The two things AMD subtly revealed at CES really excite me

As we expectedthe world’s largest consumer electronics show, was a bust for gamers this year! CES 2026 brought us numerous salary Game boardsbut barely any Mobile devices and no new desktop GPUs – not from Nvidia, not from Intel, not from AMD.

But if you dig deeper, AMD said two things at this year’s show that are worth paying attention to. Did you notice that the company is about to make a socket mobile Chips again? Or is Intel’s response to lowering the price of its monster Strix Halo Silicon device?

Publicly, AMD barely acknowledged consumers at CES. “AMD failed us” Gamers denounced the NexusNoting that the company’s keynote was entirely focused on artificial intelligence. Outside of the keynote, there are few consumer-friendly announcements for the company — incl Ryzen 7 9850X3D For gaming desktops and Ryzen AI 400 For laptops – they are all refurbishments of existing components.

AMD also hasn’t announced a new chip for gaming PCs, and there’s no successor to it Z2 and Z2 Extreme introduced A year ago, even as Intel publicly announced plans to create an “all-mobile gaming platform” and Qualcomm teased its own mobile hardware for a potential unveiling in March.

Intel did not miss the opportunity to appeal: “They sell old silicon, while we sell modern processors designed specifically for this market,” said Nish Neelaloganan, Intel’s director of customer product management. He said Computer world.

However, AMD claims that the so-called “legacy” processors are more than just a counterpart to the new Intel processors. Tiger Lake Silicon. AMD Customer Segment Leader Rahul Tikoo He said Tom’s devices That AMD’s Strix Halo/Ryzen AI Max chip will “kill” Panther Lake. “It’s not even a fair fight at that point, because it’s separate level graphics,” he said.

As told to Tico Tom Devices That Intel’s Panther Lake gaming chips might be more expensive than you expect: “And by the way, the 12

Price has been an issue with AMD’s Strix Halo too – every day The powerful Ryzen mobile device, Small desktopand Monster tablet We’ve seen them cost around $2,000, even before RAM crunch. But this brings me to The first exciting thing for players AMD quietly revealed at CES: The cost of its powerful Strix Halo systems is almost certainly about to come down.

AMD provided Two new, shortened versions of Strix Halo Last week with their full-fat drawings intact; Tikoo told us that gaming companies specifically have requested parts like the new Ryzen AI Max Plus 388 and 392.

When I met AMD’s Jason Banta, who is in charge of communicating with those companies, he said that AMD actually expects the two new chips to bring down the prices of the Strix Halo system, to less than $2,000 even when you take into account The runaway price of RAM. (I’ve asked the question a few different ways to make sure it’s answered.)

Banta wouldn’t tell me if the company had anything last It plans to defend its little handheld empire (the Steam Deck, Xbox Ally, Legion Go, and more use AMD chips, as do PlayStation and Xbox) when Intel and Qualcomm come knocking later this year. “We believe that imitation is a great form of flattery,” is all he really says. “When we create the chip, and innovate it, we expect others to come in.”

Banta isn’t afraid that Intel and Qualcomm’s mobile chips will alienate his customers. “What they’ve seen is that we’ve proven that we can execute, not just execute: when we see a bug in a game, we follow up, update and improve. (…) This has a very big impact on the design decisions of each of these OEMs,” he said. AMD’s mobile business is also still growing, Banta said, and the company still plans to continue investing.

It doesn’t seem like most PC makers are ready to jump on board the Intel laptop bandwagon just yet. If you take a closer look at Intel’s flagship chipthe only major vendors listed are Acer and MSI, and the only two portable manufacturers are GPD and OneXPlayer, both of which are still… Great on AMD. The rest of Intel’s partners (Compal, Foxconn, Infintech, Pegatron, Quanta, and Wistron) are not brands, but rather ODM contract manufacturing companies That will fight for their business.

While I was speaking with AMD’s Jason Banta at the show, another piece of news caught my attention Easy to miss. The second thing that is potentially exciting for players is that AMD is making Socket Mobile Processors Again – The Ryzen AI 400 laptop chipset is seamless, but it fits into a socket like a desktop CPU, so you can replace or even upgrade it in the future.

He said it will start appearing on desktop computers early this year, specifically targeting the second quarter. Banta believes socketed mobile chips will open up gaming and productivity builds of all shapes and sizes: “With the Ryzen AI 400, we expect to see this everywhere from 1-litre designs to 30-litre designs,” he says.

These socket chips aren’t just for gamers; It appears they were actually targeting AI-powered computers initially. “What we’re seeing is people who want the flexibility of the socket design, but they want to try Copilot Plus, and they want to try some of the on-premises models that can actually take advantage of the NPU and run directly on it,” he said.

When I asked if the socket meant we should expect the upgrade LaptopsBanta gently throws some cold water on this idea. “In general, what we find is that people want the thinnest system they can get, even if they’re enthusiast users,” and that both the socket itself and the CPU’s built-in heat spreader add unwanted thickness to the laptop.

But he seems to think it will happen in small PCs: “What we’re seeing is BGA and LGA, where everyone is trying different approaches in 1-litre and 2-litre designs, things you can put on your desk.”

While I didn’t see a mini PC with a plugged-in CPU at the show, I did come across a PC with small modular desktop graphics cards – This is a steam machine competitor from Minisforum – This makes me excited for a possible future where we can upgrade the CPU as well. Why should only mainframe computers be fully upgradeable? the New steam machine Not so, and desktop frame It requires you to upgrade the entire motherboard at once, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

For that to happen, AMD must also do so He sells Its mobile processors socket into retail stores the same way it sells its desktop processors, and AMD isn’t yet willing to commit to that today.

“What can I say…we have active partnerships with OEMs on socketed Ryzen AI 400 designs. DIY is not something we’re communicating information about at this time, so more to come later,” Banta said.