Another Consumer Electronics Show has come to an end, but this one will stand out regarding products that never made their expected debut. Now rumors are just that, but when it comes to products which manufacturerers have themselves leaked one way or another, and consumers have shown substantial interest in, it stands to reason there might be some expectations that these products might get at least some mention at an event like CES. After all it is called Consumer, not corporate, Electronics show.
Meanwhile, this year’s proceedings have become more akin to what ultimately killed PAX South, whereby major participants chose to do their own showcases via separate events. Except in the case of these manufacturers, it remains unknown if they will ever speak about or formally make any kind of launch announcement for their products which are basically believed to already exist in some form. Meanwhile, all three of the big tech giants were fully capable of placating investors with more talk about AI, even as it is known to be the insatiable consumer of resources that are now causing a famine across multiple tech sectors.
NVIDIA
At this point, it’s more like beating a dead horse due to the amount of media coverage that’s been given regarding the GeForce RTX 50 series refresh, aka SUPER, but said dead horse has been rumored for months, and leaks from AIB partners and industry insiders had seemingly begun to confirm their existence. However, the closest we got to any official confirmation from NVIDIA was acknowledging no new GPU announcements, a first in five years, would be made but at least gave a vague reference that updates were to come. Meanwhile RUBIN and VERA were offered for enterprise and data center needs.
AMD
Those looking for the first dual-cache X3D product are still waiting for an official reveal from AMD despite it having been listed by OEM partners. While some question if AMD has resolved potential scheduling issues across two CCDs, many would’ve liked to have heard directly from the manufacturer regarding this one-of-a-kind processor, which has no competitor, and so the 9950X3D2 remains a bit of a mythic two-headed creature. In addition some were hoping that AMD might’ve even given a glimpse of desktop processors on the forefront featuring increased CCD core counts but this too was completely left out. On the plus side AMD did unveil its supercharged Ryzen 7 9850X3D, which for anybody who hasn’t jumped into the X3D pond, looks impressive on paper with its increased clock rates over the Ryzen 7 9800X3d.
Intel
Its been said that Intel remains committed to keeping its discrete GPU division alive, but despite leaks and rumors of the Big Battlemage GPU, aka Arc B770, it was nowhere to be seen. The absent GPU is said to bring more competition in the low to mid-range GPU market segments, an area sorely needed by consumers seeking more affordable but powerful graphics card options to keep both AMD and NVIDIA on their toes but this too didn’t happen. Intel did debut a number of processors with impressive looking iGPU solutions but ultimately decided to keep its discrete division in the closet.
What’s left?
In the end there could be many (conspiracy) theories as to why these products essentially ghosted CES this year. Perhaps the current RAM/VRAM shortage is to blame. Maybe fabs are at capacity and simply cannot fulfill orders to these tech giants to which PC enthusiasts have depended on for decades. There’s always the strategic poker game between each who will wait until the other shows their hand before doing the same. In the end only they know for sure why and consumers will simply have to wait to see what, if anything will be revealed in the coming months.
On the flipside, from robots to AI, this year’s CES could be considered a big hit on those fronts, even if the big three essentially chose to avoid this event when it came new, and known about, PC enthusiast products. There were also more monitor debuts than you can shake a stick at and this might end up being the highlight for 2026 for PC enthusiasts so far, which isn’t a bad thing given that 2025 was relatively stagnant when it came to monitor releases featuring new technology or features beyond increased frame rates.