SonGoku
Member
I agree with everything you said except that i did not mean Sony does the actual APU R&DOk, now just take everything you said and scrap it. That doesn't apply to sony or MS.
Sony or MS are not making or building any of these APUs from the ground up. They are buying them from AMD. Let me try and explain this...
AMD, does all their R&D for their respective technologies. The CPU, GPU, RDNA, infinity fabric, infinity cache, 3D cache, chiplets, ACE....etc. AMD is doing all that not even for Sony/MS (SMS), but because they make CPUs and GPUs. Now, SMS, comes in, and tells AMD that they want an APU. Mind you, AMD makes APUs too.. their xxxxG series of CPUs and what typically goes into AMD-powered laptops. So AMD will give them access to all their available technologies, we have this, that, that, this and that...etc.
All SMS are doing, is picking and choosing from already existing AMD technologies on what they want. The R&D cost to SMS here, is the amount spent buying one-off chips that ultimately doesn't make it into the final console. Eg. The chip you see in the PS5 on launch day, may very well have been revision 5 of that same chip. Now each revision would require at least one wafer of chips to be ordered. Sony can be paying AMD $18-25K for each of those wafers with about 80-100 chips on it. They put those chips through all sorts of testing, and can get back to AMD and say, hey can you swap the GPU from RDNA1 to RDNA2? AMD says fine, and the new wafer is paid for... designated revision 2....etc.
There may be a little extra spent here and there based on some very specific customizations, but nothing to the tune of $100s of millions.
So its not that you are wrong, its just that what you are saying doesn't apply to SMS. AMD could have spent $100s or millions developing RDNA, or RDNA3 or Zen...etc, but all SMS is doing is just buying the chip. Kinda the same way tesla could have spent hundreds of millions building or developing battery tech, but all you do is just buy a car.
Of course AMD is in charge of designing the APU and footing the R&D bill. AMD then takes all the expenses involved in the chip design and manufacturing to set a price they will sell to Sony/MS the wafers/apus. Depending of the contract they make with AMD (how many million units) they get a better price
So now that that's clear let me rephrase my argument:
Say Sony approaches AMD for the Pro & Slim APU, the end price of each APU could end up slower than if Sony ordered a single APU because 1. The chip design cost will be shared and 2. Sony will order more units