HomeHardwareFeatures
The best, worst, and weirdest gaming tech of CES 2024Plus! Why is Mario’s mouth moving like that
Plus! Why is Mario’s mouth moving like that
Image credit:Consumer Technology Association
Image credit:Consumer Technology Association
The MSI Claw handheld makes an Intel power grab
Image credit:MSI
Nvidia’s RTX 40 Super GPUs promise more power for less cash
Image credit:Nvidia
The RTX 4070 Ti Super, in particular, is getting a complete VRAM overhaul, replacing theRTX 4070 Ti’s 8GB of memory with 16GB (and a faster bus to boot). That should make it even better for high-res play, especially with the aid ofDLSS 3– one of the few benevolent AI tools to feature at CES 2024.
AMD take another shot at the mid-range with the Radeon RX 7600 XT
Image credit:AMD
While Nvidia made their Super-powered pitch to the premium market, AMD’s latest GPU launch was all about speedy 1080p. The Radeon RX 7600 XT is largely based on last year’sRX 7600, which doesn’t sound very impressive, but besides boosting clock speeds, it also rips out the latter’s 8GB of GDDR6 to replace with a more forward-thinking 16GB. That’s not going to magically make the XT model a 4K-ready beast, but it might be enough to give the rivalRTX 4060a rough time. It’ll cost more than the Nvidia card, mind, launching on January 24th from $330.
Intel’s 14th Gen CPU lineup gets bigger, more confusing
Intel’s most gaming-relevant CES announcements focused on several new handfuls of laptop and desktop CPUs, making the current14th generation of chipsan even bigger mishmash of specs and branding than it was before. Rather than adding to the previously announced, yet still very new Core Ultra series – which is comprised of multifunction APUs for slimline laptops and MSI Claws – thesenew-new processors use the traditional Intel branding. So there’s the 24-core core, 5.8GHz Core i9-14900HX heading up the gaming laptop chips, while the 18 new desktop CPUs range from the 24-core/32-thread Core i9-14900 all the way down to the dual-core (and likely dirt-cheap) Core Processor 300.
MSI make a gaming monitor that lets you cheat at League of Legends
Image credit:MSI
SteamOS leaves the Valve roost with the Ayaneo Next Lite
Image credit:Ayaneo
That’s why the Ayaneo Next Lite intrigues me so: it’s the first post-Deck portable PC, not counting theSteam Deck OLED, to come with SteamOS preinstalled as standard. And, while pricing hasn’t been announced, it’s being pitched as relatively budget-friendly handheld, with a choice of older, off-the shelf AMD laptop chips (the Ryzen 5 4500U and Ryzen 7 4800U) instead of a custom-built gaming APU. It also matches the original Steam Deck’s screen specs, fitting a 7in, 1280x800 IPS display.
More affordable Deck alternatives sounds like a fine idea to me, and the arrival of SteamOS on third party hardware tracks with whatValve told me in 2023about wanting to work with other handheld makers. The Ayaneo Next Lite could, therefore, be the first of many.
The HP Omen Transcend 14, a truly tiny gaming laptop
Image credit:HP
CES loves its laptops almost as much as it loves machine learning, and all the major players – Asus, Acer, MSI, HP, Alienware, Razer and so – had flipping lil’ PCs to show off. Usually featuring one of the aforementioned new Intel CPUs, naturally.
Less excitingly, it will cost£1700/$1500just for the basic RTX 4050 version, with RTX 4060 and 4070 specs only pushing that outlay upwards. The display is a nifty 120Hz OLED number, though.
Whatever this AI Mario thing was
So Mario was at#CESBut uh… who approved this abomination? 💀pic.twitter.com/diG3axCJIG— Greggory (@ProbChild_)January 10, 2024
So Mario was at#CESBut uh… who approved this abomination? 💀pic.twitter.com/diG3axCJIG
No, this has nothing to do with PC gaming, but it so perfectly encompasses the “Didn’t stop to think if they should” vibe of CES that I simply must include it. Even at the expense of theRazer gaming car. You may have spotted it doing the rounds on Xitter anyway: an unnervingly wooden Mario hologram, mouth and moustache staccato-flapping in a doomed attempt to sync with some AI speechbox’s approximation of an Italian accent.
