RSX Chip Gets Smaller, Less Expensive

Kris Erickson • Apr 26, 2010 • Comments ()

Sony may be on the verge of profitability with a new hardware design for its PS3 console. A teardown of the PS3 Slim hardware earlier this year found that the company was breaking even at best on this new machine, which is still quite expensive to manufacture. However, Sony will be moving to a 45 nm process for its RSX graphics accelerator chip, making this component smaller, cooler and less expensive to produce. This is likely to bring the console into the black, so long as it remains at its current price point of $299 USD.

The 45nm graphics chips will consume lesser power than its 65nm predecessor. It will also run a lot cooler, leading many to speculate that this will signal the end of the Yellow Light of Death problem which afflicted earlier hardware. In addition, Sony is going to replace the 4 64MB XDR Ram sticks with 2 x 128MB sticks which should provide an improvement in performance. There is a rumor that Sony will throw in a better cooling system in this new Playstation 3, making it the one to wait for if you are considering an upgrade or want to buy your first PS3.

We expect to see this new configuration arrive quietly on store shelves this summer. Check back with us for tips on how to identify a 45nm equipped PS3 Slim.