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Forums - Gaming Discussion - 3DS compare to the Wii, so how does the 3DS compare to the Wii?

Kaizar on 25 April 2013
curl-6 said:
Kaizar said:
curl-6 said:
Kaizar said:
curl-6 said:
Kaizar said:
Otakumegane said:
It has better shaders, less poly count.

In terms of pure power, 3DS is weaker. (See DKCR being 30FPS on 3DS and 60 FPS on Wii)


The 3DS has 160 million polygons.

How many triangles could the Wii possibly have?

No offense, but I don't think you know what you are talking about.

You claimed the 3DS had an eight-fold CPU advantage over the Wii, and this 160 million numbers smells like more BS.


GPU @ 300 MHz has 120 million triangles.

GPU @ 200 MHz has 80 million triangles.

Either way, it seems to put the Wii in its place.

The specs say 15 million polygons. Rogue Squadron 3 on the Gamecube, a system weaker than the Wii, pushed 20 million.


15.3 million polygons

@ 100 MHz = 40 million triangles

@ 400 MHz = 160 million triangles

800 million pixel performence

@ 100 MHz = 400 million

@ 400 MHz = 1,600 million

I read the entire specs.

So in addition to having a lower polygon oputput than the Gamecube, which was in turn weaker than the Wii, thhe 3DS's pixel output was only a little higher than the Gamecube. (648 Megapixels)

The Wii GPU was a 50% increase over the Gamecube, putting it comfortably above 3DS in both polygon and pixel output.


Doesn't that mean that the Wii has 40 million triangles?

Well, I know the GPU clock speeds:

Gamecube = 194 MHz

Wii = 243 MHz

3DS = 400 MHz

Plus the Wii looks as small as the 3DS without its disc drive, so I find it hard to believe that the Wii with older Hardware at $250 could have better technology. Why wouldn't Nintendo use better technology in a newer $250 Hardware?



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_crazy_man_ on 25 April 2013

So in essence the 3DS has a weaker GPU (but faster even tho its under-clocked for battery reasons right?) but with more modern tech (like shaders).

How's the CPU stack up?



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Kaizar on 25 April 2013
_crazy_man_ said:

So in essence the 3DS has a weaker GPU (but faster even tho its under-clocked for battery reasons right?) but with more modern tech (like shaders).

How's the CPU stack up?


Well, the GPU is clock at 400 MHz (max clock).

The 4-core CPU (ARM11) is underclock for battery life. Couldn't be further then 350 MHz per core at worse case scenario for its 4-core 1 GHz CPU on Firmware 1.0.0-0

I think the CPU on pre-install firmware is somewhere from 400 MHz to 800 MHz a core.



curl-6 on 25 April 2013
Kaizar said:

Doesn't that mean that the Wii has 40 million triangles?

Well, I know the GPU clock speeds:

Gamecube = 194 MHz

Wii = 243 MHz

3DS = 400 MHz

Plus the Wii looks as small as the 3DS without its disc drive, so I find it hard to believe that the Wii with older Hardware at $250 could have better technology. Why wouldn't Nintendo use better technology in a newer $250 Hardware?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megahertz_myth

Clock speed isn't an accuarate mesaure of comparison between two architecturally disparate processors.

As to how they got more performance out of the Wii's older hardware, it's simple; the Wii is plugged into a power source and has space for air circulation and a fan; the 3DS has to make a small battery last for hours and remain cool in a cramped space with no fan.



Kaizar on 25 April 2013
curl-6 said:
Kaizar said:

Doesn't that mean that the Wii has 40 million triangles?

Well, I know the GPU clock speeds:

Gamecube = 194 MHz

Wii = 243 MHz

3DS = 400 MHz

Plus the Wii looks as small as the 3DS without its disc drive, so I find it hard to believe that the Wii with older Hardware at $250 could have better technology. Why wouldn't Nintendo use better technology in a newer $250 Hardware?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megahertz_myth

Clock speed isn't an accuarate mesaure of comparison between two architecturally disparate processors.

As to how they got more performance out of the Wii's older hardware, it's simple; the Wii is plugged into a power source and has space for air circulation and a fan; the 3DS has to make a small battery last for hours and remain cool in a cramped space with no fan.


The Wii came out in 2006 at $250 to make a profit.

The 3DS came out in 2011 at $250 to make a profit.

The technology would be 32 times greater by 2011, and then you reduce the function for NO fan and 3 hour battery life.

The Tech would still be running greater at a fraction of what it's capable of.



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curl-6 on 25 April 2013
Kaizar said:
curl-6 said:
Kaizar said:

Doesn't that mean that the Wii has 40 million triangles?

