Monday, October 26th 2026
PlayStation Handheld May Be Only Portable Console With RDNA 5
It has long been rumored that Sony is working on a PlayStation 6 handheld with a powerful AMD APU codenamed Canis, which has been alleged to feature a combination of Zen 6 CPU cores—potentially with all-new Zen 6 LP cores—and RDNA 5 tech for the iGPU. Now, according to Richard Leadbetter on episode 287 of the Digital Foundry Direct Patreon-exclusive podcast, Sony may be the only gaming handheld to feature this RDNA 5 iGPU. However, it may not be an exclusivity agreement in the traditional sense of the word, since it appears to be as a result of AMD's requirements to build custom silicon for hardware OEMs.
Rumors, albeit disputed rumors, have mentioned that part of the reason Xbox cancelled its own in-house handheld console is because AMD wanted a minimum commitment of 10 million unit sales before it would engineer a custom APU for a console. This may also be why Valve's Steam Deck 2 will seemingly use an off-the-shelf component instead of another custom silicon design. This leaves questions about what CPU and GPU combo will be in the upcoming Steam Deck 2 and Xbox's previously leaked handheld, which now seems like it will be another third-party device, like the ROG Xbox Ally series.
Hopes for RDNA 4 on mobile are also slim, with even less hope for full RDNA 4 iGPUs, even though there has been some movement for an iGPU architecture that sits between RDNA 3.5 and RDNA 4.
Sources:
Digital Foundry, via Notebookcheck
Rumors, albeit disputed rumors, have mentioned that part of the reason Xbox cancelled its own in-house handheld console is because AMD wanted a minimum commitment of 10 million unit sales before it would engineer a custom APU for a console. This may also be why Valve's Steam Deck 2 will seemingly use an off-the-shelf component instead of another custom silicon design. This leaves questions about what CPU and GPU combo will be in the upcoming Steam Deck 2 and Xbox's previously leaked handheld, which now seems like it will be another third-party device, like the ROG Xbox Ally series.
There has been some behind-the-scenes discussions that Sony has an exclusive of sorts on RDNA 5 for handheld with its mobile device that's coming.Leadbetter's wording here appears to be deliberately careful, noting that Sony would have an "exclusivity of sorts," suggesting that it may be the only OEM willing to commit to the MOQ required by AMD for custom or semi-custom silicon. However, the repercussions of this situation are two-fold. For starters, it means that, unless AMD's plans change, the Steam Deck 2 and other gaming handhelds will be stuck with RDNA 3.5—or Intel's Arc iGPUs—for the foreseeable future. It also means that it isn't necessarily set in stone. If the current PC hardware climate improves, meaning hardware prices come down and sales increase, it may be easier for other brands, like Valve or Microsoft, to commit to AMD's figures.
Hopes for RDNA 4 on mobile are also slim, with even less hope for full RDNA 4 iGPUs, even though there has been some movement for an iGPU architecture that sits between RDNA 3.5 and RDNA 4.
11 Comments on PlayStation Handheld May Be Only Portable Console With RDNA 5
I'm kind of surprised Valve or ASUS didn't commit to a joint effort or with Sony assuming the 10M minimum was overall rather than per company; any two or all three combined could have moved that much hardware, esp. if it's a major leap in performance over the previous gen SoCs used by them. Then the main differentiating factor would be the OS and other tweaks made (Valve's Steam OS, ASUS' overclocking tweaks + Xbox' further streamlined Xbox OS, and PS' PSOS and any custom hardware additions like their special memory controllers).
If we are counting portable PCs, then sure, sony gets an exclusivity deal, and intel will fill the void with their Panther lake parts or possibly an nvidia linked part. AMD is well known for shooting themselves in the foot and squandering market capitalization.
For instance, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in the 2026 Steam Frame, is an 1100-day-old 4 nm 2023 Qualcomm chip using Cortex-X4 / A720 / A720 / A520 cores and an Adreno 750.
Intel could be, actually the first XBox has made using intel hardware.
The PS4 and X1 used adapted PC elements from AMD, and again for the PS5 and XSX. In Sony's case, the PS5's custom hardware element was their unique memory controller that allowed them to stream game assets at extremely fast speeds to the SoC with minimal loading lag (using a Spiderman demo where rapidly swinging around saw steady FPS) and a custom Sony sound controller. And not long ago, "bad" batches of PS5 and XSX SoCs appeared on Aliexpress repurposed as fixed APUs on custom ITX motherboards for others to turn into a budget PC.
On the Xbox side, their newest Xbox OS is basically an ultra-streamlined Win11 OS with an Xbox GUI, making their current and future Xboxes even more of a PC with a "gamer GUI" over it.