When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This does not affect our editorial independence.
The graphics card hype exercise left the season weeks before CES 2025 began in early January, with the launch of Intel’s $249 Arc B580, the GPU we’ve been clamoring for since the pandemic. But make no mistake: Intel has to launch its second-generation Arc in December because CES promises to be a real windfall for graphics card launches.
Nvidia is already teasing an RTX 50-series announcement at CEO Jensen Huang’s keynote, while the rumor mill claims AMD’s new Radeon cards will also make an appearance at the show. Yes, friends, after a disappointing few years for graphics cards, the next generation of gaming goodness should be unveiled at CES 2025 and Nvidia, AMD, and Intel look ready to brawl. Let’s dig in.
Let’s start with Nvidia’s hotly anticipated GeForce RTX 50-series, because the company is already actively, not-so-slyly teasing it. Then again, who misses the opportunity to hype your next-gen GPU in the debut trailer for Witcher 4?
The new GeForce cards are a no-brainer; The only question is what precise models we will see announced at the Nvidia keynote. But what will drive them?
The specifications of the GeForce RTX 5090, 5080 and 5070 were leaked months ago. (Click this link for more details. ) Normally we wouldn’t give much credence to old rumors, however, they’ve remained consistent ever since, and the timing makes sense given that the “Blackwell” GPUs were reportedly delayed due to production issues.
The RTX 5090 appears to be the ultimate beast of the bunch (no surprise), as it supposedly offers massive innovations in CUDA number, memory capacity, bandwidth (32GB on a 512-bit bus) and input. forced from the 4090: the leaks say so. The monster of a GPU can consume only six hundred watts, a whopping 150W over its predecessor. And if you think the RTX 4090’s $1,599 price tag is high, prepare to be surprised; I expect the 5090 to charge an astronomical amount given its excellence in the device’s learning responsibilities if the leaked specifications turn out to be true. Button.
Nvidia is building hype for its new cards with social promotions and a massive “GeForce LAN 50” global LAN party.
NVIDIA
Details are still largely unclear about the RTX 5070 (maybe it won’t be announced at CES?), however, the RTX 5080 looks much less like an upgrade. Rumors put its number of CUDA cores at 10,752, an increase of only 10% over the existing 4080. The memory configuration remains the same, except for the transfer from GDDR6 to GDDR7, although the overall graphics power is expected. until going from 320 W in the 4070 to 400 W in the 5070.
Keep in mind that the Blackwell architecture that powers the RTX 50-series will include technological differences from the 40-series’ Ada Lovelace architecture, so comparing raw CUDA counts isn’t really apples-to-apples. Nvidia often tinkers with the bones of its GPU architectures to improve performance in various ways (the RTX 40-series packed a new dedicated Optical Flow Accelerator to enable DLSS 3 Frame Generation, along with a new Shader Execution Reordering function to accelerate traditional rendering, for example).
The biggest wildcard here? Software. Nvidia pumps out software features at a frenetic pace, releasing not only DLSS 3 Frame Generation but also DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction during the RTX 4090’s lifespan, along with helpful tools like RTX Video Super Resolution. With Nvidia reigning at the top of the stock market due to the current AI frenzy, I’d be shocked if the company doesn’t announce some new AI-powered tricks at CES 2025.
Compared to Nvidia, AMD has been silent about its plans for CES, aside from delivering a keynote on Monday, January 6, just hours before Nvidia’s. However, AMD’s head of computing and graphics Jack Huynh teased “our next generation of AI innovation for gaming, PC and enterprise” in reference to the X talk, so rumors about AMD’s Radeon GPUs new generation may prove true.
But what sort of graphics cards does AMD have up its sleeves for the Radeon RX 8000-series (or is that the Radeon RX 9070 XT)? Don’t hold your breath for an RTX 5090 competitor.
In September, Huynh said that competing for the “King of the Hill” name had not traditionally worked for Radeon. “I need to create the most productive products with the right value. So think of value in terms of value. ” We will have leadership. The company hopes to drive greater adoption at customer value levels to convince developers to use Radeon products. Gaming and artificial intelligence are two very popular categories right now, and while AMD has a presence in both territories, Nvidia dominates.
Rumors are currently circulating around the alleged specifications of the Radeon RX 9070 If the leaked specs are leaked and not just “Invented”, the board may see a massive improvement in ray tracing functionality and force efficiency.
But big GPUs are the only potential game out there.
AMD’s Ryzen Z1 with Radeon processors push the limits of today’s gaming laptops, from the Steam Deck to Asus ROG Ally. The company’s homepage says the demo spaces will include “AMD Ryzen and Radeon games, from handheld to notebook devices. “
Of course, that may simply mean showing off AMD’s existing portfolio of portable devices. But we haven’t noticed any handhelds with the particularly beefier Ryzen Z2 chip yet, and AMD has said we can expect to see them in early 2025. Valve just updated its logo rules to come with a new “Powered Through SteamOS” . Distinction for the third classified. third-party hardware, and we’re already seeing leaks of a second-generation Lenovo Legion handheld. (The first one ran AMD).
Will CES be the Z2 bombing? Fingers crossed.
Intel just unboxed the $249 Arc B580 in December. Expect to see the company showcasing its second-generation Arc graphics cards on display, not just the B580 submodels, but also the Arc B570, cheaper at $129. This GPU was announced alongside the B580, but may not take to the streets until January 16. Intel and its partners will undoubtedly highlight their designs at their booths.
I’d also expect to see at least one gaming handheld powered by Intel’s Core Ultra Series 2 “Lunar Lake” laptop chip, which includes the same Xe 2 graphics cores as Arc. MSI’s Claw was the first Intel-powered gaming handheld at CES last year, and the new Lunar Lake-powered Claw AI Plus series is already being shown off, with a scheduled release date of January 15. So that’s a lock for MSI’s booth at CES. The only question is whether any other handheld vendors will take the plunge alongside MSI.
I’ll be on the ground at CES 2025 with a bunch of my PCWorld buds, ready to bring you the latest news as it happens and interviews with the people making all this swell new PC hardware. The show officially runs January 7 to 10, but the big keynotes happen on Monday, January 6, with other information usually trickling out the weekend beforehand to get ahead of the deluge. Stay tuned here on PCWorld and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and TikTok so you don’t miss a thing! Hit subscribe on our Full Nerd channel too so you’ll catch our delirious thoughts in podcast form, live from Las Vegas.
Brad Chacos spends his days researching desktop computers and tweeting too much. It specializes in graphics cards and gaming, but covers everything from security to Windows tips and all types of PC hardware.
Business
Laptop
Mobile
computer hardware
Storage
Offers
technological hive
Digital Magazine – Subscribe
Digital magazine – Information
Gift subscription
Newsletters