We’re beginning to hear extra rumours concerning the subsequent technology of Sony and Microsoft consoles, they usually’re sounding much more just like the PC you may have sat on, or below, your desk proper now. The PlayStation Four and Xbox One began that transformation through the use of an x86-based APU at their respective hearts, however the PS5 and Xbox Scarlet gadgets appear to be they’re going one step additional and separating the CPU from the GPU.
Yeah, the next-gen consoles would possibly even have discrete graphics chips inside them. Sony PS5 dev kits are reportedly already out within the wild, and unsubstantiated leaks have been bandied round touting the specs of the next-gen Microsoft Xbox Scarlet machines.
A practical-looking product code for the AMD silicon going into both the PS5 or next Xbox has been decoded online displaying each using the AMD Zen CPU structure in addition to the upcoming Navi GPU design. And a screenshot of what’s steered to be a specs dump from an Xbox Scarlet dev machine has additionally appeared, although with a robust GPU sporting the Arcturus GPU codename.
Now, in fact these leaks are more likely to be a minimum of 90% hypothesis and 10% fabrication, however a persistent hearsay floating round proper now could be that the silicon on the core of the next-gen consoles may not be an APU this time. Previously each consoles used a system-on-a-chip (SoC) design, which implies each the GPU and CPU are mixed inside a single silicon package deal.
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With the last-gen PlayStation and Xbox machines – even the high-end pseudo-4K machines – the AMD chip that powers them makes use of the identical mixture of CPU and GPU cores cosying up below the identical heat-spreader. There’s extra graphics silicon contained in the Scorpio chip used within the Xbox One X than within the PS4 Pro, however they each use the identical eight weak-heart Jaguar CPU cores.
The next-gen consoles are going to be utilizing each extra graphics {hardware} and higher-spec CPU cores inside them too. And, even if we’re anticipating one or each to be constructed on the 7nm manufacturing course of, that might doubtlessly lead to a completely humongous SoC. And large chips are additionally massively costly to provide and tough to keep up excessive manufacturing yields on too.
The newest leak, purporting to show those Scarlet specs, has the Microsoft machine’s Arcturus 12 GPU utilizing 64 ‘Arcturus Engines’ for a complete of 4,096 GPU cores. Using the 7nm node the Radeon VII’s Vega 20 GPU (which has 4,096 cores inside it regardless of solely having 3,840 accessible) continues to be a sizeable chip. And even when Sony and Microsoft do get to make use of a 7nm model of the Zen structure, that may nonetheless be a hefty beast to construct from a single slice of silicon.
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Arcturus? Yeah, it’s trying just like the earlier suggestion that Arcturus was the codename for a post-GCN AMD graphics architecture was fallacious. The supply of that hearsay has since defined Arcturus is the name of an actual chip, not a whole architecture. That means it’s solely believable the Arcturus silicon is definitely a discrete GPU going into the following technology of Microsoft machines.
There was one other hearsay suggesting Navi was co-designed specifically with Sony in mind for the PS5, so there’s an excellent likelihood that Microsoft both needed to, or needed to, use a distinct chip identify for its GPU cores. Obviously this simply faked Scarlet specs pic can’t be 100% trusted, but it surely does introduce some fascinating speaking factors.
With consoles being extremely price-sensitive any methodology Sony and Microsoft can use to save cash on manufacturing can be welcome, so separating out the high-end GPU from the high-end CPU makes some sense. We’re not essentially speaking about having a discrete graphics card the dimensions of a Radeon VII bulking out the PS5 or Xbox Scarlet, and even the type of MXM module you get inside a gaming laptop computer, however one thing just like the packaging that was produced for the hybrid Intel/AMD Kaby Lake G can be potential.
However they’re linked, the GPU and CPU cores will share reminiscence in a method they historically don’t inside customary PCs, in order that they don’t must be utterly separated out with their very own discrete DDR or GDDR reminiscence swimming pools. Both Sony and Microsoft will doubtless be solely utilizing GDDR5/6 for his or her subsequent machines – with 22GB within the current dev equipment hearsay – so you possibly can doubtlessly have the discrete 7nm graphics and processor cores speaking with one another, and a shared pool of reminiscence, through an Infinity Fabric interconnect somewhat than really being bodily on the identical chip.
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None of that is scheduled to launch till 2020, nonetheless, so there’s nonetheless the possibility that AMD might reward the next-gen consoles the Zen 2 structure, and with that the entire chiplet design. A 7nm eight-core chiplet, 14nm I/O chip, and a 7nm Arcturus or Navi Lite GPU might doubtlessly sit on the identical interposer, beneath a heatspreader, trying like a normal SoC.
Though it’s not trying like we’ll be getting APUs primarily based on the chiplet structure any time quickly, so perhaps that’s somewhat fanciful for a pair of machines whose dev kits are reportedly already doing the rounds.
There’s additionally the truth that nonetheless you spin it 4,096 AMD GCN cores will get scorching – 7nm or no – which is another excuse for separating them away from the CPU. Giving the processor and graphics silicon their very own cooling options is one other method the brand new consoles would begin to look much more PC than earlier generations.
Obviously proper now we don’t have any particular affirmation on how AMD has been constructing the {hardware} for the following technology of games consoles, so that is merely hypothesis primarily based on some leaks and our information of AMD’s present GPU and CPU designs. But there’s one factor that we do know – in the event that they wish to genuinely supply native 4K gaming, at 60Hz or greater, then they’re going to wish some highly effective CPU and GPU silicon. And for that, they’re going to wish to look to their large PC cousins for inspiration.
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