AMD May Take the Lead in Console Chip Manufacturing

AMD already makes chips for Sony and Microsoft’s consoles, namely the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. However, the company seems to want to expand and take over more console chip manufacturing deals. The latest rumours say that Nintendo may be the company’s next client.

Rumour has it that Nintendo’s upcoming console will be fitted with the NX AMD APU. CEO Lisa Su confirmed that AMD has two “semi-custom” chip designs in the works and the company expects it will bring “billions of dollars in revenue”. Also, Nintendo already moved from using IBM’s Power PC to using AMD GPUs and Intel x86 CPU architecture. It would make sense for the two companies working together again in making a new console.

This means that Nintendo’s rumoured console, dubbed the NX, will still be based on x86 architecture, the same architecture now used on the Wii U. However, compared to the Wii U, the rumoured NX console will be fully AMD powered. If this is true, Nintendo seems to drop Intel’s x86 CPU in favour of having both CPU and GPU replaced by the AMD NX APU.

Nintendo is looking forward to revealing their upcoming NX console next year, which they say will have more processing power and greater memory bandwidth. There is also a rumour that the Nintendo NX will be priced at around $150, which is not that much considering the hype they are making. Now we just have to wait and see more detailed specs once they become available. Stay tuned!