Gran Turismo 5 Links PS3s to Get Crazy High Resolution, Frame Rate

Sometimes, the PlayStation 3's famed horsepower just isn't enough. When the systems aren't being linked together to make supercomputers, they apparently get connected to have some fun, as the Gran Turismo team did last month.

In celebration of the racing series' tenth anniversary in October, the crew from developer Polyphony Digital threw a party in New York City in which some Sony displays let players try out versions of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue in 2160p resolution and at 240 frames per second.

The high-resolution display and the super-smooth display, which were separate demonstrations, each used four PlayStation 3 consoles in tandem to produce the on-screen image.

The 2160p screen used the systems to each draw one quarter of the screen at a normal HD 1080p resolution, and the images were combined on the fly using a high-end Sony digital cinema projector to show a high-quality image on a 220-inch screen.

As for the 240 frames per second demonstration, a Sony prototype screen using FED technology combined four PS3 systems each running 1080p at 60 frames per second. Consecutive frames were staggered across consoles, allowing the display to show 240 frames in one second, providing what was described as a very life-like display.

All the demonstrations went down at an event called Downshift Session 2008, which fans at NeoGAF cleverly noticed. Polyphony has not announced whether the technologies will be used in future editions of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue or the eventual final release of Gran Turismo 5.