| JustBeingReal said: Iwata said in his 2013 briefing that the next system after Wii U would absorb it's architecture, IMO this can only mean that NX will use AMD technology. Eurogamer has been wrong about final Nintendo device hardware with the DS2, which they insisted was using an Nvidia GPU, but it ended up being nothing more than a placeholder for the 3DS's final processor. The rumors about Nvidia don't make much sense, given that NVidia have outright stated that they are interested in the Self Drive and AI markets, but not the mobile gaming market outside of their GTX 1000 series GPU products being used in gaming laptops. Nvidia hasn't said anything about making or stockpiling a bunch of Tegra X1 processors for some unreleased product or any other device, which would need chips in the millions for the release of a new device in 2017. The rumors insist that Nintendo got some ridiculous at cost or loss making deal from NVidia, when companies want to make money, not make a loss on a product. Nintendo would be the one in need here, not Nvidia, so it makes no sense for Nvidia to be begging for a foot in the door of dedicated gaming market. NVidia has great relationships with 3rd party developers, they could just as easily release a successor to their last shield devices and get some exclusives for those devices to push them into the dedicated gaming space, but that hasn't happened, most likely they don't feel the market is worth it, given their own sales on tablets and other devices it makes little sense for them to really care about the market when they have bigger fish to fry, like expanding the gaming laptop market. AMD have been a partner with Nintendo, providing them with their hardware for a number of console generations, it's been proven that IBM PowerPC CPU tech can be emulated on something as weak as an AMD Jaguar CPU and there would be basically no need for emulation of the Wii U GPU going to Polaris or some older GPU architecture from AMD. 14nm Finfet will be significantly more efficient than what was in the Wii U. It's only Tegra X1 that's been rumored to be in these supposed NX Dev Kits, sure it's overclocked, but that doesn't rule out an AMD 14nm Arm processor being used in the final system. AMD would likely be more cost competitive, they have more experience in the console gaming market, even Zen could be used in a console if NX has a more fixed home device, it could just be used on an MCM like Wii U's processor layout was. AMD provides the technology for the competition, which developers appear to have been pretty happy with. Overall there seems to be a lot pointing to AMD, sure Nvidia's tech is more powerful, efficient, but there's nothing official pointing to NVidia being interested or even having any actual ties to the dedicated gaming device market. As far as I've seen there's no hint that any of the media have their own unique sources confirming Nvidia as the final SOC maker, they all seem to come from the same source. AMD has confirmed they have a bunch of design wins for the semi-custom market, which basically confirms a dedicated gaming product or products that are yet to be announced are being developed by them. NVidia would need to have confirmed any major business deals with such a company as Nintendo to their investors as this will effect their stock price, to not do so is holding back vital information that shareholders need to know and that isn't good business, NVidia doesn't like ticking off their shareholders. Eurogamer, WSJ, etc are just posting rumors, they're not legit, they've certainly been wrong about this stuff and in order to buy their rumors you have to ignore Occam's Razor. The simplest answer is the most likely, Iwata said the next Nintendo system would absorb Wii U architecture, Nintendo has a great relationship with AMD, they've used them for years, in multiple platforms and their modern tech also brings the necessary efficiency levels to put at least Wii U levels of performance into a handheld, if not more than that for a portable device. Nintendo also doesn't bank on the most powerful tech per watt, even when their console requires low power. Nintendo likes cheap technology. Using Nvidia actually goes against all of this. AMD makes a lot more sense for Nintendo. |
Iwata that said in January 2013, more than 3 and half years late lots a thing changed, same goes for some Nintendo plans.
Eurogamer reported that 3DS using Nvidia dev kits, and they were right, 3DS rely early used Nvidia kits, but Nintendo ditch them because they did not deliver promised. Huge difference is that Eurogamer have that info for 3DS 16 months before launch, for NX they gave infos 7 months before launch, huge difference.
Nvidia can't comment anything about NX chip if they are under strong Nintendo NDA, and we already know that NX NDA is very strong, we are 6 months before launch and nothing is confirmed expert march release date.
Only one rumors saying that Nvidia gave good offer to Nintendo. Nvidia most likely want to be on console market again and to have platform that will market their Tegra chip, I dont see what exactly here is hard to believe.
Actually rumours is that Nvidia canceled new K1 Tegra Shield because of Nintendo NX.
Fact that AMD was partner doesn't mean nothing if Nvidia has better mobile chips and better deal for Nintendo.
Maybe, but most likely Nintendo is using whole Tegra X1 chip with ARM cpu cores.
Nvidia has much better and suitable mobile chips than AMD, basically X1 or new X2 can be in handheld and can be used for hybrid concept for playing on TV. Like I wrote, it not hard to imagine that Nvidia offer good deal to Nintendo.
Actually nothing goes in favour of AMD, only thing you can say is that AND anuched design wins and nothing more, we dont have one single information pointing that AMD will be in NX. On other hand we have infos from multiply sources and sites stating NX using NVidia.
Eurogamer and WSJ and some other posting infos they heard from their own sources, and when post informations like that they are very confident about infos they posting, they don't posting every random rumour they hear, thats why they are considered for reliable sources.
Also Nintendo is changing, they are going on big internal and external changes at Nintendo, so saying what Nintendo loves or not do, in this case is very weak argument.
