By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Soundwave on 20 March 2015
Edit Thread
Captain_Yuri said:
Soundwave said:
Captain_Yuri said:

Yea, just by that statement, its pretty obvious that you don't know much... The thing with the whole Nvidia Shield is that Nvidia makes all of the parts where as with Nintendo, they have to get the licenses in order to use those parts in their systems and pay a royalty... Nvidia shield doesn't need a royalty or anything because Nvidia makes everything... And not to mention that it doesn't need a screen and etc

And yes but while it won't have the screen and etc, it won't be able to have 3 times the power or triple the chip because its not that cost effective

And heres the thing... Developers have to put extra amount of effort to make sure that PCs are capable of doing that and the reasons PCs are capable of doing that is because they have a wide range of specs. It won't be a fixed scale when it comes to the NX because while the hardware itself is the same, that doesn't mean all games will have the same res because its game dependent.. You can't expect the same res from a game like xenoblade to a game like Smash Bros

Just exactly how do you expect... A console that is weaker than the x1... To do 1080p... When the x1 can't even do 1080p...? And how do you expect it to do 1080p with 16 watts of power...?

Dude relax for starters. Take a deep breath. Nintendo won't be using Nvidia obviously, I'm just using them as an example of what modern mobile SoCs can do right now (let alone where they'll be at in 2 years time). Wii U level graphics on a mobile processor in even a low cost $200 price point is possible *today*. That's all I'm saying. Nintendo will like work with their traditional vendor partners in ARM and AMD, but they should be able to get a chip similar/even better especially if we're talking a spring 2017 launch for the handheld variant or so. 

16 watts I'm getting from the NX SOC being about 5 watts for a single SOC. That's about the top end power envelop you can have for a chip and still put it into a mobile form factor and have decent battery life. So if Nintendo has a SOC of about 5 watts, lets say, putting 3 of those into a box gets you 15 watts or so. 

Again I don't think Nintendo really cares about matching the X1, for their OWN games, that would be enough to hit 1080p though I would think most of the time. The other issue that the X1 has is its eSRAM buffer at 32MB isn't big enough to do 1080p easily I think. Who knows. Nintendo could have something like 48MB or 64MB of eDRAM for their home NX version, that makes 1080p a helluva lot easier. 

The A8x Apple processor drives a display that's 2028x1536 resolution (iPad Air 2) ... that's far higher than 1080p. Put three of those A8 SOCs into a console like box and you would have a pretty damn powerful console even right now and that would only consume about 15 watts of electricity. Give it some eDRAM and it would outperform a Wii U. By 2017 Nintendo will be able to get themselves a SoC far better than the A8x (it will be ancient by then). 

Well, you are saying it but you aren't providing any proof as to how they can do it... If the lastest and greatest $200 micro console made by Nvidia that requires no royalties sells for $200... How on earth do you expect a royalty based method to match similar performance even if its Amd/Arm...? Yes, they will be cheaper than Nvidia but they won't be so cheap that they can provide a wiiU like power so efficiently for that low of a price... And the NX is set to launch either late 2016 or early 2017 and be shown sometime in 2016 which means that the hardware designs have been finalized a long time ago

How do you expect a 5 watt SoC to deliver the same performance as the wiiU while being cheaper than $200?

You do realize that putting eDRAM or eSRAM increases the cost of the console significantly right? Fast memory like that will crease the cost of the console by a lot hence why the ps4 can do it easily with being similarly priced as the X1... Edram/Esram is a bad idea... And even with their own games, it won't be enough to hit 1080p and not to mention, trying to optomize games to hit 1080p which = increased development time from games which = money that they won't be making back beause according to your concept, they will be giving 2 for the price of 1... And as I have said why the console will flop due to bad press and etc

Yes, the Apple A8x process drivers displays at that resolution but that doesn't mean anything. My family computer's integrated intel video card is capable of displaying at 4k but as soon as you play games, it will shit its pants... Most games on mobile upscale like crazy but since the screens are so tiny, its not very noticable at all where as if you upscale on a big screen like a TV, it is very noticable... And having more eDRAM doesn't actually make it out perform anything and eDRAM can also be a bottleneck for many things as experienced by the x1... They need GDDR5 ram which should be freakishly cheap at this point since GPU ram is going to HBM and if they can do that, it will run at 1080p perfectly fine but again, both ways, its not going to happen at that price point

This is the $199.99 Nvidia Shield mini-console running native games. IMO these graphics match maybe even exceed what the Wii U does today using a mobile chip for $199.99 (3GB of RAM), these are games that have only have a few months of optimization too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE0Q06q4V6A

eDRAM adds to cost, but little known fact ... even the little ol' New 3DS has 10MB of eDRAM (the original 3DS has 6MB of eDRAM, New 3DS bumps it up to 10MB). So it's not impossible to have eDRAM in a portable. Nintendo's already been doing it for years. 

Though that may be why they are waiting a little longer until 2017 perhaps. Maybe they are waiting for something like the 14nm manufacturing process to mature or for stackable RAM or something. Just a theory though. 

My point remains though three A8xs in a box + some eDRAM would outperform a Wii U today. I don't have much doubt about that either. And in two years time Nintendo should be able to quite easily get a mobile SOC better than the A8x. 

My understanding is Nintendo loathes high latency RAM too, so GDDR5 probably would never be something they'd willingly choose anyway. They like low latency RAM with a fast eDRAM buffer, that's basically been their MO since the GameCube era.