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This is Oliver tuning in from Las Vegas to request any CES questions (and non-CES questions) for this week’s DF Direct. We’re going to do our best tomorrow to track down every possible opportunity from the convention floor, but we’ll need your input to round out the show.

On the agenda for Direct #246? We’ll touch on the major PC chipmakers and their CES presents - a mix of refreshes, new software, and some interesting new chips for ultraportables. MicroRGB has been added to the television lexicon, and monitors have finally pierced the 1000Hz barrier. Plus, PC vendors have plumbed figurative depths with a rollable screen laptop concept and a holographic Grok-driven anime character that lives on your desk.

Alex and I will try to cram all our interesting CES finds into the show - especially the kinds of forward-looking products that make CES special.

Not on the agenda? We’ve already covered Nvidia’s key announcements in some detail, so we probably won’t spend too much time rehashing those (though feel free to send in any Nvidia queries for the Q&A), though follow-up comments from Nvidia on how the new models should be used may warrant some chat, we'll see.

Intel is likely to get dedicated content down the line covering their upcoming products, so 246 won’t go deep on their new chip. If all goes to plan, it will be myself and Alex at the mics recording tomorrow evening. Cutoff for questions will be 6pm PST January 7 (2am GMT January 8)

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what can I say exclamation point

Greetings, this is not facetious as I own one but based on recent developments from Nvidia why would anybody ever buy an AMD GPU now?

Red Phoenix

Hello chaps! Happy New Year and all that. Looking forward to all upcoming DF content for 2026. Hope it is a packed out year full of exciting news. I was looking back over my play history and got to thinking - what has been the singular game across your entire gaming life that has consumed you most in terms of number of hours played / impact. And also, has Alex ever actually played and finished a Nintendo game?

Michael Pearn

Happy new year to you both and I hope Alex didn’t suffer too much from jet lag.

Marcus

Hiya CES gents! We’ve seen a number of 5k monitors announced specifically 5K 27 inch monitors and I just tried out my dad’s studio display and the resolution does actually really look great for gaming. The new preset L ultra performance mode 5k and preset M performance mode 5k are also both very viable to use and deliver quite frankly great image quality from my rudimentary testing. How do you feel about 5K gaming? Do you think there is anything there? Are the diminishing returns of 5K performance too noticeable? Are ultra high PPI monitors something compelling for gaming? What do you think? Oliver is that 900 nits full screen display hdr 1400 5k 27 inch MSI mini led something that might interest you as a fellow Mac and bright display lover? Hope you have had a great week and make sure to rest up.

Orcacle

Hi all, hope you're having a wonderful time in tech news land! Of course not even a month after receiving a 9800x3D for Christmas does AMDZ announce the slightly better 9850x3D. Do you know (or predict) if AMD plans to have this marginally better chip replace the 9800x3D and stop producing the old one? Or is it going to be sold at an even higher price for the extreme FPS chasers? Many thanks to you all

Ian

Happy new year Alex and Oliver. My question is a broader one. What is the mood like across the hardware space that you can detect at CES? We know it’s all doom and gloom for consumer hardware generally but I just wondered how it feels at an industry event?

(Don’t be a) Richard

Over the break it was announced that GOG is being acquired by one of its founders. On the surface having a founder take ownership sounds like it could be a positive outcome if GoG was to move away from CD Projekt. Keen to hear the teams take on it. Especially interested whether the news felt particularly relatable given DF just went independent, and whether you see any parallels to your own journey.

Brandon

If you have time, would be cool to check out the Haply Robotics haptic interface for robotics. Reminds me of the Novint Falcon!

regawdless

Hello Gents! With the "Small Language Model" that understands the game logic and the current state, do you see such a model making it into open world games to improve NPC dialogues and reactions? Currently, you can crash a plane next to NPCs and when you approach them, they'll talk to you like nothing happened. Cheers!

gartenriese

Hi there. In your CES 2025 interview with Bryan from Nvidia he said that DLSS 4 has better image quality mainly because it takes longer to compute. We can see this again this year with DLSS 4.5. Seemingly DLSS quality has only been improved by brute force, so to say, in the last two iterations. Is that a sign that we have reached the limits of AI upsampling? I was hoping for more progress, but we can still see the trails behind flying particles in the DLSS 4.5 demos. Will we ever get rid of those artifacts?

MattGPT

As we start the new year of our lord 2026 (or the year of DF 2 using the new independence calendar), what new year resolutions would you like developers and hardware manufacturers to make?

