AMD claims it will power another gaming device

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Final8ty

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AMD gained a large market for its Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) products when both Microsoft and Sony decided to incorporate APUs into current-generation gaming consoles. The Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 both feature AMD semi-custom APUs on which AMD makes around $100 per APU sold, according to IHS iSuppli.

Comments made by AMD's Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Devinder Kumar, suggest AMD will be making its way into another major gaming device, other reports suggest. The gaming device in question, and the brand that will be producing it, were not named, but the new deal could prove equally lucrative for AMD.

Kumar also commented that "one [design win] is x86 and [another] is ARM, and at least one will [be] beyond gaming, right...But that is about as much as you going to get out me today. From the standpoint [of being] fair to [customers], it is their product, and they launch it. They are going to announce it and then […] you will find out that it is AMD’s APU that is being used in those products."
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http://hexus.net/gaming/news/hardware/78233-amd-claims-will-power-another-gaming-device/
 
Unless a new company is jumping into the console market, they must be talking about the next Nintendo.
 
trick0502 said:
Unless a new company is jumping into the console market, they must be talking about the next Nintendo.
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It could be a smaller player such as the Ouya or something like that. Either way it's good news. I am surprised they make $100 from each APU sold for the consoles. I wonder if that $100 is profit or gross.
 
trick0502 said:
Unless a new company is jumping into the console market, they must be talking about the next Nintendo.
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I was actually wondering myself if Nintendo would release a more powerful Wii-U in the future. They aren't afraid of upsetting a devices life-cycle, see the new 3DS, so it would be interesting to see a more powerful Wii-U.

I highly doubt it but I'm interested to see what the other gaming piece is.
 
TheBlueChanell said:
I was actually wondering myself if Nintendo would release a more powerful Wii-U in the future. They aren't afraid of upsetting a devices life-cycle, see the new 3DS, so it would be interesting to see a more powerful Wii-U.

I highly doubt it but I'm interested to see what the other gaming piece is.
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Moreover, they have a great opportunity to jump in next year or the following with something that handily surpasses ps4 and xb1 in the graphics department. Not too hard to do considering both are using a 3 year-old GPU already.
 
Simmonz said:
It could be a smaller player such as the Ouya or something like that. Either way it's good news. I am surprised they make $100 from each APU sold for the consoles. I wonder if that $100 is profit or gross.
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No chip makes 'profit'. The price of the actual material and manufacturing process is minimal, the design and R&D is where the real costs are, and those are difficult to quantify on a 'per chip' basis.
 
Seeing as how Nintendo has recently said they felt that they "fulfilled their obligations with the Wii U", it's very well possible they're preparing for their next console.
 
Chances are it's for Nintendo's next console. The Wii went from 2007-2012, so it's reasonable to assume the Wii U will go 2012-2017. That means we only have around 3 years left, which would probably mean Nintendo has some basic groundwork down for their next console, which would include a processor.

Who knows though, maybe we'll have a new player in the console market (Sega? Awesome but extremely doubtful).
 
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http://wccftech.com/nintendo-confirms-console-powered-amd/

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment...bo-zelda-mario-movie-27699825?singlePage=true

AP: I know you’re working on “Star Fox,” but beyond that, will you continue to design games for the Wii U, or are you already thinking about new hardware?

Miyamoto: We’re focused on providing a robust line-up of Wii U software for next year. It seems like we’ve managed to do that this year and people are very happy with what we’ve done on Wii U. For the time being, our focus is on the Wii U hardware, but Nintendo as a whole has groups working on ideas for new hardware systems. While we’re busy working on software for the Wii U, we have production lines that are working on ideas for what the next system might be.
 
WCCF with their amazing journalism yet again... Nowhere in those quotes does Miyamoto even mention or hint at AMD. I mean yeah, AMD makes the most sense as they can build SoC's with powerful graphics and more than good enough x86, so maybe this hypothetical chip will be a combination of whatever graphics IP AMD is on by then and Zen or even K12, but who knows. The author in that article just literally assumed a bunch of shit and made a clickbait title. Oh wait, that's WCCF in a nutshell!
 
As long as AMD is developing APU's for consoles, we will continue to see better APU's with refined architecture and supportive software on the PC side.
 
I think its safe to assume it will be Nintendo.

ATI (bought out by AMD) provided the GPU for the Gamecube
AMD provided the GPU for the Wii
AMD provided the GPU for the Wii U.

There is already a long established relationship there, and AMD has shown they are capable of producing custom chips in quantity for this market.

The real question is, will it be a console or portable?
 
^Yeah. I see no reason why Nintendo would end their long-standing partnership with AMD. Hell, it might get to the point that AMD has a potent-enough low-power SoC that could power the next Nintendo portable as well.
 
