Nintendo DX GPU?

[Blitzvogel]

People do realise there have been rumours about a handheld component to the NX?? It could be that the the handheld uses Tegra and the base unit uses an AMD SOC.

However,if NX console is not handheld and uses a Tegra SOC, I am not sure if the CPU performance will be upto par and whether devs will care in porting games over to the console from the PS4 or XBox One. The Nintendo Wii U had the same problem with CPU performance.

Using an Nvidia SoC for a handheld and an AMD SoC for the console doesn't sound very unifying, especially not for developers. I'm also pessimistic about Nintendo ending their storied history with ATi, now AMD, to work with a vendor who is well known by Microsoft and Sony to be "difficult to deal with".

Those things said, I would poop my pants if it turned out that Nintendo did something totally crazy like going with a MIPS based system. At least anyone familiar with the PS2 would have somewhere to put their skills to work

 

[exar333]

I disagree. Sort of how AMD is stuck as the bargain brand, Nintendo is always deemed the kiddie brand.



And this is where it extends. Most "popular" 3rd party games aren't kid friendly. You aren't going to enjoy a round of Call of Duty with your child. By the time that kid is mature enough (yes I know we all mature differently) he'll probably look at Nintendo as a child's product.

Considering the Allison Rapp issue, i don't think Nintendo is in a rush to shake off their family-friendly appearance. Games like Splatoon are dripping with kid-friendly graphics but at the core it is a damn good tactical shooter (if you get a good team of course).

I could be wrong, and Nintendo is dying to get more of the core/older audience. The biggest complaint the Wii U had from the circle of gamers I know was the price and weak 1st party catalog (Mario Wii U was an obvious re-touch of Mario Wii). We still haven't seen a proper Metroid/Zelda on the console. Two of Nintendo's biggest franchises.

To think Pokemon/Brawl/Kart 8, 3 titles were enough to change Nintendo's profits drought. And those games aren't exactly graphical masterpieces.

I don't disagree on that perception. However, it wasn't always that way, and I think that perception limits them in many ways today. The reason a small number of Nintendo games sell so well, is that there really aren't a lot to choose from honestly.

Nintendo has done a lot to leave 3rd party devs out on the cold in the past 10 years, that they may well have no other choice other than to embrace the whole kiddie concept.

 

[swilli89]

Ugh Nintendo...

Want to make hundreds of millions? Stop being idiots. Release a console that equals everyone else in performance and ease of development, release an ergonomic classic-type controller for FPS and action games, secure all the major 3rd party games (super easy with an AMD SoC), and finally.. release your kickass 1st party games on the same system.

Sony and M$ can't compete with this and they know it. Stop overthinking it.. Remember how successful N64 was? Just do that again. Powerful, 3rd party support, good controller, and the typical 1st party games.

I thought they were on the right track but now they are talking about ARM.. again.. ugh this is so frustrating.

 

[nurturedhate]

Ugh Nintendo...

Want to make hundreds of millions? Stop being idiots. Release a console that equals everyone else in performance and ease of development, release an ergonomic classic-type controller for FPS and action games, secure all the major 3rd party games (super easy with an AMD SoC), and finally.. release your kickass 1st party games on the same system.

Sony and M$ can't compete with this and they know it. Stop overthinking it.. Remember how successful N64 was? Just do that again. Powerful, 3rd party support, good controller, and the typical 1st party games.

I thought they were on the right track but now they are talking about ARM.. again.. ugh this is so frustrating.

The N64 wasn't successful compared to its counterparts. N64 sold roughly 30mil consoles while the ps1 sold roughly 100mil. Not even close...

Though I do agree with the rest of your statement about console parity and securing some form of 3rd party support. A gaming pc and a nintendo console always works out best for me.

 

[tviceman]

Tegra Pascal in the console and Tegra K1 in the hand held? It would probably result in a 3.25x performance difference, but Nvidia may have offered to sell the K1 SoC at cost to guarantee a win. 28nm has to be pretty cheap now vs. when K1 first went into production.

 

[Sonikku]

Ugh Nintendo...

