AI took over at CES 2025 as chip giants announced their AI-powered processors from Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, and Nvidia that promise enhanced performance.
Intel
Intel unveiled new Core and Core Ultra processors at CES 2025, focusing on efficiency despite them playing catch up in terms of performance. The Core Ultra 2 (Arrow Lake) series, lacking Copilot+ PC classification, offers 99 TOPS but the company emphasized that AI performance isn’t defined by TOPS alone.
The new processors include 15 SKUs across Ultra 5, 7, and 9 series for ultraportable(200U), gamers(200X), and premium laptops(200H), featuring 10-24 cores with no on-die memory. Only the 200H series includes Intel’s upscaled Arc graphics.
Intel also introduced the 200S (Bartlett Lake) design and updated 200H and 100U chips based on the 13th and 14th-gen Raptor Lake platform, though their differences and uses are unclear – the company didn’t clarify the differences or the intended use of these chips.
Intel also launched Twin Lake low-power low-cost chips (Core 3) for basic laptops and embedded devices and the Core Ultra 200V, a Lunar Lake chip with Intel Arc graphics and vPro features for enterprise management and security. PCs with these chips will be available later this month, with Core Ultra 200H and 200HX-based systems arriving in early and late Q1, respectively.
Qualcomm
Qualcomm Snapdragon X is the fourth and most affordable platform in the Snapdragon series, offering an 8-core chip with 45 TOPS performance for $600 Copilot+ PCs and mini desktops, arriving in early 2025.
Snapdragon Copilot+ PCs previously struggled with running apps like VPN and cloud storage, but many of these are now in beta, and Qualcomm promises continued improvements.
AMD
AMD’s announcements at CES 2025 focussed on performance and gaming. The company didn’t mention new Radeon GPUs.
The Ryzen 9 9950X3D is a high-performance CPU focused on gamers and creators. The Ryzen AI series is designed for AI workloads with the AI Max offering up to 50 TOPS and rivaling the M4 from Apple. The Radeon RX 9070 is designed for midrange users.
NVIDIA
Nvidia launched the GeForce RTX 50 series this month, featuring Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) 4 and Multi Frame Generation using AI to improve performance. The top-tier 5090 card delivers up to 4,000 AI TOPS, priced at $1,999. Laptop versions, with up to 1,850 AI TOPS, will be available in March 2025, starting at $2,899.
Nvidia’s GB10 powers Project Digits, a personal AI supercomputer with 1 petaflop(1,000 TOPS) performance, available from $3,000 in May 2025.
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