Frame Rate Issues and Newer Versions of the PS3

[ssj12]

Viper1 said:

ssj12 said:

Viper1 said:
6 Ghz? Oh no, are they pulling an IGN and adding clock speeds together or something?

No, actually IBM had the 90nm Cell clocking 6.7GHz for all 8 SPES and the PPE. Main problem was it gave off a temperature of over 190 degrees. At 65nm that heat should be reduced greatly, maybe at that speed 150 degrees. But I think Sony does have the ability to increase the speed of the cell a bit just they did with the PSP. Maybe they will increase the speed to 3.4GHz for all the SPEs and the PPE but they would never increase it to it's max potential because the console doesnt have a flash freeze system to keep it from melting. Even if the Cell is shrunk to 11nm (theoretically the smallest dyes will get to) the cell would give over 90+ degrees. Which an 11nm cell wont happen for another at least 8 years.

Cell dye size shrink (theoretical):
90nm -> 65nm -> 45nm -> 32nm -> 22nm -> 16nm -> 11nm
2007 -> 2008 -> 2009 -> 2011 -> Cell v2 -> Cell v2 -> Cell v2

I dont think that the cell will shrink to below 32nm but the next generation cell (Cell v2) should. Cell v2 = PS4.

 

like you said, past dye shrinking they wont change anything but maybe up the clock speed through the bios. A 200 MHz increase will only increase heat by 5 degrees maybe 8 but nothing that would hurt the system new or old, 90nm or 65nm.

Sso they were just tossing theoretics around? As if we don't get those numbers enough already from Glfops and polygons, etc...

 

The PSP chip was already capable of 333mhz it was just locked from development due to battery drain issues mostly.

 Well yes and no, the dye size shrinkage is theoretical due to the fact the smallest dyes we have right now is 45nm thanks to intel. IBM had the cell at a stable 6.7GHz in perfect conditions which means real world it can only do that with flash freezing, about 5GHz with liquid, and maybe with air cooling about 3.6 or 3.8GHz without damage to the system

 The fact that Sony could willingly uping the clock could easily happen. Its just a matter of time. Common PC knowledge knows that If I went into the bios of my laptop right now I can take the processor (P4 3.4GHz) and clock it to 3.6GHz with just slight worries of overheating due to the horrid air flow. The PS3 has a damn 100mm fan as a heatsink with a really nice heatpipe configuration so there would be no real heat issues as remember that the PS3 can handle a lot of heat. So expect a possible increase in speed for the cell, and maybe driver upgrade for the RSX (OpenGL Long Peak with DX10 like features). 

On the 8th SPE question I see floating around the thread. Its not possible. Some PS3s dont even have the 8th SPE installed, let alone one that tested to be fully functional or a cell processor that yielded a perfect 8 working SPEs (last year they werent having much luck with having the cell even have 7 SPEs working).