Next-gen Xbox may feature 10-core AMD Zen 6 chip, leaked die shot suggests

[Daniel Sims]

Rumor mill: As details about AMD's upcoming chips continue to emerge, some leaks inevitably contain clues about Sony's and Microsoft's next-generation game consoles. A recently surfaced die shot has sparked fresh speculation about these devices, with both companies planning to launch them within the next couple of years.

Trusted leaker KeplerL2 recently said that a newly surfaced die shot likely shows the APU for Microsoft's next-generation Xbox console. The chip, built on AMD's upcoming Zen 6 CPU architecture, might hint at the device's core configuration.

YouTube channel Moore's Law is Dead recently shared a color-coded diagram of an in-development AMD APU codenamed "Magnus." Its unusual configuration – Zen 6 CPU cores on a 144 mm² SoC die alongside a massive 264 mm² graphics die – and its categorization as "semi-custom" suggest the chip likely powers an upcoming game console.

Although Moore's Law is Dead speculated that Magnus could be the PlayStation 6 processor, Kepler believes it's more likely an Xbox APU for a couple of reasons. First, it appears larger and more expensive than the types of chips PlayStation designer Mark Cerny typically favors. Second, Kepler claims that Sony's as-yet-unrevealed PS6 APU codename continues the company's tradition of drawing from characters in William Shakespeare's plays. The chip will reportedly debut under the sixth pseudonym Sony has borrowed from The Tempest.

Magnus features three Zen 6 cores and eight Zen 6c cores, totaling 11 cores built on AMD's new CPU architecture. Kepler speculates it will function as a 10-core, 20-thread processor, with one core left over for binning. Although the diagram doesn't show GPU compute units, Kepler believes the chip will include 80 – up from the PlayStation 5 Pro's 60.

Another clue pointing to Magnus as an Xbox chip is its massive 384-bit memory bus. Sony has favored a 256-bit bus for all PlayStation 4 and 5 models, while Microsoft's Xbox One X used a 384-bit bus, and the Series X features a 320-bit bus.

Kepler previously claimed that both the PS6 and the next Xbox will use AMD's upcoming UDNA graphics architecture, which succeeds the RDNA 4 architecture found in the recently released Radeon RX 90 series graphics cards. This new architecture should deliver significant improvements in ray tracing and machine learning compared to RDNA 4 and the RDNA 2 chips powering the PS5 and Xbox Series X.

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Next-gen Xbox may feature 10-core AMD Zen 6 chip, leaked die shot suggests

 

[Kirby1]

Definitely seems plausible.

Hoping it has 32GBs of ram and at least ~9070 level performance with more mature ML and RT features to make path tracing at decent res with good upscaling a standard feature for next gen.

I think $800 would be reasonable for a next gen console that aims to be more high end from the start, but I think it needs to stay well under $1000.

 

[Vulcanproject]

Microsoft tried to make Series X the most powerful console. They stated this from the reveal, that was their intention.

They essentially failed. On paper it was but a clever PS5 Cerny led design hardly gives anything away in terms of performance. The Series X APU is considerably larger than PS5's but the ultimate result is a machine only marginally faster on its best day.

Perhaps Microsoft are looking to push the boat out this time and going back to separate processor dies. Expensive, but almost certainly would then be faster than any likely APU designs.

 

[bviktor]

The hardware is irrelevant. As long as they

1) don't make any new exclusives
2) even keep losing their existing exclusives

this platform is poised to die. I just sold my XSX for this very reason. There's just no exclusives which would make me keep it. I can play all my games on the PS5.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Consoles live and die by software. Not hardware. The series X is more powerful than the PS5 and its sales are dismal.

So long as MS continues to make garbage games (and ports them to PC) there will be no reason to buy an xbox over a PS5. Especially if MS continues to insist on proprietary storage on top of it.