Memory Bandwith!!!

[MikeB]

haxxiy said:
To me is still a mistery why RSX does not have any embedded memory.

You mean like EDRAM? Sony opted for a more expensive and technically better solution, seperate buses. RSX has its own GDDR3 memory to work with (like a PC) and can use XDR memory if needed (unlike a PC, it has extra texture lookup logic for this). The RSX differs mostly from other GPUs in that it was designed to take the best advantage of the Cell and has more than usual cache memory.

The RSX is more powerful than the Xenos where it really counts, like being able to perform more shader operations. It's relatively weak at some operations the Cell is more flexible and powerful for (thus the huge bandwidth between Cell and RSX).