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> The RSX inherits existing Nvidia technology, it’s reported to be based on the 7800 GTX model sold for PCs You can also see this in the early Cell Evaluation

by Lammy 5y ago

> The RSX inherits existing Nvidia technology, it’s reported to be based on the 7800 GTX model sold for PCs You can also see this in the early Cell Evaluation systems which at first had 6800s in SLI and switched to a 7800 GTX before the RSX was ready: http://www.edepot.com/playstation3.html#Early_PS3_Models http://www.edepot.com/playstation3.html#Early_PS3_Models

monocasa 5y ago
Apparently the addition of the RSX was a last minute modification of the console. They got hit by the same dennard scaling issue that killed of the Netburst derived architectures too [0]. They had been planning on cranking the Cell to over 4Ghz, just including two of them in the PS3, and running GPU tasks 'in software' on the SPUs. The Ghz wall hit them hard and had them reeling looking for an actual graphics chip at the last minute. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennard_scaling#Breakdown_of_Dennard_scaling_around_2006 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennard_scaling#Breakdown_of_D...
- corysama 5y ago
  The story I have heard directly from insiders is that they had a GPU design from Toshiba. But, it was so deeply VLIW that writing an effective compiler for it was deemed infeasible and hand-coding for it would require deeply dedicated skills. So, they gave up on it late in production and went to Nvidia. They looked at the G80, but that was too early and risky to jump on at the time. So, they settled for the 7800. It's a shame. If they had delayed the release and went with the G80, the PS3 would have crushed the 360 as far as graphics. Instead, a whole lot of Cell SPU time had to be dedicated to shoring up the PS3's GPU issues to bring it on par with 360 titles.
  - monocasa 5y ago
    I heard that the Toshiba GPU was also part of that last minute change after the dual Cell design didn't work out. The Nvidia talks happened sort of in parallel, but that was the last option. I want to say it's mentioned in The Race For A New Game Machine too, but I'm not 100% on that.

by Lammy 5y ago

monocasa 5y ago

Apparently the addition of the RSX was a last minute modification of the console. They got hit by the same dennard scaling issue that killed of the Netburst derived architectures too [0]. They had been planning on cranking the Cell to over 4Ghz, just including two of them in the PS3, and running GPU tasks 'in software' on the SPUs. The Ghz wall hit them hard and had them reeling looking for an actual graphics chip at the last minute. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennard_scaling#Breakdown_of_Dennard_scaling_around_2006 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennard_scaling#Breakdown_of_D...

corysama 5y ago
The story I have heard directly from insiders is that they had a GPU design from Toshiba. But, it was so deeply VLIW that writing an effective compiler for it was deemed infeasible and hand-coding for it would require deeply dedicated skills. So, they gave up on it late in production and went to Nvidia. They looked at the G80, but that was too early and risky to jump on at the time. So, they settled for the 7800. It's a shame. If they had delayed the release and went with the G80, the PS3 would have crushed the 360 as far as graphics. Instead, a whole lot of Cell SPU time had to be dedicated to shoring up the PS3's GPU issues to bring it on par with 360 titles.
- monocasa 5y ago
  I heard that the Toshiba GPU was also part of that last minute change after the dual Cell design didn't work out. The Nvidia talks happened sort of in parallel, but that was the last option. I want to say it's mentioned in The Race For A New Game Machine too, but I'm not 100% on that.