Over the years, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has evolved from a consumer electronics trade show to a leading global launching pad for chipmakers, making the event a key battleground for leadership in computing and AI hardware. The upcoming 2026 edition is expected to be no less.
AMD has confirmed that President and CEO Dr. Lisa Su will deliver the opening keynote on January 5, outlining the company’s AI vision for cloud, enterprise, edge and consumer devices. While we don’t expect any big announcements like a new generation of GPU or a surprise Zen 6 teak (although we can still dream), we do expect some major launches.
Let’s break down what’s likely, what’s rumored, and what’s just wishful thinking.
New 3D V-Cache chips
AMD has managed to capture a significant portion of the consumer CPU market with its 3D V-Cache CPUs, and it appears the company has plans to expand its inventory even further. The Ryzen 7 9850X3D is a chip that will likely be officially unveiled at CES 2026. The chip was accidentally revealed by AMD itself via its own driver pages, again suggesting that the CPU is ready for launch.
A separate leak claims that the 9850X3D will have 8 cores, 16 threads, a base clock speed of 4.7 GHz and a boost clock speed of 5.6 GHz. It has a similar 120W TDP and 96MB L3 cache as the 9800X3D, making it possibly one of the best CPUs for gaming.
Additionally, a more powerful Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 CPU is also mentioned, which features two 3D V-cache stacks for a total of 192MB of L3 cache and a TDP of 200W. This could potentially make it AMD’s most powerful gaming CPU design ever, although these are just pure rumors. However, this leaked SKU has not reliably surfaced anywhere, and AMD traditionally releases its mainstream gaming chip X3D ahead of any high core count variants.
Ryzen 9000G Desktop APUs
While the X3D CPUs are aimed at gamers, the Ryzen 9000G APUs are likely to be AMD’s most significant CES launch for the mainstream desktop market. Recent AGESA updates uncovered by data miners suggest that AMD may be preparing new desktop APUs based on the same Krackan and Strix Point silicon used in its latest mobile chips.
If this information is true, the 9000G series would combine Zen 5 CPU cores, RDNA 3.5 graphics, enhanced AI/NPU capabilities, and native AM5 socket support in a single package.
This combination would make the 9000G series particularly attractive for home PCs, HTPCs, budget gaming rigs and compact small form factor builds. AMD always has a strong lead in the integrated GPU space, and a Zen 5 + RDNA 3.5 APU on the desktop could easily replicate the excitement of the Ryzen 7 5800G Moment and deliver truly powerful gaming performance without a discrete GPU.
However, expectations should be tempered. A reliable source stated earlier this year that the Ryzen 9000G series may simply be an update to the current Ryzen 8000G range, meaning it would still be based on the older Zen 4 architecture and not Zen 5. If this turns out to be the case, the 9000G range would be far less exciting than early leaks suggested, and more of an incremental update than a true leap into the next generation.
Ryzen AI 400 “Gorgon Point”
If there’s one thing AMD will be pushing hard at CES next year, it’s AI PCs, especially because the entire industry is moving in that direction whether anyone asks about it or not. That brings us to Ryzen AI 400, codenamed Gorgon Point, the next step in AMD’s mobile roadmap. Until recently, it was generally assumed that this was a straightforward update to Strix Point.
According to leaked company slides, Gorgon Point is expected to have up to 12 Zen 5 CPU cores with a slightly improved NPU and RDNA 3.5 graphics, rather than switching to RDNA 4. This brings Gorgon Point much closer to Strix Point than enthusiasts had hoped.
RDNA 3.5 is a refined, efficient architecture, albeit for handheld gaming PCs, which likely represents only incremental progress rather than a generational leap. With competition increasing in the handheld market, sticking with RDNA 3.5 might feel like a missed opportunity.
Where AMD will be heavily involved is in the AI story. With Microsoft pushing Copilot+ branding, Intel targeting 50+ TOPS NPUs with Panther Lake, and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X chips already setting the bar for on-device AI, AMD needs to keep up.
Expect a deluge of designs on the CES show floor, including Ultrabooks, thin-and-light laptops, and premium Creator laptops powered by the Ryzen AI 400 chip.
The AI strategy
Since it is in the keynote speech by Dr. Lisa Su is not just about consumer CPUs, AMD will also cover a range of AI-related topics, including AI acceleration for data centers, edge AI solutions, enterprise AI workflows, AI-optimized gaming hardware, and AI software ecosystem updates. This broad focus will take up a significant portion of the keynote, which makes sense as AMD aims to carve out more space against Nvidia’s AI dominance, particularly in inference and cost-optimized deployments.
As for the enthusiasts want can be seen at CES, the wish list is long. A Zen 6 teaser would obviously generate some excitement, but it’s almost certainly too early for AMD to talk about a 2027 architecture. The same goes for RDNA 5, as the GPU landscape is unusually quiet at the moment and AMD appears to be far more focused on APUs and AI than pushing into next-gen Radeon territory.
Even the rumored dual-cache Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 seems unlikely for CES, despite all the rumors. Unless AMD is hiding something unusually big, the safest assumption is that we’ll only see the mainstream gaming chip X3D for now.
