AMD and Samsung go together like a wink and a smile. The companies have worked closely on smartphone GPUs and technologies such as HBM, but it appears the two may work closer still on the best CPUs of the future. More specifically, the pair are reportedly doubling down on their partnership, building next-generation processors with a 3nm process.
The claims come from Korea Economic Daily, which quotes AMD CEO Lisa Su talking about the benefits of GAAFET (gate all around) transistors over FinFET when at a conference in Belgium. Considering Samsung is the only brand in the world that manufacturers 3nm GAAFET right now, it heavily implies that AMD will fall into the arms of Samsung.
If true, this means future EPYC and Ryzen chips should be more efficient. GAAFET transistors enhance electrical conductivity, improving efficiency over TSMC’s FinFET. Due to the size limitations of the nanosheets and nanowires it uses, however, you’ll only see them in dinky application processors.
This isn’t a huge surprise given the historic partnership the two share. It’s also probably for the best, given Apple covets TSMC’s upcoming 2nm stock for its AI processors. Naturally, this leaves a big question mark for Intel and Nvidia.
Intel outsources some of its current-gen processors to TSMC, while handling others in-house. It’s possible it could switch sides but the greater likelihood suggests it’ll push forward on its own. Currently, the Big Blue Brand is investing a lot into High NA EUV to slim manufacturing costs and speed up the process.
Nvidia, on the other hand, exclusively uses TSMC’s 5nm fabrication for GeForce RTX 40 series. Rumours suggest Samsung is peacocking to get Team Green to also use its 3nm GAAFET chips. This wouldn’t be for GeForce RTX 50 range, since they’re just around the corner, but perhaps the future RTX 60 line-up. Since Nvidia is supposedly on the pathway to making its best graphics cards more efficient with slimmer coolers, this might not be the worst change.