Special Agent Cooper

Hi all and happy new year! with the arrival of DLSS 4.5, I'd love to hear how machine learning technologies have changed the work at DF. I remember in the early days of DLSS you were all talking a lot about how these things will make it harder if not impossible to compare hardware in the classical sense and how that might become frustrating for you guys. Now it's been a few years and I want to ask. Just professionally speaking and leaving obvious advantages for games aside: If there was a button you could press to remove DLSS and the like from existence, and to return to the days of comparing apples to apples, would you do it? Or has machine learning, after all, opened more doors for DF than it closed?

SuperGT

Howdy gentlemen. With what you guys saw in the DMFG demo, the differences in input latency were low enough to warrant its use. However, going down the stack from 5090 to 5060, the differences in latency become larger and larger between 2x to 4x (and now 5x and 6x). I understand the desire to get to the monitor's refresh rate, but did Nvidia give any indication that latency could also be a factor in determining the multiplier? Meaning, could we eventually set a cap for, let's say 60ms and the card maxes out the DMFG but only up to that latency ?

Skyrimfest 26 FPS Edition

In our Frame Gen-filled future it seems there is some inherent and irreducable latency in creating the fake frame. In terms of mitigating this, where might there be scope to cut more latency from the chain? Can we reduce the lag from the display, controllers or other bits of the system to meaningfully help the situation?

Skyrimfest 26 FPS Edition

I was interested to hear in DF Direct 245 that Alex felt emotional playing E33 (no shame Alex - I cried too).  Is the ultimate solution to stutter struggle for devs to write a game with enough impact that players are unable to see the stutters through the tears?

butter1210

Hello most prestigious Foundrymen of the Digital Age! I was wondering what everyone’s most anticipated game this year is?

Taggen86

Happy new year gents and god fortsättning as we say in sweden. What are your thoughts on the the recent interview with the ark devs stating that the Nintendo Switch 2 Port of ASA Is only Doable with UE 5.7 and that they may need to use frame generation to achieve 30 fps? Do you think the combination of UE 5.7 and (fsr?) frame gen will bring nanite and lumen to more switch 2 titles in the future? Is it possible that we may see a switch only version of dlss frame gen?

Luke

Dear gentleman, a warm happy new year, of sorts. I'm interested in the audio setup everyone (especially John) is rocking. I've just bough Dali Opticons and I'm blown away by the difference from very small satellite speakers. Love the work, keep it up!

Taggen86

Will the new dlss 4.5 run faster on Blackwell than on ada? Will we finally see the tensor core upgrades in the blackwell architecture materialize in meaningful performance gains?

Taggen86

Do you think any of the image quality gains of dlss 4.5 could trickle down to future versions of tiny dlss?

beer chugger 209

What about that smart Lego bricks ? But how is it there ?

Kris Graney

Happy new year! A PSA for Switch 2 owners and apologies it's so long, I can't think of a short way to describe how to get to a deadlocked Switch 2. If you secure your Switch 2 with a security lock PIN (separate to the parental lock), then put your Switch 2 away for a while (such as to give as a gift), then after the gift is unwrapped and you have now forgotten your PIN. Also in that time a new firmware is released, your Switch 2 will effectively be deadlocked because to follow the process to retrieve an unlock pin is to login to your Nintendo Online account. Ok, except to login to your Nintendo Online account you need to update your Switch 2 firmware . OK, except to update your firmware you need to unlock your console. You can't currently do this with an unlocked Switch 2. A big thank you to the Nintendo Support person who on Boxing Day gave me a solution without requiring a factory reset (which is the only other way to clear a console security PIN). Reboot the Switch 2 in to recovery mode (hold Vol up/down together at power on) and do the firmware update there. The Switch 2 doesn't require you to unlock the console when in recovery mode. I was SO relieved that there was a solution without a factory reset that I am sure would have lost my kid's Animal Crossing Island. My Family subscription had lapsed and I didn't know if I'd done a cloud back up whilst I had an active Family Subscription. The Nintendo Support rep was about to check if there was a cloud back up of the island by looking up my email along with the console serial - however by swiping up on my phone to switch to the Nintendo app to get the serial number, I accidentally hung up on them 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ PSA essay over. Thanks!

VitaminJ

Howdy roving reporters! Wasn't Jensen supposed to be unveiling consumer ARM desktop+laptop CPUs around about now? Did he forget to do so in between all the machine learning? Careless! Do you still expect the chips to be coming soon? Qualcomm could do with the competition!

