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

Vena

Member
I've been sort of out of the loop from building my new computer...

Was the nVidia rumor confirmed yet, or is it still just rumor/speculation?

AMD is out of noted contracts at this point, Neo and Scorpio taking the two game related and one unrelated beyond gaming contract.

So... not much left other than the nVidia side of things unless Nintendo went with someone not in that sect of the industry.
 

Calm Mind

Member
What about the gamingredients related design win in 2014.
http://semiaccurate.com/2014/10/17/rocky-q3-leads-amd-pair-semi-custom-design-wins/

Surely this isn't neo or Scorpio.

Speaking of which, Trevelyan666/SuperMetalDave made a video that contradicts this and the statement between NateDrake and Emily Rogers about Nvidia's involvement http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=203747904&postcount=1780 in the NX handheld. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=motBdAxSBwo
 

MuchoMalo

Banned
Speaking of which, Trevelyan666/SuperMetalDave made a video that contradicts this and the statement between NateDrake and Emily Rogers about Nvidia's involvement http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=203747904&postcount=1780 in the NX handheld. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=motBdAxSBwo

It doesn't matter, since Nvidia is referring to smartphones and maybe tablets, as well as referring to chips that they create themselves. This wouldn't apply to a semi-custom chip using their IP. He's also rather confused and thinks that Nvidia has abandoned Tegra, but that's far from the case. Keep in mind that he no longer has sources and that he's rather biased since he never doubted Polaris or x86 for a second and he clearly can't accept NX being weak.
 

Schnozberry

Member

There were two design wins in 2014 and one addtional design win in 2015. The one from 2015 was explicitly stated as expanding the semi-custom business beyond gaming.

Read here:

http://www.kitguru.net/components/anton-shilov/amd-begins-development-of-its-third-major-semi-custom-design/

Most of the other sites are parroting each other. The words out of AMD's mouth were that two design wins were for gaming and one wasn't. We know of the two gaming designs already.
 

Vena

Member

Two wins are gaming, one win (2015) is beyond gaming expansion of their semi-customs. (I see someone beat me to the punch but I thought it worthwhile to repeat.)

It doesn't matter, since Nvidia is referring to smartphones and maybe tablets, as well as referring to chips that they create themselves. This wouldn't apply to a semi-custom chip using their IP. He's also rather confused and thinks that Nvidia has abandoned Tegra, but that's far from the case. Keep in mind that he no longer has sources and that he's rather biased since he never doubted Polaris or x86 for a second and he clearly can't accept NX being weak.

NX being weak or not has nothing do with the Polaris and/or x86. Being on x86+Polaris wouldn't have even meant "powerful" because none of these things mean anything in a vacuum.

Vulkan is a more important metric than the architecture (so long as it can run Vulkan, obviously). And in as of so far, Vulkan seems locked. I think Trev is just too married to the concepts of x86 as they that is what the twins use.
 

MuchoMalo

Banned
NX being weak or not has nothing do with the Polaris and/or x86. Being on x86+Polaris wouldn't have even meant "powerful" because none of these things mean anything in a vacuum.

Vulkan is a more important metric than the architecture (so long as it can run Vulkan, obviously). And in as of so far, Vulkan seems locked. I think Trev is just too married to the concepts of x86 as they that is what the twins use.

I know. What I meant was that Dave wants Emily to be wrong. That's the only real reason to be so adamant about Polaris unless he's afraid of a non-GCN architecture affecting ports too.
 

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
What I meant was that Dave wants Emily to be wrong.

That's my impression too. Ever since Emily called out 10k he posted a lot of videos with only one scope in mind. I kind of find it strange for somebody who supposed to not have any stake in this discussion.
 

Schnozberry

Member
That's my impression too. Ever since Emily called out 10k he posted a lot of videos with only one scope in mind. I kind of find it strange for somebody who supposed to not have any stake in this discussion.

It's a bunch of theories he put together by researching on Google and inserting his own educated opinions. It's no different than the inferences we're making here on GAF.
 

LordOfChaos

Member
I don't think it was confirmed, but the Scorpio rumors sort of help corroborate this rumor, since there will likely be two new AMD devices coming within the next year or so, and Neo makes three. So AMD's PR about three wins, one of which goes "beyond" gaming can very well refer to Neo and Scorpio, leaving Nintendo going with Nvidia much more likely.

I wonder if this is the beyonder

http://wccftech.com/amd-making-custom-x86-soc-apple-imacs-2017-2018/

(the imac part, not their guesswork at the NX)
 

Ulysses 31

Member
Since I ain't no subscriber:

Who told Nvidia to get a win or "go home"?

Home to their dominant desktop GPU market position? ¯\ (º_o) /¯
 
Do we know for sure it's the X1 chip or something else?

