AMD’s Quiet CES 2026 Signals Fewer Announcements, Bigger Implications for Gamers

As we predicted, the world’s biggest consumer electronics show turned out to be something of a let-down for gamers this year. CES 2026 delivered a handful of interesting gamepads, but scarcely any handhelds and not a single new desktop GPU, not from Nvidia, not from Intel, and not from AMD.

Yet for those willing to look closely, AMD made two understated disclosures at this year’s show that are well worth paying attention to. Did you notice that the company is preparing to make socketed mobile chips once again? Or that its response to Intel appears to be cutting the price of its formidable Strix Halo silicon?

A consumer show with little for consumers

Publicly, AMD barely acknowledged consumers at the Consumer Electronics Show. “AMD failed us,” decried Gamers Nexus, noting that the company’s keynote was almost entirely focused on AI. Outside the keynote, AMD’s few consumer-facing announcements, including the Ryzen 7 9850X3D for gaming desktops and Ryzen AI 400 for laptops, amounted largely to refreshes of existing components.

AMD also declined to announce a new chip for handheld gaming PCs. There was no successor to the Z2 and Z2 Extreme processors introduced a year ago, even as Intel publicly outlined plans for an “entire handheld gaming platform” and Qualcomm teased its own handheld ambitions ahead of a possible March reveal.

Intel takes aim

Intel was quick to capitalise. “They’re selling ancient silicon, while we’re selling up-to-date processors specifically designed for this market,” Intel client product management director Nish Neelalojanan told PCWorld.

AMD, however, disputes that characterisation. Rahul Tikoo, AMD’s head of client chips, told Tom’s Hardware that the company’s Strix Halo / Ryzen AI Max processor “will kill” Intel’s Panther Lake. “It’s not even a fair fight at that point, because it’s discrete-level graphics,” he said.

Tikoo also suggested that Intel’s Panther Lake gaming chips may not be as affordable as expected. “And, oh, by the way, that 12 Xe [Panther Lake]... Wait until you see the price point on that. It’s gonna be, you know. Enough said.”

A turning point for Strix Halo pricing?

Photo by Sean Hollister: The Verge

Price has long been Strix Halo’s Achilles’ heel. Every powerful Ryzen-based handheld, mini desktop, and oversized tablet so far has hovered around the $2,000 mark, even before recent memory price increases. That is why the first genuinely encouraging signal from AMD at CES came as a surprise: the cost of Strix Halo systems may soon fall.

AMD quietly introduced two cut-down versions of Strix Halo, both retaining full-strength graphics. Tikoo explained that gaming-focused companies had specifically requested chips like the new Ryzen AI Max Plus 388 and 392.

Jason Banta, who oversees AMD’s relationships with those partners, went further. He said the company genuinely expects these new chips to bring Strix Halo system prices down, below $2,000 even when accounting for soaring RAM costs. (The question was put to him several different ways to be certain.)

Holding the handheld line

Banta declined to say whether AMD has additional plans to defend its handheld stronghold, currently dominated by AMD-powered devices such as the Steam Deck, Xbox Ally, and Legion Go, as well as the PlayStation and Xbox, when Intel and Qualcomm enter the fray later this year. “We believe imitation is a great form of flattery,” he said. “When we’re creating the segment, innovating the segment, we expect others to enter.”

He was equally dismissive of the threat posed by rival chips. “What they’ve seen is we’ve proven we can execute, and not just execute: When we see a quirk with a game, we follow up, we update, we optimize. […] That has a very big influence on those design decisions for every one of these OEMs,” Banta said. According to him, AMD’s handheld business continues to grow, and further investment is planned.

For now, most PC manufacturers appear hesitant to rally behind Intel’s handheld push. Intel’s own keynote slide listed only Acer and MSI among major vendors, alongside boutique makers GPD and OneXPlayer, both of which still rely heavily on AMD. The remainder of Intel’s partners are ODMs such as Compal, Foxconn, Inventec, Pegatron, Quanta, and Wistron, rather than consumer-facing brands.

The return of the socket, with caveats

The re-emergence of socketed mobile processors raises obvious questions about upgradable laptops. Banta was quick to temper expectations. “In general, what we find is people want the thinnest system they can get, even if they’re enthusiast users,” he explained, noting that both the socket and a socketed CPU’s heat spreader add unwanted bulk.

Mini PCs, however, may be a different story. “What we’re seeing is BGA, LGA, everyone’s experimenting in a lot of different ways within those 1-liter, 2-liter designs, things you can fit on your desk,” Banta said.

While no mini PC with a socketed CPU appeared on the show floor, one did feature tiny modular desktop graphics cards, a Steam Machine-style system from Minisforum. It hints at a future in which CPUs might also be user-upgradable in compact systems. At present, neither the new Steam Machine nor the Framework Desktop allows for that level of flexibility without replacing an entire mainboard, but there is no technical reason it has to remain so.

For such a future to materialise, AMD would need to sell its socketed mobile processors at retail, as it does with desktop CPUs, something the company is not yet ready to commit to.

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

For gamers, CES 2026 may have felt quiet, but AMD’s muted moves suggest the more meaningful changes may still be ahead.

Author: George Nathan Dulnuan