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Forums - Nintendo - Emily Rogers: NX Below XB1/PS4 In Power; Battery Life Is Not Great

se7en7thre3 on 02 September 2016

with so much smoke there has to be fire, right?

I get that the console market is "flooded" by M$ony, but a battery powered console.... lol...this thing will have horrible battery life, so really, Nintendo's being "different" just for the sake of it. If these rumors are true, its a big shame, especially with the timing of cheaper yet decent tech from AMD. I'm guessing the true portable NX will succeed 3DS in 2018, ie pocket NX or some shizz.

on the brighter side, I already enjoy off tv Wii U gameplay, so across the board this will be a definite upgrade.



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Soundwave on 02 September 2016
bigtakilla said:
Soundwave said:

Could still be a reasonable upgrade on a Wii U ... if it can match say a Nvidia 830M (laptop GPU) from 2014 that would be ok I guess. That can even run games like Batman Arkham Knight and The Witcher 3 at 720p. My worry is Nintendo will needlessly gimp the chip. 

But how well could it run them,  especially if third parties are phoning it in? If the frame rate is garbage or the textures and other effects have to be turned down is it even worth It? And how long would a game that's pushing the system last in portable mode?

Seems like a modern day Wii to me from a hardware perspective.

This is an 830M running Batman: Arkham Knight (keep in mind this is a PS4/XB1 only console game) ... it's not bad to be honest. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQxNpEaCsiw

If Nintendo can get that fidelity in a portable for even 3 hours on the road, even if you reduce the resolution a bit further to 1024x600 ... I'd be pretty happy with that. 

And I think the Tegra X2 should be capable of that, my worry is Nintendo will gimp the chip and cheap out on the battery. 



JRPGfan on 02 September 2016
malistix1985 said:
Soundwave said:

I'm more concerned about the chip to be honest, I think Nintendo might throttle/down clock the chip because they feel something like "double the Wii U is good enough". 

In all Honesty, since the Wii, I am just always concerned with Nintendo, I love (most) of their games, but the hardware... I wish things where different there and I agree with you I am also worried about the chip , If its portable and a bit slower then the current gen consoles, thats ok, if its quite a bit slower..... with a 720P display, on my 4k tv..... I don't know lol

I meen even tough its a Hybrid (rumoured) the chances it will leave my TV's side a lot is slim, especially if a tablet or phone is better on browsing and stuff, so it might just end up being a underpowered console xD, I guess I would just keep my Wii-U and play zelda on that

Imagine what Nintendo could do if they had Sonys hardware people design a console for them.

And all nintendo had to do was make the software for it.

Or even if they just had a few people like Mark Cerny... to guide them.

I feel the same, that somehow they always make weird hardware choices.



Soundwave on 02 September 2016
JRPGfan said:
malistix1985 said:

In all Honesty, since the Wii, I am just always concerned with Nintendo, I love (most) of their games, but the hardware... I wish things where different there and I agree with you I am also worried about the chip , If its portable and a bit slower then the current gen consoles, thats ok, if its quite a bit slower..... with a 720P display, on my 4k tv..... I don't know lol

I meen even tough its a Hybrid (rumoured) the chances it will leave my TV's side a lot is slim, especially if a tablet or phone is better on browsing and stuff, so it might just end up being a underpowered console xD, I guess I would just keep my Wii-U and play zelda on that

Imagine what Nintendo could do if they had Sonys hardware people design a console for them.

And all nintendo had to do was make the software for it.

Or even if they just had a few people like Mark Cerny... to guide them.

I feel the same, that somehow they always make weird hardware choices.

They all use the same vendors (well they did with AMD). It's a matter of design principals ... Nintendo is not interested in cutting edge tech, but they've made better systems than Sony before. The N64 was better than the Playstation (just gimped by cartridges), the GameCube was better than the PS2. 

All of Nintendo/Sony/MS get access to the same technology. 



