The real reasons Microsoft and Sony chose AMD for consoles [F]

Page 17 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

krumme

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 2009
5,956
1,595
136
I don't know why you feel the need to bad-mouth Anand like that.

If you really feel he has committed an error in some way then why not just email him or ask him in twitter? He is very responsive and accommodating when it comes to interacting with respectful individuals who contact him through social media.

Making the kinds of character-assassination comments as you have in your post above is just going to look bad for yourself. Go to the horse's mouth and get your answers, sans the bashing, and you just might learn a thing or two above and beyond your preset bias and prejudice. (unless you hold yourself so high that you feel you already know all there is to know...)

That is a strawman imho idc and not fair. I was targeting the review not the man.

I understand and even respect the policy behind the review but as an enthusiast the review gave fewer answers than i expect, as noted by the poster above.
 

erunion

Senior member
Jan 20, 2013
765
0
0
Stumbled across this tonight.

Indeed, it can be estimated that Nvidia collects around $10 per PS3 unit, since when the PS3 had sold 50 million units, Mr. Jen-Hsun Huang, Nvidia's CEO, said that Nvidia had made $500 million in royalties from the console.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1510202-3-new-developments-for-nvidia
Here's a link from 2011, its specifies 500 million in "revenue"
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/10/intel_nvidia_cross_licensing/

AMD is providing the GPU and CPU, so that's $10 + $10= $20. And lets say that with its super awesome technology AMD was able to charge more than what Nvidia had managed, so we'll double the whole amount. $40 per unit.

My $30 per unit calculations I made at the beginning of the thread are still looking pretty good.
 

adnank77

Member
Jul 7, 2013
125
0
0
Seems AMD's aquisition of ATI has payed back at last ..

I still call the cards ATI .. can't believe the Red Giant is now AMD :)
 

galego

Golden Member
Apr 10, 2013
1,091
0
0
Stumbled across this tonight.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1510202-3-new-developments-for-nvidia
Here's a link from 2011, its specifies 500 million in "revenue"
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/10/intel_nvidia_cross_licensing/

AMD is providing the GPU and CPU, so that's $10 + $10= $20. And lets say that with its super awesome technology AMD was able to charge more than what Nvidia had managed, so we'll double the whole amount. $40 per unit.

My $30 per unit calculations I made at the beginning of the thread are still looking pretty good.

$40.47?

amdtable_large.png


Others take $60 and revenue above the billion.

AMD wait up to a 20% revenue from consoles
 

SiliconWars

Platinum Member
Dec 29, 2012
2,346
0
0
Mentioned this before...probably 3 times in this thread already, but AMD said in their conference call that they were getting paid near the top end of client APU for the PS4.

Obviously that can't be $30. Even $60 is low end, and don't forget AMD is providing the silicon which is an additional service on top. We also have the $3 billion figure over the lifetime of the console for the Xbox One, which is 6x Nvidia's PS3 revenue putting even the Xbox's less powerful APU at around $60 minimum.
 
Last edited:

PrincessFrosty

Platinum Member
Feb 13, 2008
2,300
68
91
www.frostyhacks.blogspot.com
AMD won simply because they're in the best position to provide the hardware consoles are after at a low price point.

They're after the low-mid performance range at a very cheap price point, AMD have a long history of targeting the mid range over everything else and doing so at really good prices, so it's a no brainier really.

Nvidia have already said there simply wasn't the margins to make the console deals worth it, partially because the margins are naturally going to be small to begin with, but also because AMD can undercut them there. Nvidia has always been more of a big guns player on the PC with very strong high end parts as a priority.
 

insertcarehere

Senior member
Jan 17, 2013
712
701
136
Mentioned this before...probably 3 times in this thread already, but AMD said in their conference call that they were getting paid near the top end of client APU for the PS4.

Well that's a given, considering that both the PS4 and xbone chips are likely going to be 300-400mm^2 on 28nm, which is pretty much top end size for any custom silicon/SOC.
 

ShintaiDK

Lifer
Apr 22, 2012
20,378
145
106
Well that's a given, considering that both the PS4 and xbone chips are likely going to be 300-400mm^2 on 28nm, which is pretty much top end size for any custom silicon/SOC.

A HD7850/70 is 212mm2. So i cant imagine them being over 300mm2 with the size of individual Jaguar cores.

