I just want to add that there are reasons why people think Gonzalo/Flute is PS5 and not Scarlett.
1) First Gonzalo leak showed codename that fit Sony's console and not MS. It certainly is gaming APU, but its much more likely to be Sony then MS, duo to naming convnetion.
2) Gonzalo PCI ID matched Ariel PCI ID (that means GPU part), and Ariel was rumored to be PS5 before anything else leaked.
3) Flute showed 16GB of RAM on 256 bit bus with 18Gbps chips. This means max BW of system is 576GB/s (if full clocks) or min of 512GB/s (if downclocked). Benchmark showed 528GB/s.
4) 256bit bus with 16 GDDR6 chips mean this APU CANNOT be Scarlett because Scarlett showed 10 chips (14Gbps) on 320bit bus
IMO both of these consoles should have similar BW and similar TF, because there is sweet spot for TF/BW, as was case in last gen and mid gen refresh. This is why Matt said both are not showing their hand yet, because they could end up very close to one another.
In theory, MS has more headroom because 320bit bus is wider and they use slower memory. They can even go for 16Gbps memory in retail and get 672GB/s, while Sony can at most get 576GB/s.
In the end it seems MS wanted to save a bit on memory while Sony wanted smaller die. I do believe Reddit PCB leak was from someone near manufacturing site that got hold of PCB used for dev kits and 316mm² should mean 40CUs/RT hw + Zen2 with 1/4 of cache and 256bit bus fit like a glow. Because PCB leak was first one to specify 18Gbps chips that are now confirmed by Flute benchmark, but these chips where and still arent even in full production. Best you can get in mass product is 16Gbps from Samsung (these can be OCd to 19Gbps so there is space for 18Gbps obv).
For MS, I dont believe die size is as big as people predict, and I think its closer to 330mm² then 380mm², and with 320bit bus they will add 16mm² on their die compared to Sony by default so even with smaller die size, Sony should have similar amount of die for compute tasks.
What to make of it? My personal opinion is Sony picked sweet spot. Got just enough BW, processing power and die size to fit it all nicely while MS went with wider bus and perhaps more CUs to be able to counter Sony, depending on their performances.
I dont see Sony needing to counter MS, but can see it vice versa. Sony losing 10% power battle with smaller die size means nothing to them or customers, but MS is done if they have bigger die and lower performance.
So I think this is why Matt on Era said his educated guess is that MS will have a bit more omph, because from everything we know, their design (wider bus, slower memory and bigger die?) gives them headroom to squeez a bit more out of their design then Sony. Although I like Sonys way more tbh...Really would love to see 320mm² die with 9TF and RT hw, Zen2 and narrower bus with fastest available memory to counter wider bus design.
Mod of War
please, ban that monster.
, because I have never said anything like that. In fact I dont consider 8'th gen consoles perfectly balanced systems, just the opposite because of very weak (tablet like) CPU. "R600" was suggesting all games out there can be maxed out at around 150fps on modern CPU's, so I have posted CPU benchmarks that shows even the best CPU's out there can dip below 60fps in current games.
