CES 2026 Was Big On AI, Light On Real PC Gaming Gear
CES changes flavor every year and 2026 was not exactly a golden year for PC gamers. Instead of a flood of new graphics cards, CPUs and affordable components, the show was dominated by artificial intelligence, strange concept devices and eye watering prices.
Across TikTok, Reddit, YouTube comments and live blogs, one reaction kept popping up: everything feels too expensive and too focused on AI. With RAM and storage prices already climbing thanks to AI demand and knock on price hikes elsewhere, many PC builders are feeling a growing sense of unease about the year ahead.
While things are not apocalyptic for PC hardware, it does look like 2026 will be a bumpy ride for anyone trying to build or upgrade a gaming rig on a budget.
AI Everywhere, But Who Actually Wants It?
AI has been the big buzzword at CES for years and 2026 doubled down again. The problem is that a lot of PC gamers do not seem to be asking for what companies are building.
Razer’s Project Ava is a perfect example. It is a holographic AI desktop companion that watches you play and offers gaming advice and even wardrobe tips. The reaction from gamers was brutal. Top Reddit comments asked who wanted this in the first place, while TikTok replies begged Razer to say it was just a joke. Similar skepticism met other “smart” gaming wearables and AI heavy concepts.
Memes summed up the mood nicely. One of the top posts on r/pcmasterrace showed AMD’s Lisa Su and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang chanting AI to a crowd that chants it back, poking fun at how out of sync the AI obsession feels with what many PC gamers actually want: better hardware, better value, better games.
Some people are interested in these AI devices, sure, but their voices are drowned out by gamers asking why so much R and D is going into things that feel gimmicky, intrusive or wildly overpriced.
Big Tech’s CES Shows: All AI, Little Gaming
Major players like Lenovo, Nvidia and AMD leaned heavily into AI messaging at CES 2026. For gamers hoping for juicy announcements, that led to a lot of disappointment.
Lenovo held a huge event in the Las Vegas Sphere that turned into two hours of almost pure AI talk. The top YouTube comment joked about searching in vain for a Legion Go 2 SteamOS announcement under all the AI buzzwords.
AMD billed its keynote as an AI event from the start and fully delivered on that brief. Viewers counted nearly 300 mentions of AI and felt gaming products did not get the spotlight they deserved.
Nvidia went so hard on AI that it pushed its actual gaming announcements into a separate pre recorded video and disabled comments on its main AI presentation.
The irony is that there were interesting gaming products to talk about. Lenovo’s SteamOS based Legion Go 2 handheld could be a serious new contender in the portable PC gaming space, but it barely got any stage time compared to cloud services and AI features.
Part of this is timing. We are between generations for some key hardware. New CPUs are not expected until later in the year, RAM supply is tight, and truly new GPU families were never really on the cards for this CES. Even Nvidia’s rumored Super cards were a no show.
Bright Spots: Real PC Hardware Amid The Hype
Hidden under the AI noise and questionable concept gadgets, there actually were some solid PC components and gaming devices at CES 2026.
Cooling and power: Be Quiet introduced a new liquid cooler, two air coolers and two power supplies. These are the kind of practical, build ready parts that matter to real PC gamers, even if they are not as flashy as holographic companions.
Peripherals: Corsair launched premium versions of its Sabre V2 Pro mouse built with carbon fibre and magnesium alloy, plus the Galleon 100 SD keyboard that bakes in a full Stream Deck. They are very expensive, especially the keyboard, but they at least target actual streaming and gaming use cases.
Asus experiments: Asus showed off a wild ROG G1000 gaming PC with a holographic fan system, a dual screen laptop and collaborations like a Kojima themed machine and micro OLED Xreal style AR glasses. They are cool tech showcases but limited runs and high prices make them feel more like collectibles than mainstream gaming gear. The same goes for ultra rare GPUs like the ROG Matrix RTX 5090 that sold for around four thousand dollars and was limited to just one thousand units.
One company that stood out by resisting the AI avalanche was Dell. Its CES briefing was deliberately light on AI marketing for consumers. Dell’s own head of product said buyers are not making purchase decisions primarily on AI features, and the company seems to be listening to that reality more than most.
Intel, GPU Drama And The Rise Of Better Gaming Monitors
Intel actually delivered one of the more exciting announcements for gamers with its new Core Ultra Series 3 Panther Lake mobile chips. Yes, Intel also talks non stop about AI, but the integrated graphics story is what turned heads. The built in Arc B390 GPU looks genuinely promising, potentially making thin and light laptops far more capable for casual and even mid range gaming without a separate discrete GPU.
That in turn sparked a fresh public feud between Intel and AMD, each accusing the other of unfair or confusing benchmark comparisons. While the marketing spin can be annoying, the competition is healthy. Stronger integrated GPUs from both sides can only be good news for gamers who want portable or lower cost systems that still handle modern titles.
The clearest win for PC gamers at CES 2026, though, might be gaming monitors. While AI is pushing up prices for memory and compute hardware, displays seem to be moving in the opposite direction: better tech and slowly improving value.
LG is bringing new RGB stripe OLED panels that target one of the last annoying problems with OLED monitors: text fringing and clarity when used as a desktop display.
Samsung and partners like MSI are rolling out new QD OLED screens that further improve brightness, color and subpixel layout, again with an eye on both image quality and everyday usability.
Monitors are one of the few categories that still feel innovative, attainable and directly beneficial to everyday PC gaming. Higher refresh rates, better panels and clearer text are meaningful upgrades whether you are playing esports titles or just exploring new open world games.
A Year Of Unease, Not Despair, For PC Gaming
Walking away from CES 2026, it is easy to feel deflated if you care about PC gaming hardware. AI hype is at a fever pitch, prices are high and many of the most eye catching products feel like toys for influencers or collectors rather than practical upgrades for normal people.
But it is not all doom. There are new coolers, power supplies, mice and keyboards that will actually go into real builds. Intel’s mobile chips and integrated GPUs hint at better portable gaming, while the ongoing monitor revolution keeps making the actual experience of playing on PC better every year.
What is missing is a clear, exciting roadmap that PC gamers can latch onto for 2026. Instead of feeling like the star of the show, gaming often felt like an afterthought squeezed between AI demos. For now that leaves a lot of enthusiasts in a strange place: not hopeless, but uneasy and waiting for the next truly gamer focused wave of hardware to arrive.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/who-asked-for-this-pc-gamers-left-wondering-after-ai-takes-center-stage-at-ces-2026/
