‘New PlayStation 5 revision has more economical 6nm chip’

The new PS5 revision that surfaced last month also seems to have a new AMD Oberon Plus soc. It is produced on TSMC’s N6 process, where the current PS5 soc is made on N7. The chip offers the same performance, but is smaller and more economical.

The renewed 6nm socket can be found according to Angstronomics in PS5 revision CFI-1202. This console has previously appeared in teardown videos, which show that the revision is lighter and has a smaller motherboard and a modified cooling system. The new revision also consumed less power than its predecessor. According to Angstronomics, the latter is because AMD has transferred the PS5 chip to TSMC’s more economical N6 process, where the previous chips were produced on N7. Photos from Angstronomics show this physically smaller Oberon Plus soc. It is estimated that the new soc has a chip area of ​​260mm², where the current Oberon chip is 300mm².

The new chip would have no design changes and no changed configurations. For example, the Oberon Plus soc would still have eight Zen 2 cores and an RDNA2 GPU with 36 compute units. The only difference is the modified node, which should ensure lower power consumption. Previous tests showed that the new console revision used up to 10 percent less power than current PS5 versions, while delivering the same performance. The number of chips per wafer must also be higher due to the switch.

When N6 was introduced, TSMC communicated that this node will perform up to 18 percent better than N7 at the same power consumption. However, the manufacturer did not provide figures on lower power consumption with the same performance. TSMC also indicated that chip designs produced on N7 can easily be transferred to N6.

The new revision of the PS5 first surfaced in Australia at the end of August. It is unknown how widely this version of the console is now available in other parts of the world. Sony does not officially communicate such changes.

AMD’s new Oberon Plus soc (left) alongside the current PS5 soc. Image via Angstronomics