JEMC said:
So you think the dock is something like a laptop cooler. But the dock is only odd if we start giving it more importance than it has. We've had this conversation before, but the dock can be a simple HUB for NX. You can use it to charge the NX like Wii U's Gamepad stand and, with its detachable controllers (something that I still don't understand, but that's not what this discussion is about), use it to connect the NX to the TV (and Home Cinema or whatever sound system you may use) while playing on the couch. Also, with one or two USB ports you can use it to connect an external HDD to store our digital games. Of course, you can believe in the powered dock theory (just as valid as the other one), but then there are more things to consider. For example, if it has a seond Tegra chip like you believe, I find it hard to believe that Nintendo will bundle both things, NX and dock, together as that would dramatically increase the price for something that many users that only want a new handheld won't use. But if it has indeed a Tegra chip and it is sold separately, why not market it as a home console version of NX? Why not allow users to buy it and use it to play NX games on TV without having to buy the handheld part? You only have to bundle it with a regular controller that can be a rebranded Wii U Pro controller. And of course, let everybody know that if you have both devices, you can use them together to play games at higher resolution (1080p vs starndard 720p) on the TV or in local multiplayer with at least one user playing on the TV and at least another one playing on the handheld.
A fan powered NX would work for a home console/dock, but it's unacceptable for a handheld device. |
The problem with the dock idea just for TV out is it's stupid, because it renders the entire system useless even just as an extra controller because it has to be hooked up to this dock for TV output. Since we have Chromecast and Nintendo spent a lot of money on wireless TV signal transfer, it would make more sense to just beam the signal to the TV and let the user still have use of the NX. Heck even Nvidia has this technology too (wireless in home streaming).
I think something has to be going on with the dock that absolutely makes it neccessary for the system be docked ... the dock functioning as a cooling bay and thus allowing for the chip to run at full clock/full power would certainly be a good reason to have to have a docked setup.
System will run in a lower power state while in handheld mode, naturally. So they could have something that for example operates at 256 CUDA cores in portable mode, but runs at its full 768 CUDA core capacity with full clock when docked.
That's just a guess but I think it makes sense.
