Rumour: All Next-Gen Consoles Likely to Use AMD Hardware

When the last line of gaming consoles emerged, Sony and Microsoft took sides. Sony preferred the NVIDIA graphics solution with their IBM Cell processor, whereas Microsoft chose the AMD (then ATI) solution. Nintendo Wii too had ATI hardware inside. This time around, based on rumours and interactions by HardOCP, all three future gaming consoles are likely to use AMD hardware. Nintendo has already confirmed that the Wii U will use the Radeon RV770 GPU. The PlayStation 4 would use either a Cell processor or some kind of an AMD Bulldozer derivative. 

AMD GPUs - the weapon of choice for Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo

There’s also a good chance that all three consoles might use IBM cell processors. AMD’s GPUs in the past have shown good power-to-performance ratios. In the past, Microsoft tried working out something with NVIDIA for the Xbox 360, but things quickly went south. AMD has been gaining a good market share from NVIDIA. If these deals go through, they will boost AMD’s profit margins even further. Assuming that these next-generation consoles are expected by 2014, solid specifications should start appearing by the end of the year.