So the next consoles would be cloud/streaming consoles only.

They very well could be.

The hardware is near-identical though, or at least it was for PS Now. So the barrier to re-use game streaming hardware for a physical console is fairly low.

I think you’re being quite a bit disingenuous here. AMD hasn’t made a “highest end GPU variant” in a literal decade. They’ve never had a competitor to the Titan cards nor the *90 variants, and with the *80 variant slowly taking over the top-end consumer spec(because the *90 took over the TItan classification), all of this isn’t because of AI. It’s just AMD lagging behind the entire time. And I love AMD, but they’ve never been known for highest end. And Intel has NEVER made a highest end GPU variant. So not sure where that claim is coming from.

It’s about silicon size to me. Even if a bit behind Nvidia’s mega dies, AMD made “big die” cards consistently, like the 6970, 7970, 290, Fiji, Vega 64, the 6900, 7900 XTX. But the 9000 series is different. The top-end 9070 XT is “only” 356.5 mm2 and 256-bit; a mid-range size. The only recent precedent for that is the RX 480, but those were cheaper and sold alongside higher end GPUs.

And with Arc Battlemage, Intel allegedly had a bigger die in the works, but canceled it. Presumably because they didn’t think it was financially viable.

You make fair points. I’m probably panicking and being a little dramatic here… Custom SoCs would probably be questionable if regular graphics are.

But I still don’t like the trajectory. It feels like AMD/Intel are struggling to even stay alive in the space, while Nvidia seems to think it’s not so important, and I don’t like where that goes.