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  • - Hey guys, this is Austin.

  • AMD is absolutely everywhere right now.

  • Inside the new PlayStation 5 and next-gen Xbox, absolutely.

  • They've even got a GPU inside the new Mac Pro

  • and Google Stadia streaming service.

  • The building blocks here come down to

  • two major architectures,

  • AMD's Zen 2 CPU as well as their RDNA graphics.

  • So yesterday I got a sneak peek at what AMD has in store

  • and a really deep dive on the tech here,

  • so based on that, I think we can make some

  • very educated guesses on what to expect inside

  • the PlayStation 5 and next-generation Xbox.

  • First of all, let's talk CPUs.

  • So both Sony and Microsoft have gone on record

  • that they are using the Zen 2 cores

  • in their latest consoles,

  • and that is a huge jump over the last generation

  • which used the really underpowered Jaguar CPU cores.

  • So some rough maths gives a, maths?

  • Some rough math gives us about a four times jump

  • in the single-threaded performance

  • and up to a 10 times jump in performance

  • if both Sony and Microsoft do opt to go with

  • an eight-core design like they did

  • with the last generation,

  • AKA these new CPUs are going to be a huge, huge uplift.

  • This should be a true generational leap.

  • So the current generation of consoles,

  • specifically with the One X and the PS4 Pro,

  • have actually had pretty solid graphics,

  • but they have been severely handicapped

  • by their very weak processors.

  • While traditionally AMD hasn't been all that strong

  • on the power side of things,

  • this time around with their seven-nanometer process

  • as well as the new Zen 2 architecture,

  • it actually looks really promising.

  • Consoles, of course, are by nature limited

  • when it comes to both power as well as thermals.

  • So if you're building yourself a gaming PC,

  • feel free to load up with a ton of fans,

  • a huge power supply, it's really not an issue,

  • but a console has to fit a very small size constraint,

  • and usually these things are not in great environments

  • with lots of airflow, right?

  • I mean, how many consoles are, like,

  • underneath a stack of books or underneath your TV

  • with almost no airflow?

  • So my best guess for the next generation of consoles

  • is for a CPU to be roughly equivalent to the Ryzen 7 3700X,

  • and this is an eight-core Zen 2 design

  • which in its normal clock is around 3.6 gigahertz.

  • And mind you, that's on the desktop side at 65 watts,

  • so we will likely see a slight underclock

  • to meet the console spec, but even so,

  • something in that neighborhood, I think,

  • is very, very doable for the PS5 as well as the next Xbox.

  • The next interesting aspect is on the graphics side.

  • So both the Xbox as well as the PlayStation 5

  • are taking advantage of AMD's Navi GPU architecture.

  • Now this actually is going to ship first in desktop PCs

  • a little bit later this year,

  • but it very much seems like it was designed

  • with consoles in mind as the chip itself is fairly small,

  • perfect for integration in an SoC like console.

  • So the pure performance should be a pretty decent step up

  • over the current generation.

  • However, this is a much more difficult comparison to make.

  • So on the graphics side of things,

  • both Sony and Microsoft are absolutely going to customize

  • their GPUs so it's not going to be exactly off the shelf.

  • However, based on a slightly conservative estimate,

  • I'm going to say the new generation of consoles

  • should be in the neighborhood of a Radeon RX 5700

  • as far as graphics go.

  • The graphics side is very much where there's the most room

  • for Sony and Microsoft to play around

  • and make sure they're actually making different consoles.

  • So even though they all have

  • the same building blocks to play with,

  • they can do it in very different ways.

  • For example, Sony might focus on making on a bigger GPU

  • which is focused on high resolutions,

  • and Microsoft might focus more on something like

  • higher frame rates or making sure that

  • the ray tracing is of a higher quality.

  • There really are a lot of variables here.

  • However, the important thing to note is that

  • when we do see these differences in the consoles,

  • it is very likely going to come down to things such as

  • the amount of memory as well as the size

  • and the overall layout of these GPUs.

  • Now, like I said, I think I'm being

  • a little bit conservative assuming that

  • this is going to be similar to a Radeon 5700,

  • which for the record is about on par with an RTX 2060,

  • but we do know for sure that there are some major upgrades

  • that go along with this Navi GPU.

  • First of all are the power savings we're getting

  • with the seven-nanometer process,

  • which may or may not actually be even better

  • by the time that these consoles ship next year.

  • We should also be looking at GDDR6 memory.

  • Now this is a decent step up over the last generation,

  • and I estimate that we'll see somewhere between

  • 12 and 16 gigs of this stuff on these new consoles.

  • Now that's important as, again, like that last generation,

  • this should be an APU layout,

  • which means that that memory is shared with

  • both the CPU as well as the GPU.

  • There's also support for PCIe 4.0 onboard.

  • Now this gives both Sony and Microsoft

  • a ton of extra bandwidth to play with,

  • so some of that will come down to

  • making the graphics a little bit faster,

  • but for the most part, this is going to come in handy

  • with the standard SSDs on both of the new consoles.

  • Not only will this cut load times significantly down,

  • but it also enables bigger worlds,

  • and Microsoft has even hinted toward a RAM disk function.

  • So it is confirmed that both of the new consoles

  • will support not only 8K but 4K at a full 120 Hertz.

  • If we take a closer look at the Radeon 5700,

  • that actually completely matches up.

  • So it supports 8K and HDR at a full 60 frames per second,

  • or you can go 4K HDR at that 120 Hertz.

  • Now this is the first time that we've seen support

  • for such high frame rates in a console,

  • and that could have absolutely huge implications for gaming,

  • assuming that developers actually take advantage of that

  • instead of aiming for, like, 30 frames per second

  • like a lot of this generation.

  • Now that all being said,

  • there is the added issue that there's as far as I'm aware of

  • aren't any 4K 120 Hertz TVs on the market,

  • but if this means that we get another shiny badge

  • to look for when you're buying your TV, then I am on board.

  • The fluidity of 120 frames per second paired with FreeSync

  • should make a huge difference to gaming going forward.

  • Put all of this together,

  • and graphics on the next generation of consoles

  • should be roughly about twice as powerful

  • as on the Xbox One X as well as PS4 Pro,

  • and in the neighborhood of six times better

  • than the base PS4 as well as the base Xbox One.

  • Of course, all of these estimates should be taken with

  • a huge grain of salt as these consoles are over a year away,

  • but based on the information that AMD has shared about

  • the underlying architecture,

  • I think it's very safe to say that

  • this is going to be the first console generation

  • that's actually matching a high-end PC across the board,

  • not just in graphics, but in CPU and SSD, you name it.

  • Definitely be sure to check out my videos

  • on the new Xbox as well as PlayStation 5

  • if you haven't seen them,

  • and absolutely subscribe to the channel

  • for the latest as we learn more and more

  • about this brand-new generation of console wars.

  • Oh, boy.

- Hey guys, this is Austin.

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