The two things AMD subtly revealed at CES that actually excite me

As we predicted, the world’s biggest user electronics show was a spot of a bust for gamers this year! CES 2026 brought america several neat gamepads, but barely any handhelds and nary caller desktop GPUs — not from Nvidia, not from Intel, and not from AMD.

But if you excavation deep, AMD said 2 things astatine this year’s show that are worthy of attention. Did you drawback that the company’s astir to make socketed mobile chips again? Or that its reply to Intel is to little the value of its monster Strix Halo silicon?

Publicly, AMD hardly acknowledged consumers astatine the Consumer Electronics Show. “AMD grounded us,” decried Gamers Nexus, pointing retired that the company’s keynote was wholly fixated connected AI. Outside the keynote, the company’s fewer consumer-friendly announcements — including the Ryzen 7 9850X3D for gaming desktops and Ryzen AI 400 for laptops — are each retreads of existing components.

AMD besides didn’t denote a caller spot for handheld gaming PCs, nary successor to the Z2 and Z2 Extreme it introduced a twelvemonth ago, moreover arsenic Intel publically announced plans for an “entire handheld gaming platform” and Qualcomm teased its ain handhelds for a imaginable March reveal.

Intel didn’t miss a chance to jab: “They’re trading ancient silicon, while we’re trading up-to-date processors specifically designed for this market,” Intel customer merchandise guidance head Nish Neelalojanan told PCWorld.

Yet AMD claims those alleged “ancient” processors are much than a lucifer for Intel’s caller Panther Lake silicon. AMD customer spot leader Rahul Tikoo told Tom’s Hardware that AMD’s Strix Halo / Ryzen AI Max spot “will kill” Panther Lake. He said, “It’s not moreover a adjacent conflict astatine that point, because it’s discrete-level graphics.”

Tikoo besides told Tom’s Hardware that Intel’s gaming-grade Panther Lake chips mightiness beryllium pricier than you expect: “And, oh, by the way, that 12 Xe [Panther Lake]... Wait until you spot the value constituent connected that. It’s gonna be, you know. Enough said.”

Price has been the problem pinch AMD’s Strix Halo excessively — each powerful Ryzen handheld, mini desktop, and monster tablet we’ve seen has costs astir $2,000, moreover earlier the RAM crunch. But that brings maine to the first breathtaking point for gamers AMD softly revealed astatine CES: The costs of its powerful Strix Halo systems is almost surely astir to travel down.

AMD introduced two caller cut-down versions of Strix Halo past week pinch their full-fat graphics intact; Tikoo told america that gaming companies specifically had been asking for parts for illustration the caller Ryzen AI Max Plus 388 and 392.

And erstwhile I caught up pinch AMD’s Jason Banta, who’s successful complaint of interfacing pinch those companies, he said AMD genuinely expects the 2 caller chips will lead to little Strix Halo strategy prices, beneath $2,000 moreover erstwhile you facet successful the runaway value of RAM. (I asked the mobility respective different ways to beryllium judge of his answer.)

Banta would not show maine if the institution has immoderate other plans to take sides its mini handheld empire (the Steam Deck, Xbox Ally, Legion Go, and much each usage AMD chips, arsenic do the PlayStation and Xbox) erstwhile Intel and Qualcomm travel knocking later this year. “We judge imitation is simply a awesome shape of flattery,” is each he’d really say. “When we’re creating the segment, innovating the segment, we expect others to enter.”

Banta isn’t acrophobic of Intel and Qualcomm handheld chips taking his customers away. “What they’ve seen is we’ve proven we tin execute, and not conscionable execute: When we spot a quirk pinch a game, we travel up, we update, we optimize. […] That has a very large power connected those creation decisions for each 1 of these OEMs,” he said. Banta said AMD’s handheld business is still growing, too, and the institution still plans to support investing.

Most PC makers don’t look fresh to climb aboard Intel’s handheld bandwagon conscionable yet. If you return a adjacent look astatine Intel’s keynote slide, the only awesome vendors listed are Acer and MSI, and the only boutique handheld makers are GPD and OneXPlayer, some still big connected AMD. The remainder of Intel’s partners (Compal, Foxconn, Inventec, Pegatron, Quanta, and Wistron) aren’t brands, but alternatively the ODM statement manufacturing companies that’ll beryllium fighting for their business.

While I was chatting pinch AMD’s Jason Banta astatine the show, he brought my attraction to 1 much portion of news that was easy to miss. The 2nd perchance breathtaking point for gamers is that AMD is making socketed mobile processors again — Ryzen AI 400 laptop chips that aren’t soldered down, but fresh into a socket for illustration a desktop CPU, truthful you tin switch aliases perchance moreover upgrade them successful the future.

He said they’ll statesman to look successful desktops successful the early portion of this year, specifically targeting Q2. Banta thinks socketed mobile chips are going to unlock gaming and productivity designs of each shapes and sizes: “That socketed Ryzen AI 400, we’re expecting to spot that everyplace from 1-liter designs each the measurement to 30-liter designs,” he says.

These socketed chips aren’t conscionable for gamers, mind; it sounds for illustration they were really targeted astatine AI PCs to start. “What we’re seeing is folks that want the elasticity of the socketed design, but they want to effort retired Copilot Plus, they want to effort retired immoderate section models that tin really leverage the NPU and tally straight connected that,” he said.

When I asked if the socket intends we should expect upgradable laptops, Banta mildly throws immoderate acold h2o connected that idea. “In general, what we find is group want the thinnest strategy they tin get, moreover if they’re enthusiast users,” and that some the socket itself and a socketed CPU’s integrated power spreader adhd unwanted thickness to a laptop.

But he seems to deliberation it’ll hap successful mini PCs: “What we’re seeing is BGA, LGA, everyone’s experimenting successful a batch of different ways wrong those 1-liter, 2-liter designs, things you tin fresh connected your desk.”

While I didn’t spot a mini PC pinch a socketed CPU astatine the show, I bumped into 1 pinch mini modular desktop graphics cards — this Steam Machine competitor from Minisforum — and it makes maine excited for a imaginable early wherever we tin upgrade the CPU, too. Why should only larger PCs beryllium afloat upgradable? The new Steam Machine isn’t, and the Framework Desktop requires you to upgrade a full mainboard astatine a time, but it doesn’t person to beryllium that way.

For that to happen, though, AMD would besides person to sell its socketed mobile processors astatine unit the measurement it sells its desktop ones, and AMD’s not yet consenting to perpetrate to that today.

“What tin I say… we person progressive partnerships pinch OEMs connected Ryzen AI 400 socketed designs. DIY is not thing we’re communicating accusation astir astatine this time, truthful much to travel later,” Banta said.

Here’s hoping.