Priorities priorities, and consoles don't fit the schedule.
Nvidia Senior VP of content and technology Tony Tamasi recently spoke with GameSpot about the upcoming console from Sony. The PlayStation 4 will sport a custom APU developed by AMD and Sony, leaving Nvidia out of the hardware picture. Nvidia also wasn't part of Nintendo's Wii U development, which has an AMD Radeon GPU, and the upcoming Xbox Infinity from Microsoft, which will likely have AMD graphics as well.
So what gives? Why isn't Nvidia participating in the next-generation race? In regards to the PlayStation 4, a deal likely wasn't made due to the "opportunity cost." In other words, the company didn't see enough potential revenue to pull resources from one project to fund work on console-based chips.
"I'm sure there was a negotiation that went on, and we came to the conclusion that we didn't want to do the business at the price those guys were willing to pay," Tamasi said. "Having been through the original Xbox and PS3, we understand the economics of [console development] and the tradeoffs."
As stated, the original Xbox featured a 233 MHz "NV2A" application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), co-developed by Microsoft and Nvidia. This relationship led to a dispute in 2002 over the pricing of the graphics ASIC and allegations that Nvidia violated their agreement. Nvidia later went on to co-develop the PlayStation 3's RSX "Reality Synthesizer" GPU (550 MHz) with Sony, which cranks out resolutions up to 1080p.
Now, in 2012, with the Wii U leading the next-generation pack, Nvidia isn't involved at all other than PhysX and APEX support in the PlayStation 4 SDK (so far). Tamasi indicated that Nvidia is just too busy with other projects to invest in console development, including Nvidia GRID for Internet-based cloud gaming and Nvidia Shield for local cloud gaming.
"We're building a whole bunch of stuff, and we had to look at console business as an opportunity cost," he said. "If we, say, did a console, what other piece of our business would we put on hold to chase after that?"
He goes on. "In the end, you only have so many engineers and so much capability, and if you're going to go off and do chips for Sony or Microsoft, then that's probably a chip that you're not doing for some other portion of your business," he said. "And at least in the case of Sony and Nvidia, in terms of PS4, AMD has the business and Nvidia doesn't. We'll see how that plays out from a business perspective I guess. It's clearly not a technology thing."
We'll be hitting up Nvidia for fresh new info next week during the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose and hopefully get some hands-on with some of Nvidia's new stuff.
One chip yield won't outweigh the other, you pay everything to one business, you implement both on a simplified mobo with less of a heat footprint and perhaps slimming down the console itself. The list goes on with benefits that come with going with AMD. And also the fact that AMD is willing to haggle more more than Nvidia & Intel
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One chip yield won't outweigh the other, you pay everything to one business, you implement both on a simplified mobo with less of a heat footprint and perhaps slimming down the console itself. The list goes on with benefits that come with going with AMD. And also the fact that AMD is willing to haggle more more than Nvidia & Intel
Like Apple and Samsung which they are suing each other every hour that passes...
It means that - "We did not won the project because PS4 wants to have a chip that is cheaper cost..."
"We're building a whole bunch of stuff, and we had to look at console business as an opportunity cost," - Tony Tamasi
"... and Project Shield is not a console, by the way...its a local cloud gaming..."
This doesn't mean the games will be better for AMD hardware. A good example, Saints Row 3 which was in one way or another meant to have been focused more towards AMD hardware.
Yet from my personal experience, using a HD7850 with Catalyst 12.8 and 13.1, it suffers low framerates when set to ultra. (Drops to 30fps and lingers there at 1920x1080 with constant explosions).
Jumping to an Nvidia 680 with 304 drivers, it works smoothly and lingers at 60fps at 1080p. I know the difference in hardware performance is there, but I would have thought the AMD cards would have greatly benefited from the devs working with AMD. This wasn't the case, and in forums there are even AMD specific problems with the game.
AMD aimed for desktop and laptop space, nvidia's current project is on mobile(Nvidia Shield and Tegra4). those two projects are probably what is keeping nvidia payign close attention to other topics at the moment. their opportunity cost trying to get a sony bid is not worth dropping the other projects on
There was alot of concern among ATI investors that it would sink the company, because history has shown there is no profit in it. (console manufacturers like to sell consoles for a loss, and as such will F you in the butt as soon as it is convenient.)
Not quite, what it's really saying is: "we wouldn't make the profit that we think we should make to have the console market be worth our while to get involved with."
nVidia is also working on four projects. GRID, Shield, Tegra 4, and Geforce 8. I would say they have their hands full with that.
Absolutely games will be more optimized for AMD hardware no doubt, the reason behind that is devs will want to harness all that power AMD hardware can create and translate that into games obviously. Now that its X86 the porting from console to PC is more straight forward than ever. TWIMTB titles 99% of the time performance better on Nvidia based hardware for example. You cannot lok at games like Saints Row and make a comparison since that is a PC game
" "I'm sure there was a negotiation that went on, and we came to the conclusion that we didn't want to do the business at the price those guys were willing to pay," Tamasi said. "
"I'm sure there was a negotiation..." -- doesn't sound very confident... If you are a Senior VP at Nvidia, you would have known if there was a negotiation... none of this "I'm sure.." business. Leads me to believe they were not a major consideration.
nvidia just justifying their sharing loss in the upcoming consoles, Sony and Microsoft have chosen AMD for their CPU&GPU integrity power on a single die, a solution which isn't offered by Intel nor nVidia.
on the other hand, I have read that there's no one adopting their Tegra 4, and the Project Shield isn't expected to be a big "hit" in the market.