All the biggest announcements from CES 2025

• Nvidia launched top-of-the-range, AI-focused hardware.

• AMD's more accessible chips still pack a punch.

• Sony is launching a suite of tools for making extended reality content.

CES 2025 kicked off Monday in Las Vegas, Nevada. Full of robots, electric vehicles and smart home devices, it can be an overwhelming, gimmicky affair. But beneath the noise, there were plenty of exciting announcements for indie hackers.

From AI processors to creator tools, I've summarized what I think are the most important developments for IHers below. If you've spotted something interesting I've missed, add it to the comments below.

Nvidia - GPUs, World Models and a personal supercomputer

Nvidia had a huge day Monday. CEO Jensen Huang revealed next-generation AI models, extremely powerful chips, and an entire "personal AI supercomputer" at its keynote.

Let's start with that supercomputer. Named "Project Digit," it's a downsized version of Nvidia's AI-focused Grace Blackwell Superchip. Until now, only huge companies have really had their hands on this tech. Digit (which will retail at $3,000) makes it somewhat more accessible.

Designed with developers, data scientists and researchers in mind, it will help users run and finetune their own AI models when it launches in May.

Speaking of models, Nvidia also revealed its own set of pre-trained "world foundation models" that can predict and create “physics-aware” videos. Designed to capture and mimic natural movement and behaviors in the real world, the Cosmos models have a general knowledge of physics.

Applications of the tech will be pretty varied. The firm says:

"Cosmos WFMs are purpose-built for physical AI research and development, and can generate physics-based videos from a combination of inputs, like text, image and video, as well as robot sensor or motion data."

The models are open-source and distributed with a permissive license, so anyone can use them for personal or commercial applications. You can access them at HuggingFace.

Closer to its roots, Nvidia also unveiled a full deck of AI-focused GeForce RTX 5000 graphics cards. They'll be overkill for a lot of indie hackers, but useful for those working in video, gaming, crypto-mining or AI.

Nvidia's behemoth RTX 5090 GPU features 92 billion transistors and is capable of 4,000 AI TOPS (trillion operations per second) — but it will cost a cool $2,000 when it retails. The more modest RTX 5070 and 5070 Ti chips can run 988 and 1,406 AI TOPS respectively, and will retail at a more accessible $549 and $749.

Even these cheaper models offer a huge performance boost compared to running top-range CPUs alone. Apple's M4 chip, for example, can run 38 TOPS.

AMD - CPUs for creators, AI chips, GPUs

AMD announced a string of new chips on Monday. Marketed for "gamers and creators," the Ryzen 9 9950X3D packs the biggest punch. It's designed for 3D rendering and video editing and it hosts 16 cores clocking up to 5.7GHz. It's expected to launch alongside a budget version in the first quarter of 2025.

AMD is also launching several new AI CPUs designed to run Microsoft's Copilot+ software. The company is integrating AI deeply into Windows 11, and needs hardware that's up to the job.

The Ryzen AI 300 series and Ryzen AI Max series chips all have "neural processing units" targeting functions like text summarization and image editing.

The company's range of GPUs is also getting an upgrade. It's launching the Radeon RX 9070 XT and Radeon RX 9070 graphics cards, which can run its FidelityFX Super Resolution 4.0 upscaling technology.

The tech uses AI to boost the quality of a game's graphics up to 4k, with very little latency.

Sony - Spatial content tools for creators

Sony previewed a "spatial content" creation solution called XYN first debuted last year. This is essentially the kind of 3D content you need for extended reality (XR) headsets. XYN basically captures regular video and converts it into this 3D content.

It includes tools like a sensor-based motion capture system and a spatial capture system that will turn real-life objects into photorealistic assets. An accompanying XYN headset will support content production software.

Sony Pictures Animation are currently experimenting with the tech, according to VentureBeat. It's initially intended for things like entertainment and industrial design. But XYN will ultimately be a tool for a wider range of content creation, including gaming and the metaverse. It will be an exciting development for indie hackers who are serious about XR apps.