The last year has seen some significant launches for PC hardware enthusiasts from AMD’s Ryzen 7 9800X3D to Nvidia’s RTX 40 Super series graphics cards, but has also been marred by disappointments. Both AMD and Intel’s new processor ranges – Ryzen 9000 for AMD and Core Ultra 200 for Intel – proved to be disappointing, so all eyes are on 2025 for new hardware to get excited about.
Nvidia is expected to launch its GeForce RTX 5000 series graphics cards in January 2025
The great news is that January is looking like it will be the hottest month of the year for both processor and graphics card launches including Nvidia’s RTX 5000 series such as the RTX 5090 and AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D, so we won’t have long to wait as this new hardware will be announced in a matter of weeks, much of it at the CES event in Las Vegas.
Top PC hardware launches to watch out for in 2025
Nvidia RTX 5000 series
It’s been a year since Nvidia launched its RTX 40 Super series graphics cards such as the RTX 4080 Super, and the company is widely expected to announce its RTX 5000-series models such as the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 in January.
First there’s the bad news. The new cards are rumored to cost significantly more than their predecessors with the RTX 5090 at an eye-watering $2,500, RTX 5080 at around $1500 and the RTX 5070 could cost between $600-700 according to leaked information a few weeks ago. Since then some other sources put the pricing at a little lower, but considering the RTX 4090 cost $1,600 at launch, even $1,800-2,000 would be a significant price increase, with the RTX 5080 potentially costing 50% more than the RTX 4080’s launch price of $999.
Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4090
The new cards are rumored to be much larger too, with wider dimensions potentially limiting their compatibility with existing PC cases, especially in the small form factor size. Other rumors put the lower end models in bad light too, such as the RTX 5060 still coming with an 8GB memory option, when some games already require more than this.
The new cards are likely to support PCIe 5.0 and will continue to have the 16-pin 12VHPWR connector. Nvidia may also not have much competition at the high end since AMD has made it clear it’s not going to be competing with Nvidia’s flagship models. Instead, it looks like it will be competing with the RTX 5070 Ti and below, which is why Nvidia’s pricing may be higher to make the most of the monopoly it’s expecting to enjoy there.
AMD Radeon 9000 GPUs
As mentioned above, AMD isn’t looking to compete with Nvidia’s RTX 5080 or 5090 and instead seems to be focussing on the more popular mid-range in an attempt to boost market share and save costs. Two cards are expected to be announced in January as part of the Radeon RX 9000 launch – the RX 9070 XT and RX 9700 – both of which are expected to have 16GB of memory.
AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 GRE proved to be a hit when it launched earlier in 2024, but the company is still a distant second place in term of market share according to the Steam Hardware Survey. The company may also be announcing FSR 4 alongside these RDNA 4 GPUs – its equivalent of Nvidia’s DLSS, which offers super-resolution based performance enhancements and frame generation.
A CES 2025 announcement is expected with availability in late January or February followed by models further down the price range where we may learn about other features of the cards, such as their continued use of standard 8-pin power connectors rather than opting for for the 12VPWR connectors on Nvidia’s models.
AMD Ryzen 9 9000x3D
January looks like it will be a great time to build a new PC if you want the latest hardware as we’re not just getting new graphics cards but some highly-anticipated processors too. AMD’s initial Ryzen 9000 processors didn’t receive rave reviews, instead posting disappointing gains over their predecessors.
That all changed with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, though, which sold out in the weeks since its launch thanks to stellar gaming performance and much-improved results outside of games too thanks to AMD putting its 3D V-Cache underneath its hot-running cores allowing the latter to run at higher frequencies than its predecessors.
AMD’s Ryzen 7 9800X3D
It’s expected to do the same with its higher core count parts too, so if the eight cores of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D aren’t enough, the 12-core Ryzen 9 9900X3D and 16-core Ryzen 9 9950X3D should offer excellent performance outside of games as well as similar performance to it when driving frame rates. In short, these could be most sought-after processors of 2025 for anyone that dabbles in games as well as demanding content creation, especially as Intel failed to impress with its Core Ultra 200 series.
Cheaper motherboards for AMD and Intel: B850 and B860 chipsets are coming
While the Ryzen 7 9800X3D has been flying off the shelves, AMD’s 800-zeries chipset motherboards demand high prices, forcing owners of Ryzen 7000 or 9000 processors to either stump up the cash or opt for older B650 or X670 motherboards.
Motherboards such as the Asus Crosshair X870E Hero have cutting edge features but are too expensive … [+]
The latter isn’t what motherboard manufacturers want to see so as usual, there are more affordable options on the way and not just for AMD owners. Intel too will see more affordable options for its Core Ultra 200 processors such as the Core Ultra 285K. Starting with Intel, B860 motherboards will offer similar features to current Z890 motherboards, but will cost significantly less, lowering the entry point for purchasing a modern Intel system.
Similarly for AMD, it will see B850 chipset motherboards arrive, costing a lot less than current X870 and X870E motherboards, but still offering cutting edge features such as Wi-Fi 7, USB 4 and PCIe 5 support, offering a more affordable upgrade path just as it launches the rest of its Ryzen 9000 3D V-Cache processors. The latest rumors point at a mid January launch.
Intel ARC B570 graphics card launching January 16th
Intel has improved upon the inconsistencies of its last round of GPU launches and the ARC B580 proved itself to be a decent option if you have less than $300 to spend. In fact, it offers some of the best value of any sub $400 graphics card, beating the likes of the Nvidia RTX 4060 and AMD RX 7600 in terms of performance per dollar.
With Nvidia having largely abandoned the low end with its RTX 5060 likely to be the cheapest of its 2025 offerings, Intel could well steal plenty of market share here. That’s where its next graphics card comes in.
Intel’s Arc B580 graphics card
With the ARC B580 having launched a few weeks ago, the ARC B570 is waiting in the wings. An expected launch date of January 16th sees it retail for a very reasonable $220 and with the B580 having received rave reviews, more of the same is expected, this time with plenty of change from $250.
Ill be covering the hardware launches in January so follow me here on Forbes using the blue button below, Facebook or YouTube to get the latest news and reviews.
