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Annual tech show CES 2025 has concluded in Las Vegas, and once again there were plenty of new announcements. Here are our top picks for esports fans.
1. Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 series graphics cards
Nvidia announced its new RTX 50 series at CES 2025, powered by its Blackwell architecture and AI.
Blackwell is equipped with GDDR7 memory with speeds up to 30Gbps and they can deliver up to 1.8TB/s of memory bandwidth.
Blackwell also has PCIe Gen5 and DisplayPort 2.1b UHBR20, driving displays up to 8K 165Hz.
The GeForce RTX 5090 (£1,939) and GeForce RTX 5080 (£979) will arrive on store shelves on January 30th, while the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (£729) and GeForce RTX 5070 (£539) will launch starting in February.
2. Razer unveils Project Ava AI esports coach, heated gaming chair and more
Razer showed off a lot of new products at CES 2025, including the Razer Blade 16 laptop, promising to be the thinnest and most powerful in its lineage, and dropping in the first quarter of this year.
Project Arielle is billed as ‘the first gaming chair with integrated heating and cooling’. There are touch panel controls, three adjustable fan speeds, and the chair can reduce the perceived temperature by 2°C to 5°C in dry environments. Its PTC heaters can deliver up to 30°C of warm air.
And then there’s Project Ava, an AI esports coach that personalises gaming strategies.
Razer also presented the Aether Standing Light Bars, the Razer Monitor Stand Chroma, Razer Handheld Dock Chroma, a new Razer HyperBoost feature for the Razer Laptop Cooling Pad, and the new Razer PC Remote Play feature for the Razer Kishi Ultra, plus the Razer Iskur V2 X chair.
3. Acer shows off new systems at CES 2025 including Nitro V series gaming laptops
Acer presented heaps of new tech at CES this year, including the new Swift Go and Aspire Vero laptops featuring the latest Intel Core Ultra 200H series processors with integrated NPUs, enabling AI performance.
The Aspire Vero 16 is the world’s first laptop to incorporate bio-based oyster shell material in its chassis.
Then there’s the Nitro V series gaming laptops that have received a boost, with AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 processors.
And the flagship Predator Helios 16 AI and Predator Helios 18 AI laptops are powered by Intel Core Ultra 9 processors and next-gen Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 Series Laptop GPUs. They also feature OLED and Mini LED displays.
Acer also has the Nitro Blaze 8 and Nitro Blaze 11 handhelds, powered by AMD Ryzen 8040 Series processors.
See more Acer CES 2025 announcements here
4. Krafton showcases advanced AI NPCs
PUBG publisher Krafton presented new ‘CPC’ (Co-Playable Characters), an NPC (Non-Player Character) brought to life with generative AI, in collaboration with Nvidia, at CES 2025.
Kangwook Lee, Head of the Deep Learning Division at Krafton, demonstrated CPC, describing it as “a groundbreaking character concept enabled by an on-device SLM (Small Language Model) for gaming, built with Nvidia Ace.”
He explained that unlike traditional NPCs, a CPC is capable of dynamic interactions with players, including real-time conversations, strategic cooperation, and flexible responses tailored to in-game scenarios.
Krafton also presented video demonstrations of CPC technology in action within its games. In the case of PUBG IP franchise, the video revealed ‘PUBG Ally,’ a CPC capable of engaging in casual conversations, adapting strategies, and refining gameplay to align with user dynamics.
For inZOI, the demonstration highlighted ‘Smart Zoi,’ a CPC with ‘distinct personality traits and emotional depth, offering highly immersive simulation experiences through lifelike interactions with players’.
5. Lenovo Legion Go S is the first officially licensed third-party SteamOS handheld
Lenovo announced the latest additions to its Lenovo Legion ecosystem of gaming devices at CES 2025.
The Lenovo Legion Go S and Go S Powered by SteamOS gaming handheld devices featuring an 8-inch screen with VRR support, a chassis sporting fused TrueStrike controllers with adjustable trigger switches and hall-effect joysticks, and the first officially licensed handheld powered by SteamOS.
The 8.8-inch Lenovo Legion Go is also a gaming handheld prototype device planned to feature a native landscape OLED display, up to double the RAM compared to previous generation, and a bigger battery.
There’s also the redesigned 16-inch Lenovo Legion Pro 7i, Legion Pro 5i and Legion Pro 5 laptops, with Lenovo PureSight OLED display options.
Lenovo also announced other new additions to its Legion and LOQ laptops and desktops, the latest Legion Tab, and a selection of Legion accessories to complement the gaming devices.
There are more gaming and esports announcements on the CES website
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
