AMD has won the bids for the upcoming Playstation/Xbox consoles, and a wide range of Macintosh devices

With the new Polaris GPU architecture soon to be released, AMD has secured the console and next generation Macintosh hardware with the new Polaris architecture, based on 14nm Finfet technology. This is quite interesting to see, and comes as very good news for AMD seeing as how Intel recently laid off 12% of their workforce due to the PC market slowing down. The new GPU architecture, which is going to tout either GDDR5X or HBM depending on the model (and perhaps GDDR5 for the laptop variants) means that the new consoles may should have quite a bit more power than the current generation ones. Perhaps with Polaris, the Playstation Neo and Xbox will be able to handle 1080p fluidly at 60FPS and even run 4k at 30 FPS.

Polaris for consoles: High-end gaming from the new Playstation and Xbox?

The Polaris architecture is rumoured to have very good specs, with support for HBM and GDDR5X, which means that the next gen Playstation/Xbox consoles should be a very noticeable amount faster than the PS4 or XBOX One. While the exact specs are still unkown, a screenshot of an Xbox leaked that shows the device info as “Polaris”:

Xbox polaris

This means that the updated Xbox (Xbox Two perhaps?) is going to have AMD’s polaris GPU. At the same time, the Playstation Neo is also going to have AMD hardware in it- but it remains to be seen whether it will be Polaris or not.

Macintosh laptops and Desktops to have AMD hardware

AMD has also been working with Apple in the past few years for graphics, with such systems as the 2013 “Trash can” Mac pro having dual Firepro GPU’s and with a majority of the Imac lineup touting R9 mobile series GPU’s. Now, AMD and Apple are working together to bring the next generation of Apple systems, which will support Polaris in some systems, and Fiji/Hawaii in others depending on the model. It remains to be seen whether AMD CPU’s will be used in the new systems, but Radeon GPU’s will be in the new Macintosh systems. This is great news for AMD fans, as it means that AMD has been diversifying and more than likely will be able to come back into the markets Intel and Nvidia have been dominant in for some time.

Will AMD come back with the releases of Polaris and Zen? Will they be lackluster, just like Bulldozer? LEt us know your thoughts in the comments! Thanks!