CES 2026: Nvidia’s Updated DLSS Makes Games Run Worse on Older GPUs

Unless you run an AI data center, Nvidia’s announcements this CES have been more on the quiet end. There were updates to GeForce Now cloud streaming and its DLSS upscaling tech, but no new graphic cards. That’s fine—it’s normal for Nvidia to have a quiet year on consumer tech every now and then, and the RTX 50-series GPUs just came out last year. Unfortunately, it turns out those DLSS updates are actually making games run worse on older GPUs.

The new version of DLSS, called DLSS 4.5, is pretty great when it works. It already makes lighting appear far more realistic even when ray tracing or HDR isn’t being used, and in the spring, it will introduce dynamic frame generation, which can adjust how many AI frames are inserted into your game on the fly, so that it doesn’t waste compute producing more frames than necessary, or than your monitor can produce. I saw examples of both of these use cases in person at CES, and as someone who mostly plays without upscaling when I can, I was impressed enough that I might want to get a new GPU and make the swap.

And I stress that “new GPU” part. Unfortunately, DLSS 4.5 only seems to work best on Nvidia’s newest cards. It released in beta for all Nvidia GeForce RTX cards yesterday, but gamers on older RTX 3000-series cards are already reporting issues. According to a report from X user Mostly Positive Reviews (via Tom’s Hardware), users on the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GPU could see up to a 24% dip in performance in Cyberpunk 2077, and a 14% drop in The Last of Us Part 2. Those are just a few examples, but others in the comments posted their own headaches, as did users on Reddit.

That’s not a small issue. The RTX 3080 Ti might be a few generations behind, but it was near the top of the line when it was current. More importantly, according to Steam’s own data, the RTX 3060 is currently the most common graphics card on Steam, and it’s weaker than the RTX 3080 Ti. And technically, DLSS 4.5 is available for the even weaker RTX 2000-series, which are bound to run into even more severe problems.

So where’s this massive performance loss coming from, and what can you do about it? Likely, it has to do with the new AI transformer model powering DLSS, which Nvidia said was built with RTX 40-series and RTX 50-series cards in mind. While you can use DLSS 4.5 with an older GPU, it doesn’t seem like it’s intended.

Thankfully, if you decided to try out DLSS 4.5 on an older card and you don’t like what you’re seeing, you’re not stuck with it. Currently, public DLSS 4.5 implementation is in beta, and needs to be applied to games by choosing either the “Model M” or “Model L” preset in the Nvidia app (under “Latest” and “Custom,” respectively). Choosing another model, like Model K, should get you back to normal. When DLSS 4.5 gets a full release on January 13, I assume this will get even simpler.

Still, it’s not a great look that most Nvidia gamers can’t use its exciting new feature. Because it can be reversed, it doesn’t break anything, but it also shows that Nvidia is starting to leave all but its most loyal GPU customers behind. And as someone who mostly only uses upscaling while on weaker hardware like the Steam Deck, what I find especially weird is that upscaling is already all about using software to improve performance when you’re lacking raw power. That should theoretically make gamers with weaker cards the target audience.


Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

But it’s not all doom-and-gloom for my fellow cheap gamers. Alongside DLSS 4.5, Nvidia also announced a native Linux client for Nvidia GeForce Now, alongside a native Amazon Fire TV app. That extends the cloud gaming platform to even more users, and because GeForce Now has a free tier, it’s a pretty sweet deal. Play it right, say by getting a Fire TV on sale and loading up a free game, and you could game using Nvidia’s latest GPUs on the big screen while spending less than $20. Sure, you might have to deal with some latency and video compression while doing it—as is the tradeoff with cloud gaming—but as DLSS 4.5 shows, even using local hardware comes with its own problems.

This Radar-Equipped Stove Shutoff Is One of the Most Practical Things I Saw at CES

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Radar-based sensors seem to be having a moment at CES, especially in tech meant for people to keep tabs on their aging family members. One product in particular caught my eye because it’s focused on a single important function—preventing kitchen fires caused by a person wandering away from the stove. 

iGuardStove is essentially a smart shutoff for a stove or cooktop. Its new, radar-equipped version costs $399 and can work on gas or electric stoves. (For gas, you’ll need to have a plumber install a shutoff valve.) If you leave the kitchen while cooking, a five-minute timer starts. If you don’t return by the time it goes off, the device either cuts the power to your electric stove, or shuts off the supply line to your gas stove. It can also notify a caregiver that a shutoff event occurred.

