Sony’s updated PS5 console comes with 6nm AMD Oberon Plus SOC, offers lower temperatures and consumes lower power

Sony recently made a soft refresh of its PS5 console with a new variant known as the CFI-1202 that offers lower temperatures and power input. The new console is lighter, runs cooler and consumes less power, and all this is thanks to the updated AMD Obreon Plus SOC, which supports the TSMC 6nm process.

Sony’s PS5 “CFI-1202” console variant features improved 6nm AMD Oberon Plus SOC: Reduced die size, lower power and cooler operation

In a recent demolition video posted by Austin Evans, Techtuber noticed that the Sony PS5 console is coming in a new variant that is lighter, cooler and less power-hungry. This new PS5 variant is labeled as ‘CFI-1202’ and we can already see why it’s so much better than Sony’s original PS5 variants (CFI-1000 / CFI-1001).

technical output, Angstronomy, have confirmed in their exclusive that the Sony PS5 (CFI-1202) comes with an upgraded AMD Oberon SOC, known as Oberon Plus, which uses the TSMC N6 process (6nm). TSMC has made their 7nm (N7) process node a design rule compatible with the 6nm EUV (N6) node. This allows TSMC partners to easily port existing 7nm chips to a 6nm node without encountering major complications. The N6 processor node offers an 18.8% increase in transistor density and also lowers power consumption, which in turn lowers temperatures.

This is why the new Sony PS5 consoles are lighter and have a smaller heatsink compared to the launch variants. But that’s not all, we can also see a picture of a brand new AMD Oberon Plus SOC chip sitting next to the 7nm Oberon SOC. The new die measures around 260 mm2, which is a 15% reduction in die size compared to the 7nm Oberon SOC (~300 mm2). There is another benefit of moving to 6nm and that is the number of chips that can be produced on a single wafer. The shop reports that each Oberon Plus SOC wafer can produce about 20% more chips for the same price.

This means that without affecting their price, Sony can offer more Oberon Plus chips to be used in the PS5 and this could further reduce the market shortage that the current generation consoles have faced since their launch . TSMC is also reported to be phasing out 7nm Oberon SOCs in the future and switching entirely to 6nm Oberon Plus SOCs, which will result in 50% more chips being produced per wafer. Microsoft is also expected to use the 6nm process node for its updated Arden SOC in the future for its Xbox Series X consoles.

News source: Angstronomy