What's the sweet spot build for a gaming PC?

I posted years ago about upgrading my gaming PC but still haven't done it.

When looking at a PC I see you could spend anywhere from $600 on the low end all the way up to $4,000. What's the sweet spot of upgrades? If you spend $2,000 are you getting a much better machine than for $1,500? How much better if you spend $2,500 or $3,000? My current PC has lasted me over 10 years, but I think it's time for an upgrade. If I'm not planning on 4k gaming what specs would you suggest is in the sweet spot?

My current specs:

Intel i7 2600k @3.4GHZ

RAM: 8GB

GPU: Geforce 1070

My monitor is about 27" Asus with a 1080p native resolution

There isn't anymore.

6700 XT

3060 Ti

A770

These are the best budget at the moment, Nvidia and AMD have taken pricing to the extreme this gen. The rumoured 4060 Ti is laughable spec wise at a silly price.

I would say 16gb ram, 6600 XT, an i5 or ryzen 5 cpu.

you can go pretty cheap/used on every part but psu. never go cheap on those.

There's nothing sweet about today's prices. The "least sour" option if you're building from scratch is probably a Ryzen 7600X system with 6700XT/3060Ti, 6600XT if you're on 60Hz. Prices vary from country to country, but those components are usually the best value.

1080p is the sweet spot still lol. I'm happy with my 1440p but sometimes it demands too much. Glad I didn't go to 4K. But I was pretty happy at 1080p, moving to 1440 was a luxury move not something I felt I needed.

Build your PC so you can run a game with a decent framerate and settings.

Back in the day I'd buy parts as I found deals over time, now I have a decent job and can afford to build a PC outright.

PC's don't have to be expensive, though, you just need to lower your standards to a still-good-but-not-epic level.

Also pre-builts are not to be underestimated these days. With GPU's costing upwards of $1000, if you can find a pre-built for $1500 with a good GPU, go buy it.