CES 2026 will finally answer big questions about Nvidia’s RTX 50 Super GPUs

With the Blackwell architecture well established in AI data centers, cloud services, workstations and desktop/laptop PCs, Nvidia’s CES 2026 press event will likely focus less on new launches. Rather, the company is expected to address improvements, roadmap signals and how it plans to further develop its hardware and software stack in the coming year.

Nvidia has confirmed that founder and CEO Jensen Huang will give the company’s opening keynote address at CES on January 5, a day before the main CES show opens. CES has become one of the most important events of the year for Nvidia, even if the company is not launching a new generation of GPUs.

As in previous years, Nvidia is expected to outline its priorities for gaming, AI, data centers and new platforms here. Beyond the keynote, Nvidia will also maintain a strong on-site presence throughout CES with potential demos and showcases.

Here’s a quick look at what Nvidia has in store for us next month.

RTX 50 Super

When Nvidia unveils consumer GPU news at CES 2026, it will likely be about the RTX 50 Super. According to leaks and reports, the super update was originally planned for a late 2025 release to align with the holiday season.

Given rising memory prices and Nvidia’s history of pushing updates on its head, a delay to early or mid-2026 now seems more likely, with CES serving as more of a showcase than a launch event.

The RTX 50 Super is not expected to bring any major changes. Instead, it appears to be a small update to the existing Blackwell GPUs, with adjusted specifications aimed at improving the balance of the lineup. The RTX 40 Super update followed a similar pattern, and recent leaks suggest Nvidia is taking the same approach again.

Based on what we know so far, Nvidia is expected to focus on select SKUs rather than a full refresh. The rumors include the RTX 5070 Super, RTX 5070 Ti Super and RTX 5080 Super models. The RTX 5070 Super is expected to move to a higher VRAM configuration, possibly 18GB, addressing one of the standard model’s biggest criticisms.

The RTX 5080 Super is rumored to retain a similar core layout, but could ship with 8GB of additional memory for a total of 24GB and higher bandwidth, potentially making it closer to the RTX 5090 in real-world workloads than pure computing.

Any performance increases are likely to be moderate. Smaller clock jumps and minor core adjustments are more likely than larger increases in CUDA counts. The goal seems to be more to close gaps within the lineup than to create a clear generational leap.

Storage configuration is one of the main reasons there is an update at all. As games and software continue to use more memory, some RTX 50 models are already coming under pressure. A super refresh would give Nvidia leeway to customize these configurations without changing the underlying architecture

However, the timing remains uncertain. Higher storage costs make it harder to change configurations without driving up prices, giving Nvidia a clear incentive to wait. Therefore, CES 2026 is likely to bring confirmation rather than availability.

Nvidia may acknowledge the RTX 50 Super or outline its plans, but leave the actual release for later in 2026. For buyers, this clarity alone might be enough to decide whether to upgrade now or wait a little longer.

AI should be the focus

As much as gamers care about GPUs, AI will remain Nvidia’s main focus at CES 2026. Expect the company to spend a lot of time talking about enterprise and data center AI hardware, particularly accelerators designed for inference, training, and edge deployment.

CES is no GTC, but it has increasingly become a place where Nvidia showcases the scaling of its AI stack, from massive data centers to local AI PCs.

Automotive is another likely focus. Nvidia has been heavily involved in autonomous driving and in-car AI platforms for years, and CES is traditionally the place where automakers and chipmakers align their roadmaps. New announcements about DRIVE platforms, in-vehicle AI computers or expanded partnerships would come as no surprise.

Beyond cars, Nvidia could also venture into embedded systems, industrial AI, robotics and edge computing. These are areas where Nvidia’s hardware and software platforms already dominate, and CES provides the right stage to show how this technology is making its way into everyday products.

The arm wildcard

One of the most intriguing rumors leading up to CES 2026 revolves around Nvidia’s first serious Arm-based AI PC SoC, codenamed N1x. While Team Green remains silent, reports from earlier this year suggest that this chip could be far more ambitious than initially thought.

According to a certain leak, the N1x may have the same GPU core count as the RTX 5070, but is integrated directly into an SoC and does not exist as a separate GPU. If true, the N1x would break new ground for integrated graphics cards, as performance reportedly far exceeds any other iGPU currently on the market.

The implication here is significant. Instead of positioning N1x as a low-power ARM experiment, Nvidia could develop a powerful AI PC chip designed for gaming, content creation, and local AI workloads without a separate GPU. This fits well with Nvidia’s broader push toward AI-first computing, where neural workloads, inference and acceleration are just as important as traditional grid performance.

While CES would be the ideal place for Nvidia to unveil such a platform, don’t expect a full product launch or retail-ready devices right away. A conceptual reveal around “AI PCs,” next-generation Windows on ARM systems, or premium embedded platforms seems far more likely. Nvidia could emphasize efficiency, AI throughput and graphics leadership without directly positioning N1x as an x86 replacement.

If even part of the rumor turns out to be true, N1x would not only challenge existing ARM laptop chips, especially from Qualcomm, but could completely blur the line between integrated and discrete graphics.