Yes and no.
I have a late 2011 rig which is an Intel i3 2120, 8GB DDR3 ram, and GTX550Ti. It came out to just under $500 after taxes not including monitor and keyboard/mice.
I haven't really sat down and PC gamed for maybe 2 years now. But before that, I would play Fallout 3, New Vegas, Dead Space, Portal 2, and Left4Dead 2 all at max at 1080p, and 60fps (w/ 2x MSAA). I did eventually install many graphics mods on both Fallouts and I did take a hit but still above 30fps.
Probably the two most demanding games I have are Battlefield 3 and Mass Effect 3, the latter which I haven't played yet, but I couldn't max out Battlefield which was later 7th gen game.
e=mc^2
Gaming on: PS4 Pro, Switch, SNES Mini, Wii U, PC (i5-7400, GTX 1060)