Nvidia is set to spring a whole bunch of new graphics cards on us next year, and it’s likely that we’ll see quite a few Blackwell GPUs early in 2025. On top of that, Nvidia apparently has ambitious plans to launch its own processor, an Arm-based chip for PCs that could challenge AMD and Intel (and Qualcomm) if it does indeed come to fruition later in 2025 as rumored.
Ready to explore the ins-and-outs of what Team Green is likely preparing for next year? Let’s cut to the chase and explore the likely possibilities in more depth.
Nvidia’s blitz of GPU launches at CES 2025
The rumor mill is pretty certain that we’ll see next-gen Blackwell GeForce graphics cards at CES 2025, and it’d be surprising if Team Green didn’t reveal those desktop GPUs during CEO Jensen Huang’s keynote (on January 6, 2025). Nvidia has all but confirmed this, at this point.
The question is: which Blackwell GPUs will be revealed? The grapevine seems most sure that two models will turn up initially, the RTX 5090 flagship and RTX 5080, both of which promise a major leap in performance.
Take the leaked specs with plenty of seasoning, but the RTX 5090 is said to be anything from 1.5x to 1.7x faster than the RTX 4090. That huge generational leap may come at a cost in terms of the next-gen flagship guzzling power to the tune of 600W, and there are concerns about the cost, too (with some kind of price hike definitely expected over and above the RTX 4090’s MSRP).
Those pricing worries apply to the RTX 5080, as well, with leaks suggesting Nvidia might pitch it as a ‘professional GPU’ to its partners, indicating the 5080 will be expensive. Spec rumors about the RTX 5080 have been a bit of a wild ride, with some controversy surrounding the apparent choice of 16GB for the VRAM loadout – which may not be the full picture, mind.
The RTX 5070 could also be revealed at CES 2025 alongside this pair of GPUs, at least according to some of the chatter filtering down from the rumor mill. However, other rumor peddlers have suggested that this graphics card might be launched slightly after the RTX 5090 and 5080, possibly in February 2025. Other theories still have indicated we could see the RTX 5070 Ti launch before the RTX 5070 (and that Ti spin could be seriously peppy).
At any rate, there’s something of a consensus that RTX 5070 models, probably two of them, will turn up early in 2025, and quite a few spec rumors have been aired – including, once again, that Nvidia could cheap out with the VRAM. This time Team Green is purportedly planning just 12GB for the RTX 5070, which would be a very disappointing choice in terms of future-proofing for the price tag the GPU will doubtless command.
So to recap, for next-gen desktop GPUs, we should see the RTX 5090 and 5080, possibly alongside the RTX 5070 and/or 5070 Ti, potentially all of which could be unveiled, or teased at the very least, at CES 2025.
The Consumer Electronics Show might also witness the revelation of Blackwell GPUs for gaming laptops. Nvidia could show off mobile graphics cards ranging from the RTX 5050 all the way up to the RTX 5090, with the RTX 5080 rumored to be a powerful beast of a notebook GPU. A further theory is that Nvidia will maintain the RTX 4050 mobile underneath the RTX 5050, to hopefully deliver a punchy enough offering for budget gaming laptops.
DLSS 4 could arrive to complement RTX 5000 GPUs
We might see Nvidia take the wraps off DLSS 4, or at least drop some new info on the frame rate boosting feature, also at CES 2025. It makes sense that the next-gen of DLSS would be tied to RTX 5000 GPUs exclusively, as was the case with DLSS 3 and current-gen Lovelace graphics cards, given it’s an obvious tactic to bolster sales of next-gen GPUs.
That said, we haven’t yet had any firm leaks on what DLSS 4 might do, which at this late stage, casts some doubt on a CES 2025 reveal. You can bet that Nvidia will push out DLSS 4 at some point next year, though.
Other Blackwell desktop graphics cards
After the dust settles from the early Blackwell GPU launches – the RTX 5090, 5080 and likely those 5070 models too – what else might we expect from Nvidia in terms of desktop graphics cards, later in 2025?
