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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AnnihilatorX - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
#37"why 7 controllers? "
Because the Cell has only 7 SPE units :P
cryptonomicon - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
HOLY SHIT SONprobedb - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
Finally maybe consoles that I'll buy :) I hope they do 1080i over component and not just HDMI or we're screwed!Cdeck - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
i had a feeling the ps3 would smoke the xbox 360. ms's only hope was to get theirs out early.any word on sony's online gaming? free? not so free? hardwired to your bank account like ms?
ElFenix - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
37 - if you count the number of controllers in the PS3 connectivity picture on page 3 you get 8. one of them is connected with a solid green line rather than the dashed blue lines of all the others. as the USB stuff is marked with green lines, i guess this is just a wired USB controller. as the controller is blue like the rest, i guess maybe each controller could be wireless or plugged in.sprockkets - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
why 7 controllers?seems the only way one is going to be perhaps better than another console another is due to physics processing.
by the time it's ready to be made, they might as well make the cell processor on a 65nm process.
dual gbe and other stuff does make for a lot of potential, at least for networking in the house.
Jynx980 - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
Very nice pictures of the demos. Its gotta be tough to get a decent shot in the pit.Any word if the games have to support 720p like the Xbox 360?
Xajel - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
WOW...nice introduction anand
sorry but i just make a small translation to arabic and post some info's in three Arabic forums with a links ofcourse to our lovley anandtech website and a note to mention that all info's are from here...
forums are
Montadayat Al Bahrain ( Bahrain Forums )
http://forum.montadayat.org/showthread.php?t=74545
Multaqa Al Bahrain ( Bahrain Online )
http://www.bahrainonline.org/showthread.php?s=&...
Arab Hardware ( Arab Hardware )
http://www.arabhardware.net/forum/showthread.php?t...
bob661 - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
Wow. I wasn't expecting this. How about those Unreal shots?Pythias - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
Aw! Did i hurtems widdle feewins?