CES 2026: Why PC Gamers Should Care
January means one thing for hardware and PC gaming fans: CES in Las Vegas. The Consumer Electronics Show is not just about TVs and smart fridges. It is also where AMD, Intel, Nvidia and a whole army of laptop, handheld and monitor makers tease the hardware that will power our gaming rigs over the coming year.
While AI is plastered over every banner and press release, CES 2026 still looks like a solid show for anyone into PC hardware, performance and gaming. From new Ryzen and Core CPUs to faster handheld gaming PCs and brighter OLED monitors, there is plenty on the horizon.
AMD and Intel: Next Gen CPUs For Desktops, Laptops and Handhelds
AMD opens CES 2026 with the first major keynote. This is a general consumer show, so do not expect every gaming product to be revealed, but several interesting chips are likely to appear.
The most obvious candidate is the Ryzen 7 9850X3D. It briefly showed up on AMD driver pages before being removed, and leaks claim it packs eight cores, 16 threads, 96 MB of L3 cache and a boost clock up to 5.6 GHz. That is around 400 MHz higher than the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, so gamers can expect a modest bump in frame rates for heavily CPU bound titles and esports games, especially at 1080p.
AMD may also talk about its delayed desktop Strix Point APU, rumored as the Ryzen 9000G series. These chips blend Zen CPU cores with powerful integrated graphics, making them ideal for compact gaming builds or entry level rigs without a discrete GPU. There is also talk of a Ryzen AI 9 465 based on a Gorgon Point design, essentially a refined Strix Point with a focus on AI throughput rather than huge gaming gains.
Beyond raw CPU specs, AMD has a big software card to play: the future of FidelityFX Super Resolution. After the recent Redstone update brought AI powered frame generation, CES is a good stage for AMD to outline where FSR is going, especially as Nvidia keeps pushing DLSS and frame generation tech for RTX users.
On the blue team side, Intel has already confirmed that CES 2026 marks the global launch of Panther Lake, branded as Core Ultra Series 3. These are the first consumer chips built on Intel’s 18A process, promising better performance and efficiency for laptops.
We have already seen early Geekbench leaks with decent but not mind blowing numbers, but benchmarks rarely tell the full story. Expect a wave of Panther Lake gaming laptops on the show floor, paired with both integrated graphics and dedicated GPUs. With Nova Lake rumored to follow later, potentially with massive vertical cache and core counts aimed at top end gaming, Intel is clearly trying to claw back ground from AMD’s X3D desktop chips.
Handheld Gaming PCs, AI Laptops and New Monitors
Handheld gaming PCs are now a permanent part of CES, and 2026 should be no different. The MSI Claw 8 AI Plus already showed that Intel’s latest mobile chips can compete hard with AMD in this space. This year, expect handhelds powered by Panther Lake as well as AMD’s newest APUs, including Strix Halo designs where cooling and power draw will be a constant challenge.
We are still early in the life of AMD’s Ryzen Z2 Extreme chips, currently found only in a few devices like the Lenovo Legion Go 2, Asus ROG Xbox Ally X and MSI Claw A8. CES is a likely place for more brands to announce their own takes on Z2 powered handhelds, which should translate into better choice and hopefully more competitive pricing for portable PC gaming.
Qualcomm is also pushing hard to make gaming on Arm based Windows devices a real option. Its latest Snapdragon X2 platform claims around 44 percent more CPU performance per watt than Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285H and 75 percent more per watt than an AMD Ryzen 9 AI HX 370. If those numbers hold up in real games, we could see surprisingly capable Arm based handheld PCs and laptops running familiar PC titles with impressive battery life.
Laptops in general will be everywhere at CES. Many will be marketed as AI laptops, but the parts that really matter to gamers are the CPUs and GPUs inside. Expect machines with Nvidia’s RTX 50 series graphics, as well as slimmer designs built purely on powerful APUs from AMD and Intel. As efficiency improves, gaming laptops can get thinner, quieter and still push high frame rates at 1440p and beyond.
Display quality is another big theme. More gaming laptops will ship with OLED screens, offering deep blacks, vivid colors and fast response times. For desktop gamers, 2026 looks like an incremental but meaningful step forward in monitors rather than a revolution.
LG and Samsung are widening the rollout of their latest OLED panel tech from TVs into PC monitors. You can expect:
- Higher full screen brightness above 300 nits
- Better HDR peak brightness and detail
- More variety in sizes and resolutions, including new 5K2K 40 inch OLED monitors that could become a high end sweet spot for immersive PC gaming
There is talk of 6K gaming monitors appearing, though actually driving that resolution in modern games is another question. More realistic for most setups is a steady expansion of 5K gaming displays and ultra high refresh rate panels.
Last year, MSI and ASRock were already showing off 500 Hz plus monitors using IPS panels instead of older TN or VA tech. If those early models were any indication, CES 2026 should bring even more extreme refresh rates aimed at competitive players who want the absolute lowest input lag and smoothest motion.
Nvidia and the Inevitable AI Wave
Nvidia is heavily leaning into AI at CES this year. Its messaging around the show focuses on AI powered demos, partner ecosystems and solutions for productivity and enterprise. That means you should not expect major GeForce gaming GPU launches in Las Vegas itself. Nvidia tends to save pure gaming announcements for its own GTC event in March.
Still, AI is not all hype for gamers. CES 2025 already showed how far Nvidia could push DLSS and frame generation, with DLSS 4 winning praise as one of the most genuinely useful AI innovations for PC players. AMD’s FSR is trying to catch up, and both companies will likely use CES 2026 to showcase AI features that boost frame rates, improve image quality or streamline creator workflows on gaming rigs.
AI is also partly to blame for the current DRAM and storage supply crunch, as data center demand soaks up huge amounts of memory. That could keep prices for gaming laptops and desktops higher than we would like through 2026, even as performance edges upward.
In the end, CES 2026 looks like a year of strong but evolutionary upgrades for PC gamers instead of dramatic generational leaps. Faster X3D CPUs from AMD, efficient Panther Lake laptops from Intel, more capable handhelds from multiple vendors, brighter and faster OLED and IPS displays, and smarter upscaling and frame generation technologies all add up.
If you are planning a new build or upgrade in 2026, CES will provide a good early map of what is coming, and what is worth waiting for before you pull the trigger on your next gaming PC, laptop or handheld.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/ces-2026-from-new-intel-chips-to-far-too-much-ai-heres-everything-we-expect-to-see/