Mab7373822

Hi, with all the gloom and portents about increasing PC component costs, should anyone interested in owning a new gaming PC get their kit purchased RIGHT NOW? Also, where should I keep my SSDs and video cards and RAM in this new economy? In a physical safe at home, or in some sort of bank vault secured deposit box? Thanks.

Kaveh PG

Where is FXAA 4? What about TAA 2? I think AI can be great for some games, but I find myself using Native for that extra clarity… and there's still aliasing! Even at 5K! Will we ever see good old fashioned AA get a next gen upgrade, or will it all be ai based?

StrugglingShader

What do we know about Dolby Vision 2 for gaming? Any new information on HDMI 2.2? When will we get higher refresh rates on TVs, and will next gen consoles and GPUs support it?

Eric Benoit

Is it possible there's going to be a Steam Machine price announcement there?

Helvetica Bold

Hello Gents, as a 9070 XT owner I’m experiencing FOMO over Nvidia’s latest update to DLSS. So how much better is DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution compared to FSR 4’s latest update?

Anxiously Chrono Triggered

Hey Alex and Oliver, what’s the most impressive piece of a screen you’ve seen so far? Micro-RGB TV, perhaps a new OLED flagship TV, the true RGB OLED monitors or maybe the crazy amount of Hz refresh rate PC screens? Cheers!

Anxiously Chrono Triggered

Hey DF adventurers, with the current RAMmageddon and Nvidia’s keynote seemingly skipping over gamers, do you think we won’t see a proper 60-class next year? Or could we get something labeled as “50xx Supers” that’s really the 60-series in disguise? Cheers!

Visceral Overdrive

Yessss Oliver.. my question is, when is Will Smith turning up with that Oscars energy for these robots? Seriously though, which is the most forward thinking innovation that actually appears to be putting AI in a good light with creative vision that transcends brand initiatives? (I.e. not an augmented reality car windscreen)

DF enjoyer

Hello, my great kings! Congratulations on your independence. I joined just to support it. What’s the biggest unexpected upside of being independent? And what is one of things you miss most about not being independent?

Alex’sRayTracedBottom

It’s been a year since NVIDIA announced Reflex 2. With frame generation now scaling up to 6x and input lag creeping higher, I expected Reflex 2 to become a major piece of the frame generation pipeline. During your CES adventures, were there any whispers or behind the scenes demos showing more of Reflex 2?

Orcacle

Hey foundry crew. Since AMD has such a chokehold on the gaming CPU market with their 3D v-cache, do you think we'll see it in any upcoming consoles that AMD co-develops?

AfreemTheDream

Greetings, CES explorers! Was there any information on FSR4/PSSR and its forthcoming PlayStation release for the PlayStation Quintuple Professional? Cheers!

James Jackson

THIS. My question more broadly is about the general mood / vibe at CES. Since the AI bubble has gobbled up so much of the manufacturing side, what is the feeling you get from vendors about the future of, well, *Consumer* electronics and computing products, with costs soaring and global economic uncertainty?

Mr Bespoke

Hi DF! No question this week just want to say a Happy New Year to the all the team and looking forward to some excellent content in 2026.

Aaron

Hi friends! What’s the best thing you’ve eaten in Vegas this year?

Levander Davis

Happy New Year, Foundry Men! Ignoring anything gaming related ; what’s your favorite tech of the show? Any cool robots or autonomous vehicles you have your eye on?

Levander Davis

To me, my Foundry-Men! What are the gadgets you use on a regular basis but you’re also interested in tech advances? For instance, see any technology you can’t wait to use on your next laptop or cellphone?

Renan

Hi DF! Resident Evil Requiem is looking great with path tracing in the latest trailer. If Capcom ports the game to Mac, do you see path tracing being a viable option for any of the M-series Macbook Pro devices?

DudleyTheGentleman

Hello Digital Duo, with Nvidia's Pulsar research/tech finally maturing into real products, I thought of a fun hypothetical. Do you think there would be interest in the return of the infamous BFG display? Imagining a large high-end mini-LED television, like the TCL X11L, but with a 240Hz refresh and Pulsar sounds fun. If console-like PCs catch on, I could see demand for such a display becoming a thing. Any fun thoughts?

SirToby

Hi DF, In regards to Valve running X64 games on ARM, and the ramageddon, could we see a future where the high end gaming is placed on consoles and "PC" is smaller, cheaper lower powered ARM device but has all the freedom of what you would find in a PC ?

Leftisthominid

So RAM prices have been slowly but surely upping the prices on a lot of things. My old Aero 15 from 2019 probably ought to be replaced soon Should we expect the fancy new things from CES to launch more expensive than usual

Leftisthominid

Question for Ollie, normally you are 8-9 hours behind your colleagues. How does it feel to have someone (Alex) on your own Time Zone?

