Intel and AMD will battle for gaming CPU supremacy at CES 2025

CES doesn’t just introduce the world to a new generation of consumer electronics, but new PC hardware as well. CES 2025 should be the opportunity for both Intel and AMD to launch new mobile processors for 2025 laptops, with possibly Qualcomm discussing new PC CPUs, too.

Intel is a virtual lock to launch its Core H- and -HX series of Arrow Lake mobile processors for gaming laptops at January’s CES show in Las Vegas, both from its own statements and LG’s announcement of its new “Arrow Lake” laptops.

The momentum has clearly swung to AMD, however, which has announced a launch date of January 6, 2025 for new PC and graphics products. Here, we’re expecting AMD to announce both new desktop processors — including new iterations of its fantastic Ryzen 9000X3D gaming processors — but also “Strix Halo” chips with ultra-powerful integrated graphics aimed at the mobile gaming market. Could we even see additional CPUs for handhelds, too? It’s likely.

Qualcomm’s crystal ball is a bit murkier, but remember: Qualcomm has already announced its next-generation Oryon CPU cores for smartphones. Eventually, we expect them to debut inside of a PC processor, too.

Further reading: The next generation of PC graphics will kick off at CES 2025

Intel’s mobile Arrow Lake debuts

Anyone who’s followed the laptop market knows that Intel still commands a decided advantage over AMD in terms of the number of devices available, especially in gaming. This isn’t likely to change within 2025. In fact, you can make the argument that Intel’s decision to prioritize low power over high performance with its Arrow Lake desktop processors — which contributed to a steep drop in Intel desktop market share in 2024 — might be viewed more favorably in notebooks which can benefit from longer battery life. That argument makes more sense backing up a Core H-series part, which isn’t as desperate for performance as a Core HX chip is.

Regardless, leaks have already suggested that these new Core Ultra (Arrow Lake) mobile chips will feature five new models, from the Core Ultra 5 225H on up to the Core Ultra 9 285H, with a total of 6 P-cores, 8 E-cores, and a pair of the new Low Power Efficiency cores, with no hyperthreading. The same leaker suggests that Intel’s Core HX series could lead with a 24-core 285X flagship (8 P-cores, 16 E-cores, with no dedicated low-power efficiency cores) on down to the 235HX. It’s also suggested that these new HX chips will use older Xe GPUs for integrated graphics, in part because they’re traditionally paired with discrete GPUs.

Moore’s Law is Dead, which has an iffy reputation among leakers, has suggested (via Notebookcheck.net) that Arrow Lake will be 14 percent faster than the 13th-gen Raptor Lake architecture using the Cinebench benchmark, but with power consumption that is surprisingly about the same.

What does seem to be the case, however, is that Intel’s Lunar Lake chips won’t be going away. So 2025’s notebook lineup will likely include productivity laptops that run on Intel’s Lunar Lake, with the Arrow Lake architecture taking over on the gaming and performance front. Unfortunately, they’ll all be using similar Core Ultra branding, so you’ll need to pay attention.

AMD’s cavalcade of CPUs

As someone who touches more notebooks than desktops, AMD’s Strix Halo definitely interests me. Whether intentionally or not, AMD has made an effort to keep up with its competition in the low-power notebook space, but still finds itself atop the heap in terms of performance. And there’s definitely something to be said for that, as a number of customers simply prefer buying the fastest processor available for gaming and otherwise.

Officially, AMD’s Strix Point should be named the Ryzen AI Max, complementing the low-power Ryzen AI 300 family with a Ryzen AI Max 395+ processor. A leaker (Golden Pig Upgrade Pack — where do these leakers come up with these names?) suggests via Tom’s Hardware that we could see AMD announce three processors: the 16-core Ryzen AI Max+ 395, the 12-core Ryzen AI Max 390, and the 8-core Ryzen AI Max 385. Strix Halo is said to include a pair of Zen 5 CCDs with a LPDDR5X memory interface, too.

