How powerful is Cell at graphic rendering.

[Titanio]

IIRC, those patents always had the visualiser as a seperate component. That is, a seperate GPU was always on the cards. Be it cell-based or not. It also wasn't a Cell-chip like the one we have as the CPU in PS3 - it had "pixel engines" alongside the APUs/SPUs.

 

[MfA]

And as far as vertex shading is concerned the SPUs aren't all that poor ... it's a pity they couldnt pull it off and had to change plans at the last hour.