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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sxr7171 - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
Man, I hate Sony, but I have to admit that this thing is very nice. Let's see when it actually comes out though. The dual 1080p output is unreal, but what's with the aliasing? Can Sony ever get rid of it? I really am beginning to feel sorry for Nintendo at this point. I hope they have something that can keep up.milomnderbnder21 - Monday, May 16, 2005 - link
"i'm glad there keeping blu-ray. plus built in hard drive. and something very smart."It's removable. And we don't know that it will even come bundled yet, though it would be dumb not to do so.
"I never even looked at the x-box. I was afraid it'd crash 4 times a day. :P"
Seriously man, what are you, stupid?
mrgq912 - Monday, May 16, 2005 - link
OKay disregard question 2. GDDR3 VRAM is the ram being accessed by the GPU.mrgq912 - Monday, May 16, 2005 - link
okay. 3 questions:1) The cell has a power pc core at 3.2 ghz. But that power point slide from sony says 7 SPE @ 3.2. Does that mean those SPE's are processors as well since they are being clocked. I always thought of them as mini-CPUs.
2) How much system ram does it have. I read it will sport 256MB XDR main RAM at 3.2GHz, and it will have 256MB of GDDR VRAM at 700MHz. What the heck is GDDR VRAM? And how does it compare to DDR3 . Is this the RAM that the GPU is accessing? Or ist that different.
3) What teh heck is that controller? what is sony smoking...2 teraflops. And there was no mention of the removable HD being included with all consoles.
Sea Shadow - Monday, May 16, 2005 - link
Both of these systems (Xbox 360 and PS3) are very neat. They sure pack quite a bit of processing power. Nintendo better have an ace up its sleeve or this might end up as their final foray into the world of consoles.Pythias - Monday, May 16, 2005 - link
I never even looked at the x-box. I was afraid it'd crash 4 times a day. :Pksherman - Monday, May 16, 2005 - link
nm... just looked over at the new page... damn that controler is UUGGLLYYksherman - Monday, May 16, 2005 - link
where do you all see pics of the controlers? am i blind or are you looking elsewhere?Googer - Monday, May 16, 2005 - link
With all this connectivity, I can see the future of console gaming- PS3 LAN PARTIES!Googer - Monday, May 16, 2005 - link
PS3 is so L337XB0X is for N00Bz