Future Samsung GPUs that would be used within their in-house Exynos processors could come from either NVIDIA or AMD, as a new rumor states that the world’s largest Android manufacturer is having discussions with both companies on such a possibility. If Samsung were to enter into a partnership with either of them for this particular purpose, it would signify a shift from using ARM’s Mali GPUs to potentially using NVIDIA’s Pascal architecture or AMD’s Polaris architecture. While there is no confirmation on these discussions, it might seem logical to go with NVIDIA considering that Samsung was reported early last month to have won a contract to manufacture NVIDIA’s Pascal GPUs. With that partnership already in place, it would make sense for Samsung to use these GPUs inside of their future Exynos chipsets. If the Samsung reaches an agreement with either company, they would be licensing the designs.
Locking down graphics chips from either NVIDIA or AMD would mean that Samsung would likely not be producing its own GPUs in-house as had been previously thought, although it’s entirely possible that Samsung could be continuing to manufacture their own GPU for other chips even further down the line, and may be deciding to use a different outside source until their own graphics chips are ready.
According to previous rumors, Samsung may have their own internally-built GPUs ready for use inside of Exynos processors sometime by next year or the following year, which makes it all the more possible for them to be considering the use of NVIDIA or AMD as an interim GPU and a replacement for ARM until that time comes. While a partnership like this would certainly benefit Samsung, it would also likely mean vast benefits for whichever company would end up working with Samsung as they are the largest Android manufacturer, which would mean huge business. Should NVIDIA be the company that Samsung chooses to partner up with, it would mean a return for NVIDIA to having their GPUs inside of smartphones, as NVIDIA outspokenly retreated from producing smartphone graphics chips a while back, and there hasn’t been a smartphone with an NVIDIA GPU inside since the original Blackphone which was powered by the Tegra 4i. Currently, NVIDIA has only been producing mobile GPUs for devices such as it’s SHIELD products like the SHIELD Tablet K1 and the SHIELD Android TV, as well as various tablets and Chromebooks.