Why this is aging-in-place tech

A big theme in smart tech this year is aging-in-place. Most older adults would prefer to live at home as long as they can, but health challenges can make that difficult. When it comes to cooking or other activities that require a sharp mind, mental health issues like dementia come into play, as do medications that can have cognitive side effects. With all that in mind, caregivers often worry about a parent leaving the kitchen while cooking, forgetting that the stove is on. 

The National Fire Protection Association reports that cooking fires are the top cause of home fires, the top cause of fire-related injuries, and the number three cause of fire-related deaths. Unattended cooking equipment causes half of those deaths. Older adults are overrepresented as fire casualties compared to younger and middle-aged people.

The device has a five-minute timer, specifically, because that was a safety margin the company developed with safety organization UL, chief marketing officer Jon Landers told me. You can also override the five-minute timer if you’re roasting a turkey or preparing a slow-simmered sauce. In this case you tell the device how long the food is expected to cook, and it lets this cook time complete before resetting to the usual five-minute timer behavior.

Why radar is involved

A previous version of the iGuardStove used motion detectors, but if you’ve ever worked in an office that had lights on motion sensors, you know why that wasn’t a great solution: sit still at a table for too long, and the lights go off. The older version of the device could potentially shut off while you’re just waiting for your dinner to cook, and could be triggered by motion from pets. Radar solves those problems, since it can more accurately identify when a person is in the room.

I’ve been seeing radar in a number of aging-in-place products at CES this year. The Silver Shield from PontoSense uses radar to monitor a person’s presence and movement in a room, reporting movement and potential falls to a caregiver’s app. Luna, a conversation and reminder device from Cairns Health, includes radar that can monitor heart rate and breathing (even through blankets!) when positioned near a person’s bed. The iGuardStove has some monitoring features in common with those devices, but it stays focused on its main task of ensuring stoves aren’t left running unattended. 

Radar can “see” a lot, but it doesn’t feel quite as privacy-invading as a camera. Having a device in the kitchen is also a bit less intrusive than in a bedroom, for those who would feel creeped out knowing that a tech device is watching them sleep. 

Besides shutting off the stove, the iGuardStove can report to a caregiver (via an app, of course) things like what time each day a person first enters the kitchen. It can catch nighttime wandering if the person visits the kitchen at night; it can also send an alert if the person doesn’t seem to be up and active at their usual time. For example, if your mom usually makes coffee around 9:00 every morning, you can ask the app to notify you if the kitchen is still empty at 10:00. 

Other monitoring and safety features

Besides shutting off the stove and reporting on the presence of a person in the kitchen, the iGuardStove has a few other clever features. The version of the device made for gas stoves can detect unburned gas, in case somebody left it on without a burner running. 

The device can also be configured to keep the stove from being turned on by pets or children, or it can be locked to not allow cooking during certain hours or days (say, at night). The app can also alert a caregiver if temperatures get too hot or cold, prompting them to check in if a heat wave or a cold snap is bad enough to affect indoor temperatures.

While a lot of products I’ve seen at CES are speculative or hopeful in their use cases—I often find myself asking “who would actually use this?”—the iGuardStove seems thoughtfully designed and has a concrete use case and benefit. I was impressed! The new device is expected to ship later this year.

CES 2026: This Lenovo Gaming Laptop Can Stretch From 16:9 to ‘Ultrawide’ With the Push of a Button

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Choosing a gaming monitor is a tough choice. Do you want a standard, 16:9 monitor that takes up a small amount of desk space, or a larger 21:9 or even 32:9 ultrawide monitor that takes up more space, but will also show you more of your game? This goes double for laptops, where ultrawide models are few-and-far between, and are absolutely gigantic. Lenovo’s new concept for CES, the Lenovo Legion Pro Rollable, aims to give you the best of both worlds.

When the laptop is closed, or when you first open it up, the Legion Pro Rollable looks like any other gaming laptop. It’s a little thick, with RGB keys and a full numpad, but otherwise isn’t notable. It’s also got a bog standard, 16:9 aspect ratio. But with the press of a button, it can extend to a 21:9 ultrawide screen. And while it’s not quite as fancy as the 32:9 screens the most spoiled gamers use, you can actually extend it further to a 24:9 screen if you want.