Also the Xbox One is severely limited. 128bit IMC, 16 ROPs, less CUs. Perhaps that one can be done at 200mm2.
 

galego

Golden Member
Apr 10, 2013
1,091
0
0
Nvidia have already said there simply wasn't the margins to make the console deals worth it, partially because the margins are naturally going to be small to begin with, but also because AMD can undercut them there.

But as shown in this thread, Nvidia was rejected by both Sony and Microsoft because lacked the technology.

Moreover, Nvidia is rebating its own console.
 

sontin

Diamond Member
Sep 12, 2011
3,273
149
106
What? nVidia was not rejected. They declined to sell something for low gross margins.

AMD does not even need to make profit because of the WSA with GF.
 

Vesku

Diamond Member
Aug 25, 2005
3,743
28
86
People are still eating up the Nvidia PR? Even if what Nvidia says is 100% unvarnished truth (not likely at all) they could only possibly offer the GPU (ARM not yet suited for consoles) portion meaning some other company gets the CPU revenue.
 

sontin

Diamond Member
Sep 12, 2011
3,273
149
106
There is nothing wrong with their PR. nVidia is a growing company. nVidia has record gross margins. They had a record revenue year. They have no debt. They hiring new people for their future strategies. They have no capacity to work on something which will not increase their margins.
 

sushiwarrior

Senior member
Mar 17, 2010
738
0
71
What? nVidia was not rejected. They declined to sell something for low gross margins.

AMD does not even need to make profit because of the WSA with GF.

Nvidia was rejected because, as everyone else has said, they are not able to make an x86 SoC. They could have the best ARM SoC in the world, but that won't cut it for a console.
 

NTMBK

Lifer
Nov 14, 2011
10,433
5,771
136
A HD7850/70 is 212mm2. So i cant imagine them being over 300mm2 with the size of individual Jaguar cores.

Also the Xbox One is severely limited. 128bit IMC, 16 ROPs, less CUs. Perhaps that one can be done at 200mm2.

I thought that the XBone was actually meant to have the largest die? That ESRAM takes up an awful lot of space.

EDIT: Bare die pictured here, but I've not got the photo-ninja skills to estimate a die size from there. :)
 

sontin

Diamond Member
Sep 12, 2011
3,273
149
106
Nvidia was rejected because, as everyone else has said, they are not able to make an x86 SoC. They could have the best ARM SoC in the world, but that won't cut it for a console.

Aha. A console needs x86. Makes absolutely sense. I guess the Xbox 1 was such a hit...

They don't care about x86. They want a cheap SoC. And AMD was able to provide them with it for a 2013 release.

In two, three years noboby care about x86 in the consoles when smartphones, tablets and other ARM devices have the same performance... Or wait: They have the same CPU performance today with up to 4 threads. :hmm:
 

Vesku

Diamond Member
Aug 25, 2005
3,743
28
86
I thought that the XBone was actually meant to have the largest die? That ESRAM takes up an awful lot of space.

EDIT: Bare die pictured here, but I've not got the photo-ninja skills to estimate a die size from there. :)

Looks like it's somewhere in the range of 240-300mm2, memory dimensions are 12x10mm according to Micron datasheet. My own eyeball estimate is roughly 280mm2.

mkX57Mk.jpg
 
Last edited:

Erenhardt

Diamond Member
Dec 1, 2012
3,251
105
101
Nvidia have already said there simply wasn't the margins to make the console deals worth it,

Yes. They said margins were to low on next gen consoles. But do you remember what they said when they got a deal with ps3? They said it is huge success and steady stream of $$$ for couple of years without needing to spend millions on RND each year!

They are trying everything to make it look like they (nv) didn't want to be in next gen. Truth is, Sony and MS didn't want them(their tech to be pricise)
 

Exophase

Diamond Member
Apr 19, 2012
4,439
9
81
Aha. A console needs x86. Makes absolutely sense. I guess the Xbox 1 was such a hit...

They don't care about x86. They want a cheap SoC. And AMD was able to provide them with it for a 2013 release.

In two, three years noboby care about x86 in the consoles when smartphones, tablets and other ARM devices have the same performance... Or wait: They have the same CPU performance today with up to 4 threads. :hmm:

They care about 64-bit, for pretty obvious reasons. 64-bit ARM in 2013 wasn't a very realistic option for them, even if they went away from AMD APUs (which themselves are kind of a no-brainer).

Even w/o 64-bit x86 still has some advantages in this space, especially for Microsoft.
 

sushiwarrior

Senior member
Mar 17, 2010
738
0
71
Aha. A console needs x86. Makes absolutely sense. I guess the Xbox 1 was such a hit...

