Rumor: The NX could use a Zen SoC APU

Link

Nintendo revealed its intent to launch a new gaming system more than a year ago, but we still don’t really know much about it. The company, despite revealing that console’s existence, has been secretive about the “new concept” it has been working on. Nintendo has released its latest financial statements, and within the document we found a single line regarding the upcoming console that reveals that we’ll be waiting another year for the new gaming system.

It's possible as AMD did state that Zen CPU's, the successor to the old ancient Pildriver FX CPU's, are coming out this fall while the Zen based APU is planned for next spring as well.

This coincides with one of the two biggest rumors I've been hearing for the NX's delay into 2017.

The first is that AMD is struggling to produce the required number of CPU's Nintendo wanted, and so has had to choose between an October/November launch for just one country, and with only a small amount of consoles that would not cover demand or move the date to insure they have enough units at launch, and be able to have a worldwide release.

The second, for anyone who's interested, is that 3rd parties have told Nintendo that their games wouldn't be ready for a November launch, and would likely not start dropping till, you guessed it, March (something I was also hearing rumors of BEFORE Nintendo announced the March release date). Nintendo not wanting to release yet another system with no 3rd party support and few games of their own and already having to make the decision about if they should wait for AMD to produce more CPU's, took this as a sign that the console had to pushed into 2017.

Yes it should have next gen tech since it is a next gen console. I'm still waiting for news from Nintendo itself. This new system HAS to be stronger than the ps4 because it'll be a joke if it isn't.

Yep, that's what I'm thinking as well. A lot of companies want to use the 14/16 nm fab and there wouldn't be enough of it this year. Samsung is using it on their Galaxy 7 and upcoming Note 6, AMD is using it to return to compete against Intel with Zen. Yeah, there won't be enough to make consoles until next year.

@spike6958: Those are reasonable reasons..*well Nintendo did say they want to get more software ready*...anyway will just have to wait. :P

I hope Nintendo goes all out.

Nintendo are famous (infamous?) for producing really cheap hardware and selling it at hugely inflated prices on the assumption that people will want the games no matter what.

This would be a massive change of tactics for them, I absolutely don't see it happening and instead believe their 'new concept' bull which undoubtedly will be something nobody asked for or wanted tacked on to a new console with completely junk components inside it.

Do it Nintendo!!!

AMD's Jaguar IP was ported to FinFET.

http://wccftech.com/amd-zen-cpu-8-core-summit-ridge-launching-october/

AMD Zen 8 Core 95W Summit Ridge CPUs Launching In October.

Both 14 nm FinFET Polaris GPUs (Global Foundry, Samsung) and ZEN FX CPUs (Global Foundry, Samsung) arrives on PC before AMD's semi-custom business.

Historically, 7770 SKU served as the basis for AMD PC APU's IGP. Polaris 11 replaces 7770 SKU. There's a super APU for server markets.

Well, that's what I'm saying. We may get a custom SoC Zen APU w/Polaris 11 for NX, granted it won't be powerful, but if they include a discreet card, then it will be okay.

LOL at the sheep here hoping for a powerful console. You'd have a better chance at winning the mega-million lotto than Nintendo making a powerful console.

The NX will be even weaker than the current PS4. No one can outsmart Cerny, the 21st century Isaac Newton.

Watch it be some weak underpowered POS that they try to sell at a premium price. I don't see them going all out for power, it's not their style.

AMD ZEN+Polaris 11 combo is part of the standard PC APU SKUs and it's not part of semi-custom SKUs.

Semi-custom customers can select IP within AMD's FinFET IP pool e.g. Jaguar, ZEN, Polaris 11, Polaris 10.

If there's a demand for AMD ZEN + Polaris 10 APU for iMac 2016, then it establishes a new PC APU combination.

http://wccftech.com/amd-making-custom-x86-soc-apple-imacs-2017-2018/

Jaguar+Polaris 10 SoC = PS4 NEO, replacing PS4's Liverpool SoC.

AMD ZEN+Polaris 10 SoC = Apple iMac 2016 could have this SoC.

AMD ZEN (quad core/8 threads)+Polaris 11 SoC = PC ultra book laptops, replacing FX-8800p SoC. Apple MacBook Pro 2016 could have this SoC.