That trick is possible thanks to a rollable OLED panel, something Lenovo’s shown off and even released before, but for laptops that extend vertically, and aren’t meant for gamers. The transformation is quick and quiet, and Windows doesn’t even need time to adjust to match your new aspect ratio. It kind of feels like you’re unfurling a scroll.

In total, the screen space can extend from 16-inches in 16:9 (or “Focus”) mode to 21-inches in 21:9 (or “Tactical”) mode to 24-inches in 24:9 (or “Arena” mode). Aspect ratio numbers don’t always match screen space measurements that neatly, but hey, they’re easy to keep track of here.

Having up to 24 inches of screen space on-the-go could be a life changer, and not just for gamers. Currently, I’m writing this article while traveling, which means I’m stuck with just my laptop screen. I’m sorely missing the second monitor I have at home, and being able to swap my screen into an ultrawide mode could easily fix that issue. Plus, I could just shrink it back down to a more standard form factor when it comes time to pack it away.

The only real catches would be weight and price. I don’t have specific numbers for how heavy this is, but it didn’t feel too different from any other gaming laptop in my hands. Beefy, but not back-breaking.

As for price, here’s the kicker. Because this is just a concept, there’s no pricing or availability info, since it’s not guaranteed to come out. Lenovo does say the unit I saw is based on a top-specced Lenovo Legion Pro 7i, though, which currently goes for around $3,000.

That would be a lot to pay, especially because the extending screen would probably add a couple hundred dollars to the price tag. I wouldn’t put too much stock into the demo unit right now, though—if this does make it to market, you’ll probably be able to configure it to better match your needs.

Personally, though, I might be willing to pay that $3,000. Not only is this truly unique in the space, but it also conveniently solves one of my biggest pain points when I have to use my laptop, which is the lack of a two-screen setup. It could even be useful for desktop gamers looking to make the transition to portable gaming—no more having to choose which type of monitor you want.

CES 2026: Lenovo Just Quietly Announced the Most Powerful ‘Steam Deck’ Yet

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2025 was a great year for handheld gaming, with the Nintendo Switch finally getting a sequel and older handhelds like the Nintendo DS getting unofficial successors from companies like AYN and Ayaneo. Steam Deck fans did take a bit of a hit towards the end of the year, when Valve announced it was discontinuing the $400 Steam Deck LCD, but for gamers on the other side of the price spectrum, Lenovo just announced the most powerful SteamOS handheld yet.

It’s technically not a new device, but instead, a reissue of a handheld from last year. Called the Lenovo Legion Go 2, it packs up to an AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip, up to 32GB of RAM, and up to 2TB of storage. It’s also got detachable controllers like the Nintendo Switch, and uniquely, an 8.8-inch OLED display. And now, you can buy it with SteamOS officially installed out of the box (last year’s release only came with Windows).

If it’s anything like the Legion Go S with SteamOS preinstalled, that means booting it up and navigating through your games will feel just like using a Steam Deck, which is great news for anyone who’s a fan of Valve’s lightweight and simple-to-use operating system, but is starting to feel like it might be showing its age. Not only should it prove easier to use than last year’s Legion Go 2 with Windows installed on it, but the more powerful chip means the handheld will be able to play games much more smoothly and at higher resolutions than any other official SteamOS device yet. The hardware isn’t made by Valve, but effectively, this is now a new, ultra-powerful Steam Deck sequel, and should be able to bump up your fps by up to dozens of frames in the right circumstances. For a measure of how transformative this can be, when the Legion Go S got SteamOS, it went from one of my least favorite handheld gaming PCs to my best pick for most people.

Even those who already have the Windows version could see a performance increase, since SteamOS typically takes fewer resources to run than Windows, which can translate to smoother gameplay. You can see my review of the Legion Go 2 with Windows for more there, where I compare it to SteamOS devices. With this hardware combined with this operating system, this might be the most powerful handheld gaming PC you can buy right now, period.

The only catch? This is still a bulky device, and while the SteamOS version of the Legion Go S saw a price cut over the Windows version (likely due to Valve not charging a licensing fee like Microsoft), the SteamOS version of the Legion Go 2 actually starts off more expensive than the Windows version, at $1,199 rather than $1,099. That could be due to shortages on key components like RAM, but it is disappointing to see an already high price tag get higher when the precedent for SteamOS versions of these devices is for prices to come down.

Still, the cheapest Windows model for the Legion Go 2 is actually a bit hard to find anywhere other than Lenovo’s official store right now anyway, so it’s possible that model could face its own price bumps in the near future as supply dwindles. And above four figures, one could argue that quality matters more than an extra $100 on the price tag.

