CES 2021 might be all-online this year, but PC gamers could be in for a few treats.
We’re living in strange times, so CES 2021, arguably the biggest tech event of the year, obviously had to adapt. And while a lot of the digital events that have emerged during the pandemic have been relatively minor, CES 2021 is shaping up to be a pretty major show for PC gamers. Nvidia, AMD and Intel all have major keynote shows over the next week, and the way rumors have been shaping up for all three points to some major hardware launches. So, whether you’re a laptop warrior or you’re looking for a way to upgrade or build a new PC, you’ll probably want to keep an eye on the proceedings over the next week or so. Nvidia launched its Ampere graphics cards, led by the RTX 3080, back in September 2020. Then, AMD followed in October with its initial Big Navi cards heralded by the Radeon RX 6800 XT. However, neither graphics card manufacturer launched a full lineup of GPUs. The initial Nvidia launch gave us the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, RTX 3090 and RTX 3070, followed shortly by the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti in December 2020. AMD released even fewer cards, with the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6800 in November 2020, followed shortly by the Radeon RX 6900 XT in December. However, looking back at the previous Turing and Navi generations for Nvidia and AMD, respectively, we can expect quite a few more graphics cards over the next year or so. For Nvidia, specifically, the CES 2021 timing for more graphics cards is obvious once you look at the past. At Gamescom 2018, Nvidia launched its Turing lineup of graphics cards, but, again, just the 2080 Ti,2080 and 2070. Then, at CES 2019, Nvidia followed that up with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060. That mid-range champion was then followed by the GTX 1660 Ti in February. AMD’s releases for its Navi cards were a little less consistent, though. It launched the Radeon RX 5700 and Radeon RX 5700 XT at E3 2019, followed by the Radeon RX 5500 XT nearly six months later in December 2019 and the Radeon RX 5600 XT in January 2020.
