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JustBeingReal on 01 February 2016
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Soundwave said:

I feel like we've had this same discussion before, but if Nintendo can get a 500 GFLOP range portable at a reasonable price (and I think this is doable) ... they should go for it.

That's their best ticket for success in the coming generation, if they have a powerful portable it will see a lot of developer support from the get go.

The console/dock/companion/whatever other version can then just be your basic PS4+ in horsepower and they both share games, that's probably their best bet this generation. I would probably suggest a few other things but roughly I think unless they have a *miracle* controller again that they have actually product tested with real/normal people and it's blowing people's socks off ... then sure build a system around the controller. But if you don't have that, then a unified platform with a strong portable that takes advantage of the radical leaps in modern portable tech would be it.

If AMD can give Nintendo a portable chip comparable to an Apple A9X or Tegra X1, the A9X is dead even with a Nvidia 730M, and the 730M while nothing special can run PS4/XB1 only games like The Witcher III and Assassin's Creed Unity even at 720p reasonably well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJQTFk6wo0U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7o4l1NEoxs

Nintendo could bring that down even to 960x540 to make it even easier to run if need be, but the above games really aren't even optimized for this specific processor and they still look playable enough at 720p. 

500GFlops is not needed at all, just baring in mind what PS4 can do at 1840GFlops, games like Uncharted 4 and Horizon Zero Dawn at 1080p 30FPS, now bare in mind that going down to 640X480 drops the GPU requirements to 273GFlops, that means nearly half the power requirements of your 500GFlop handheld.

Using Polaris as a base a 273GFlop GPU needs 8.75 Watts, a 500GFlop one needs 16.02 watts, so there's a huge difference. Nintendo aren't making a tablet the size of iPAD Pro or a netbook, it's doubtful they'll even make something the size of Wii U's gamepad. More likely around the same size as 3DSXL for the initial unit or Vita. Going 500GFlop also adds costs to the CPU, which is needed to drive that GPU, more silicon for both that and the GPU, more RAM, along with a more powerful battery and the case also needs to be bigger.

273GFlops on the handheld is ample to run PS4 level games at 480p resolution and the sheer jump in handheld visuals would be enormous compared to 3DS and Vita. IQ even at that resolution would be awesome, because of the DPI of a small screen.