Granted, you could get a Windows version and install SteamOS on it yourself, but doing so is a bit arduous, and can result in some unintuitive button mapping. The version with SteamOS installed out of the box, meanwhile, has a dedicated Steam button set-up from the get go. You’ll have fewer headaches and a more intuitive setup by going for it.

Aside from that button and the operating system, everything else about the device is the same as the Windows version, but that’s not a bad thing. I called it “overkill” in my review, but that large OLED screen is gorgeous, and perfect for gamers who want the best looking graphics possible on the go. The original Legion Go 2 was my favorite premium gaming handheld of last year, and the model with SteamOS installed on it is only set to make it better.

Valve gamers who think the Steam Deck OLED or Legion Go S aren’t quite ritzy enough for them should stay tuned for the official release date, currently expected for June. This could be the premium handheld gaming PC they’ve been waiting for, marrying SteamOS convenience with modern specs that even the similarly priced Xbox handheld can’t match. Finally, there’s a “Steam Deck” for the 1%.

CES 2026: This Laptop Can Nod Yes or No When You Ask It a Question

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Usually, you can open a laptop screen, you can close it, and that’s it. But Lenovo’s newest laptop, debuting at CES 2026, can also rotate from side-to-side, open and close itself, turn into a tablet, and talk to you while doing it.

That’s all thanks to a small motorized hinge in between the screen and the keyboard, giving the laptop full, self-powered 360-degree movement. It’s an evolution of a previous concept laptop, but now it’s finally coming to market as the ThinkBook Plus Gen 7 Auto Twist.

The idea is obviously there for a bit of a cool factor—you can knock twice on the laptop lid to open it—but there’s practical use, too. If you’re on a video call, you could walk around in front of the laptop, and the screen will track your movement, ensuring you stay centered in the webcam’s frame. And yes, you can set the screen to only follow you, or you can have it follow anyone who gets in front of it.


Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

There’s also a generic ChatGPT chatbot that Lenovo is working on for it, but it won’t quite be ready for launch. It’ll pop up a big pair of cutesy eyes on screen, and the laptop will know to nod the screen up and down if the chatbot says something positive, or shake it from side to side if it says something negative.

The catch to all this is that the motor’s a bit on the loud side, so I maybe wouldn’t use it too much in a crowded office—but it’s nice to see one of these concepts actually make it to market.

This is actually the second time Lenovo’s made good on one of these flashy new designs, after it turned the rollable laptop it showed off at last year’s CES into reality with the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable. It’s also clear the company’s not done iterating—I saw a new version of a rollable laptop alongside the Auto Twist, and while it’s still just a concept, it’s more compact than the one Lenovo released, and can show some key performance information on the laptop’s lid.


Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

As a computer, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 7 Auto Twist should also be pretty powerful, too. It’ll come equipped with the latest Intel Core Ultra processors, up to 32GB of RAM, up to 2TB of storage, and a 14-inch OLED screen. Gimmicks aside, this is a workstation, through and through.

And while specs like that will cost you a pretty penny, it looks like the auto twist feature won’t add too much to the cost. The ThinkBook Plus Gen 7 Auto Twist is set to launch in June 2026 starting at $1,649. That’s actually a significant savings against other, non-twisting Lenovo laptops announced during this CES, like the new ThinkPad X1 Carbon, which has similar specs but is slightly more AI-oriented and has a more premium chassis. That laptop will start at $1,999 when it hits the market in March.

CES 2026: This Tiny Computer Is like a Mac Mini for PC Users

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Mini PCs are great for people who want minimal desk setups, but aside from the Mac Mini, they’re not really something that appeals to the average user. Most are boring and still-slightly-chunky boxes, come from lesser-known companies like Geekom, and are built either for enterprise or thrifty gamers. What’s a Windows user who doesn’t want to swap to Apple to do? This year, Lenovo’s launching a new Mini PC with some of that Apple sleekness, to try to fill that niche.

Unveiled at CES, the Lenovo Yoga Mini i is a cute little circle that fits in the palm of your hand and weighs just about 1.3 pounds (with small variations depending on how you configure it). A slightly textured, silvery-gray paint job covers the entirety of the device, and ports are generous but stay in dedicated areas on either the rear or side of the device. The rear’s got slots for an ethernet port, a USB-A cable, an HDMI cable, and three USB-C cables, with one set aside for power, one for Thunderbolt 4 accessories, and one for all the rest. The side has a 3.5mm headphone jack (thank goodness) and another Thunderbolt 4 port.


Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

It’s an overall attractive appearance, which is important when you’re selling something based on form factor, but the kicker is that the power button is actually on the side of the device. It sounds simple, but that’s bound to drive people who bought the latest Mac Mini, which has its power button underneath the computer, crazy with envy. Better yet? That power button also doubles as a fingerprint reader for easy sign-ins.

Lenovo Yoga Mini rear view (left) and power button view (right)
Credit: Lenovo

Specs wise, it comes decked out with the latest Intel Core Ultra X series AI chips, up to 32GB of RAM, and up to 2TB of storage. It also features a WiFi 7 adapter, two speakers, and even a microphone built-in, for zippy internet connectivity and easy audio calls. That’s more than enough performance for the average person, and probably even outclasses my years-old full-size desktop. Don’t expect to play the latest games at max settings on it, but this should be roughly equivalent to a high-end productivity laptop if you go for its most powerful configuration options.

To push it over the edge, the Yoga Mini i also has its own “one more thing.” There’s actually an accelerometer with a touch sensor inside this thing, so it can work with Lenovo’s Smart Connect ecosystem. The company says you can use this to take calls by tapping on the PC, use certain touch gestures to adjust the Yoga Mini’s performance mode, or use a customizable double tap to do other actions, like calling up an AI chatbot.

Taken all together, the smooth appearance, user-friendly design tweaks, and tiny size make for probably the closest thing I’ve seen to a Windows version of the Mac Mini yet—and that goes for the pricing, too. The Yoga Mini i will start at $700, which is $100 more than the base Mac Mini, but is still pretty affordable for those kind of specs in the middle of a memory shortage. Lenovo hasn’t said how expensive it could get if you go for extra storage or RAM, too, and it’s possible its mid-range configurations could come in at less expensive or around the same price as the Mac Mini’s.

Personally, I was seriously considering downsizing to a Mac Mini for my next computer, but with the Lenovo Yoga Mini i, maybe I’ll stick to Windows for at least a little bit longer. If you’re in the same boat, Lenovo expects to release the Yoga Mini i sometime this June.

CES 2026: Lenovo’s New ‘AI Frame’ Gaming Monitor Might Actually Just Be Cheating

It’s easy to take this for granted, but not everyone is able to immediately look at a shooting or strategy game and find the reticle or map. Gaming UIs can get complicated, and for less-seasoned gamers, they can be pretty intimidating, too. Lenovo’s new concept “AI Frame” monitor, shown off at CES 2026, aims to make some games a bit more approachable, although experts might consider it cheating.

Hardware-wise, this is a normal 21:9 ultrawide gaming monitor, but it’s not actually meant to be used like that. Instead, you play your game in a left-justified 16:9 rectangle that takes up most of the screen, and in the remaining space, the AI will automatically zoom in on part of your gameplay and show a blown-up version of it. For instance, it might show you a zoomed-in map in a MOBA, so you don’t have to look at the tiny mini-map in your main gameplay to know where you or your team are. Or, it might zoom in on your reticle in a shooter, letting you better see your targets. There’s even enough space left over for you to pull up an internet browser and look up some help.


Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

It worked pretty well for me in-person. Again, it doesn’t actually generate any visuals, but instead just blows up the most important parts of your game screen so you can more easily glance at them or see them in more detail. That does mean resolution can suffer a little, but that’s what your main gameplay screen is for. For getting across information, it’s a good option.

Plus, while some games will automatically know what to zoom in on, there’s also a generic zoom mode that will just blow up whatever your mouse is hovering over, so it can work with any content. The AI Frame is being pitched for games, but you could also use it like a digital magnifying glass on an article in your browser, for instance.


Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

The catch? It’s maybe not exactly “fair” to play this way. While a bigger map in a MOBA might just save you some eyestrain, an AI-assisted zoom on a shooting reticle basically lets anyone act like a sniper, regardless of what character you’re playing or gun you have equipped. For me, characters in the distance that were basically ants became immediately visible on the AI Frame, which made gunfights much easier to handle.

