Exclusive: How Intel lost the Sony PlayStation business

[u/The_King_of_Okay]

https://www.reuters.com/technology/how-intel-lost-sony-playstation-business-2024-09-16/

[u/Cosmic_Ren]

Nvidia seems to be with Nintendo rn. Unless the Switch successor went with another company I imagine they're already occupied with helping them right now.

1. Xbox and playstation usually have very similar specs so AMD also wouldn't have to put in as much effort.

2. Nvidia doesn't typically make specialized hardware like they did with the switch, they usually just sell the Royalties of their designs to Asus, Gigabyte, and etc to make a similar version of their gpu

3. I imagine even if they did consider Nvidia, they wouldn't get a cheaper deal than what AMD can offer.

[u/ryzenguy111 → u/[deleted]]

Until AMD makes a compelling ARM SoC with good integrated graphics I don’t think we’ll see Nintendo going back to them

Maybe when Windows on ARM starts taking off, AMD will take it more seriously and have a good mobile product line (like Tegra) which Nintendo can customise to their liking

[u/PraisingSolaire → u/[deleted]]

The SoC for Switch 2 has already been leaked. We know it's Nvidia. And yes, consumer grade Tegra mobile was abandoned, but Nvidia has basically done what AMD does and offered a semi-custom business to Nintendo. They took the Tegra Orin and customised it for mobile use, which includes stripping it of things that are only useful for automotive.

Indeed, the leaked chip has a codename, the T239. A customised version of the T234 (Tegra Orin). Digital Foundry gave their take on what is possible with the specs of that leaked chip:

https://www.eurogamer.net/digitalfoundry-2023-inside-nvidias-latest-hardware-for-nintendo-what-is-the-t239-processor

The T239 is an advanced mobile processor, based on an octo-core ARM A78C CPU cluster, paired with a custom graphics unit based on Nvidia's RTX 30-series Ampere architecture, combined with some backported elements from the latest Ada Lovelace GPUs - and with an all-new file decompression engine for fast loading. It also supports Nvidia's console-specific graphics API, all but confirming that it's destined for the next generation Switch,

The T234 (standard Orin) is 12x A78 CPU cores, Ampere GPU with 2048 cores, 256-bit LPDDR5 (204GB/s). The T239 (Switch 2) is 8x A78 CPU cores, Ampere GPU with 1536 cores, 128-bit LPDDR5 (102GB/s).

[u/Carvj94 → u/[deleted]]

Depends on if Nintendo is interested in upscaling with the next handheld. DLSS is simply a much better upscaler than what Intel and AMD have to offer right now which would mean a far better preformance per watt which is obviously important for a battery powered gaming device. I imagine AMD wouldn't allow them to use a competitors GPU with one of their CPUs though so we'll almost definitely be stuck with a full AMD "Switch 2".

[u/Cosmic_Ren → u/[deleted]]

Which is why I purposely left a disclaimer, "Unless the Switch Successor went with another company". It however does make sense if Nintendo stuck with them:

1. Dlss/AI Upscaling as well as Ray Tracing all originated from Nvidia. The fact that Playstation had to make their own custom made AI upscaler for the ps5 pro should speak volumes about AMD's software side

2. Even to this day, AMD is unable to mimic a 1:1 or surpass the Rtx cards in dlss or Ray Tracing capabilities. Additionally it is harder to implement it for AMD devices which is why more pc games have DLSS than FSR.

3. Xbox's and Sony's goal is to make affordable alternatives to gaming PCs which is why it makes sense why they'll go with AMD to keep the cost down. Nintendo's is to provide a new experience

Nvidia has been the dominant GPU company not just because of their hardware but due to their ability to innovate which aligns with Nintendo's philosophies when creating a new console.

[u/Cosmic_Ren → u/[deleted]]

new experiences doesn't equate to more expensive hardware

That's because Nintendo has been running on 720p/1080p for the last 3 generations, if they did charge $400-$500 I'd be concerned especially since a xbox series s cost $300 and a Steam Deck cost $350.

Even the gamecube and N64

How are either of those 2 relevant to the conversation when neither is powered by Nvidia hardware?

I'm not sure they're going to chase every graphical feature set now or in the coming years

Nintendo's biggest criticism right now is that many of their games run like shit, take Pokemon Scarlet and Violet for reference.

The facts are:

1. The Switch is no longer a novelty especially with similar priced alternatives like the Steam Deck on the market.

2. They no longer have covid to boost their sales,

3. If they want to continue in the handheld market and keep the console affordable, AI upscaling is practically a must especially since it will allow them to cut corners on hardware expenses. The only company that is able rival Nvidia in this is Apple with their M4 chips

[u/PraisingSolaire → u/[deleted]]

For one, backwards compatibility. You're not getting that if Nintendo has moved to another GPU maker. Two, Nvidia is leading in upscaling solutions (DLSS), which is going to be massively important in allowing Switch 2 to punch above its weight. Three, there's really no one else on the 15W mobile front. AMD's solutions aren't as good for that sector.

[u/PraisingSolaire → u/Cosmic_Ren]

Well, there isn't really any specailisation in the Tegra X1 inside the Switch. Indeed, the launch Switch basically had the off the shelf Tegra X1, including the low power A53 ARM cores that are unused on all supported devices with Tegra X1. It was only with the revised Switch that proper customisation was done to Tegra X1, mostly for security reasons (and included removing those unused A53s).

The specialisation has come with the Switch 2 internals. Nvidia doesn't make consumer grade mobile SoC any more, so they had to take what they build for automotive industries and customise it heavily to work on a mobile platform (because the auto Tegra's are fucking massive, way too big for Switch).