CES 2026 is almost here, officially starting on January 6th and running until January 9th, 2026. Every year, this exhibition showcases all the latest hardware and technical innovations for the coming year – regardless of new gaming laptops or some concept that will never see the light of day. There's a lot going on, but luckily I'll be in Las Vegas and I'll figure it all out.
Over the next week, I'll be updating this article with all the coolest gaming and entertainment tech on display at the show. This year's show probably won't be as busy as 2025, which brings us new video cards and that's all PC Gaming Equipment it comes with them. That said, I expect a lot of gaming hardware to be at least teased, especially with Steam engine hiding around the corner.
What to expect at CES 2026?
CES is still a few days away, but that doesn't mean we can't make some educated guesses about what's to come at the giant tech show.
Mid-generation GPUs?
CES 2025 became so important for gaming because AMD and Nvidia released a whole new generation of graphics cards. It probably won't happen this year, but it's entirely possible that one of these companies will release some kind of mid-gen update. Usually, for example, Nvidia releases a “Super” series of GPUs about a year after the release of its video cards.
However, since RAM prices are so high right now, there's a good chance that none of these manufacturers will be in a hurry to release new products, which will likely have to be significantly more expensive. According to the Korean technology agency, we're even starting to hear rumors that prices for existing graphics cards will jump in the coming months. News. We'll just have to watch!
AI will be everywhere
Like it or not, AI is still a big topic in the tech world, and I don't expect that to change at CES 2026. We'll likely see hundreds of different gadgets that implement AI in one way or another, ranging from ridiculous gimmicks to truly useful features. Even as companies like Microsoft are pulling back a bit from investing in AI, according to Information (By using Extreme Technologies), this will continue to be a big topic at CES this year.
Gaming laptops powered by Intel Panther Lake processor
While it's unlikely that we'll unveil a new generation of GPUs at CES 2026, Intel has already announced its next generation of mobile processors, codenamed Panther Lake. While this architecture won't be found in the most powerful gaming laptops, it will be inferior to many lightweight gaming laptops.
I had the opportunity to see these new processors in action back in November and was impressed with the technology on offer. These new laptop chips will have built-in GPUs powerful enough to play games at 1080p resolution and offer Intel's proprietary approach to frame generation – all without a discrete GPU. Pair it with a discrete GPU and who knows what they're capable of. Either way, I'm really excited to get these new laptops out of the lab, whatever they are. Intel has needed a win for a long time, maybe this is it? We'll find out next week!
Jackie Thomas is the editor of IGN's hardware and buying guides and the queen of PC components. You can follow her @Jackicobra
