| FunFan said: We are talking about Nintendo here, I think their design is going to be custom. So custom that Neogaf will be spending weeks looking at chips X-rays figuring it out. Point being, the X1 is most probably a place holder for dev kids. Hopefully with the minimun specs nintendo has in mind. Thats my theory. |
I think you are probably going to be sort-of right.
I think the chip will be semi-custom, I.E. Nintendo will take the chip and add a few things it needs/wants rather than drastically overhaul it.
As time goes on it becomes less feasible for platform holders to spend significant time, money and R&D building custom chips in this constantly evolving tech world.
Tegra is a good technological base, even if I do want something more substantual.
| MrCkurab said: Also there is the good possibility of Nintendo using the newer X2 chip as a base for their custom NX-Chip. This would, among other thins, mean the Pascal-Architecture which is much more Power-efficient, and the same Architecture that powers Nvidias newest flagship GPUs, the 1070 and the 1080. |
Pascal should be a good step up, but it still can't be compared to the desktop chips on terms of performance/watt/chip size.
The jump from 28nm to 16nm/14nm should result in 2x-2.5x the performance for the same power consumption if all the architectural things go right, Tegra X1 was built at 20nm not 28nm, so expect 1.5-2x at most, which helps shine a bright light on a Pascal based Tegra over it's predecessors. - Although it should still end up slower than an Xbox One.
And the Xbox One is certainly the ugly duckling of this generation relative to other platforms (PS4 and PC) in terms of graphics.
But we also need to put things into perspective.
The Xbox One released 3 years ago, based on technology released 4 and a half years ago, the NX is likely not to be able to exceed technology that released over half a decade ago by the time it launches. - Is that acceptable? Well, that is up to the individual, for me it's a resounding "no".
The interesting part is how the chip will be fed. If it's any of the current Tegra's it will likely be using slow dual-channel LPDDR4.
If it's the Tegra "X2" it could actually have GDDR5 if rumors of that chip having a GDDR5+LPDDR4 memory controller end up being true, if so, then it could certainly give the Xbox One a good run for it's money... And for some, that's certainly "good enough".
--::{PC Gaming Master Race}::--