Bland_JamesBland said:
As long as AMD is developing APU's for consoles, we will continue to see better APU's with refined architecture and supportive software on the PC side.
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Where profit goes so does the focus on software development. So lets hope this is a profitable endeavor for AMD.
 
trick0502 said:
Unless a new company is jumping into the console market, they must be talking about the next Nintendo.
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Pretty sure that's what it is. A lot of buzz the past few weeks regarding Nintendo talking about their plans for a new console. Plus, I think Nintendo wants more games ported to their system and having a similar architecture is the first step in doing that.

ETC

ETC
 
With 4K taking off, Nintendo will time it just right if they get a console capable of good 4K play out for Christmas next year. They've surely seen the problems MS and Sony are having with having chosen anaemic GPUs. If you strip out all the layers imposed by PC gaming, surely a R9 290 should be good enough for 4K @ 60fps? Now refresh that GPU with a die shrink and thus lower power consumption...
 
Lol 4K definitely won't be the focus of the next Nintendo console, and probably not even the next Sony/MS consoles. 4K is still a ways away from being mainstream.
 
NaroonGTX said:
Lol 4K definitely won't be the focus of the next Nintendo console, and probably not even the next Sony/MS consoles. 4K is still a ways away from being mainstream.
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I totally agree with this man. 4k isn't even close to being mainstream on PC, nevermind the best PCs have trouble with it. Remember APUs have trouble with 1080p right now... a single chip can only handle so many watts, and current technology is only so efficient.

It would be awesome to see Nintendo be the leader in graphics. That just doesn't seem to be their thing, nor jive with a lot of their software IP which is cartoonish.
 
Quartz-1 said:
With 4K taking off, Nintendo will time it just right if they get a console capable of good 4K play out for Christmas next year. They've surely seen the problems MS and Sony are having with having chosen anaemic GPUs. If you strip out all the layers imposed by PC gaming, surely a R9 290 should be good enough for 4K @ 60fps? Now refresh that GPU with a die shrink and thus lower power consumption...
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They surprise the market with a 4K Nintendo console with 16GB of GDDR5. The next Mario game has Oculus Rift support and you play in first person mode. StarFox comes with a cockpit chair and dual-flight sticks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBb9wFP7uZM
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
I think its safe to assume it will be Nintendo.

ATI (bought out by AMD) provided the GPU for the Gamecube
AMD provided the GPU for the Wii
AMD provided the GPU for the Wii U.

There is already a long established relationship there, and AMD has shown they are capable of producing custom chips in quantity for this market.

The real question is, will it be a console or portable?
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You missed one step, ATI actually bought out the company (ArtX) that created the Gamecube's GPU (shortly before the Gamecube launched).
 
I wonder if nintendo might be the ARM soc that amd was talking about. Nintendo was talking about making a unified platform between handhelds and consoles a bit back. Going arm on both would certainly make that easier.
 
Rav3n said:
Where profit goes so does the focus on software development. So lets hope this is a profitable endeavor for AMD.
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Basically AMD does not do anything without getting paid (consoles). But the success of hardware is tied to software. The people who been claiming that AMD makes little to no profit on consoles have just said that and not come with any proof what so ever.

When it gets repeated and then taken for valid information.

AMD already been dropping projects which didn't bring in enough money (see AM3+ platform) . Then again AMD has to get business in order to survive because it can not afford to pick projects on the basis of excellent provability
 
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Dayaks said:
I totally agree with this man. 4k isn't even close to being mainstream on PC, nevermind the best PCs have trouble with it.
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It will be mainstream in 2016, and high-end GPUs do not have a problem with 4K. High-end GPUs have a problem with 4K with ultra details. And remember, Nintendo is not designing for now, but for late next year and beyond. Remember the build-ups to the launches of the PS4 and X1? Took a long time, didn't they?

Remember APUs have trouble with 1080p right now... a single chip can only handle so many watts, and current technology is only so efficient.
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They could go for a two chip solution - GPU and CPU. And the GTX 970 and 980 have shown that power is much less of an issue. Given the greater efficiency of a die shrink and the lower overhead a console imposes, I wonder if a Radeon 7970 would suffice for UHD?
 
Even in 2016 it won't be mainstream. That would imply everyone (including non-enthusiasts) will just abandon the monitors they currently have and go to 4K. I mean, there are a lot of non-gamers who go to 4K for media production and media consumption, and for the latter you don't even need a jesus-tier rig to enjoy that. For gaming though? Lol no.

Maybe if the next architectures from AMD and Nvidia offer a substantial enough jump over their newer offerings (Maxwell from NV and 300-series from AMD) we could see 4K gaming become more viable. But there's no way Nintendo will have a big-die high-end GPU powering their console even in 2016.
 
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