What Happened
NVIDIA has announced significant upgrades to its RTX AI platform at CES 2026, enabling creators to generate 4K AI videos directly on their PCs.
The announcement centers on enhanced support for the Lightricks LTX-2 video generation model and major improvements to ComfyUI, the popular open-source AI workflow tool. These updates position NVIDIA RTX GPUs as the premier hardware for local AI video generation, eliminating the need for cloud-based rendering services.
The timing is significant as 2025 marked a breakout year for AI development on PC, with PC-class small language models improving accuracy by nearly 2x over 2024.
Developer tools including ComfyUI, Ollama, llama.cpp, and Unsloth have doubled in popularity year over year, creating a robust ecosystem for local AI development.
Key Technical Improvements
The LTX-2 model represents a major leap in video generation capabilities. Unlike its predecessor, LTX-2 can generate videos at 4K resolution with significantly improved quality and consistency.
When paired with NVIDIA RTX GPUs featuring Tensor Cores, the model leverages hardware acceleration to dramatically reduce generation times compared to CPU-only processing.
ComfyUI, the node-based workflow interface that has become the de facto standard for AI image and video generation, received substantial performance optimizations specifically for RTX hardware.
These upgrades enable creators to chain multiple AI models together, apply real-time previews, and iterate on video generation projects without the lag associated with cloud-based workflows.
Performance Benchmarks
According to NVIDIA's testing, RTX 4090 users can expect to generate 4K video clips in minutes rather than hours.
The combination of CUDA acceleration, optimized memory management, and the latest TensorRT optimizations makes local video generation practical for professional workflows.
The RTX 40 series GPUs benefit most from these improvements, though RTX 30-series cards also see meaningful performance gains.
Broader AI PC Ecosystem
This announcement comes amid a wave of AI-focused hardware and software releases. NVIDIA also unveiled DLSS 4.5 at CES, introducing Dynamic Multi Frame Generation and a new 6X Multi Frame Generation mode.
Over 250 games and applications now support NVIDIA DLSS technology, demonstrating the company's comprehensive approach to AI acceleration across gaming and creative workflows.
The company's commitment to open AI development extends beyond video generation. NVIDIA released new open models spanning the Nemotron family for agentic AI, the Cosmos platform for physical AI, the Alpamayo family for autonomous vehicles, Isaac GR00T for robotics, and Clara for healthcare applications.
"The ChatGPT moment for robotics is here. Breakthroughs in physical AI — models that understand the real world, reason and plan actions — are unlocking entirely new applications."
Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA
Industry Context and Competition
NVIDIA's push into local AI video generation comes as competitors make their own moves in the AI PC space.
AMD announced the latest version of its AI-powered PC chips at CES, designed for tasks ranging from gaming to content creation and multitasking.
However, NVIDIA's deep integration with popular AI tools like ComfyUI and its extensive developer ecosystem give it a significant advantage in the creative AI market.
The shift toward local AI processing addresses several pain points for creators: data privacy concerns with cloud services, subscription costs, internet bandwidth limitations, and the latency inherent in cloud-based workflows.
By enabling high-quality 4K video generation on local hardware, NVIDIA positions RTX GPUs as essential tools for the next generation of AI-powered content creation.
Physical AI and Autonomous Systems
Beyond consumer applications, NVIDIA's announcements included significant developments in physical AI.
The company released new physical AI models and unveiled robots from global partners, while the Alpamayo family of open AI models targets safe, reasoning-based autonomous vehicle development with accompanying simulation tools and datasets.
What This Means for Creators
For video creators, filmmakers, and content producers, these updates represent a paradigm shift. The ability to generate, iterate, and refine AI-generated video content locally means faster creative cycles and lower operational costs.
Professional workflows can now incorporate AI video generation as a standard tool rather than an experimental cloud service.
The improvements to ComfyUI particularly benefit technical creators who build custom workflows. The node-based interface allows for complex pipelines that combine video generation with upscaling, style transfer, and post-processing effects—all running locally on RTX hardware.
This level of control and customization was previously only possible with expensive cloud compute resources or lengthy render times.
Accessibility and Hardware Requirements
While the most dramatic performance improvements require high-end RTX 40 series GPUs, NVIDIA's optimizations extend down the product stack.
RTX 3060 and higher cards can run LTX-2 and ComfyUI, though at lower resolutions or with longer generation times. This accessibility helps democratize AI video generation beyond users with top-tier hardware budgets.
FAQ
What is LTX-2 and how does it differ from previous video generation models?
LTX-2 is Lightricks' latest AI video generation model that can create 4K resolution videos with improved quality and consistency.
Unlike earlier models limited to lower resolutions, LTX-2 leverages NVIDIA RTX GPU acceleration to generate high-quality video content locally on consumer hardware.
Do I need an RTX 40-series GPU to use these features?
While the RTX 40 series GPUs deliver the best performance, the LTX-2 model and ComfyUI upgrades work on RTX 30-series cards and higher.
Performance scales with GPU capability, so newer and more powerful cards will generate videos faster and at higher quality settings.
How does local AI video generation compare to cloud services?
Local generation offers several advantages: no subscription costs, better data privacy, no internet bandwidth requirements, and lower latency for iterative work.
However, cloud services may still offer advantages for users without high-end GPUs or those needing to generate large volumes of content simultaneously.
Can ComfyUI be used for tasks beyond video generation?
Yes, ComfyUI is a versatile node-based workflow tool that supports image generation, upscaling, style transfer, inpainting, and numerous other AI-powered creative tasks.
The recent updates improve performance across all these workflows when running on RTX hardware.
What other AI capabilities did NVIDIA announce at CES 2026?
NVIDIA announced DLSS 4.5 with Dynamic Multi Frame Generation, new open models for physical AI including the Cosmos platform, the Alpamayo family for autonomous vehicles, Isaac GR00T for robotics, and various tools for agentic AI development through the Nemotron family.
Information Currency: This article contains information current as of January 6, 2026. For the latest updates on NVIDIA RTX capabilities, LTX-2 model improvements, and ComfyUI features, please refer to the official sources linked in the References section below.
References
- NVIDIA RTX Accelerates 4K AI Video Generation on PC With LTX-2 and ComfyUI Upgrades - NVIDIA Blog
- NVIDIA DLSS 4.5, Path Tracing and G-SYNC Pulsar Supercharge Gameplay - NVIDIA Blog
- NVIDIA Unveils New Open Models, Data and Tools to Advance AI - NVIDIA Blog
- NVIDIA Releases New Physical AI Models as Global Partners Unveil Next-Generation Robots - NVIDIA News
- NVIDIA Announces Alpamayo Family for Autonomous Vehicle Development - NVIDIA News
- AMD unveils new AI PC processors for general use and gaming at CES - TechCrunch
Cover image: AI generated image by Google Imagen
