By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Kaizar on 04 February 2013
Edit Thread
ebw said:
Kaizar said:

Well, it depends on the functionalities, the 3DS has a refresh rate of 180 (60 fps per image) and does stereoscopic 3D while maintaining 60 fps per image with one additional image because of 3D and it allows you to adjust the volume of 3D at anytime on the fly while it downloads firmware updates in the background as well as downloading other stuff in the background like over 300 MB of 3D Videos and doing StreetPass while taking input from touch screen and doing 6 speaker sound thru the earphone jack and Virtual Surround Sound thru Speakerphones while consuming less then 60 Hz of power.

That's kind of silly.  The refresh rate is 60 Hz (psst, Hz is not a unit of power), across three screens, not 180 Hz.  The Vita's single screen has almost twice the number of pixels to render as all three combined.  But basically all you're saying is that there's an OS running behind the scenes, and adjustments to the OS can have an effect on battery life.  This makes sense.

It's useful to keep in mind that a modern processor is not a light bulb: its power consumption depends a lot on what it's doing at any given moment.  Processors have various different execution units that can be switched off when not specifically needed as a power-saving strategy.  My previous laptop even allowed software "undervolting", which is like the converse of overclocking: instead of running the CPU faster at the same voltage, you run the CPU at the same speed but lower voltage.  This reduces power drain with absolutely no slowdown whatsoever.  Of course, lower signal voltage means higher chance of error, so you run the risk of crashing if you push it too far, just like overclocking.

Thanks for helping me understand you guys.

And appearatly PS Vita users have been notching a 30 minutes longer life for gaming. But the 3DS does have a 1 year head start with 1 hour extra.

I just love this awesomeness, I mean it's one thing to increase performence & efficiency and/or whatever, but the Battery Life increase took me by surprise because of how I conserve more battery in sleep mode for all my mobile electronics, so it's more noticible when you do what I do for Sleep Mode:

I turn the 3D & Volume OFF and the brightness all the way down and the power save mode ON before closing my 3DS, but then I turn everything on and all the way up when I open my 3DS to use.