CES 2021 Preview: Prepare for the New PC Hardware Flood

This year's CES will be different from previous events. Last year, nearly 175,000 attendees flocked to the Las Vegas Convention Center and hotels across the Strip to get a glimpse of the latest and greatest devices, but this year is of course impossible. But the 'show' must continue. Cool hardware will also be featured at CES 2021, which will take place online from January 11th to January 14th.

With smart home technology becoming mainstream this year, the release of Samsung's flagship Galaxy smartphone is also being confirmed. In addition to this, some surprising news of PC hardware awaits.

Intel

At CES 2021, a large number of processors and graphics chips that will be the basis of the next-generation laptops and desktops will be unveiled.

First of all, Gregory Bryant, head of Intel's Client Computing Group, released a keynote on the subject of "Do more with the power of computing" at 1pm Pacific Time on the 11th. Considering the subject matter, it highlights'Eve' for premium notebook experience, and may predict an 8-core 11th-generation 'Tiger Lake' chip that will be released in the fall. Currently, the Tiger Lake family is up to 4 cores. Intel's gaming chip, the H-series notebook chip, is also expected to be upgraded (10th-generation Komat Lake H processor released in April), and it is expected to be heard.

Rocket Lake, an 11th-generation Intel Core desktop chip, cannot be left out. Intel has already announced that it will launch its Rocket Lake processor in the first quarter of this year, which will help AMD compete with Ryzen, including double-digit IPC improvements and PCIe 4.0 features. Rocket Lake uses the new Cypress Cove CPU architecture, which is rumored to be made using a traditional 14nm process rather than Tiger Lakey's 10nm process.

AMD

AMD, Intel's biggest rival, cannot be left out. AMD has reclaimed the desktop throne with the fantastic Ryzen 5000 series. Following the desktop chip announced last fall, notebook chips based on the same 7-nano'Zen 3'architecture are expected to be released at CES this time. It is the successor to the surprisingly successful Ryzen 4000 mobile series.

It's a lot of seasoning to get rid of, but rumors have continued over the past few months about the Ryzen 5000 Mobile. We hope that the massive IPC increase in desktop chips will continue in mobile as well. According to rumors, the Ryzen 5000 family uses two different architectures: the Zen 3 design Cezanne and the Zen 2 based Lucienne. Whether this may be true will be found in Lisa Su's keynote on January 12th at 8am Pacific Time.

AMD's new graphics products are also expected to be released. In the Radeon graphics division, the Radeon RX 6000 series launched a next-generation video card, but only the high-end Radeon RX 6800 series and the flagship Radeon RX 6900 XT are available. All of these GPUs cost over $500. It is almost certain that AMD will introduce a cheaper graphics card with the new RDNA 2 architecture, but given the shortage of next-generation GPUs, the official release may be delayed. A laptop version of the RX 6000 series is also possible, but not yet. 

It's a distant story, but it would be nice to hear more about FidelityFX Super Resolution. At the time of the Radeon RX 6000 series announcement, AMD introduced Fidelity FX Super-Resolution as a more open cross-platform technology as an alternative to NVIDIA's DLSS 2.0 AI upscaling technology. DLSS 2.0 greatly improves the performance of NVIDIA's GeForce GPU-compatible titles and makes a huge difference when enabling state-of-the-art ray-tracing effects. AMD needs to reveal the details of Super-Resolution sooner or later, but is there a better time than CES 2021?

Nvidia

Nvidia will hold its own event 'GeForce RTX: Game On' on January 12th at 9am (Pacific City Standard) where the schedule overlaps with CES. Right after AMD's keynote. Considering that the event's name or organizer is Geforce's senior vice president Jeff Fisher, the event is likely to reveal a new product for gamers. 

Rumor has it, the event will unveil the RTX 30 series graphics cards for gaming laptops. Videocardz said Nvidia is preparing mobile versions of the GeForce RTX 3060, 3070, and 3080, and these laptop chips will feature fewer CUDA cores than the desktop version. If Intel and AMD unveil new notebook processors, it's important for Nvidia to provide a GeForce lineup to accompany them.

However, it may not be a laptop graphic. Nvidia unveiled its desktop GeForce RTX 30-series GPUs two months ahead of AMD, so you can hear about cheaper GPUs based on Ampere architectures like the GeForce RTX 3060 and 3050. You can also see the RTX 3070 Ti and 3080 Ti versions against AMD's Radeon RX 6000 series cards. AMD is strong in this generation, and Nvidia wants to be the 'definite winner' on the benchmark charts. So it's not hard to imagine NVIDIA unveiling the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, which has similar performance to the 3090 and 12GB to 20GB of memory.

Laptops, desktops, and parts

Of course, you need a body to mount the new chip. CES 2021 will feature a variety of laptops, desktops, and custom versions of parts. Consider a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics card or a third-party version of an Intel Z590 motherboard.

A few have already been announced ahead of CES 2021 this week. Acer unveiled three high-end high-speed gaming monitors, and Acer and Samsung unveiled a new Chromebook. Lenovo unveiled a new IdeaPad and yoga laptop supporting the Amazon Echo Show, while Dell unveiled a business-focused PC and monitor.

These are just the tip of the iceberg. More announcements are expected after the new chips from Intel, AMD, and Nvidia are officially unveiled. The announcement scheduled for large PC makers has already been set.

• Acer made a presentation under the theme of 'Tech that connects' and created a virtual showroom where anyone can see new products.
• Acer is preparing a showcase at 10am on January 12th and 9am on January 13th. The ROG Citadel XV app will also be live during the event on the 12th. 
• The laser is expected to announce new products and events and promotions at 10 am on January 12th.
• MSI is scheduled to unveil new products at 11 am on January 13th, and plans to have a notebook-centered event at 8 am on the same day.

CTA (Consumer Technology Association) announced the results of the innovation awards before the CES event began, and hardware from HP, Dell, and Lenovo was selected, and the product is expected to be confirmed in the presentation of each company. In addition, when various new CPUs, GPUs, and motherboard chipsets are announced, system integration such as Alienware LG, Gigabyte, EVGA, Samsung, Falcon Northwest, and Origin PC It is possible that new news will be heard from the company.

Many of the small PC companies participating in CES, usually held in Vegas, have heard that there is no separate presentation session at this year's Virtual CES 2021. In other words, there is a possibility that it is difficult to see the exotic and unusual products usually found at CES. 

In addition to this, new peripherals will also emerge. CES is also a venue for announcing new monitors and routers, but the Wi-Fi Alliance announced the requirements for Wi-Fi 6E devices on the 7th. Therefore, in CES 2021, it will be a 'red carpet' for Wi-Fi 6E routers.

So far, we have predicted the major events of CES 2021. Let's pay attention to the CES 2021 article coming out this week to see if this is correct.