At CES 2026, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang declared that "the future is neural rendering," signaling a major shift in how graphics and gaming will evolve. While Nvidia did not unveil any new GPUs for the first time in five years, the company showcased its next-generation Vera Rubin AI supercomputer and introduced key updates to its AI-driven graphics technologies, including DLSS 4.5 and MFG 6X. During a Q&A session with PC World’s Adam Patrick Murray, Huang was asked whether the upcoming RTX 5090 could be the fastest traditional rasterization GPU ever made. While he did not explicitly confirm that it marks the peak of raster performance, his response strongly implied it. He emphasized that the future of gaming lies not in raw shader power or traditional rendering pipelines, but in AI-powered techniques like upscaling, frame generation, and neural rendering. Huang’s comments reflect a broader industry trend. With games increasingly relying on DLSS as a standard performance feature, developers now design with AI upscaling in mind. This shift means that future gains in visual quality and frame rates will come less from increasing raw GPU compute and more from smarter, AI-driven rendering methods. Neural rendering is already transforming how graphics are created. Techniques such as neural texture compression, neural radiance fields, and AI-based frame generation are moving beyond supplements and into core components of the rendering pipeline. These advancements rely heavily on Nvidia’s AI accelerators and matrix math capabilities, suggesting that the future of graphics hardware will be defined by AI efficiency, not just raw processing power. Huang also previewed a future where in-game characters are built entirely with AI. He described a world where every NPC is powered by its own neural network, capable of lifelike behavior, emotional responses, and dynamic animation—all driven by AI. This vision aligns with Nvidia’s ACE platform, which is already being used to create intelligent, interactive characters across games and virtual environments. Such AI-driven character systems could dramatically reduce development time and effort, allowing studios to create richer, more responsive worlds without manually animating every detail. However, this also raises concerns about the loss of human creativity and the unique artistic touch that defines many beloved games. While the RTX 5090 is expected to be an incredibly powerful card, Huang’s focus on neural rendering suggests that the era of chasing ever-higher rasterization performance may be coming to an end. The real innovation frontier is now in AI, and the line between hardware and software is blurring. In the end, Huang expressed optimism about the current moment in gaming, calling it “a great time to be in video games.” As AI continues to reshape both the tools and the experiences, the industry stands at the threshold of a new era—one where neural rendering isn’t just an option, but the foundation of next-generation visuals and gameplay.