Xbox 360 Graphics Showcase

by Dave Altavilla — Thursday, May 19, 2005, 09:44 PM EDT

Good evening all... By now you've probably read a few of the articles post around the web regarding the new Microsoft Xbox 360 console and the ATi Graphics Processor technology that will be the main rendering engine in the machine. If you haven't had the chance to dig into the scene yet, there are articles up at the following sites:

Firing Squad's "Inside Xbox 360's Graphics" does a good job of covering the basics of the architecture and includes an interview with ATi VP of Engineering for Xbox 360, Bob Feldstein.
HardOCP has two articles up - An "Xbox 360 Sneak Peek" and "Xbox 360 GPU Features" with their usual down-to-earth layman's approach to the tech.
Finally, Tech Report offers "Details of the Xbox 360 GPU Unveiled".

These are three very good sources of information to get the inside juice on the new console and what will be powering all the leading edge graphics of the machine. We too spent some quality time with ATi VP of Xbox 360 Engineering - Bob Feldstein and took away from our discussion much of the same information our colleagues are reporting today. However, with a hectic launch schedule afoot for us here on a number of fronts, the lead time we were given on the launch and being down one Senior Editor with Marco on his post-conjugal romp through sunny Antigua, it just wasn't in the cards for us to bring you today.

What we can offer you here is a quick synopsis of the graphics architecture and feature set.

500MHz GPU Core - Multi-chip Parent/Daughter GPU
10Mb Embedded DRAM with integrated memory controller for external DRAM
48 Unified Shader Pipelines, 2 shader operations per clock cycle
Combined Vertex and Pixel Shader Instruction set
Capable of processing 64 interleaved active threads
16 Gigasamples per second fillrate
4X Multisample AA enabled at all times
512MB of GDDR3 external memory @ 700MHz
256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM
High Definition Output - 16:9, 720p and 1080i, with anti-aliasing
Standard definition and high definition video output both supported
TSMC 90nm process for Parent Graphics Core die
NEC 90nm process for Daughter EDRAM/Memory/Processor Interface Core
"Fluid Reality" Technology - Fluid and natual motion and environmental effects - Powerful vertex processing engine

Good stuff for sure. Stay tuned here in the coming weeks. We're hoping to get more details on what's else is inside the Xbox 360 in the weeks ahead before launch. So stick around!

Tags: Xbox, Xbox 360, graphics, case, OWC, Show, Graphic, showcase, SHO, box, ICS, 360, AP

Xbox 360 Graphics Showcase

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