They don't care about x86. They want a cheap SoC. And AMD was able to provide them with it for a 2013 release.

In two, three years noboby care about x86 in the consoles when smartphones, tablets and other ARM devices have the same performance... Or wait: They have the same CPU performance today with up to 4 threads. :hmm:

Well, PowerPC and Cell are out of consideration, ARM is too underpowered, what do you suggest besides x86? :whiste:

In two or three years, sure, maybe, because ARM will finally be able to scratch the bottom end of x86. But for now, their core designs belong in tablets, not gaming consoles.

Even if they wanted an expensive SoC Nvidia couldn't have given it to them. They can't do x86. Their best ARM design still loses to 8C Jaguar, let alone if AMD had SR or something (which is silly, yes, but more high-end than anything Nvidia is capable of).

Just accept the fact Nvidia only makes low-end SoC's, and that isn't what Microsoft or Sony was looking for.
 

SlowSpyder

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
17,305
1,002
126
There is nothing wrong with their PR. nVidia is a growing company. nVidia has record gross margins. They had a record revenue year. They have no debt. They hiring new people for their future strategies. They have no capacity to work on something which will not increase their margins.


Nvidia has been a growing company with great margins for years now. That didn't stop them from getting into consoles the last few generations. Nvidia simply does not have the SoC technology that makes sense for a console. They have the GPU tech for sure, but seeing as both MS and Sony went with an APU I doubt a separate CPU/GPU set up was ever going to be an option.
 

sontin

Diamond Member
Sep 12, 2011
3,273
149
106
Well, PowerPC and Cell are out of consideration, ARM is too underpowered, what do you suggest besides x86? :whiste:

But using a Jaguar core makes sense? Right...

In two or three years, sure, maybe, because ARM will finally be able to scratch the bottom end of x86. But for now, their core designs belong in tablets, not gaming consoles.
A15 and Krait400 have 2x to 3x the perf/watt of Jaguar.
In the 3DMark physics test a 1,8GHz A15 gets 13774 points and Krait 14828 points.
That is 82%/88% of the A4-5000 Kabini SoC.

Even if they wanted an expensive SoC Nvidia couldn't have given it to them. They can't do x86. Their best ARM design still loses to 8C Jaguar, let alone if AMD had SR or something (which is silly, yes, but more high-end than anything Nvidia is capable of).
Wow, how many times you want to repeat that they really wanted x86? :rolleyes:
If x86 would be so great MS did not dump Intel for IBM and the mobile world be dominated by x86 and not ARM.

It is quite interested that the world is going away from x86 and yet the console markers think using x86 will help them to survive.

Just accept the fact Nvidia only makes low-end SoC's, and that isn't what Microsoft or Sony was looking for.
You are right. They wanted a junk SoC with a CPU performance of a "low-end SoCs" except the superb perf/watt. :awe:

Nvidia has been a growing company with great margins for years now. That didn't stop them from getting into consoles the last few generations.

The growth came from the dGPU and mobile market. The console market is to limited for them. And this generation is facing a market which has so many threats that it's unlikely that we will see the same sales.
 
Last edited:

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,134
2,450
126
If I was Microsoft, I would pick AMD as my processor supplier just to insure that AMD stays in business.

Without competition from AMD, Intel gets to jack up the cost of new CPU's. Then the following happens:

PC's and Laptops then get more expensive due to the more expensive CPU's

People decide to hang on their old PC's for awhile longer.

Microsoft loses Windows and Office revenue due to slow PC sales. And don't kid yourself... Microsoft still makes most of it's money from Windows and Office.

Microsoft doesn't enough free R&D money to come up with new innovations, and loses even more market share to Google and Apple. Screw Sony... this is what Microsoft is really worried about.
 

ShintaiDK

Lifer
Apr 22, 2012
20,378
145
106
If I was Microsoft, I would pick AMD as my processor supplier just to insure that AMD stays in business.

Without competition from AMD, Intel gets to jack up the cost of new CPU's. Then the following happens:

PC's and Laptops then get more expensive due to the more expensive CPU's

People decide to hang on their old PC's for awhile longer.

Microsoft loses Windows and Office revenue due to slow PC sales. And don't kid yourself... Microsoft still makes most of it's money from Windows and Office.

Microsoft doesn't enough free R&D money to come up with new innovations, and loses even more market share to Google and Apple. Screw Sony... this is what Microsoft is really worried about.

Your logic is severely flawed. Replace MS with Intel. And then ask yourself why Intel would jack up prices.