subject: Rsx Reality Synthesizer In Playstation 3 [print this page] Just as Sony went to the leaders of the chip-making world for its Cell Microprocessor, it went to the leaders of the graphics processing unit (GPU) manufacturers for the PlayStation 3 graspi card. Nvidia was glad to help out in building what Sony eventually called the 'Reality Synthesizer RSX' graphics unit.
At that time, Nvidia was busy preparing for its own 7000-series of graphics card and had already come out with the G70 base architecture for its premium model, the GeForce 7800GT. Sony liked what it saw and went with that - not a future proof graphics card, for sure, but the company didn't feel the need to do that because of the Cell Processor taking on a large amount of the graphics processing responsibilities.
The chip was ready quickly, running at a core clock of 550MHz and utilising 256MB of video memory. Nvidia and Sony often touted the power of the RSX Reality Synthesizer by saying it wc more powerful than two GeForce 6800 Ultra graphics cards combined together.
The RSX Reality Synthesizer can easily output resolutions of upto 1080p; but an important feature is its upscaling ability. When you put in a regular DVD or VCD, the PlayStation 3 uses the incoming video data to send the information to the RSX Reality Synthesizer, which refines the image quality when playing it back. For multimedia lovers and especially fans of old movies, this is godsend!
With the 256 MB of memory here and the 256 MB of dedicated memory on board the PlayStation 3, the RAM is pretty much the only part of the console that is a downer in an otherwise magnificent hardware setup.
