AMD has confirmed the development of custom chips that will power future Microsoft Xbox platforms, such as consoles, PCs & handhelds.
AMD & Microsoft's Custom Xbox Chip To Power Next-Generation Consoles, PCs, & Handhelds
During its Q2 earnings call, AMD posted a phenomenal 71.4% increase in the Client and Gaming segment. This segment includes Client (Ryzen CPU) and Gaming (GPU, SoCs) products. The Client revenue jumped to $2.5B, a 66% increase, thanks to strong sales of Ryzen CPUs, including the new Ryzen 9000X3D SKUs. In the gaming segment, the Red Team's revenue increases to $1.1B, a 83.3% increase. This segment includes graphics products such as the Radeon RX 9000 series and also accounts for the sales of custom SoCs for gaming consoles and handhelds.
In its highlights, AMD reaffirmed its multi-year collaboration with Microsoft in designing custom chips, but the most interesting thing is that the company mentions that this particular SoC won't just power the next-generation Xbox console, but also PCs and handhelds.
We know that AMD will be making custom SoCs for both Sony's next-gen PlayStation and Microsoft's next-gen Xbox. AMD's FSR 4 technology was co-developed with Sony, so they are collaborating on both fronts.
Now the main question is, is AMD finally going to bring a console-like custom chip to PC? Well, AMD has a strong suite of SoCs in its portfolio. The Ryzen Z2 series powers the Xbox gaming handheld, the ROG Xbox Ally, which was developed in collaboration with ASUS. Even the Xbox Series X/S consoles have a lot of familiarity with PC architecture. They utilize a similar x86 CPU "Zen" architecture and "RDNA" for the GPU.
For long, the closest thing to custom console-like SOCs on the PC was APUs. APUs combine modern CPU/GPU architectures from AMD and the most recent "Ryzen AI MAX" offerings show just how far AMD can scale these chips. So it looks like Microsoft's goal with its next-gen Xbox ecosystem is to offer the same silicon across multiple platforms.
The same custom AMD silicon chip could be used to power the next-gen Xbox console, handhelds, and even PCs such as laptops, Mini PCs, or pre-built. It will be an interesting launch for sure, and provide users with a one-go, one-stop solution for their gaming needs. Of course, the downside of having such custom silicon on the PC is that these chips are likely to be soldered to the motherboard, so there won't be an upgrade path like DIY setups. It makes sense on laptops, but for regular desktop PCs, it looks like the market would be very small for such an SoC.
With that said, these are definitely interesting times as consoles and PCs come closer to each other on an architectural level. With the talks Microsoft is having about redefining its Windows OS across all platforms, it means that PC gamers will be able to reap the rewards, as some of the console-exclusive optimizations and experiences will be coming to them in the near future.
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