Sony’s PS6 Handheld Reportedly Secures Exclusivity For RDNA 5 Custom Chip

Digital Foundry’s Richard Leadbetter has claimed that Sony’s long-rumoured PS6 handheld, dubbed Canis, may have secured exclusive use of AMD’s custom RDNA 5 graphics chip, making it the only handheld device to utilise the architecture.

Speaking in Digital Foundry Direct’s Patreon-exclusive episode, Leadbetter was discussing the rumours surrounding Microsoft’s hardware plans and the next-generation of game consoles, which naturally includes the handheld Sony is supposedly lining up to launch alongside PS6. “There has been some behind the scene discussions that Sony has an exclusive of sorts on RDNA5 for handheld with it’s mobile device that’s coming,” he commented.

The idea is that AMD may not be wiling to put more resources into semi-custom chips for lower-volume products. Therefore, if manufacturers can’t commit to fulfilling orders, producing bespoke silicon for their devices won’t be as attractive. In this scenario, Sony’s PS6 handheld therefore may be the only one of its kind to utilise a dedicated custom RDNA chip.

Back in September, known hardware tipster Kepler_L2 provided an updated list of specs for the Canis handheld device, which features the following:

• 6x AMD CPU cores (4x Zen 6c + 2x Zen 6 LP)
• 16x RDNA 5 (UDNA) graphics compute units
• 24GB LPDDR5X memory on a 192-bit bus
• A TDP range from 15 to 25W

Sony has long rumoured to be planning a handheld companion to the PS6. Back in December last year, hardware insider Moore’s Law Is Dead described the PS5’s low-power mode as a “Trojan Horse for getting PS6 Handheld support ready before its launch,” citing an unnamed developer who received an email from Sony requesting they push low-power mode. Prior to this, Moore’s Law Is Dead claimed that the main console and the handheld were targeting a late 2027 – early 2028 release window, with PS4 & PS5 backwards compatibility mentioned.

[Source – Digital Foundry via Reddit, Twisted Voxel]

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