This is a spin-off from the thread RE max out 3DS.  Given the information available, UMD vs 3DS carts, RAM 32/64MB(psp) vs 128MB(3DS), dual-core ARM11(3DS) vs single-core R4000(PSP) how much more powerful is the 3DS compared to the PSP?  I know many games already show the increase in quality for the 3DS compared to the PSP, but does it warrant being 2x as powerful or just a meager 50% boost?  Just want to know what the general consensus is, I however find it silly that people will still complain about the 3DS's power since it is technically a portable GCN or Wii in capability.

source to find info:

http://www.hardcoreware.net/nintendo-3ds-specs-comparison/

http://www.3dsbuzz.com/3ds-forum/threads/nintendo-3ds-cpu-processor-wth.1473/

http://3dbrew.org/wiki/Hardware

So 3DS is as powerful as the GC basically.. meaning it's a lot more powerful than the psp.. but way weaker than the vita which approaches 360 capabilities

I would say that the 3DS is a good deal more powerful than the PSP, while the PSVita is not as much more powerful than the 3DS as people would like. It's not the same difference between Wii and PS3/360. However, the difference is still obvious as day and night, it's just not quite that because the 3DS is actually more powerful than the Wii while the Vita is less powerful than the PS3. There are videos that can confirm these observations.

I believe 3DS actually has more raw power than Wii, but since some of that power is reserved for displaying everything in 3D, graphically it winds up being "apparently" a bit more powerful than GameCube (in 2D of course). Even without the 3D, it's clearly more significantly more powerful than the PSP.

@OT, If you're talking about raw power, you're going from something less powerful than the PS2 to something more powerful than the Wii. If it's apparent 2D graphical capabilities we're comparing, uh, I don't really know. I'm guessing the PSP was comparable to the Dreamcast in graphical capabilities, while the 3DS is comparable to the XBox, but I don't know how resolutions factor into that. If you blew up PSP or 3DS onto a tv screen they would both look horrible, I think.

as long as there are good games it could be a gameboy for all I care haha.

Your belief is incorrect. The 3DS hardly matches the GC in raw power. You can compare the game easily for that.

No one even caim close to pushing the maximums on the Wii because there wasn't a single Wii game that exceeded the Rogue Squadron games achievement on the GC even though the Wii was more powerful.

It would be more accurate to place the 3DS around the power of the Xbox1 in real world performance.

Looking at the specs I thought it could be like an overclocked PSP, but then games like Resident Evil shows us that it is, VISUALLY, kind of a stop gap between PS2 and PS3 era.

I consider PSvita to be a portable x360, less capable yes, but as with the 3DS, rendering pixels on a small screen can fool you into thinking the game is better looking than it actually is. 3DS beneficts from this even more with glassesless 3D.

Although both 3DS and Vita can share a good chunk of game engines, which wasn't the case with DS and PSP.

Also, because 3DS is settling itself as the king of portables, I expect the Vita to get many up ports, not pushing the hardware. Big graphical powerhouses for the Vita will be rare, and mostly from 1st party studios.

I've seen enough comparison videos of the best graphics games on those systems, PLUS a multi-platform game for 3DS and Wii to confidently say that the 3DS is more capable than both the Wii and Gamecube.

I think the 3DS, given the dual-core nature and better GPU capabilities of the PICA200 is about 50% more powerful than the GCN in terms of RAW polygon/pixel fill-rate etc and has slightly better texture and shaders than the Wii despite not being quite as strong. It definitely is 2x the power of the PSP, though not as good as the Vita.

I'm with lilbroex on this, 3DS games show significantly lower polygon counts and texture resolutions compared to the Gamecube and Wii. 

Yes, it can handle shaders more effectively, and on a smaller screen it doesn't matter as much, but blow up two equivalent screens to the same size and the 3DS looks jagged and muddy compared to high quality Wii and GC games.