Pfft, did you think I was kidding when I said I'd see you again tomorrow?
When the dealer offers more tech news, I always say hit.
AMD showed up to CES this year and chose violence against itself.
The company announced the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, the new fastest gaming CPU, which is kind
of awkward because the CPU is taking that illustrious title from the 9800X3D, which
is also an AMD chip. The company claims about 7% uplift in performance over the already fast 9800X3D.
Meh, and it's pretty much meh across the entire roadmap this year.
But hey, FPS is actually FPS. Any port in a storm.
Laptops did not get left out, AMD refreshed their laptop CPU lineup with the Ryzen AI
400 series, including business focused silicon that's supposed to make spreadsheet crunching
enterprise class. Which I think means your boss won't yell at you for using teams on 25 separate Chrome
tabs. Of course, it wouldn't be CES without AI being duct taped onto everything.
AMD unveiled the Ryzen AI Halo for developers, a mini PC designed specifically for AI development
jam packed with their latest Ryzen AI Max Plus CPUs to compete against Envyas DGX Spark.
They also released the Ryzen AI P100 series, an embedded processor range made specifically
for physical AI. Because if there's one takeaway from CES 2026, it's that even your fridge will have
an LLM by Q3. Great, I've always wanted a fridge that can hallucinate.
Stupid sexy fridge. Intel's CES spotlight has been on its core Ultra Series 3 chips, codenamed Panther Lake.
Wow, why'd you guys write that in there? The first major PC processors built on Intel's new 18A process node, aimed at boosting AI,
graphics, and general performance along with efficiency in laptops and handhelds.
Panther Lake's top SKUs pack up to 16 CPU cores and 12 XE3 GPU cores, with Intel claiming
up to 60% better multi-threaded performance and battery life that can push around 27 hours
in certain scenarios, all while underscoring Intel's push back toward being full-stacked
in-house silicon maker. But James, what about the gaming, tell us about the gaming.
Alright, calm down. Unfortunately, Intel didn't show off the rumored Arc B770 GPUs at CES, but they did unveil
XE-SS3, the newest version of their upscaler that supports multi-frame generation.
On top of that, they unveiled the new Intel Arc B390 integrated graphics, founded the
higher-end X7 and X9 chips, a major upgrade on past-i GPUs.
Intel is claiming strong gaming performance here, about 73% faster on average than AMD's
Radeon 890M in early demos, and performance sometimes even rivaling discrete laptop GPUs.
Plus, it's going to use the aforementioned XE-SS3, so the sky's the limit for this little
guy. We're really rooting for them. Apparently, Intel is working on hardware-specific variants of their chips for handhelds, which
had some outlets claiming that Intel murdered AMD with its Arc B390 mobile graphics.
It's so crazy that Intel has transformed from the super-powered villain into the scrappy
underdog I find myself rooting for, they're like the piccolo of the tech world.
They're probably raising NVIDIA's son, Gohan. Speaking of NVIDIA, they mostly doubled down on software and display tech, showing off
big DLSS 4.5 upgrades and unveiling G-Sync Pulsar gaming monitors.
DLSS 4.5 is the next evolution of NVIDIA's AI upscaling and Framegen tech, rolling out
a sharper 2nd gen transformer model with cleaner edges and less ghosting.
Plus, a new dynamic 6X Framegeneration mode designed to push busted and refreshed rates
like 240Hz at 4K. Full 6X Framegen is coming later this spring on RTX 50 series cards, while the improved
super resolution is already landing on all RTX GPUs via a new driver update.
NVIDIA says over 250 games and apps support DLSS Framegeneration right now.
Over in Monitorland, NVIDIA's G-Sync Pulsar displays are launching around tomorrow, packing
variable refresh rate plus innovative backlight strobes and adaptive brightness tech to drastically
cut motion blur and give clarity equivalent to that of a monitor with four times its base
refresh rate. You got it? Pulsar is debuting with partners like Acer, AOC, ASUS, and MSI, and if you want to meet
this episode's partner, watch this. I think the quick bits are up to something.
I caught them trying to sneak into Riley's luggage. They're so quirky.
They just love them. Laptops. It wouldn't be CES without oodles of laptop announcements.
Some are powerful, some are innovative, and some are just a little wacky.
For example, ASUS has teamed up with Kojima Productions on the limited edition ROG Flow
Z13KJP. It's decked out with Death Stranding themed art, but probably won't help you bottle your
pee. That's a Death Stranding thing. Other laptop highlights include Samsung's Galaxy Book 6 series, which they claim has
an up to 30 hour battery life, Acer's Swift Edge with a giant haptic trackpad, and Shenker's
semi-modular Panther Lake Element 16 that's made to be easy to upgrade and keep for the
long haul. Oh god! Framework!
Look out! They're coming for ya! And they showed up to CES this year to show off their new LEGO smart play system, a platform
that packs serious tech into regular old LEGO bricks.
At the center is a standard looking 2x4 smart brick hiding a tiny custom 4.1mm ASIC, complete
with sensors, RGB LEDs, a speaker, wireless radios, and inductive charging.
Using magnetic smart tags and a low latency brick net mesh, builds can react to movement
and interaction in real time with synthesized sound effects.
The whole thing runs without needing a connection to a cloud server, and it gets its firmware
updates via a companion app. They specifically didn't want AI.
They leave that to the fridges. Amazon rocked up to CES with a snazzy new trailer from Ring.
Literally, a trailer. A literal trailer. A Ring mobile security trailer.
It's a solar powered LTE equipped surveillance system with 6 cameras attached to it that
allows for full 360 degree coverage basically anywhere you want to park it.
Alongside that, they also rolled out new, elite multi-camera systems, a sidewalk connected
car alarm, and a lot of smart sensors. All conveniently stitched together by Amazon Sidewalk.
All in all, it seems like most of this would be genuinely useful, as long as you're cool
with your neighborhood being one big mesh network for Amazon and Ring that you are automatically
opted into.
Remember the Chaos Communication Congress? Well another hacker torched a white supremacist dating site, literally described as Tinder
for Nazis, live on stage at that same event while dressed as the Pink Ranger.
Using an AI chatbot trained to flirt using quote, traditional values, the hacker known
as Marth Rarout lured users into chatting, harvested data, then ran a Python script to
delete white date and other related platforms in real time.
The audience cheered as the servers vanished to this shadow realm.
Get this LLM in my fridge. And CES 2026 has had a wild mix of health tech.
For example, C2's longevity mirror that scans your face and gives a quick snapshot of your
health outlook. Mirror, mirror, on the wall, should I give 911 a call?
We also got XT's autofocus smart glass that automatically changed their prescription, alongside
Allogen Alert's pocket mini lab that tests food for things like gluten and common allergens
in minutes so you can eat out more safely. I've been looking for an excuse to eat out more safely.
For the Diabetics, there's Avid's Libra Assist app that predicts how foods will affect your
glucose in real time. Still, the best health tech at CES has got to be Moore's Taint Band-Aid, which aims to
track sexual performance and sensations with a small wearable, turning intimate data into
app-based feedback. Probably not the only back getting fed.
You know what I'm saying? Sex. And you should plant your taint back in your chair tomorrow for even more CES coverage.
I have to go have a conversation with the Quick Bits about some of their frankly frightening
recent behaviors. We get it, you wanted to go to Vegas, but you gotta grow up eventually, you know?
Running away? Smelling Riley's underwear? Come on, guys.