Of course, if you look at the chips in the PlayStation 5 and those in the two Xbox Series, what you’ll see is that they don’t have low-power integrated graphics, but rather an equivalent to a mid-range at the exit of the two consoles. Which makes many of us wonder why we do not see this type of processors used in the PC. Well, all of this has an answer that we will try to answer in this article.
System Memory Differences Between PC and Console
In order to save on manufacturing costs when creating a console, what is done today is that all components share the same RAM, instead of making each component have its own memory apart from the main one. So you need to pick one that is good enough for all system components and not a bottleneck when it comes to generating graphics.
Because gaming graphics cards require high bandwidth video memory to operate. When integrating a gaming graphics card into a Ryzen processor, we are going to need to use an appropriate type of memory. This is what happens in the consoles that today use the same GDDR6 memory as graphics cards
- In a graphics card only the GPU accesses the VRAM, in this case there would be many more elements and mainly the CPU and other peripherals. this iscreate a bottleneck or conflict. The way to solve this problem is to allocate part of the system RAM to the processor and part to the graphics card so that they do not conflict.
- Since GPUs have the ability to mask latency, they are not affected by memories with slower access times. Instead, to a CPU yes. Same main processor with GDDR6 memory will have poorer performance than a processor with DDR4 or DDR5 memory.
As far as performance is concerned, the best system is NUMA for PC, but it is much more expensive and its nature prevents us from creating powerful gaming systems that can be sold on the market for 500 dollars or less. This being the key for consoles. On the other hand, on PC nobody would agree to build a computer with a memory which ends up limiting performance.
A special plug is needed for Ryzen with integrated game graphics
The processor socket is not only where it mounts, it also marks the wiring and intercom. If we wanted to mount an AMD Ryzen with game graphics integrated inside, the need to use a faster type of memory would make it necessary to use a different socket.
Not only that, but the increase in bandwidth in the memory interface, as well as the use of a more complex graphics card, implies an increase in the TDP and with this, complex cooling systems for the processor must be research. The main chips of the current consoles consume a lot and it is enough to disassemble a PS5 or an Xbox Series to see the additional cost in the cooling system.
Thus, integrating a gaming graphics card into an AMD Ryzen would not only consist of making a bigger chip, but also of creating all the components that surround it, starting with the processor socket. Let’s not forget that not everyone who buys a PC needs a PC with next-gen console-level integrated graphics.
Is the Intinct MI300 a clue to AMD’s future?
At AMD’s last Financial Day, it was clarified that the Instinct MI300 would not only ship CDNA 3 chips, which could not be considered graphics processing units, although their architecture is based on that of a GPU, but also an AMD Ryzen CPU. All this in an interposer where the RAM memory in HBM format will also be placed on top. Of course, this at the level of servers and supercomputers.
The reality is that the manufacture of such a composition is extremely expensive. And by that we mean in the orbit of thousands of dollars and with a consumption of several hundred watts for the processor and the graphics. Rumors claim that one could go up to 1000W for the whole composition, much more than many PCs and even need advanced cooling systems. However, they remind us that it is possible to mount a processor and graphics together on the same interposer or on a single chip.
Would it be possible to do this on a small scale?
Having a PC chip like consoles and at the same time not being beaten by Intel Cores in CPU-only benchmarks requires the use of HBM2E memory today. We know HBM3 exists, but we’ll focus on what is known. The problem that AMD would face in adopting this type of memory? Our Ryzen with integrated game graphics and memory must be mounted on the same Interposer and therefore soldered to it. Thus, the processor and RAM must be sold as a complete bundle.
Of course, this design would require its own board and therefore custom socket, so it wouldn’t help us replace the CPU in our computer’s socket. So in the end it would end up being an embedded system like any other console, but much more expensive, due to the type of memory used and it wouldn’t give all the performance that can be achieved with a graphics card dedicated.
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