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Sony to dump NVIDIA for AMD as GPU chip provider for PS4?

by Steven Williamson on 24 February 2012, 15:11

Tags: Sony Computers Entertainment Europe (NYSE:SNE), NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), AMD (NYSE:AMD)

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Sony may have dropped NVIDIA in favour of its rival AMD as the provider of the next-generation graphics processor for the PlayStation 4 console, reports Forbes.

The Forbes article cites a former AMD employee as revealing the chip maker is working on a new Sony system and states that CEO Rory Read, who was appointed in August 2011, is charged with making “sure AMD doesn’t screw up its slate of new products—which includes a hush-hush effort to put its graphics chips in Sony’s still-unannounced new game console—and shake off the once scrappy company’s years-long funk.”

AMD currently uses a custom ATI Xenos chip to power the Xbox 360’s graphics, but for the PS3 Sony opted to use NVIDIA’s GPU based on the company’s G70 (NV47) architecture.


Fan-made mock-up of the PS4


One of the most interesting things about the rumour is that this is the first piece of concrete evidence that Sony Computer Entertainment is indeed working on a new console. Rumour has it that Sony will use the platform of E3 Expo in June to reveal its next-generation system. We guess we'll have to wait till then to find out the official technical specifications.


HEXUS Forums :: 23 Comments

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So the real wonder on my mind is, will the PS4 be receiving some graphical love only or will be be seeing something like a top-of-the-range or bespoke Trinity APU in the system.

Would certainly keep costs down and make life easier for the developer but would it provide enough raw horsepower?

We could end up seeing some Kaveri Steamrollers with some HSA fun if it's only in the early developmental stages: http://hexus.net/tech/news/industry/34769-amds-2012-2013-roadmap-2013-28nm/
Surely this will be the round of commodity consoles?

Cheap to make, cheap to develop for but powerful enough for all but the richest developer.
Scribe
So the real wonder on my mind is, will the PS4 be receiving some graphical love only or will be be seeing something like a top-of-the-range or bespoke Trinity APU in the system.

Would certainly keep costs down and make life easier for the developer but would it provide enough raw horsepower?

How about 2 or maybe 4 quad core Trinity processors ?
Brewster0101
How about 2 or maybe 4 quad core Trinity processors ?

I can imagine that sort of setup would be extremely difficult to code for…
It could be that the system has a quad core AMD APU with another GPU in Crossfire. The APU might be the successor to Trinity meaning it has GCN cores. I suspect that being a console the compute abilities of the GCN shaders might be put to good use. Look at Civilization V for example with both GCN and Fermi.