{"id":241836,"date":"2026-01-16T20:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T20:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/241836\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T20:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T20:14:11","slug":"the-two-things-amd-subtly-revealed-at-ces-that-actually-excite-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/241836\/","title":{"rendered":"The two things AMD subtly revealed at CES that actually excite me"},"content":{"rendered":"

As we predicted<\/a>, the world\u2019s biggest consumer electronics show was a bit of a bust for gamers this year! CES 2026 brought us several<\/a> neat<\/a> gamepads<\/a>, but barely<\/a> any<\/a> handhelds and no new desktop GPUs \u2014 not from Nvidia, not from Intel, and not from AMD.<\/p>\n

But if you dig deep, AMD said two things at this year\u2019s show that are worthy of attention. Did you catch that the company\u2019s about to make socketed mobile chips again? Or that its answer to Intel is to lower the price of its monster Strix Halo silicon<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Publicly, AMD barely acknowledged consumers at the Consumer Electronics Show. \u201cAMD failed us,\u201d decried Gamers Nexus<\/a>, pointing out that the company\u2019s keynote was almost entirely fixated on AI. Outside the keynote, the company\u2019s few consumer-friendly announcements \u2014 including the Ryzen 7 9850X3D<\/a> for gaming desktops and Ryzen AI 400<\/a> for laptops \u2014 are all retreads of existing components.<\/p>\n

AMD also didn\u2019t announce a new chip for handheld gaming PCs, no successor to the Z2 and Z2 Extreme it introduced<\/a> a year ago, even as Intel publicly announced plans for an \u201centire handheld gaming platform\u201d and Qualcomm teased its own handhelds for a possible March reveal.<\/p>\n

Intel didn\u2019t miss a chance to jab: \u201cThey\u2019re selling ancient silicon, while we\u2019re selling up-to-date processors specifically designed for this market,\u201d Intel client product management director Nish Neelalojanan told PCWorld<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yet AMD claims those so-called \u201cancient\u201d processors are more than a match for Intel\u2019s new Panther Lake silicon<\/a>. AMD client chip boss Rahul Tikoo told Tom\u2019s Hardware <\/a>that AMD\u2019s Strix Halo \/ Ryzen AI Max chip \u201cwill kill\u201d Panther Lake. He said, \u201cIt\u2019s not even a fair fight at that point, because it\u2019s discrete-level graphics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tikoo also told Tom\u2019s Hardware that Intel\u2019s gaming-grade Panther Lake chips might be pricier than you expect: \u201cAnd, oh, by the way, that 12 Xe [Panther Lake]… Wait until you see the price point on that. It\u2019s gonna be, you know. Enough said.\u201d<\/p>\n

Price has been the problem with AMD\u2019s Strix Halo too \u2014 every powerful Ryzen handheld<\/a>, mini desktop<\/a>, and monster tablet<\/a> we\u2019ve seen has cost around $2,000, even before the RAM crunch<\/a>. But that brings me to the first exciting thing for gamers AMD quietly revealed at CES: The cost of its powerful Strix Halo systems is almost certainly about to come down.<\/p>\n

AMD introduced two new cut-down versions of Strix Halo<\/a> last week with their full-fat graphics intact; Tikoo told us that gaming companies specifically had been asking for parts like the new Ryzen AI Max Plus 388 and 392.<\/p>\n

\"Spotted<\/a><\/p>\n

And when I caught up with AMD\u2019s Jason Banta, who\u2019s in charge of interfacing with those companies, he said AMD genuinely expects the two new chips will lead to lower Strix Halo system prices, below $2,000 even when you factor in the runaway price of RAM<\/a>. (I asked the question several different ways to be sure of his answer.)<\/p>\n

Banta would not tell me if the company has any other plans to defend its tiny handheld empire (the Steam Deck, Xbox Ally, Legion Go, and more all use AMD chips, as do the PlayStation and Xbox) when Intel and Qualcomm come knocking later this year. \u201cWe believe imitation is a great form of flattery,\u201d is all he\u2019d really say. \u201cWhen we\u2019re creating the segment, innovating the segment, we expect others to enter.\u201d<\/p>\n

