The OG Steam Deck (7nm, comparable to the Series S) has a die size of ~162mm2. In there, it packs an 4 core, 8 threads CPU and a 8 CU GPU.
On the other hand, the Xbox Series S packs an 8 core 16 threads CPU with 20CU GPU of the same architecture in ~197mm2 die.
This is a technical question, how come the Series S packs much more in just 25% more size? I’m not saying the Steam Deck should be as powerful as a Series S (that’d never happen, the power constraints would not make it possible), but I wonder if the CPU in the Series S is cut-back or if there’s anything in the Steam Deck’s SoC that could have been removed to get a lower cost.
Because van gogh ain’t designed for valve’s gaming device. It contained blocks that supported computer vision. Microsoft and sony also customized their console socs by removing minor features they didn’t need and decreased area by a lil more
I understand, but I wasn’t aware of any computer-vision accelerating block in there.
Is there really any? Might be used for a future Steam Deck-based VR headset as it’s rumored?
Bingo. The Steam Deck OLED’s SoC seems to have cut out the Cadence DSPs, which we can see with the significantly smaller SoC (especially when combined with the new process node).
Pretty sure VGH also has more PCIe lanes on die as well, alongside full size Zen 2 cores (all console variants have a cut FPU).
4 more cores would take about 20 mm^(2) and 12 more CUs would take 28 mm^(2). So that would reach 210 mm^(2) (ignoring ROPs and the like, which might take some more space). However, space is cut in some other places. For example the Series S doesn’t have AV1 decoding while the Steam Deck does have it. Also, as mentioned, memory controllers will have a different size.
Memory controllers, PCIe lanes, different video encoding and decoding blocks can affect size and most importantly, the Series S has an external south bridge / chipset, which I’m sure saves some die space on the main SoC.