Sony's PS6 will be powered by AMD and not Intel, says new report

(Credit: DALL-E)

• 👏 Sony has chosen AMD to manufacture the chip inside the PS6

• 💰 AMD reportedly beat Intel to the lucrative deal

• 👉 The PS4, PS4 Pro, PS5 and PS5 Pro all use AMD chips

• 🥳 It should mean backward compatibility is a given for PS6

AMD will produce the chip inside Sony’s upcoming PS6 instead of Intel, continuing the partnership between AMD and PlayStation.

According to a new report from Reuters, Intel was outbid by AMD on a contract worth billions of dollars in 2022. Winning the PlayStation 6 chip design business would have been huge for Intel, which has stepped up its focus on gaming after re-entering the GPU market in April 2022 after a 20-year hiatus.

It’s also the only manufacturer out of the big three that doesn’t have a console deal, as Nvidia produces the chip inside the Nintendo Switch.

Intel reportedly lost out to AMD because of a dispute over how much profit Intel stood to take from each chip sold to the Japanese electronics giant, according to two sources that spoke to Reuters.

In response to Reuters’ report, an Intel spokesperson said: “We strongly disagree with this characterization but are not going to comment about any current or potential customer conversations. We have a very healthy customer pipeline across both our product and foundry business, and we are squarely focused on innovating to meet their needs.”

Sticking with AMD will be beneficial to Sony, as it should make backward compatibility with PS5 games easier. Reuters report says that moving to Intel from AMD would have risked backward compatibility, which was “a subject of discussion between Intel and Sony engineers and executives”.

It should mean that the PS6 will play the best PS5 games, similar to how Sony’s current console supports PS4 games.

Sony admitted that the PS5 has entered the “latter half of its lifecycle” earlier this year, suggesting the PS6 release date could take place sometime in 2027. However, all eyes are on the PS5 Pro, which releases on November 7 for $699.99. PS5 pre-orders begin on September 26.

• Up next: GTA 6 on PS5 Pro: don't expect 60fps

Adam Vjestica is The Shortcut’s Senior Editor. Formerly TechRadar’s Gaming Hardware Editor, Adam has also worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Content Marketing Editor, where he helped launch the Nintendo Switch. Follow him on X @ItsMrProducts.