AMD will give consoles a Die-shrink first
Click here to post a comment for AMD will give consoles a Die-shrink first on our message forum
CalculuS
8GB Unified RAM?
Seems awful impractical in theory.
-Tj-
Or why not make them stronger at same heat/power,
add more gpu streaming processors and maybe higher frequency for both gpu and cpu.
scipio
This
Noisiv
Because at this point of TSMC's 20nm it's questionable whether the mere shrink is more profitable than 28nm.
I'd guess it's not, and adding more fluff means adding more cost.
Because they've never done it, and instead shrink has always been used to cut BoM, power and increase margins.
And because that would brake concept of targeting one single hw/performance, and would introduce concept of 1st and 2nd rate console users.
Redemption80
Yeah, both want to either increase profits or reduce the prices of the console, not increase it.
Creating 1st and 2nd rate console users would anger alot of people, while also making developers jobs a little bit more difficult at the same time.
scipio
Well maybe Microsoft should focus on better performance since they obviously have a sales problem
Denial
Honestly most people I've talked too with both consoles prefer the Xbox One due to the media capabilities/kinect voice. A lot of my friends with the One bought it to play games but end up using it as an entire home entertainment system after seeing how good it functions as that. I just think Microsoft has a hard time selling that over superior graphics capability.
Darkest
It's the other way around with people I know, that said most people I know are already running HTPC's.
fantaskarsef
Not surprised by this. That's where AMDs money is made, I guess.
Avalanche
8GB of GDDR5. Considering it's an APU, which means the CPU and GPU are on the same chip, it's actually a sweet setup. GDDR5 is a lot faster than DDR3, which benefits the CPU side.
Because you don't change console specs without launching a new console. You can't just release a new game and put on the box: "1080p for this game is only available on XBOX ver 2015 or newer". It could also create a lot of bugs, because console games are coded much closer to metal than PC games.
Hughesy
I'm the same, I have both but prefer my Xbox One. If I want the best graphics I use my PC, both consoles are so close in terms of performance and both are pretty weak. It's just something console owners like to fight about, it's funny though as before this gen they would always say towards PC gamers "graphics don't matter" I just enjoy playing games, especially now I'm pretty immobile.
vazup
"I'd rather see a bump in CPU/GPU performance for the consoles so idiots like Ubisoft can stop gimping PC ports for its parity and 30fps nonsense." that would be a very stupid move either from Sony or MS to boost performance on never models.
fusion
But how long time it even hits the market? These consoles haven't been out that long and already they're getting a die shrink. I wonder what premiums Microsoft had to pay to get first dibs on the die shrink though.
fantaskarsef
I guess those consoles will still be in use for another two or three years... the last consoles feel like they've just been released!
Fox2232
AMD decision shows integrity and that someone with brain makes decisions there.
Dumb idea to make consoles even 10% more powerful by HW changes. It could even destroy entire console market as it attacks ideology behind gaming consoles.
schmidtbag
I agree. The die shrink alone could possibly offer a tiny bump in performance anyway. I think it's much better to let the system run cooler and quieter.
A lot of people may think the APU chosen for the consoles is bad, but it really isn't. A lot of PC gamers tend to forget that games are supposed to be micro-optimized. Look at a game like Resident Evil 4 for gamecube - that game STILL looks pretty decent and that ran smooth on a system that had system specs so bad that if it could run x86 software, it wouldn't even be able to handle Windows XP SP3.
Developers are getting insanely lazy these days. There is no excuse for 30FPS or 720P resolutions on these new consoles. There has never been a console that wasn't under-powered at release, yet all consoles in the past have done a great job at playing very complex and detailed games.
Black_ice_Spain
because the point of consoles is to have a unique device with a single architecture and the same execution capabilities.
kenoh
Maybe with this die shrink SONY can fully unlock all the stream processors on the PS4, while keeping heat to a minimum and maybe even increase the CPU speed like MS did for the Xbone, so it can run all games in Med/High settings in 1080p@60fps.
Sukovsky
Are you all missing the point here? Consoles are never upgraded. This is just your regular post-release die shrink we've have with every console before, remember the smaller PS3's and PS2's that came out later?
-Tj-
And why wouldn't it be less unique if they added more SP, xbone needs it badly - at least to PS4 level..
Rest is all the same, nothing changed.