I suppose we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. The AI Frame is just a proof-of-concept for now, so there’s no hard specs sheet or pricing or release date as of yet. But if this does ever actually make it to market, Lenovo might have to contend with companies like Valve. The developer has banned similar “this is arguably cheating” peripherals from its games before, and the AI Frame could be the next battlefront in an ongoing war between peripheral makers (who want to sell you on the idea that buying their products can make you a better player) and developers (who, at least theoretically, want all of their players to be on an even playing field).

CES 2026: Intel’s New Chips Are Coming For Your Gaming Handhelds

Every year at CES, Intel and AMD announce their newest processors. This year, Intel debuted its first line of chips made with its 18a process, which stands for 18 angstroms, or under 2nm. To make that a little less nerdy, that means these chips can fit a lot of tech into a small area, which means big gains in performance.

Colloquially called Panther Lake, the new Intel Core Ultra Series 3 chips are focused on laptops and mini-PCs. But that doesn’t mean they don’t put out impressive numbers. During its keynote, Intel promised “77% faster gaming performance,” and for everyone actually using their PCs to do work, “60% better multithread performance.” Impressively, it also said its new chips would also enable “up to 27 hours of battery life,” rivaling Apple’s M-series chips and other ARM chips from manufacturers like Qualcomm. Battery life has been a sore spot for both Intel and AMD for a while, and I’m excited to get my hands on machines that use Panther Lake processors.


Credit: Intel

And then there’s the AI. Intel says its top Intel Core Ultra Series 3 models have 50 NPU TOPs and 180 TOPS in total when you combine the NPU and GPU numbers. To translate, that basically means faster AI performance for developers who don’t want to bother with the cloud, and would prefer the speed and privacy of a locally downloaded AI model.

Speaking of that GPU, Intel’s upgraded its integrated graphics this generation to the Intel Arc B390, which has twice the cache of its prior GPU and 50% more cores. I already mentioned that 77% increase in gaming performance, but AI developers will also see a 53% increase in performance over Intel Core Ultra Series 2, and a two times performance increase over Intel Core Ultra Series 1.

So, better computers. That’s pretty par for the course for CES, but there is a “one more thing” here. Intel is coming for AMD’s dominance in handheld gaming PCs.


Credit: Intel

Until now, most handheld gaming PCs have used AMD chips, with those that have opted for Intel getting hit in reviews for buggy or poorly optimized performance. The Steam Deck uses an AMD chip, and so does the Xbox handheld. Intel says it’s going to change that.

After announcing the new integrated GPU and walking through features like frame generation and ray tracing, the company said it “will be launching an entire handheld gaming platform with Panther Lake.”

That means big moves, and soon—Panther Lake won’t last long before getting replaced. The company didn’t say much more, but it did show a slide with partners set to use Intel chips in their handhelds, including Acer, MSI, and hey, Microsoft. I guess we’ll see another Xbox handheld model soon.

And that’s about it for Intel this year. The new chips are smaller, stronger, and more efficient, but smartly, the company is also planning to use them to shore up its weaknesses, specifically in gaming and battery life. That makes sense. With developers like Apple having famously ditched Intel throughout the decade, the company has been on the backfoot.

According to Intel, the earliest machines powered by Intel Core Ultra Series 3 will start accepting pre-orders on January 6, with availability beginning on January 27.

CES 2026: AMD Just Showed Off ‘Helios,’ the Hardware That Will Power the AI Content in Your Feeds

When you come across an AI video on Instagram, or watch ChatGPT respond to your query, do you ever think about how that content was generated? Beyond the actual programs and prompts, generative AI takes an enormous amount of compute to support, especially as it skyrockets in popularity. As such, AI companies are looking for more power than ever, which means, of course, turning to those that make the hardware.

AMD calls Helios “The world’s best AI rack”

During a Monday evening keynote, AMD’s CEO Dr. Lisa Su showed off the hardware that will soon power everything from ChatGPT to the AI videos overwhelming your feeds. Su introduced “Helios” against a backdrop of dramatic music, the company’s upcoming AI rack, that packs a staggering amount of computing power into a rack that weighs nearly 7,000 pounds.

Each “cross-section” of these racks, if you will, is powered by four key AMD pieces of hardware: The company’s new AMD Instinct MI455X GPU, the new AMD EPYC “Veince” CPU, the AMD Pensando “Vulcano” 800 AI NIC, and the AMD Pensando “Salina” 400 DPU. There are some staggering stats here: Helios is capable of 2.9 exaflops of AI compute, and comes with 31 TB of HBM4 memory. It offers 43 TB per second scale out Bandwidth, and is developed with 2nm and 3nm architecture. The rack has 4,600 “Zen 6” CPU cores, and 18,000 GPU compute units. In other words, this isn’t your average piece of hardware.

