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SemiAccurate: Nintendo NX handheld to use Nvidia Tegra-based Soc

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
How does this compare to Vita?

The Tegra X1, which is used in Nvidia Shield devices, has about 10-20x the raw floating point performance of the Vita CPU+GPU.

Vita does 51 gigaflops, the Tegra X1 does 1 teraflop (512 GFLOPS half-precision). Not to mention better bandwidth, fillrate, API, energy consumption, memory, etc.

And it's already been on the market for over a year
 

Occam

Member
As far as hardware is concerned, I mostly hope for a good screen this time. And region-freedom.

Too bad there are no leaks about the screen.
 

jett

D-Member
So the NX is going to end up with a mobile gpu.

Yeah that other Emily Rogers thread looking mighty accurate. I wonder what kind of third party support this is going to get.
 

RPGCrazied

Member
The OP doesn't make entirely clear whether the author of the SemiAccurate article is speculating on any of these points, or if some of the details are effectively confirmed by outside sources. Seems a little pointless to make a judgment without knowing how much confidence the author has in this information.
 

antonz

Member
Haha yet right they don't need that at all.



Not really when you have AMD supplying the Sony and MS and taking razor thin margins.

Nvidia has on multiple occasions tried to break into the video game console/handheld market. They dicked themselves out of their initial attempt then got dropped like a rock the 2nd time when they overpromised Nintendo what they could deliver.

I would not be surprised at all that they would want to try again and if they had the right things laying around they would do what they could to make the sale and get their foot in the door again.
 
I don't understand. How is this supposed to work?

(haven't been following hardly any NX news)



Yes, but I didn't quite get it. The post I quoted made it sound like NX is an operating system.
There will allegedly be an NX console (releasing first) and then an NX Handheld. They will share the same OS and similar architecture so that it is easy to develop for both simultaneously.
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
ChJmHK5W4AEf4Vk.jpg:large


https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/130131/05.html


NX is basically nintendo's back-end (i guess you can think of it as an operating system, but it's not really) that unifies all their consoles going forward.

Ah okay, this makes a lot more sense. Thanks!

But if that's the case, then it makes the news that the console NX is just a souped up Xbone all the more disappointing. :/
 

Pancake Mix

Copied someone else's pancake recipe
This is all speculation, but one thing Nvidia might especially like and even get from Nintendo: their brand on the hardware.

Nintendo did that on the GC and Wii with both IBM and ATI:

 

Bsigg12

Member
Handheld? Did I miss something? I thought it wasn't going to be a hybrid.

Sounds like NX is essentially a unified platform that supports different form factors rather than simply just a console or just a handheld. At least that's what I'm getting now with this coming out.
 

Delio

Member
Yeah this is what gets me excited. I mostly play a ton of handheld games anyways so a more powerful one makes me think of the games that will be made for it.
 

georly

Member
Ah okay, this makes a lot more sense. Thanks!

But if that's the case, then it makes the news that the console NX is just a souped up Xbone all the more disappointing. :/

We know nothing yet, I take all of these rumors with a grain of salt. What's exciting about iwata's very own quote is that it likely means that one platform's success (either console or handheld) can potentially drive success of the other, if it's simple enough to port games from one to the other. Redundant game ports between 3DS and Wii U are basically 2 entire development efforts - imagine if they were just one where a small amount of effort is exerted to get a portable game on handheld and vice-versa. The resources that were previously used to make 2 of the same game can now be used to make 2 (or 1.5) different games. More resources (people!) to go around.

More games like Monster Hunter could also have a console version in HD if that's your preference. You only need to own one of the 2 platforms the get a lot of the same games, or if you own both, you get a choice on how you want to play them.

It makes sense for them to seek out a mobile chip if they plan on porting between mobile and console, especially if console is a souped up handheld capable of handling higher rez assets.

Either way, I'll reserve judgment on the NX and its power until games have been revealed. Really, anything comparable to the XB1 that can run Nintendo games is enough to make me happy. Nintendo has to prove that value to the rest of the world, however.
 

Bashtee

Member
I'm really curious if one of all these rumours turns out to be true at the end. I'd be shocked if the handheld ends up with anything near a HD display.
 

KingBroly

Banned
So the NX is going to end up with a mobile gpu.

Yeah that other Emily Rogers thread looking mighty accurate. I wonder what kind of third party support this is going to get.

This info is for the handheld, specifically, for what it's worth.
 

CO_Andy

Member
Nvidia soured both Microsoft and Sony, and Nintendo is closely tied to a former GPU dev that got bought out by AMD.

Basically no console monies for Nvidia. I can see why they're so desperate considering all those years of building a powerful mobile GPU to strike off alone has been for naught cause the casual market don't give a flip about graphical fidelity on a portable.
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
We know nothing yet, I take all of these rumors with a grain of salt. What's exciting about iwata's very own quote is that it likely means that one platform's success (either console or handheld) can potentially drive success of the other, if it's simple enough to port games from one to the other. Redundant game ports between 3DS and Wii U are basically 2 entire development efforts - imagine if they were just one where a small amount of effort is exerted to get a portable game on handheld and vice-versa.