LurkerJ on 02 September 2016

Glad they opted for the 720p resolution. I expected this because it's just better for battery life. 

They couldn't have relied on passive cooling on a device that's dedicated to gaming, it will throttle a lot and you will not get consistent sustained performance.


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Soundwave on 02 September 2016
LurkerJ said:

Glad they opted for the 720p resolution. I expected this because it's just better for battery life. 

They couldn't have relied on passive cooling on a device that's dedicated to gaming, it will throttle a lot and you will not get consistent sustained performance.

It will be really interesting to see if the final version has an active fan or not. The rumor is the Tegra X2 sucks less power so they'll just swap out the X1 and remove the fan. But I'm still not sure if they'd have to throttle. I'd be OK with a fan if it means the chip can run at max power. 



malistix1985 on 02 September 2016
JRPGfan said:

Imagine what Nintendo could do if they had Sonys hardware people design a console for them.

And all nintendo had to do was make the software for it.

Or even if they just had a few people like Mark Cerny... to guide them.

I feel the same, that somehow they always make weird hardware choices.

Yeah totally, well ofcource they did have the Gamecube, which was a simulair design of power and capability, but they did the thing with the strange small discs and DVD players where all the hype and the Xbox had the better online and "hardcore" support.

If they pulled everything togheter, listened to their fans, they could make a great console and if they put some effort in working with studios- third parties and indy developers, Nintendo could and should be the best, they have the best first party if they can get the rest onboard they have the best cards.

However we flip it, the NX doesn't seem to be that, once again they don't listen to fans but they are making something innovative that they like and want to sell, which can work out, but so far I am not sold.... and everything that leaks as "rumours" is making me scared, and if these rumours are true, I jumped shit, I won't support this.




Twitter @CyberMalistix

Xxain on 02 September 2016
Soundwave said:
malistix1985 said:

I agree its "fine" but a console that needs to on the market for many years you want to go with a display that is great!, maybe just my opinion

I'm more concerned about the chip to be honest, I think Nintendo might throttle/down clock the chip because they feel something like "double the Wii U is good enough". 

It is good enough. All Nintendo should be worried about is designing a console that can play popular video game series with limited or no modifications. 



LurkerJ on 02 September 2016
Soundwave said:
LurkerJ said:

Glad they opted for the 720p resolution. I expected this because it's just better for battery life. 

They couldn't have relied on passive cooling on a device that's dedicated to gaming, it will throttle a lot and you will not get consistent sustained performance.

It will be really interesting to see if the final version has an active fan or not. The rumor is the Tegra X2 sucks less power so they'll just swap out the X1 and remove the fan. But I'm still not sure if they'd have to throttle. I'd be OK with a fan if it means the chip can run at max power. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igoW7FFhJG8

Most mobile chips don't do well if you push them for too long. All these benchmarks mean jack if the chip can't sustain operations at max power, and this is a protable, imagine being out on a warm day and your games are running slowly because the device has built up too much heat. 

X2 may draw less power but actively cooling it would be the wiser choice, it's gonna be less noisy for sure and a revised NX with 10nm chips will be the one to get if noise is too much of an issue. 



Soundwave on 02 September 2016
LurkerJ said:
Soundwave said:

It will be really interesting to see if the final version has an active fan or not. The rumor is the Tegra X2 sucks less power so they'll just swap out the X1 and remove the fan. But I'm still not sure if they'd have to throttle. I'd be OK with a fan if it means the chip can run at max power. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igoW7FFhJG8

Most mobile chips don't do well if you push them for too long. All these benchmarks mean jack if the chip can't sustain operations at max power, and this is a protable, imagine being out on a warm day and your games are running slowly because the device has built up too much heat. 

X2 may draw less power but actively cooling it would be the wiser choice, it's gonna be less noisy for sure and a revised NX with 10nm chips will be the one to get if noise is too much of an issue. 

I'm ok with a fan for performance sake. Doesn't a fan eat further battery though?