The question, as Tom’s suggests, will be whether AMD attaches a large GPU — the AI Max+ 395 is said to have an RDNA 3.5-based GPU with 2560 stream processors, which would massively outperform an ordinary Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 or “Strix Point” processor. The question is whether PC makers will also attach a discrete GPU, or simply let the APU’s graphics horsepower carry the load. But that may come at a cost, with power climbing to 120W to 130W all by itself.

The limited launch of the single AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D also points to more to come on the desktop front. The 9800X3D chip obliterated the competition — but it was a single chip! That’s led to suggestions that AMD has a 12-core Ryzen 9 9900X3D and a 16-core Ryzen 9 9950X3D chip waiting to be announced by AMD at CES, as a loose-lipped Asus executive indicated. If nothing else, that should help alleviate AMD’s supply crunch, which has squeezed supplies of the chip since launch.

CPUs are typically considered part of one of two categories: desktop, and mobile. But the mobile definition has expanded to include both laptops as well as handheld gaming PCs. In the latter category, as in consoles, AMD has dominated. But Intel is expected to make a push into the category with Lunar Lake at CES. AMD, meanwhile, is expected to respond with the Ryzen Z2, the sequel to the Ryzen Z1 and Z1 Extreme chip for handheld PCs.

AMD’s Z1 and Z1 Extreme, launched in 2023, are based on the Zen 4 architecture; the Z1 included six primary cores and 12 threads, with 4 RDNA 3 graphics units. The Extreme variant increased the number of cores from six to eight, but tripled the RDNA 3 units to a total of twelve.

Details on the upcoming chips are a little skimpy, but we could see the Z2 Extreme, the “vanilla” Z2, and the Z2G or Z2 Go. The Extreme is said to boast eight CPU cores (3 Zen 5, 5 Zen5c) with 12 CUs based on the Strix Point and RDNA 3.5 GPU architecture. The “vanilla” Z2 could also use eight cores and 12 CUs, based on AMD’s Hawk Point graphics, while the “G” variant could be built around the older Ryzen 6000 and an RDNA 2 GPU. Again, while the features are all speculation and rumor, it does seem likely that AMD has something up its sleeve for the handheld PC market at CES.

Could we see more AM4 and AM5 boards and chipsets announced at CES? That’s possible, too. Either way, AMD should have a lot to talk about in just a few days.

A Qualcomm conundrum

While both AMD and Qualcomm will host press events on Jan. 6, Qualcomm has its fingers in enough pies to avoid needing to make a PC announcement at CES. Instead, I’m expecting to hear more information (and spin) about Arm’s litigation against Qualcomm, which was largely settled over the holidays in favor of Qualcomm. I interpreted that to mean that little has changed, and that Qualcomm can continue to sell Snapdragon processors without issue. But I’d expect a formal clarification on that from Qualcomm chief executive Cristiano Amon from a CES podium.

In October, Qualcomm launched an updated, second-generation Oryon CPU core as part of its Snapdragon 8 Elite platform for handheld PCs. Snapdragon 8 Elite reportedly consumes 44 percent less power while offering 45 percent more multi-core performance versus the previous Snapdragon 8 core, Qualcomm says. Eventually, I’d expect, it will be the foundation for the next Snapdragon X Elite platform.

I don’t think this happens at CES 2025, however. It’s more likely this takes place at Computex this summer, when Qualcomm has typically launched processors for new computing platforms. In the meantime, Qualcomm has done an admirable job working with developers and solving compatibility problems with the Windows on Arm platform, and this type of announcement seems likely for CES. We could also see a wave of new laptops powered by Qualcomm’s more affordable Snapdragon X Plus chips, which were announced earlier this fall.

Nevertheless, this looks to be the busiest CES in some time, especially because Nvidia and AMD are expected to launch new GPUs, too. The PCWorld team is headed to Las Vegas this weekend to cover all the news as it happens. The holidays are over; the chip wars are heating up once again. Make sure to bookmark PCWorld’s CES hub to keep up!