News AMD aims for 25-fold energy efficiency gains by 2020

I know energy efficiency doesn't equal energy used, but why can't i shake the idea that AMD APU's are going to be running on nothing but air

 

Got a feeling they wont exist by 2020 in truth. The whole APU band waggon will require a new games console every 3-4 years to really be sustainable.

Long term the xbox one and ps4 are both money sinks for AMD as they will still need to make that APU for Sony and Microsoft as long as the console is on sale which will be 6-10 years id guess. Ps3 / Xbox 360 is still on sale after all with games still been launched. Nvidia loses money on those older consoles having to keep manufacturing the chips that they require.

 

How so? With the shrinking of the GPUs they have become way cheaper to produce meaning the Nvidia can still make a profit off selling them to Sony above manufacturing cost. It's reduced profit versus what they were making, but its still profit.

 

AMD are already at 10x power reduction vs first gen so it`ll happen I can see

making money for the consoles is also a good thing , and with die shrinks coming , they`ll keep in the money with them.

 

Do you have a source for this?

Apparently Rollo loses money for every APU AMD build, but I don't have a source for that either.

 

I'd say the beauty of the architecture choice in the consoles is that the are scalable, shrinkable and all worthwhile doing for AMD as it co-exists with their mobile work and will likely be backwards compatible, AMD will likely do well here as they won't be wasting resource doing console specific chips, everything is relevant and all its customers will want more grunt, less power use and lower thermals, execute well and its all good.

 

25-fold power decrease - zero performance increase.

Sounds about right for an AMD line.

 

Nvidia said themselves just before ps4 and Xbox one hardware announcements that they were not going to be in either. Since the ps3 has not been profitable for them as a company. That's also part of the reason that they did not want or compete for current gen consoles.

They got large amounts of cash upfront ( 50mil USD) as part of the deal with Sony. If Sony and Ms don't make cash then those supplying the parts are going to struggle. Console hardware has always been a pretty big loss leader with the hope that software would eventually break you even or more than.

AMD is banking on the whole APU system coming off and been the choice for many buyers. There problem is the best targets for such systems made by dell hp Ect do not currently offer AMD chips for sale in there products.

I did have AMD shares at one point sold them just before merger with ATI. Don't currently own a computer related share.