CES 2025: HP Will Use Artificial Intelligence to Manage Game Settings for You
Whenever I go into a game, the first thing I do is go into its settings and experiment with my options, trying to find a good balance between performance and graphics. It’s not the most exciting first impression of a new game, but it can make my time with the game more enjoyable. Now HP wants to automate that first hurdle so I can jump straight into gameplay instead.
Omen AI Beta Optimizes Your Settings for You
As part of its CES 2025 announcement, the company announced an “Omen AI beta” coming to the HP Omen Gaming Hub this week. According to HP, this AI will use “machine learning to customize operating system, hardware, and game settings” in just one click. That’s a lot to balance all at once, but the idea is that HP will scan your system to figure out how to get the best performance out of your games, taking into account your individual settings, and then make the necessary adjustments for you.
Like any other AI, it will need training data to do this. According to the spokesperson, Omen AI will use hardware specs, game configurations and performance metrics from “millions of gaming systems” to develop its optimizations, which will then be applied to your game and some compatible parts of your broader system. To avoid conflicts with other companies’ products, changes to the operating system will be limited to adjustments to “accelerator” settings already present in the company’s gaming software, while changes to hardware settings will initially only work with Omen computers. In other words, your optimization may be slightly less effective if you don’t have the right computer, but you also won’t have to worry about the program breaking hardware it’s not familiar with. (If you run into problems, there’s a cancel button that lets you go back to the settings you had before turning on the AI.)
Even with these limitations, this feature is only set to work with Counterstrike 2 at launch, so expect a gradual rollout. However, promotional materials show that the tool works in Valorant , so hopefully HP won’t abandon it after the proof of concept.
That’s really what will make or break something like this. If it only works with a few games, it’ll be great for headlines, but gamers will quickly forget about it. I’m told that integration with other PC makers and companies like Nvidia is also possible in the future, which could help expand the tool’s user base.
A larger user base also means more training data, which does raise privacy concerns. According to HP, Omen AI does not use any personal information to train its AI models, and users can manage consent options for data collection from the Omen Gaming Hub software. However, even with the promise that the data is anonymized and aggregated, it’s worth double-checking your privacy settings if you have the HP Omen Gaming Hub, even if you don’t plan to use AI.
It’s interesting to see something like this come first from a PC manufacturer rather than Microsoft or Nvidia, although the tool will be open to anyone with an Omen Gaming Hub installed, regardless of whether they have an HP PC. It looks like both in and out of game, you’ll be able to use Omen AI to access a quick switch that will tell you your current fps, as well as what fps you can expect when you enable the tool. Even if these are just mockups at the moment, they demonstrate a commitment to ease of use. That said, perhaps a little finer control would be useful here – what if I’m happy with the program tweaking my in-game settings, but I’d rather my operating system and hardware be left alone?
How well Omen AI performs in reality depends on how beta testing goes and continued support. I’m rooting for it: It’s also a good example of the type of AI I really like , since it’s more about eliminating boredom than replacing human creativity.
New mice from HP.
HP also announced the HyperX Pulsefire Saga and Saga Pro mice at CES this year, which look pretty standard at first glance, with 8K polling, six programmable buttons, and support for resolutions up to 26,000 dpi. There are some premium features like magnetic weights, but what really sets them apart is the 3D printed body. You’ll get eight case parts in the box, which is enough for a full mouse, but you can also swap out and customize settings at your leisure by downloading new open-source case parts from your HP Printables account .
HyperX Pulsefire Saga and Saga Pro mice will be available in March. The former costs $80, while the latter costs $120 with additional wireless features.