater numbers land in the market. If not from this lot, then someone else.

One thing we know for certain is that Valve will launch three new products this year. The Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and Steam Controller are all set to arrive in early 2026, which could be any day now. Or, any hour. We could be mere minutes away from their release. But, alas, no—simmer down. I'd be as surprised as anyone if they

Source: PC Gamer