1\/9OneXPlayer brought liquid-cooled Strix Halo handhelds and tablets to CES. This is the \u201cFrost Bay\u201d external cooler. Photo by Sean Hollister \/ The Verge<\/p>\n

Banta isn\u2019t afraid of Intel and Qualcomm handheld chips taking his customers away. \u201cWhat they\u2019ve seen is we\u2019ve proven we can execute, and not just execute: When we see a quirk with a game, we follow up, we update, we optimize. [\u2026] That has a very big influence on those design decisions for every one of these OEMs,\u201d he said. Banta said AMD\u2019s handheld business is still growing, too, and the company still plans to keep investing.<\/p>\n

Most PC makers don\u2019t seem ready to climb aboard Intel\u2019s handheld bandwagon just yet. If you take a close look at Intel\u2019s keynote slide<\/a>, the only major vendors listed are Acer and MSI, and the only boutique handheld makers are GPD and OneXPlayer, both still big on AMD<\/a>. The rest of Intel\u2019s partners (Compal, Foxconn, Inventec, Pegatron, Quanta, and Wistron) aren\u2019t brands, but rather the ODM contract manufacturing companies<\/a> that\u2019ll be fighting for their business.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Intel\u2019s handheld partner list is dominated by ODMs. Image: Intel<\/p>\n

While I was chatting with AMD\u2019s Jason Banta at the show, he brought my attention to one more piece of news that was easy to miss<\/a>. The second potentially exciting thing for gamers is that AMD is making socketed mobile processors again \u2014 Ryzen AI 400 laptop chips that aren\u2019t soldered down, but fit into a socket like a desktop CPU, so you can replace or potentially even upgrade them in the future.<\/p>\n

He said they\u2019ll begin to appear in desktops in the early part of this year, specifically targeting Q2. Banta thinks socketed mobile chips are going to unlock gaming and productivity designs of all shapes and sizes: \u201cThat socketed Ryzen AI 400, we\u2019re expecting to see that everywhere from 1-liter designs all the way to 30-liter designs,\u201d he says. (Mobile processors can be a good match for beefy desktop GPUs<\/a>, since most games don\u2019t require all that much CPU power at high resolution.)<\/p>\n

These socketed chips aren\u2019t just for gamers, mind; it sounds like they were actually targeted at AI PCs to start. \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing is folks that want the flexibility of the socketed design, but they want to try out Copilot Plus, they want to try out some local models that can actually leverage the NPU and run directly on that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"As<\/a><\/p>\n

When I asked if the socket means we should expect upgradable laptops, Banta gently throws some cold water on that idea. \u201cIn general, what we find is people want the thinnest system they can get, even if they\u2019re enthusiast users,\u201d and that both the socket itself and a socketed CPU\u2019s integrated heat spreader add unwanted thickness to a laptop.<\/p>\n

But he seems to think it\u2019ll happen in mini PCs: \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing is BGA, LGA, everyone\u2019s experimenting in a lot of different ways within those 1-liter, 2-liter designs, things you can fit on your desk.\u201d<\/p>\n

While I didn\u2019t spot a mini PC with a socketed CPU at the show, I bumped into one with tiny modular desktop graphics cards \u2014 this Steam Machine competitor from Minisforum<\/a> \u2014 and it makes me excited for a possible future where we can upgrade the CPU, too. Why should only larger PCs be fully upgradable? The new Steam Machine<\/a> isn\u2019t, and the Framework Desktop<\/a> requires you to upgrade a whole mainboard at a time, but it doesn\u2019t have to be that way.<\/p>\n

\"Tiny<\/a><\/p>\n

For that to happen, though, AMD would also have to sell its socketed mobile processors at retail the way it sells its desktop ones, and AMD\u2019s not yet willing to commit to that today.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat can I say\u2026 we have active partnerships with OEMs on Ryzen AI 400 socketed designs. DIY is not something we\u2019re communicating information about at this time, so more to come later,\u201d Banta said.<\/p>\n

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