5 PC hardware downgrades the industry disguised as "progress"

PC hardware has regressed in several key areas despite being marketed as progress. Motherboard makers are cutting I/O ports and skimping on high-speed USB and multi-gig Ethernet on budget boards. Soldered RAM in laptops and compact PCs eliminates upgradability. Nvidia and others are leaning on AI-generated frames instead of raw hardware improvements. High-end GPUs like the RTX 5080 ship with only 16GB VRAM at $1,000+ price points, while the budget GPU segment has effectively been priced out of existence, with entry-level cards now starting at $400+.