The Bandwidth: A History
On the other hand, the 133 MHz FSB is crucial, because, just as in PCs, the speed at which the exchanges take place in the console directly affect the operating speed. Anyway, Microsoft has done things right by equipping its console with DDR SDRAM memory at 2 x 200 MHz. For a PC, it's good, but for a console, it's limited! But the memory is laid out intelligently, producing memory bandwidth of 1.06 GB/sec for the CPU - this is more than sufficient and leaves at least 5.34 GB/sec available for the rest (especially the 3D). Considering that the screen has a resolution of 640x480 in 32 bit, one can say that it's comfortable. A resolution of 1024x768 is planned for use with HDTV, which should still be within the limits of the console. The memory manufacturers vary according to availability and the total amount of 64 MB can appear to be weak, but in a dedicated system less of this goes to waste (in the case of PCs, up to three quarters are wasted).
In our console, the memory is made up of four Samsung modules. Basically, the memory serves as a cache for the graphics processor and a small percentage of it serves to store the game code. No doubt, 128 MB would have produced unanimity among the developers. They will have to optimize. And, of course, the PS 2 has 32 MB and the GameCube 40.
