Maybe there is a misconception on what the developers said. I think they are refering to the technical capabilities in an  OpenGL compatibility way. Wii, as Gamecube or PS2, has a fixed function graphics unit, DX7 compatible, while PS3 and X360 have a DX9 compatible graphics chip. Maybe 3DS has a DX9 or better graphics chip, and is much easier to program than the infamous TEV unit, so they can make, at lower resolution due to less bandwidth, less shading and texture units, the same effects you can do in X360 or PS3.

check this MGS video about 3DS graphics, i believe it's better than Wii:

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=111713&page=1&str=1183391122#

it is also a small screen so we don't know if better than the wii

Well, basically those were just rumours. Until we have some hard specs or further proofs the opinion of a quite knowledgeable tech guy who tried the 3DS firsthand is quite different:

Let's get out of the way everything that it isn't. There's absolutely no sign at all of an NVIDIA Tegra GPU in this as previously reported, and clearly the graphics technology is not in the same league. Earlier suggestions that the new console would be in the same visual class as PS3 or Xbox 360 are incorrect.

What we do have is a massively significant increase in rendering power over the existing DS, leap-frogging the PSP and probably offering around the same horsepower as a Dreamcast, maybe in some respects giving PS2-level performance. But from everything I've seen so far there's no sign of the sort of rendering features that you see in iPad or iPhone 3GS, so no evidence of programmable pixel shaders or other state-of-the-art OpenGL ES 2.0 loveliness.

(from the Digital Foundry hands-on)

In the language you suggested, that would be about Direct3D 7, as programmable shaders were introduced in D3D 8. A portable device in the Dreamcast-to-PS2 range still sounds greatly impressive to me, and it actually sounds truer given Nintendo's history of privileging battery life over raw power.

Presentation is what matters to the end users, if people's perception of looking at it results in a state of belief that it looks better than Wii games, then it's subjectively better than the Wii, and it should be, considering that it's lower res and looks great on the medium it's being presented in, and what werekitten said makes some sense about it being able to do some AA because of double rendering, not actual 2x but some to the perception of the human eyes. If you are talking about raw processing power, that thing doesn't use nearly as much electricity, so I wouldn't count on it being actually more powerful, it's the same way with the PSP. Regardless, that MGS demo looks really good, and I saw effects weren't present in the PS2 version. In the end, it's the on screen effects that determines how good a game is percieved to us, that's how DS and PSP games look just fine on the systems but shit on SS or bigger screens, a known and non issue really.

It all depends on price as I left the Handhelds a long time ago but I was considering going back to it and the 3DS looks great. Most of the games are not NEEDS for me but for Resident Evil and Paper Mario as I am a big fan of both of those and I could throw in Animal Crossing as I am a big fan of that too. Also Star Fox looks nice but its a remake so I don't NEED to play it. I don't know at this point if Paper Mario, Resident Evil, and Animal Crossing are enough NEED TO PLAY games for me yet but as I said the price and the 3D will be the ultimate desiders as the 3D can't suck and I refuse to pay big $ for a Handheld.

wtf, this was such a nice thread with a huge beautiful collection of screenshots and movies with a nice discussion about 3DS and look what it has turned into.  How is solid snake not banned yet?  I haven't seen such an obvious case of trolling in a long time.

Makes me wonder the same thing. It's always the same arguments with him trolling Nintendo in a Nintendo thread. Same thing happened last time when we were discussing Wii sales.

Apparently their profits weren't visible to the main body of Sony either no wonder they've been watching SCE like a hawk and pressuring them to make money after losing 3 billion.

Seriously though this needs to stop, facts are facts SCE just didn't beat Nintendo in profits for the GC/PS2 era and it was all due to SCE's business model, it's fact, it's not like Sony has hidden it or lied to everyone to cover up the truth, the charts for the money they made are out there for you to see, this just stops here man, you've derailed the thread enough as it is, people are gonna debate you because you're not proving proof or facts, I know you like to say everyone else started it with you, they didn't because you stated something that was wrong you started it with them by doing so.

Please I don't want to see another reply about this trivial crap, I really don't care if that is the abstract view you have of the world it doesn't reflect reality and people are gonna say something but if you keep derailing this thread even more I'm just gonna say stop posting all together since you obviously can't keep on topic for whatever reason.

Now please, back on topic.

That video of Metal Gear Solid 3D was pretty insane I really want to see direct feed, it would be amazing to see how that looks in a clear video.  I don't think I've been this excited about Metal Gear since playing Twin Snakes for the first time and wanting to play the others.

Also has anyone found footage/pictures of Star Fox 64 3D?  IGN stated that it was in playable form and looked REALLY nice, which I can believe cause the original game has held up over time, with a nice upgrade it could look pretty damn amazing.

BTW IGN also stated the analog stick on the 3DS works really well and feels pretty nice, so no nub cramp I'm guessing lol

LoL, 3DS would have been a bad rip-off if that was the case   : P