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Soundwave on 11 September 2016
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JEMC said:
Soundwave said:

Or they could just scale up the chip of the Tegra X2 (lets presume) that they're using to be 3x more powerful (768 CUDA cores vs 256 CUDA cores for instance).

Though Nvidia already uses the Tegra X2 is multi-processor configs, that Drive PX2 system uses two Tegra X2's in unison. 

The truth is I don't think even if Nintendo offered this setup that they'd want devs really pushing the console to max ability. What they would want is the games to be made first and foremost for the portable setup, and then developers would be allowed to use the extra grunt to maybe get a home version that's 1080P + 60fps versus say 600P + 30fps on the portable. But the portable model has to be the focus. 

If you do that, you're not customizing a chip, you're making a new one.

The Drive PX 2 uses multiple chips, yes, but they aren't used for gaming. There are some computational tasks that have 100% scaling across different cores and processors, but gaming is not one of them. That's why no console manufacturer uses that configuration for their machines.

Lastly, it's not Nintendo who decides how developers use their machines... at least not unless the give them dev kits that hold them back on purpose. And that's a very, very bad idea.

Or Nintendo could just say the hybrid is the only model and you get nothing else. 

I'd prefer the option of having NX dock or console at some point. Since Nintendo is likely not going to want to spend a ton of money on it, it could be built off the Tegra X1/2. 

Better than nothing. If all it does is make NX games run at 1080P instead of 540-720p ... fine with me. 

Developers/consumers are really not in a position to beg Nintendo for anything here, Nintendo I could see very easily just doing this hybrid setup and enjoy your 600 GFLOP Tegra X/2 for the next 4-5 years. Nintendo doesn't give two fucks. I'd rather have an option for something better for home use if its possible. 

Is an Apple A9X a "new chip" from an Apple A9? I doubt Apple seriously pays double the R&D, they're just two processors from the same family, but the A9X has some significant customizations that make it considerably more powerful (along with a different memory layout). 

Tegra X1/X2 is not bad tech. If you put it into a Wii-sized box with a fan and gave it wall power and told Nvidia engineers to scale it up so that it could consume 45-60 watts of electricity, I'd say that would be one monster of a little chip.