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A new set of rumors have leaked regarding the next-generation Xbox and PS5 and the GPUs both consoles volition bring to market place. We've known the wide specs of both platforms for a fleck — both utilize AMD GPUs and CPUs, with the GPU based on AMD'due south most contempo RDNA architecture, while the CPU is derived from the same 7nm Ryzen CPU cores that launched earlier this summer. What we've lacked is specific details on the GPU cores themselves.

Eurogamer has gotten their easily on some leak data they feel is fairly legit, and the website's track record with this kind of information is solid. There have been some rumored APU configurations that leaked before this yr, only this new data implies the Sony PS5 will feature 36 GPU clusters clocked at up to 2GHz. Supposedly the silicon, codenamed Oberon, is designed to operate in three dissimilar modes (Gen 0, i, and ii) with clocks of 800MHz, 911MHz, and 2GHz respectively. Supposedly memory bandwidth is 448GB/s in Gen 2 style (though 512GB/south is an alternating possibility) and the GPU tin reportedly also be variably configured in terms of ROP and core counts. Eurogamer states:

While a two.0GHz GPU clock is used for what is described as the fully unlocked 'native' or 'Gen2' mode, the processor is also tested in what is referred to equally Gen1 and Gen0 modes. The onetime is explicitly stated as running with 36 compute units, a 911MHz core clock, 218GB/due south of memory bandwidth and 64 ROPs – the exact specifications of PlayStation 4 Pro. The latter Gen0 mode cuts the CU and ROP counts in half and runs at 800MHz, a match for the base PS4. The indications are that back-compat is an integral function of the silicon, which in turn raises some interesting questions almost the makeup of the Navi GPU and the extent to which older GCN compatibility may be broiled into the design.

The implication here is that the PS5 SoC contains multiple GPU clusters, just like the PS4 Pro did. Using multiple GPU clusters in the same SoC would give Sony the same ability to plough the clusters on or off depending on which style the GPU was running in. Alternately, the GPU cluster could exist physically unified but designed to allow for this kind of fine-grained power gating. Stamping out identical clusters would be simpler, designing a unified cluster with fine-grained gating is probably more than circuitous just saves on die infinite.

As for the Xbox Serial 10, Eurogamer is implying this panel packs serious firepower. Here's the rumored configuration:

Image by Eurogamer

If this rumor proves true — always something to go on in mind — the Xbox Serial Ten will launch packing the equivalent of a loftier-end PC GPU. The largest GPU AMD has ever built are cards like the R9 Fury X and Vega 64, with 4096 cores. A 56-cluster Navi GPU would pack one.4x more GPU cores than the 5700 XT, which already competes in the high-end PC GPU segment at the ~$400 price point. While AMD is expected to launch Navi 20 before the Xbox Series X debuts, nosotros haven't seen any indication that the company intends to dramatically expand the number of GPU cores information technology offers — Navi improved on GCN's functioning by making the individual cores more efficient as opposed to simply throwing more cores at the problem. Information technology's highly unlikely, in other words, that AMD would build a 56 CU for Microsoft and and then send a 128 CU design into the PC market.

If this rumor proves true, Microsoft is playing a far more than aggressive game than it did final generation. Let's presume, for the sake of statement, that AMD ships an 80 CU version of Navi xx, which comes out to 2x Navi 10. That would give the Xbox Serial X three,584 GPU cores compared to five,120 for Navi xx, or about seventy percent every bit many.

In 2013, the Xbox One shipped with 768 GPU cores. The calendar month before, AMD had shipped the R9 290X, with ii,816 cores. The PS4, at debut, had 1,152 cores. The Xbox had 27 percent equally many GPU cores as the R9 290X, while the PS4 had 41 percent. While we can't draw linear comparisons between console and PC performance strictly on the basis of GPU cadre count, the PC GPU was obviously far larger, with significantly more than compute and graphics resources.

If — again, if — these rumors are true, the gaps are going to be a lot narrower this time around. The 1.7GHz clock speed on the Xbox Series X'due south GPU is required to hitting a supposed target of 12TFLOPS, merely Eurogamer didn't become that clock speed leak straight. The gap in GPU performance between the PS5 and XSX would exist partially first past faster clocks on the PS5, simply only partially.

Frankly, the spec gap between the PS5 and XSX is large plenty that you could argue the Xbox specs are less probable to be true. It's also possible Microsoft decided to pull out all the stops after the disaster of the Xbox Ane. Doubling down on beating Sony in raw performance from Day 1 might represent Microsoft's big thought for preventing a repeat of what happened last generation.

If the Xbox rumors are accurate in that location doesn't seem to be a way for MS to sell the panel at $400 without losing money — and I've got doubts about $500 also, given that the system is expected to also apply a high-speed NVMe-attached SSD and GDDR6. Hard drives might be slow, but they're still cheaper than the equivalent amount of solid state storage. That doesn't mean MS tin't pursue a loss-making strategy, but both MS and Sony opted not to do that with the initial Xbox One / PS4 after taking heavier-than-expected losses on X360 and PS3 (peculiarly in Sony's case).

This kind of configuration would make a lot more than sense if Microsoft is serious about a lower-end version of the panel and intends to debut both. The PS5's smaller GPU looks more similar what we'd wait from a generational update. On the other hand, if this points to an upper-stop Xbox Series Ten, it means that version of the panel is going to pack loftier-end* PC-equivalent performance. With a 56-CU Navi, 8-cadre Ryzen 7nm CPU and 560GB/s of organization retentivity bandwidth at that place's no way it could perform similar annihilation else.

Now Read:

  • AMD'southward RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT Reviewed: RDNA Puts Radeon Dorsum in the Game
  • Meet RDNA: AMD's Long-Awaited New GPU Compages
  • Sony Unveils More Details of the PS5, Promises Backward Compatibility