Who will provide the NX GPU?

[TheLastStarFighter]

JEMC said:

TheLastStarFighter said:

Yeah, of course, I'm just speculating on the 1+1+3+3 thingy.

I'm not sure if they will do the suplimental device thing, but it does make a tonne of sense if they can do it right.  It would be mostly new for consoles, but PC's use multipe GPUs all the time, and Alienware offers a supplimental GPU for their laptops now.

So, if done right, Nintendo could offer a portable system for the bulk of their customers, the "3DS audience".  They could offer a second SKU that includes the portable and the SCU docking station for home gaming.  Let's just throw out price points of $299 and $399 to start.  The "home" SKU could include the power-boosting docking station and pro-style controller.  This console setup could be appealing to those that want the home Nintendo experience, or the "Wii U" audience.

If you have both the NX and its dock with say an 800 GFLOP GPU unit, that unit alone would be screaching performance for a portable.  Combined 2X, the home unit would be acceptable levels for current consoles.

The goal here from a company perspective, would be that you sell a tonne of the portable NX and get real good 3rd party support and have extensive 1st party support focused on the single system.  SInce a kid can then dock the system to their TV and up performance and play their favorite titles, why bother buying another home console?  This appealing setup could then lead to more third party support, which leads to more sales, which leads to the system being more in demand, and it's a continous positive cycle.

PCs have it, but they need special drivers and they don't scale perfectly. And we're talking about a secondary GPU, because if that powered dock has another Tegra to work in tandem, that's another CPU thrown in the mix...

Also, in your example, if they make two SKUs with the NX and then dock+controller, why can't they make the dock+controller a console by itself? Why does it need the NX? It's a wasted oportunity.

They could and maybe they will.  But the idea here is that the home station isn't all that powerful alone.  It's when combined with the porable that it has significant power.  The portable alone is powerful because it's rendering on a small screen.  On a big screen it might be weak.  But you double the power for home so it can offer the same experience with many more pixels.  One piece of software, two settings, portable and home (docked).