Support for the PS3's Cell microprocessor and the subsequent PS3GRID project was dropped in 2009 due to updated firmware preventing the installation of required third party software. This included Linux distributions that are required to run BOINC. The massive throughput of NvidiaGPUs has also made the PS3 client largely redundant. As of September 2009, a mid-range Nvidia GPU ran GPUGRID applications approximately five times faster than the Cell microprocessor.[1]