Well, I know the GPU clock speeds:

Gamecube = 194 MHz

Wii = 243 MHz

3DS = 400 MHz

Plus the Wii looks as small as the 3DS without its disc drive, so I find it hard to believe that the Wii with older Hardware at $250 could have better technology. Why wouldn't Nintendo use better technology in a newer $250 Hardware?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megahertz_myth

Clock speed isn't an accuarate mesaure of comparison between two architecturally disparate processors.

As to how they got more performance out of the Wii's older hardware, it's simple; the Wii is plugged into a power source and has space for air circulation and a fan; the 3DS has to make a small battery last for hours and remain cool in a cramped space with no fan.


The Wii came out in 2006 at $250 to make a profit.

The 3DS came out in 2011 at $250 to make a profit.

The technology would be 32 times greater by 2011, and then you reduce the function for NO fan and 3 hour battery life.

The Tech would still be running greater at a fraction of what it's capable of.

Where are you getting 32 from? Moore's law? Cos that only brings it to 6 times, which can be negated by size, temperature, and power constraints.

The specs you posted show lower polygon and pixel performance for 3DS. It has newer shader techniques, allowing it to produce effects like normal mapping more effectively than the Wii, but in raw power it's just not as strong. After all, it's a portable, and not one designed to push the limits of raw power like the Vita.



Kaizar on 25 April 2013
curl-6 said:
Kaizar said:
curl-6 said:
Kaizar said:

Doesn't that mean that the Wii has 40 million triangles?

Well, I know the GPU clock speeds:

Gamecube = 194 MHz

Wii = 243 MHz

3DS = 400 MHz

Plus the Wii looks as small as the 3DS without its disc drive, so I find it hard to believe that the Wii with older Hardware at $250 could have better technology. Why wouldn't Nintendo use better technology in a newer $250 Hardware?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megahertz_myth

Clock speed isn't an accuarate mesaure of comparison between two architecturally disparate processors.

As to how they got more performance out of the Wii's older hardware, it's simple; the Wii is plugged into a power source and has space for air circulation and a fan; the 3DS has to make a small battery last for hours and remain cool in a cramped space with no fan.


The Wii came out in 2006 at $250 to make a profit.

The 3DS came out in 2011 at $250 to make a profit.

The technology would be 32 times greater by 2011, and then you reduce the function for NO fan and 3 hour battery life.

The Tech would still be running greater at a fraction of what it's capable of.

Where are you getting 32 from? Moore's law? Cos that only brings it to 6 times, which can be negated by size, temperature, and power constraints.

The specs you posted show lower polygon and pixel performance for 3DS. It has newer shader techniques, allowing it to produce effects like normal mapping more effectively than the Wii, but in raw power it's just not as strong. After all, it's a portable, and not one designed to push the limits of raw power like the Vita.


Well, isn't it 2x2x2x2x2= 32?

Plus the GameCube specs says 6 to 12 million polygons.



RazorDragon on 25 April 2013

3DS is mostly weaker. CPU wise it's not even a contest, only high-clocked Cortex A8 or better ARM CPUs can compete with Wii's PowerPC. GPU wise, 3DS has the edge on shaders thanks to the newer OpenGL ES fixed-function implementations of the GPU, however, it loses in polygon count and texture quality.

A great comparison would be Monster Hunter Tri vs Monster Hunter Tri Ultimate on 3DS. Since both are technically the same game, you can clearly see the compromises 3DS had to make in order to be able to play the game smoothly. Mainly, textures have much lower resolution on 3DS than on Wii and polygon count has been reduced on the background.

3D certainly uses a lot of 3DS's power, though. Disabling it should get the 3DS graphics much more similar to Wii's, since when the 3D isn't being used games can actually use 2x2FSAA without a performance drop.



superchunk on 25 April 2013

You do realize you're comparing a mobile low-power based architecture to a more PC and highly optimized architecture?

Wii is greater than 3DS. DKCR 3D proves it. Just look at the videos. One is clearly better... even if you put 3DS in 2D mode.

3DS is more in-line with the Gamecube.



kljesta64 on 25 April 2013
superchunk said:
You do realize you're comparing a mobile low-power based architecture to a more PC and highly optimized architecture?

Wii is greater than 3DS. DKCR 3D proves it. Just look at the videos. One is clearly better... even if you put 3DS in 2D mode.

3DS is more in-line with the Gamecube.


I dont think a 3DS can produce metroid prime,TP,rogue squadrom like graphics...so no big open areas with details on 3DS but small areas as we see in Luigis mansion are possible..



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