CES may mainly be the time when device manufacturers announce new products to be released throughout the year, but it’s also where you see the newest parts that make up tomorrow’s hottest PCs. If you want to get an idea of what’s coming around the bend for computers, the companies to watch are Intel, AMD and NVIDIA. These three manufacturers are the sources of nearly all the processing and graphics hardware used in laptops and desktops on the market. Here’s what they announced this year.
Intel had two major product announcements at CES that will shape the PCs of today and tomorrow. The first is a new batch of its 7th generation processors, collectively codenamed Kaby Lake. These are still the general Intel Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 processors you know, but watch for models like the Core i3-7100 and the Core i5-7600. A model number in the 7000s indicates the processor is part of the 7th generation product line. While the company announced some of these 7th generation processors last August, CES brought with it news of several new CPUs for both portable and desktop PCs.
Many of the changes made will impact Intel’s mainstream line of Core i3, i5 and i7 processors, both for laptops and desktops. Most of the improvements are incremental – tweaks to manufacturing processes and chip architecture that result in faster processing and a smoother user experience. One of the more significant improvements is in the CPU’s ability to shift between low- and high-power states, letting it rapidly transition from battery-saving idle mode to full power and back again, delivering all of the power you need when you need it but conserving battery life when you don’t.