Su’s pitch is that the AI industry is in need of this additional compute power. She notes how the world used one ZettaFlop of computing power in 2022 on AI technology, compared to 100 ZettaFlops in 2025. (For the curious, one ZettaFlop has a value of 10 to the power of 21.) It’s no surprise: AI is everywhere, and many of us are using it—whether we know it or not. Some of us are using it overtly, generating AI videos or running chatbots daily. But others are using AI quietly embedded in functions, like live translation.

Su welcomed reps from OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, and Luma AI, which creates generative AI video content, to talk about how additional compute helps their programs. But during Luma AI’s demonstration of its hyperrealistic video generations, all I could think about was how this type of content is already tricking people into thinking its real, when it’s entirely fabricated—not to mention the impact on human artists. AMD is optimistic about AI, and the data centers powering it, but critics have been pushing back, citing concerns with the impacts on the communities companies are building these data centers in.

Helios will likely be a major success for AMD, but it comes at an interesting time for tech, and AI in general. AI is more popular than ever, but it’s also more controversial than ever. I see hardware like Helios only fueling the fire in both directions.

AMD Ryzen AI 400 series

In addition to Helios, Su announced the AMD Ryzen AI 400 series. These newest chips comes with either 12 “Zen 5” CPU cores and 24 threads, 16 RDNA 3.5 GPU cores, a 60 TOPS XDNA 2 NPU, and memory speeds of 8,533 MT/s. AMD says the Ryzen AI 400 series is 1.7 times faster at content creation and 1.3 times faster at multitasking whe compared to Intel Core Ultra 9 288V.

These new chips will ship soon in a number of major PC brands, including Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Beelink, Colorful, Gigabyte, LG, Mechrevo, MSI, and NEC.

CES 2026: There’s a Whole Windows PC in This HP Keyboard

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If you’re anything like me, you spend 90% of your time using your laptop with it docked and plugged into a monitor (or two). And if you’re at that point, you might be wondering why you even bother having a screen attached to your computer at all. If so, HP’s got your back. Announced at this year’s CES, the HP Eliteboard G1a looks like a normal keyboard on the outside, but on the inside, it’s got a whole Windows PC.

That’s not exactly a new concept, but with the experimental days of Windows XP long behind us, it’s mostly been reserved for less powerful, Linux-based single-board computers like the Raspberry Pi. That’s great if you’re a hacker or tinkerer, but not if you’re just looking for a screenless, keyboard-equipped Mini PC to get you through the workday.

The Eliteboard G1a, instead, comes equipped with the latest AMD Ryzen AI chips, up to 64GB of RAM, and up to 2TB of storage, so while you shouldn’t expect to play the latest and greatest games on it, for internet browsers and lightweight productivity programs, it should really be able to hustle.


Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

It’s also a bit of a sleeper build. I’ve been able to go hands-on with it, and to all outside eyes, it really does look like a regular office keyboard, complete with black, low-profile chiclet keys, a function row, and a numpad. Ranging from 1.5 to 1.7 pounds based on how you spec it out, it’s also pretty lightweight, and the right person might believe you if you said it was just a keyboard, with no computer inside whatsoever.

The catch? This baby is aimed at enterprise customers, rather than your typical consumer. That does come with a few bonuses, like a Kensington lock slot, some extra security software, and an optional fingerprint reader. But it also means you’re not going to find it up for sale anywhere other than the HP store, and while pricing hasn’t been announced yet, it’ll probably be a bit more expensive if bought individually rather than as part of an office fleet. It can also only connect to monitors using DisplayPort, which is fine if you’re an office manager that knows to buy displays that will work with it, but may not fit into everyone’s home set-up.

That’s a shame, because I love unusual form factors, and this keyboard PC could make for a really clean desk in my home office. It’s strong enough, uses a familiar operating system with wide app compatibility, and can even output to two 4K monitors at once. There are also two versions, one that always needs to be plugged in, and one with a battery and a detachable USB power cable for quickly moving between different workstations. That’s great flexibility, since the battery version is a bit more portable, but is also heavier.

Here’s hoping this is just an early experiment for HP, because I’d love to buy a consumer version of this laptop at some point in the future. If you’re willing to take the plunge on the enterprise model, though, HP says it’s expected to launch on HP.com sometime in March.