NX? Unknown.

Apple's work with AMD doesn't fall into "gaming SoC".

If you love Cerny so much, why don't you marry him?

I hope whatever it is it meets the recommended Energy Star ratings.

Well then, I guess we will wait and see later this year if Nintendo releases specs for the NX.

Good rumor news, I was expecting the hampster wheel APU.

Apple is another Polaris GPU customer. http://www.macrumors.com/2016/04/19/amd-polaris-2016-macs/

Apple iMac with Polaris 10 has both professional apps and capability to play games on par with PS4 NEO.

He won't believe you, he thinks Cerny created Polaris

AMD Confirms, Polaris GPUs Will Be Released Before The Back To School Season For Desktops And Laptops

Read more: http://wccftech.com/amd-confirms-polaris-gpus-released-school-season-desktops-laptops/#ixzz47GiRbCPG

Thanks for the horrific imagery. DX

Someone tell me how this would stack up to Polaris, Jaguar, and I guess the GTX 980 on the Nvidia side. In very simple, tech noob friendly terms.

@charizard1605:

http://wccftech.com/amd-polaris-10-desktop-polaris-11-notebook-gpu/

The Polaris 10 GPU is said to have 3DMark Firestrike Ultra performance around 4000 points which is about what a Radeon R9 Fury X and GeForce GTX 980 Ti score

Okay, so Polaris is equivalent to Raedon R9 Fury and GTX 980.

What exactly is Zen, then, and how does it rank?

@charizard1605:

http://techfrag.com/2016/04/02/first-amd-zen-benchmarks-leaked/

First AMD Zen Benchmarks Leaked, Summit Ridge CPUs On Par with Intel Broadwell-E Chips.

In fact, the report goes further to state that the 8-core Summit Ridge CPU will have a performance similar to that of the Broadwell-E CPUs.

Okay, so Zen is an entirely different architecture? Nothing to do with Polaris?

@charizard1605:

AMD ZEN = CPU

AMD Polaris = GPU

Oh, that makes a lot of sense. Also makes my question foolish as all hell.

gtx 980 and gtx980ti is kind of a big difference. Fury x and Fury to a lesser extent.

It would be foolish of Nintendo not to use Zen. Effectively two ~3.0 GHz Zen cores would have all the same general CPU IPC of the current PS4 and Xbone APUs (and probably more), but twice the SIMD GFLOPS.

I'm not sure how big Zen cores will be in die area compared to a 14nm Jaguar, but generally, I would figure devs prefer fewer powerful cores as opposed to many, smaller, "narrower" ones like Jaguar that require more fine multithreading to get decent performance. Nintendo and whoever is left in the 3rd party Wii U camp is currently developing on three pretty unadvanced, underpowered PPC750 cores with 2x32 bit/4x16 bit "proto-SIMD". A single Zen core just absolutely stomps all over it, unless the Wii U's Expresso CPU actually has some kind of unreported secret sawce Altivec/VMX unit that no one has divulged.

The Zen route would ironically put the NX more inline with PCs than the other two systems, even the purported PS4 Neo. And I already think Nintendo and the other console makers should offer a PC compatible software platform that natively plays their console games on PC by utilizing a common code base and open APIs on both the PC and console. It's effectively the same way things have to happen with the PS4 & PS4 Neo, along with the Xbone & PC being paired up ecosystems. Might as well exploit the biggest, most open, and most profitable platform around, even if you still offer a standalone game box.

Seems like a logical choice tbh. It's unlikely MS or Sony will stop using AMD parts, so that makes porting super easy in the long run.

I have no idea what any of you are talking about. I've never been one to research specs (and haven't had a gaming PC since 2004, when Half-Life 2 was originally released).

Can somebody simplify this for me?

Lel

NX is using an ARM CPU. Sorry guys. It's the only possibility based on the three AMD semi-custom designs.

AHAHAHAHAHA

Bro, that report was a hoax. It was an April Fools joke that was bit too convincing

A zen processor? Sounds like the opposite of a blast processor :(

http://www.semiaccurate.com/forums/showpost.php?p=259047&postcount=2356

Just one hint: 50% of the data in my news is true. It's not a 100% April's Fool

http://www.semiaccurate.com/forums/showpost.php?p=259114&postcount=2379

For the Fottemberg post i get that the technical data(3.0Ghz A0 eng. sample, big step forward) on his Apr1st Zen post is right, but benchmarks are false.