More games like Monster Hunter could also have a console version in HD if that's your preference. You only need to own one of the 2 platforms the get a lot of the same games, or if you own both, you get a choice on how you want to play them.

It makes sense for them to seek out a mobile chip if they plan on porting between mobile and console, especially if console is a souped up handheld capable of handling higher rez assets.

Either way, I'll reserve judgment on the NX and its power until games have been revealed. Really, anything comparable to the XB1 that can run Nintendo games is enough to make me happy. Nintendo has to prove that value to the rest of the world, however.

Yeah, after finding out how this NX business actually works, it honestly seems like a clever idea on Nintendo's part. Hopefully that other rumor is just a rumor and the console is in fact way more powerful.
 
This explains some of the odd rumours about surprisingly beefy hardware and positive dev impressions. If Nvidia is helping Nintendo make tools and such for 3rd parties, it seems like it could turn out well.

...But perhaps I'm not understanding.
 

Madao

Member
i wonder how Nintendo's gonna explain their NX plans of having multiple form factors. a lot of people are confused already just from their early words.

also, this is another reason the continued delay of the NX reveal is not doing them any favors. these doubts need to be cleared, not increased.
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
If true, what prevents this from being a repeat of the original Xbox where Microsoft lost the ability to manufacture more of them? Nintendo probably wants NX to be an enduring platform that lasts through multiple generations of different form factors.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Interesting, though the 20nm speculation is a bit odd. It does kind of fit together though.

i wonder how Nintendo's gonna explain their NX plans of having multiple form factors. a lot of people are confused already just from their early words.

also, this is another reason the continued delay of the NX reveal is not doing them any favors. these doubts need to be cleared, not increased.

I don't think it will be confusing once they announce it. It's only a problem now because everything is rumors and speculation with different interpretations.
 

georly

Member
Yeah, after finding out how this NX business actually works, it honestly seems like a clever idea on Nintendo's part. Hopefully that other rumor is just a rumor and the console is in fact way more powerful.

The other exciting thing I forgot to add until just now is that freeing up developers from making a handheld port of a game (like say, MK7 + MK8) means that those devs would have been free to make an entirely different game rather than another version of a similar game. More dev cycles freed up to increase the NXs overall game library.
 
Some good news (rumor). It doesn't really matter to me if its powerful or not, but being more powerful would help with playing console type of games?
 

aeolist

Banned
So post some other examples.

The Charlie hate is fanboy nonsense.

i'm not doing your research for you. if this forum wants to go wild over rabid bullshit it won't be the first time or the last, i'm just putting my opinion out there.

and if you can read demerjian regularly and not roll your eyes there's no way i'm getting through to you anyway.
 

Maniel

Banned
I really hope that handheld gaming (not mobile) at 720p results from this. Or at least gaming at native resolution unlike the Vita.
 

antonz

Member
If true, what prevents this from being a repeat of the original Xbox where Microsoft lost the ability to manufacture more of them? Nintendo probably wants NX to be an enduring platform that lasts through multiple generations of different form factors.

Nvidia wants to keep a foot in the door then they have to realize their past mistakes. They have to play ball with their customers.

They were dicks to Microsoft and got dropped. They overpromised what they could deliver for the 3DS. Nintendo who has no issue dropping people told Nvidia to take a hike.
 

Eolz

Member
read their language, they were extremely specific and wrong in every sense: http://semiaccurate.com/2011/05/05/apple-dumps-intel-from-laptop-lines/

it's been a few years since i read the site regularly but charlie demerjian posts shit like this all the time. believe what you like but i would put money on SA being wrong.

Alright.
To be fair, unlike the console, we have nothing to put it against in terms of leaks/rumors, so I guess until we get something there...
 

evanmisha

Member
So, if this console and handheld have a shared library, and the console has conservative specs, what's to stop Nintendo from exploring the idea of a second console SKU with much beefier specs at a higher price point?
 

Neoxon

Junior Member
I really hope that handheld gaming (not mobile) at 720p results from this.
540p with better visual fidelity would probably be better in the long-run, especially if this is supposed to share its games with the NX Console.
 

Thraktor

Member
read their language, they were extremely specific and wrong in every sense: http://semiaccurate.com/2011/05/05/apple-dumps-intel-from-laptop-lines/

it's been a few years since i read the site regularly but charlie demerjian posts shit like this all the time. believe what you like but i would put money on SA being wrong.

I don't think anyone's taking this as any more than a rumour, but for these kinds of matters SA has a much better track record than a lot of "sources" that people are happy to take seriously on GAF, so it's worth discussing at the very least.
 
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