Sony Introduces Playstation 3, to launch in 2006
by Anand Lal Shimpi on May 16, 2005 9:12 PM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Playstation 3's GPU - The NVIDIA RSX Reality Synthesizer
NVIDIA's contribution to the PS3 is their RSX GPU.
The RSX GPU offers dual screen output, with each output offering a resolution of up to 1080p resolution (1920 x 1080). The GPU runs at 550MHz and is connected to 256MB of local GDDR3 memory running at 700MHz.
The GPU itself can process 136 shader operations per cycle, compared to 53 shader ops per cycle of the current GeForce 6 GPU. In terms of shader performance, the RSX is clearly more powerful than even two GeForce 6 GPUs.
The RSX GPU features over 300 million transistors built on an eight layer 90nm process; note that the combination of the RSX GPU and the Cell CPU in PS3 is close to 600 million transistors.
NVIDIA also mentioned that the RSX offers performance stronger than two GeForce 6800 Ultra SLI GPUs and is based on their next-generation GF70 architecture.
The architecture itself is a bit different than what we've seen from previous NVIDIA GPUs:
The RSX GPU is connected to the Cell by a 35GB/s link (20GB/s write, 15GB/s read), that's much more bandwidth than any present day CPU-GPU link on the PC side.
The RSX can render pixels to any part of memory, giving it access to the full 512MB of memory of the PS3. We'd expect the technology used here to be similar to NVIDIA's TurboCache that we've seen on the desktop.
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jimmy43 - Wednesday, May 18, 2005 - link
Have you guys seen the PS3 Launch list? its HUGE, with lots of sequels albeit, but still much more impressive than the Xbox360.GoatHerderEd - Wednesday, May 18, 2005 - link
I wonder what DDR will be link on the PS3 :Pglennpratt - Wednesday, May 18, 2005 - link
DestruyaUR - Please, just about any piece of electrical hardware will be tested to determine a safe operating range.ImJacksAmygdala - Don't try to tell me that the 'before' shot is representative of a good deinterlacing job, I'll bet money that is a worst case shot. The quality you get from the faroudja chip of FFDshow has everything to do with quality deinterlacing and nothing to do with upconverting (upconverting to native res is just a necessity for you fixed pixel size users, a good display should do a good job on its own.)
DestruyaUR - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
I still think the biggest problems with these consoles (both XB360 and PS3) are going to be overheating.The MS Dev team called a heatpiped heatsink "watercooling," for God's sake.
They test these things in 68 degree or lower air-conditioned labs when they SHOULD be testing them in 85-90 degree non air-conditioned dorm room environments.
tipoo - Thursday, April 7, 2016 - link
Funny reading this 11 years later where they called the heat pipe in the Lumia 950XL "water cooling". The more things change...ShadowVlican - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
will do the same as #10if they remake ff7 for ps3, i'll preorder one right NOW.
ImJacksAmygdala - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
#65 You might want to look at this guide to see exactly what 480I upscaled to 1080I looks like...http://htpcnews.com/main.php?id=ffdshowdvd_1
This is what you can do with Theatertek or Zoomplayer using FFDshow, but certain consumer DVD players using the Faroudja chip with proper upscaling can produce the same results. One of the most popular consumer DVD players that fit this criteria can be had for $159.99. If a console that costs $499 and plays games at 720p why can't it also produce similar results?
If these new consoles can't upscale DVD video to HD resolutions while we wait for Sony and Toshiba to hash out HD dvd video, and they can't surf the web I am not buying.
glennpratt - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
ImJacksAmygdala - Xbox upscans DVD's at least to 480P. If you have a decent TV, this will look just as good as upscanning to a higher res. Really, P.scan DVD isn't great, just a small stop gap before HD DVD (you can't make something from nothing).I'm just hoping MS will be undercutting PS3 in big time in price when PS3 comes out, on account of the lack of BluRay/HDDVD. I really don't care to use my game console as a DVD player, especially if it's Sony's BetaMax 2006, but I will take a pricecut for the loss.
ImJacksAmygdala - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
Did I miss something? Does it play DVD's or not? If it does will it upscale DVD video from 480i to 720p or 1080i? I will be a bit miffed if I spend $400 on a Xbox360 or a PS3 and it can't even upscale DVD resolution while it plays games at 720p. That would just be retarded.And what about web access? Can I surf the web from my couch?
HD Games, upscaled movies, and surfing the web all from my couch. The first company that gets this right has the winning console that should be more popular than TIVO.
I guess I'll go back to spending money on HTPC parts and fighting compatibility and setup problems.
slatr - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
Neither of them were sucessful in delivering the last round of high end GPUs on time and in anywhere near the volume that these units will demand.******
Is IBM making both the processor and the GPU for the new consoles? Maybe they can do better than that Taiwanese outfit.. TSMC or whatever