A week ago, Sony announced its long-awaited PlayStation 5 Pro, a mid-generation console that boasts a more powerful graphics chip, increased memory bandwidth, and an architecture better suited for ray tracing. Of course, the entire SoC is handled by AMD, as it has been for the last two generations (since PS4 and Xbox One).
And from what we have learned now, AMD will once again be the company responsible for bringing the next PlayStation 6 to life, which is logical given the excellent results they have delivered over the past 11 years. In terms of APUs (a chip that integrates CPU + GPU) AMD has been years ahead of Intel.
A Reuters report that has just been published focuses on Sony’s plans beyond the new $700 system this fall, stating that the battle to secure a contract to manufacture the next chip, the one that will power the next PlayStation 6, came down to AMD versus Intel, with the red company ultimately winning.
Why Sony Chose AMD Over Intel
According to Reuters, since AMD manufactures the chip for the PS5 and PS5 Pro, maintaining backward compatibility in a possible move was part of months of discussions in 2022 between Sony and Intel executives and engineers.
However, Intel’s offer was blocked because they couldn’t agree on the profit Intel would receive from each chip they designed, as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) was responsible for the manufacturing process.
In addition to the recent embarrassment caused by the Raptor Lake CPU failure, Intel has been a bystander in the rise of AI chips and has ceded the manufacturing of some next-generation technologies to TSMC while it attempts to rebuild its capabilities.
The chip manufacturing division also accumulated losses of 7 billion dollars last year, and last month the company announced 15,000 layoffs. Meanwhile, its upcoming chip plant in Ohio has been delayed, although it has managed to secure Microsoft as a customer for its advanced 18A chip process.
Although AMD has also been trailing behind Nvidia’s leadership in the AI chip and flagship GPU market, its data center products now represent more than half of its sales and they are going to focus on artificial intelligence for the future, as we mentioned a few days ago.