The missing piece of the puzzle is the RTX 5060, and rumors have been thinner on the ground with this GPU, making us believe that it might not turn up until later in 2025. Recalling Nvidia’s past form with launch schedules, it took seven to eight months for RTX 4060 models to arrive after the Lovelace flagship GPU first emerged.
However, of late, the RTX 5060 has popped up on the grapevine with suggestions that the graphics card might arrive in Q1 of 2025, maybe in March. The worry with the RTX 5060 is that Nvidia could stick with an 8GB helping of video RAM, the same as the RTX 4060. (Although the RTX 5060 Ti is also rumored to be inbound, and this could have 16GB, although obviously add plenty of seasoning with all this).
Nvidia’s CPU set to challenge AMD and Intel on their home turf
2025 might not just be a big year for graphics cards, with a host of next-gen GPUs, but Nvidia could also make a startling move on a very different front. That’s if reports of Team Green launching a new consumer-targeted Arm-based CPU next year turn out to be true.
This would, in theory, be a desktop chip to take on the might of AMD and Intel on their home turf processor territory, except Nvidia’s effort would be Arm-based (rather than x86), so a challenger akin to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon (Arm) CPUs that are currently making a big splash in Copilot+ PCs.
The Arm-based SoC would, of course, leverage Nvidia’s GPU expertise to provide peppy integrated graphics, and earlier rumors suggested Team Green might be working with MediaTek to produce these chips. With Qualcomm’s exclusivity on SoCs for Windows on Arm reportedly coming to an end, there’s theoretically room for Nvidia – or indeed other players – to move in.
Just like Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X range, Nvidia’s CPU would of course face the same issues due to Windows on Arm. Team Green’s chip would be hit with the inherent compatibility drawbacks pertaining to that platform in terms of performance overheads and software emulation (running x86 apps on Arm).
Arm has strengths, of course, as well – battery life, and affordability (in theory, as much cheaper Snapdragon X laptops are inbound for the start of 2025, certainly). Furthermore, app compatibility could become less of an issue as time rolls on. Why’s that, exactly?
Well, what we’ve got to remember is that Qualcomm has made a big play with its Snapdragon X chips already, and if Nvidia joins that Arm bandwagon as is rumored – and MediaTek also, in theory – that’s going to add a lot of weight to the push with Arm-powered PCs. With big things forecast by analysts for Arm devices, as the hardware starts to carve out more and more sales, with several tech juggernauts behind these PCs, developers writing more software for Arm natively will follow naturally as the market grows.
At least that’s the theory anyway, and doubtless the vision Nvidia has in its mind – if these rumors are correct. Also, we shouldn’t forget that Apple has marched down the Arm road with its own M-series chips, too.
The word is that we could see Nvidia’s Arm-based CPU arrive later in 2025, though it’s not clear if that would also mean a volume launch of laptops with the chips, which may not happen until 2026. Still, this is an apparent planned move for next year by Nvidia which will be potentially earthshaking in the laptop space, a prospect that might give Intel some pause for thought.
Concluding thoughts
It’s a good bet we’ll see Nvidia’s entire range of next-gen Blackwell desktop gaming GPUs emerge in 2025 – probably pretty early on. Although the rumors suggest we are in for some unfortunately underpowered video RAM configurations with some models, and perhaps some eye-watering price tags, too.
Those new GeForce boards will doubtless cause quite a stir in the GPU world, and there’ll be an interesting battle to watch against AMD’s RDNA 4 graphics cards – expected to launch in Q1 2025 – at the mid-range, and lower-end, of the spectrum.
The CPU pot could be even more vigorously stirred, mind, if Nvidia does unleash that theorized Arm processor – albeit in terms of what the further future might hold, rather than the PC landscape in 2025.
Arm laptops are going to be a longer-term game, but if the likes of Nvidia and MediaTek are going to shove their weight behind them alongside Qualcomm, those analyst predictions of Windows on Arm PC sales spiking strongly upwards start to look much more realistic. As the end of the decade rolls around, these devices could be a major force in the computing world, and that PC revolution of sorts could begin next year.