My POV, it's unlikely NX will have ZEN since Sony's NEO doesn't have it i.e. FinFET Jaguar version is available.

PS4 and NEO is the benchmark for performance, IP and component cost standard.

Wishful thinking. It's more probable that Nintendo will put an older, cheaper chip in the system. This would fit their Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology methodology.

I love how you're so so desperate to not be wrong that you'd reference a random forum post to prove yourself half-right. Face it, you fell for an April Fool's joke a month late.

http://wccftech.com/amd-guarantees-x86-zen-processors-offer-performance-improvements/

"Everything is riding on Zen. They are shooting for performance parity with where (arch-rival) Intel will be. AMD understands that they have to succeed with Zen. If Zen fizzles, they will really have to do a lot of running around.” – Nathan Brookwood, Insight 64

I'm starting to think that you believe that any link or image related loosely related to the topic at hand helps to prove your point (that time that you posted the picture of a dual-slot card cracked me up with how pointless it was). That, or you are ridiculously stubborn.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/05/amd-admits-it-cant-be-the-cheaper-solution-will-refocus-on-performance/

Yesterday, at the AMD Financial Analyst Day event, the company finally decided that enough was enough: AMD will no longer be competing in a race to the bottom. "It's extraordinarily important to ensure that we have competitive, high-performance cores," said CEO Lisa Su. "We have reduced our low-end PC exposure. When you look at AMD's historical business, we were very, very heavily concentrated in consumer, low end PCs, that was actually our speciality. However, when you look at that market, there has been so much volatility, especially at the intersection between tablets and PCs and differentiation hasn't been there... very clearly, we are an x86 company. We have tremendous x86 heritage, and opportunity to lead in that area. We are absolutely going to invest in high-performance x86."

AMD ZEN will not be the cheaper solution i.e. it's performance will drive it's asking pricing structure.

AMD has ported Jaguar IP into FinFET which covers their semi-custom and embedded business i.e. The updated FinFET Jaguar replaces 2nd gen 28 nm Puma+.

There are more links that points to AMD ZEN being on par with Intel Ivybridge/Haswell.

Cool, I hope it has good games though

Great! But that wasn't what I was arguing against. You changed my argument just so that you could be right. That's hilarious and sad.

http://www.overclock3d.net/articles/cpu_mainboard/amd_s_zen_will_have_a_greater_than_40_ipc_improvement/1

AMD's Zen will have a "greater than 40%" IPC improvement.

AMD has stated that Zen will have a "greater than 40%" IPC improvement, hinting that Zen has performed better than expected. A new CPU design that will "win momentum" in both the commercial and datacenter markets.

Back when AMD had reportedly finished testing on their new Zen CPUs core designs several months ago, an insider said that the design had "Met All Expectations" with no "Significant Bottlenecks", meaning that AMD's Zen CPUs should be as competitive with Intel as AMD had set out to be.

According to AMD's CEO Lisa Su, AMD ZEN is not the cheaper alternative!

For 2016, AMD has priced ZEN out from the console business!

... How are you even able to type in English when you clearly can't read it properly? It's like you don't understand anything I say. Look, I was only arguing that you fell for an April Fool's joke, which you did. Nothing more, nothing less. Now stop.

The benchmark was wrong but the statement for AMD ZEN being on par with Intel is correct i.e. backed by expected pricing position which is being not the cheaper alternative.

Around October 2016, AMD will be releasing desktop ZEN FX CPU line before any ZEN based APUs i.e. the focus is shifting back to desktop/workstation PCs.

Oh, I forgot about this.

Well, the former is definitely incorrect, considering that AMD doesn't produce semi-conductors and would play no part in production at all once the chip has been designed.

It could be a reference to an engineering issue on AMD's side that is directly making it hard to manufacture in volume for TSMC or GloFo. It could also be that production has started later than expected and the needed high volumes won't be available to make the first batch of systems for the original launch window.

28 nm process tech is a mature process with well known Jaguar and GCN IP blocks.