We know for sure the dev kit that is out right now is the X1. There is some evidence however that it may be overclocked to have the performance of another chip, either a semi-custom X1 or the X2 but that's just conjecture.
 

kami_sama

Member
I think it's specifically the Tegra/Mobile team which got that ultimatum.

Could be. They didn't have many devices with the technology in them.
A gaming console win means they will have some revenue for at least 4 or 5 years.

Do we know for sure it's the X1 chip or something else?

There was a N1 rumor. While I don't think it'll be that, a semi-custom chip seems more plausible than an off-the-self one.

That still leaves the mystery of AMD's ARM semicustom win.

Watch it being a chip for an extremely energy efficient MacBook or very powerful iPad.
 
Maybe there is something to what Trev and 10K have been saying and whatever other AMD win is a Nintendo dedicated home console scheduled for Fall 2017.
I think this is the only Nintendo console we're getting, home, handheld or otherwise and another poster said that it's not gaming related.
 

Rodin

Member
We originally dismissed this article as a copy of the SA one, but after the DF story about the Tegra X1 in the devkits being actively cooled and noisy i'm wondering if tweaktown actually had a source straight up telling them about Nintendo using a Pascal-based Tegra SoC for the NX.

Maybe there is something to what Trev and 10K have been saying and whatever other AMD win is a Nintendo dedicated home console scheduled for Fall 2017.

There's a chance this is true. Nobody should just outright dismiss this.

There's a chance that there is a home console coming in the mid-long term,but i highly doubt they would change the architecture from ARM-Nvidia to x86-AMD for that.
 

atbigelow

Member
Not that there's hard evidence of NV, but there's at least way more of it than there being an AMD x86 console. I'd consider that thing fake until there's a credible backing.
 
Maybe there is something to what Trev and 10K have been saying and whatever other AMD win is a Nintendo dedicated home console scheduled for Fall 2017.

I've been saying for ages that there's probably two games at play here. Either that or a SERIOUS crossing of wires.

Anyway, an Nvidia based portable and a presumably AMD console would be super weird, but I guess not impossible... They'd just have to seriously cut the line between the two forms. I don't think it's happening, but eh.
 

FZZ

Banned
I just think we don't even have a close idea to the full picture of what the NX is

Even the Eurogamer leak just seemed like half or less than what I'd expect Nintendo is doing
 
I don't see any sort of evidence that there is a dedicated home console coming. Why would they design a handheld with detachable controllers that connects to the TV if they were building a home only console.
 

NateDrake

Member
I don't see any sort of evidence that there is a dedicated home console coming. Why would they design a handheld with detachable controllers that connects to the TV if they were building a home only console.

Go one step further: Why take one of their biggest releases in years (Zelda: BotW) and release it on the handheld instead of waiting for the dedicate home console?
 
Go one step further: Why take one of their biggest releases in years (Zelda: BotW) and release it on the handheld instead of waiting for the dedicate home console?
NateDrake did say he had more info and going by this he seems to know there won't be a dedicated home console. It's fine by me. All I care is I get to play the next experiences of Nintendo games.
 
Go one step further: Why take one of their biggest releases in years (Zelda: BotW) and release it on the handheld instead of waiting for the dedicate home console?

Basically, everybody expecting a Nintendo power PS4 is living in denial because that's not how Nintendo makes their products.

Makes sense.
 

kami_sama

Member
Go one step further: Why take one of their biggest releases in years (Zelda: BotW) and release it on the handheld instead of waiting for the dedicate home console?

Makes sense they'd do that. Rumors give the nx around the same power as the wii u.
Only one console to support. And the gpu could click differently if used as a portable console or a home one.
 

atbigelow

Member
Makes sense they'd do that. Rumors give the nx around the same power as the wii u.
Only one console to support. And the gpu could click differently if used as a portable console or a home one.

Rumors point to it being much more powerful. Tegra X1 smokes a Wii U.

(Of course, how well the X1 beats the Wii U is determined by how fast they clock the thing. But it's easy and doable)
 

kami_sama

Member
Rumors point to it being much more powerful. Tegra X1 smokes a Wii U.

(Of course, how well the X1 beats the Wii U is determined by how fast they clock the thing. But it's easy and doable)

Just read that. Wii U's is around 352 GFLOPS, the X1 is around 512 GFLOPS (FP32).
And if the N1 is pascal based, it would be even better.
 
NateDrake: NX's Tegra is Pascal-based, meaning it's more advanced than X1.

https://twitter.com/directfeedgames/status/759072574777196544

Nice!

Just read that. Wii U's is around 352 GFLOPS, the X1 is around 512 GFLOPS (FP32).
And if the N1 is pascal based, it would be even better.

Wii U is 176 GFLOPS. I really wish the big tech websites would have given it another look after all the work we forumites put into analyzing that thing. I still see the higher spec floating around quite a bit and it just messies up discussions.
 
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