Phillip H.

Hello DF Friends, Is Half-Life 3 the accelerant that Valve needs for the Steam Machine (and therefore SteamOS/Linux) to catch fire? Is this what they did with Half-Life 2 and Steam, and tried to do with Alyx? With Microsoft gaming weakening (layoffs, AI focus), are the months of 2026 the narrow windows that Valve needs to execute its longstanding vision?

Alan

Hi Guys, What was the weirdest tech you found at CES gaming related or not?

Leftisthominid

Palpatine: Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Jensen the Leather-Clad? Anakin: No. Palpatine: I thought not. It’s not a story Team Red would tell you. It’s a Tensor legend. Darth Jensen was a Dark Lord of the Green Team, so powerful and so wise he could use the Neural Network to influence the raw pixels to create… perfect fluidity. Anakin: He could actually create frames… from nothing? Palpatine: He had such a knowledge of the Deep Learning that he could keep the path-traced worlds he cared about… from ever dropping below 60. Anakin: He could save Cyberpunk? Palpatine: DLSS is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be… unnatural. Anakin: What happened to him? Palpatine: He became so powerful… the only thing he was afraid of was the CPU bottleneck, which eventually, of course, he hit. Unfortunately, he accelerated the graphics so fast, the processor simply ceased to exist. Ironic. He could render the future, but he was held back by the past. Anakin: Is it possible to learn this power? Palpatine: Not from a Radeon.

kate

With ever increasing ram prices, which is shifting to price increases for almost all major PC components, alongside games being more expensive and taking years to develop, layoffs and the cost of living crisis, are we reaching an inflection point where the current focus of pushing maximum fidelity becomes no longer sustainable? Don't get me wrong, I think the latest gaming technologies like ray tracing are incredible, but I can't help but think if we should shift the focus somewhat more towards performance and scalability on more inexpensive hardware.

Pesky

Hi DF Team, with the current dilemma about foundry ressources which affects all sorts of RAM right now, how does this bode for new tech that was shown at CES? For example: Nvidia ACE and DLSS 4.5 with increased VRAM usage?

Someguyperson

Happy New Year! Nvidia adding an adaptive frame-gen feature is great, but it only seems useful for 240 Hz+ monitors, due to the integer only scaling. Why is Nvidia only doing integer multiples of the framerate? Lossless Scaling can do fractional frame generation, why not Nvidia?

Fractal Flow

Alex and Oliver: you're in Vegas. Only one question matters: are you gonna check out the Sphere? We'd love a DF Analysis please. Is it bright enough for Ollie? What's the framerate like? Are black levels acceptable? Would its motion clarity please John? Is 16K enough for its size? Should I get one? We must know the Truth!

Snorlax cat

I did ask this a year ago and they said they did not have any time 😳

DaJaCo (Dan)

Happy Half-Fortnight Lads, how is the field trip going? Have you seen the Razer "Project Motoko" Headset, apparently it will "whisper gaming tips and guidance to you on command". Also what developments have there been in portable PC land.. I head micron has the first single sided 4TB 2230 drive out.. and that the Legion Go is going to be sold with Steam OS from June - Will Microsoft still call it an Xbox.. anything else spied at CES?

glerox

Dear founders, how does dynamic FG work to target the monitor maximum framerate? Do you have to turn it on in combination with vsync? Do you have to manually enter the target refresh rate in the Nvidia app? I know you guys always say to target a framerate just a few frames below your actual monitor refresh rate to stay within the VRR window and avoid screen tearing, buy what about Nvidia's fast sync? You gain the benefit of lower input lag if you can have a higher frame rate than your monitor but without the tearing. I never heard your opinion on fast sync. Thanks!

Alan

Hi Guys, What are your thoughts on Playstations AI-generated Ghost Player system that has been recently revealed, that will train from gameplay footage on YT and Twitch but also PSN data and would progress a level if a player got stuck, or take full control and progress the scenario instead!

Pablofajita

Greetings from Miami. With the introduction of Dynamic Multi-Frame Gen, how does this feature change how you test future games? Assuming next gen consoles would have a similar feature, do you have the tools and/or methodology to measure how this impacts the user experience on a game by game basis?

Matt_Rant

What aspects of DLSS 4.5 could be integrated into the mini-DLSS and monk-DLSS-fast models on Switch 2? sampling before tone mapping/clamping seems obvious, but what else could practically scale down into the constraints of those model variants?