Want to make hundreds of millions? Stop being idiots. Release a console that equals everyone else in performance and ease of development, release an ergonomic classic-type controller for FPS and action games, secure all the major 3rd party games (super easy with an AMD SoC), and finally.. release your kickass 1st party games on the same system.

Sony and M$ can't compete with this and they know it. Stop overthinking it.. Remember how successful N64 was? Just do that again. Powerful, 3rd party support, good controller, and the typical 1st party games.

I thought they were on the right track but now they are talking about ARM.. again.. ugh this is so frustrating.

Better yet, just put Mario on Playstation and Xbox and be done with it.

 

[railven]

Ugh Nintendo...

Want to make hundreds of millions? Stop being idiots. Release a console that equals everyone else in performance and ease of development, release an ergonomic classic-type controller for FPS and action games, secure all the major 3rd party games (super easy with an AMD SoC), and finally.. release your kickass 1st party games on the same system.

Sony and M$ can't compete with this and they know it. Stop overthinking it.. Remember how successful N64 was? Just do that again. Powerful, 3rd party support, good controller, and the typical 1st party games.

I thought they were on the right track but now they are talking about ARM.. again.. ugh this is so frustrating.

Nintendo worked with ATI, not AMD. If I had to guess, AMD may have wanted Nintendo to take the whole kit, CPU and GPU (APU) while Nintendo probably just wanted the GPU.

I've said it from the start, with Miyamoto becoming president, I don't know why anyone here thought he'd deviate from the plan he was pushing when he was lead of Nintendo R&D.

Post #10 in this thread:

However, if AMD is in the next console, I expect an ARM processor too. Nintendo has been vocal about integrating their mobile and console business.

The N64 wasn't successful compared to its counterparts. N64 sold roughly 30mil consoles while the ps1 sold roughly 100mil. Not even close...

Though I do agree with the rest of your statement about console parity and securing some form of 3rd party support. A gaming pc and a nintendo console always works out best for me.

I think you sort of answered why I believe Nintendo isn't going to go that route. If you have a PC and a Nintendo, chances are you'll buy all your 3rd party titles on PC.

If Nintendo can get you to buy both sets of their hardware (console + handheld) and most of their first party titles and some exclusive third party titles, that's a huge win for them.

Again, they sold over 10 million copies of 2 games. Neither Sony nor MSFT can boast that and that was with a install base 1/3 to 1/4 of it's rivals.

 

[Silverforce11]

You guys...

Nintendo NX is a console system + a handheld controller. An evolution of the Wii U.

That hand-held needs a processor and GPU. It needs it to be mobile spec for obvious reasons.

The console unit itself, that needs some serious power and x86 portability (ensure AAA titles come to NX) if Nintendo wants a chance to be relevant against the PS4 Neo and Xbox Next.

 

[exar333]

You guys...

Nintendo NX is a console system + a handheld controller. An evolution of the Wii U.

That hand-held needs a processor and GPU. It needs it to be mobile spec for obvious reasons.

The console unit itself, that needs some serious power and x86 portability (ensure AAA titles come to NX) if Nintendo wants a chance to be relevant against the PS4 Neo and Xbox Next.

I hope not. Ditch that crappy handheld and just do something like MS Smartglass to leverage handheld phone or tablet. The Wii U tablet was total junk.

 

[C@mM!]

If we are to believe previous articles, devs were quoted as saying it was a breeze to port XB1\PS4 games to the NX devkits. That would only be possible on x86, and possibly again only with an AMD GPU. And if Nintendo wants to fix its third party deficit, they would be fools to run ARM+NVIDIA (adding on also it would also hurt backward compatibility efforts with Wii U\Wii\GameCube with a GPU switch, and that Nvidia ARM underperforms by significant margins other ARM designs in IPC).

The only thing that may give this credence, is that the NX is a dockable DS. Then the tradeoffs start making sense.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Get the feeling Nintendo is going a ARM based handheld as the primary driver, with a cheap console set box that uses the handheld as a controller but gives the games a little more polish for the bigger screen.

That would be awesome.

 

[StereoPixel]

NV Shield renamed to Nintendo, lol