Google Stadia is the cloud gaming platform that was announced recently and it will be released later this year. Google has been very vague about the hardware behind Stadia but from the HBM2 memory mentioned in the keynote, we figured that it will be powered by AMD graphics cards but Kronos has not revealed some more information.
Khronos, the organization the Vulkan API has mentioned that Google Stadia is powered by “Google Games Platform Gen 1 (AMD GCN 1.5)” which is supposed to be the first generation of AMD Vega based on the 14nm process and not the cards that are based on the 7nm process. Nvidia has a similar setup of its own so I guess AMD was the only option. Nvidia would be providing for its own competitor in this case, which is not something uncommon in the tech world, but still.
AMD could have customized the AMD Vega 56 or the Vega 64 in order to cater to the needs to Google Stadia. We are still not sure regarding the details of the hardware that power Stadia so do take this with a grain of salt.
If Stadia is indeed using AMD hardware, which it most likely is then this means a major boost for AMD. So not only is it going to be powering the upcoming PS5 and Xbox but Google Stadia as well. This means that no matter which product comes out on top in the next few years, AMD can reap the benefits.
Google Stadia is most likely going to be an evolving platform so that means that while it is powered by AMD Vega graphics cards right now, Google could switch to AMD Navi or even more advanced architectures down the line. That would be very interesting indeed. As Stadia is based in the cloud, millions of people do not need to change their hardware in order to reap the benefits. Google has to upgrade the hardware from the datacenters.
Ex PlayStation USA boss recently talked about Stadia and how it is going to give the PS5 a tough time when it comes out. Microsoft is also going to be competing with Sony in the same market and we should be able to learn more about the next Xbox at E3 2019.
Let us know what you think about Google Stadia and whether or not this is a platform that you are interested in using when it comes out.
