| MikeB said: @ Entroper The difference between Xenos and RSX in raw specs is very slight. The RSX has 24 pixel-only pipelines that do 2 vector ops per cycle, and it also has 8 vertex-only pipes that do one vector op per cycle. The Xenos has 48 pixel-or-vertex pipelines that do one vector op per cycle. Correct, but note with regard to those 48 ops vs 48 ops per cycle, on the Xenos you would perform vertex ops dragging down the potential pixel shader op figure. The more vertex ops you dedicate the lower this figure, in comparison with the PS3 there's no real top potential advantage to unified shaders. |
There is always an advantage to unified shaders. If you have a vertex-heavy load and are using the RSX's 8 vertex pipelines at 100%, then you aren't using the pixel pipelines at 100%. Vice versa, if you have a pixel-heavy load, you aren't using the vertex pipelines at 100%. Unified shaders can handle any load at optimum efficiency. RSX also loses some efficiency with the 2 ops/cycle design, since there aren't always 2 ops available to perform every cycle.
MikeB, if one Cell processor can so greatly improve the rendering of a scene in game while at the same time running the rest of the game's code why did Sony abandon their multiple Cell-processor per PS3 (in stead of a GPU) so early on in the PS3's design?
IIRC, Initially Sony planned on having 3 Cell processors in every PS3 as a way to give developers full flexability on how the performance of the system was allocated between core logic and graphical effects but abandoned that because an inexpensive GPU would outperform the entire system in rendering polygons with full effects. How would it be possible for a GPU (like the RSX) to outperform 3 Cell processors with what it is doing, and yet one (already taxed) Cell processor could boost performance of the RSX to nearly double?
Not only does RSX have more floating-point performance, it is also custom-designed to handle texture caching, bilinear filtering, and all that jazz. The Cell could do all that, but you would get a LOT less performance out of it. Even going by the announced specs: RSX = 1.8 TFLOPS, Cell = 218 GFLOPS. It's a difference between special-purpose flops and general-purpose flops.
@DMJ, it sounds to me like you just want an excuse to bash the mods for being anti-PS3. The OP was about PS3 games not being in 1080p. Shams's post was about PS3 games not being in 1080p. Just because someone has something negative to say about Sony or the PS3 doesn't mean they're trolling. Realize that I'm very excited about getting a PS3 and playing GT5, and I see nothing wrong with pointing out the reality of the PS3's capabilities.
