The original post: /r/hardware by /u/TwelveSilverSwords on 2024-12-07 18:21:33.
In the early days, iGPUs were primarily designed for basic tasks like video playback and light productivity work. However, they have come a long way since then, and modern iGPUs in laptop SoCs such as Strix Point and Lunar Lake are powerful enough to play many games at ‘decent settings’. As iGPUs in these SoCs have grown more powerful in recent years, it has made the once thriving market for entry level dGPUs (example: Geforce MX350) nearly extinct.
My hypothesis is that this won’t stop here, and the next frontier of attack for SoCs is going to be midrange GPUs (eg: RTX xx50/xx60/xx70).
For simplicity, I am going to use the term ‘Big SoC’ to refer to SoCs with large iGPUs. A requirement to fall under this classification is to have a memory larger than the standard size (128 bit).
Arguably the first Big SoC was Intel Kaby Lake G, which debuted in early 2018. It had an Intel CPU and AMD Radeon GPU connected by EMIB, and bundled into one package. Notably, it had 4 GB of HBM2 with a bandwidth of about 200 GB/s.
The next development in Big SoCs came when Apple unveiled the M1 Pro and M1 Max in 2021.
| - | M1 Pro | M1 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Memory Bus | 256 bit | 512 bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 200 GB/s | 400 GB/s |
| GPU cores | 16 core | 32 core |
Since then, Apple has unveiled 3 more generations of Pro/Max chips, clearly proving the success of their endeavour. But Apple might soon not be the only active player in the Big SoC arena.
- AMD
It has long been rumoured that AMD is working on a big APU: Strix Halo. It will supposedly have a 256 bit LPDDR5X-8000 memory bus, a 40 CU RDNA3.5 integrated GPU and 32 MB of SLC. This chip is pretty significant, as it is the first contender for Apple’s Big SoCs, while using an x86 CPU. The large memory bus will benefit not only the GPU, but also the CPU and NPU. It will be interesting to see what 16 Zen5 cores can do with 250 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The launch is slated for CES 2025, so we are only a few weeks away from it’s unveil.
- Nvidia
It has been rumoured that Nvidia is working on an ARM SoC for laptops. It’s well known that for a long time Nvidia wanted to get into the PC CPU game. Now that Windows-on-ARM is taking off, the time is ripe for their entry. A less credible source has reported that this SoC will have a huge 80W integrated GPU to compete with Strix Halo. Even if that rumour is false, and this first gen Nvidia PC SoC ends up only having a 128 bit bus; It makes sense that Nvidia would eventually release a Big SoC later.
- Qualcomm
According to a rumour, Qualcomm’s next gen Snapdragon X SoC (codename: Glymur) will have a 192 bit LPDDR5X memory bus, which hints that it will also have large iGPU in it. An official statement by Qualcomm at the UBS conference confirms that they are working on Big SoCs as part of their future roadmap for PCs.
A solution is like an SoC. You should think about similar to what you probably see on the Mac ecosystem. So we could be serving, we could be serving a desktop or a mini just with an SoC. And especially when you think about creators, for example, I think our roadmap is going to scale even to higher performance GPU for that SAM to expand. So that’s why I think the $4 billion is very reasonable.
- Intel
There were rumours that Intel cancelled Arrow Lake Halo with a large iGPU. Other rumours have said that Intel won’t make discrete GPUs for laptops using their Xe3 and Xe4 architectures. Presumably they are instead working on serving this segment of the laptop market with Big SoC, which would be the smart thing to do With Nvidia taking the lion’s share of the laptop discrete GPU market, there is very little room for Intel laptop dGPUs to thrive.
Advantages of Big SoCs in laptops compared to traditional CPU + dGPU combo;
(1) Lower Cost
Being a single chip, a Big SoC will cost less than a CPU and discrete GPU. That also means only one big chip needs to be cooled, which enables simpler and cheaper cooling solutions. Lower cost will be the primary reason why OEMs will adopt Big SoCs.
(2) Improved Power Efficiency
A single SoC will consume less idle power than a CPU and discrete GPU. Also a Big SoC doesn’t need to waste energy copying data from CPU RAM to VRAM, or moving data from CPU to GPU via a power hungry PCIe bus. All of this improves battery life for laptops.
(3) Thinner and Lighter laptops
Another benefit of a Big SoC being a single chip is that it takes up less internal volume and weighs less. Laptop motherboards and cooling systems can be smaller, which paves the way for thinner and lighter laptops with powerful GPUs.
With all the major silicon vendors introducing their own Big SoCs, this will drive a major change in the laptop market. Many laptops will come with a Big SoC instead of a CPU + dGPU combo, due to the above mentioned advantages for Big SoCs.
I am not saying that discrete GPUs for laptops will become extinct. But as the marketshare of laptops with Big SoCs goes up, the marketshare of laptops with dGPUs will go down. The most affected will be midrange GPUs (RTX xx50, xx60, xx70). However, dGPUs of the RTX xx80 and xx90 tier will certainly remain relevant for the foreseeable future.