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| sc94597 said: Well the PS5 was on 6nm, a process node that actually saved Sony money when they moved to it from the original PS5 SKU. 4/5 nm actually are slightly cheaper than 8nm because of the higher yields, although probably also slightly more expensive than 6nm. But regardless, I think there is more incentive to go for a more efficient node when building a handheld/console hybrid because you want to get decent performance at low (sub-10) wattages for battery life, and your room for cooling is limited. |
TSMC's N6 is just N7 with a slightly tighter pitch, the wafers should cost about the same, so the move made sense in that context.
I haven't seen how much Samsung charges for an 8N wafer, but if it's similar in price to TSMC's 10FF, then N5/N4 is at least two and a half times more expensive and probably much more nowadays (with all the Nvidia bulk orders for Hopper and Blackwell). That makes its cost per area x transistor density about even or worse vs. 8N unless you're gaining on viable chips at the margins of the wafer.
It's still very possible, mind, but at $400 they might be taking a hit depending on the rest of their components. Like, LPDDR5 at 7500 MT/s? NVMe SSDs? Not cheap stuff at all.
