Nintendo Discusses Actual 3DS Hardware Specs
Nintendo wanted to provide a mobile gaming platform to meet developers' needs.
Following Wednesday’s Nintendo Conference 2010 press briefing, company CEO Satoru Iwata shared a bit of information about the actual 3DS hardware specs with investors in a Q&A session.
Unfortunately, Iwata still didn’t provide hard statistics. Instead, he briefly covered some of the basics including the device’s internal NAND flash memory. According to the CEO, this will be mainly used by the system itself--Nintendo is providing the 2 GB SD card so that gamers can download and store content. He also added that games stored on the SD card will boot directly from the source rather than first loading into the system’s internal storage (as seen on the Wii)--an interesting feature given Nintendo’s current stance against game piracy.
As for the actual 2 GB capacity, Iwata said that 3DS owners will have varying needs--some of them might not download a plethora of titles. However those who actually run out of space can switch out the current 2 GB SD card for a larger one (like Sony’s PSP handheld platform).
Without giving details, Iwata said that the system hardware was beefed up to provide a specific level of quality when outputting 3D visuals. The updated hardware was also needed for using Augmented Reality technology with the system’s 3D display. An “AR Games” section will be pre-loaded on the 3DS when the device ships next year.
Iwata also said that the company wanted to make sure that developers could create the ideal game and not feel that "because of the specs, we can’t make our game on the Nintendo machine." Nintendo seemingly felt pressure from developers because the hardware limitations of the Nintendo DS prevented features like Tag Mode and the ability to pause the current game in order to access other areas of the system. On the current 3DS model, users can simply hit the HOME button within a game to access the Internet browser or other features.
The Nintendo 3DS is slated for a March 2011 release here in the States. The pricing is expected to be around $250 for the unit, and possibly $34.99 for the games.
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the unit in the pic looks a lot sleeker than the one we have seen thus far!
if it can mangage to beat the psp like dual 333ghz cores sens the 3d will probably take twize the power im willing to accept the 300dollar price. but i need to check out the 3d effects of this game first and also im going for the xl when it comes.
That's just a fanmade pic.
the unit in the pic looks a lot sleeker than the one we have seen thus far!
The Unit in the pic is an original Nintendo DS
The 3DS will have PSP/Wii level graphics. It may be better than those two devices, but not significantly enough for developers to put in the extra effort to make games that really take advantage of it. I fully expect a lot of PSP ports that are "enhanced for 3d" a few months after launch.
Having said that, this will be an awesome handheld.
Not bad, but its still about $50 too much. Get it around $200, or under, and Im sure it will sell like hotcakes.
I would like a Quad-Core Core i7 at 333 mhz with 12 MB cache, Nvidia GeForce 860M 2 GB GDDR1 RAM, 8 GB of RAM, all at 11 nm manufacturing.
Battery must last over 12 hours.
That's just a fanmade pic.
Even worse, its just a photoshopping over the first ds release system
The 3DS will have PSP/Wii level graphics........
It has a 133MHz graphics core. This is clocked lower than the core used in the PS2, although that doesn't say much about performance difference due to the architectures. It will be enough to place it with PSP, sure, but not the Wii. The Wii may be pathetically weak compared to the other current gen consoles, but not THAT weak.
hmmm,honestly i dont really care about the 3D thing
i always prefer better graphics, a stunning visual on handheld
but apparently 3Ds graphice will only be slightly improve that compares to PSP
and a 300 bucks, that will be tough ~
The 3DS will have PSP/Wii level graphics. It may be better than those two devices, but not significantly enough for developers to put in the extra effort to make games that really take advantage of it. I fully expect a lot of PSP ports that are "enhanced for 3d" a few months after launch. Having said that, this will be an awesome handheld.
It has a 133MHz graphics core. This is clocked lower than the core used in the PS2, although that doesn't say much about performance difference due to the architectures. It will be enough to place it with PSP, sure, but not the Wii. The Wii may be pathetically weak compared to the other current gen consoles, but not THAT weak.
What is wrong with you people?
Go watch any video or look at any picture from Snake Eater or Resident Evil on the 3DS. They both severely kick the pants off of anything on the PSP.
Again, we have people focusing more on the "low" sounding hardware specs rather than actually checking it out for themselves.
PSP's visuals aren't that great. From what I've seen the 3DS visuals look quite amazing.
if it can mangage to beat the psp like dual 333ghz cores sens the 3d will probably take twize the power im willing to accept the 300dollar price. but i need to check out the 3d effects of this game first and also im going for the xl when it comes.
333ghz ???
Indeed, specs are nothing because the chipsets are quite different.
You can't compare it to, say, PC's.
Go look at the visuals. In terms of Shaders (self-shadowing, specifically), its light-years beyond the PSP, and significantly beyond the Wii in terms of shaders/lighting. (maybe around the same number of polygons,however).
In short, look at the pictures;
http://www.cubed3.com/news/14545
We already know that the 266/133 figures, which were provided by IGN, were fabricated. Why's this? Because we know their statement on the internal flash is now wrong as well; if user storage is on an included 2GB SD card, then the handheld won't have 1.5 GB (a non-power-of-2 size, note!) of flash memory. Also, a few other things to note:
- The ARM-11 the 3DS uses only comes in speeds of 350-1000+ MHz; ARM doesn't make it as slow as 266 MHz.
- Iwata hinted a lot at "high" specs that are "beefed up" and also implied that the 3DS will have a HIGHER power draw than the DSi. This indicates hungrier chips, which means that, since it moves from 90nm to 65/45nm, it has to be clocked way, way higher to make up for it.
- The PICA200, clock-for-clock, blows almost all CPUs out of the water; it edges past the Xbox's and MAYBE the Wii's, itself only really bested by the Xbox 360's and PS3's. It features hardware T&L, something the PSP (and even the PS2 and Game Cube) lack, among numerous other functions that make it far more potent than the PSP's GPU.
- The ARM11, clock-for-clock, is well beyond the ancient r4000 design the PSP uses, which dates to 1991. I'd probably estimated it to be 2:1, or at worst 1.5:1.
- The PSP's "second" CPU is actually a weak media processor, that only sees full power during video playback. (so the PSP can shut down the main CPU and save battery) In games, it is largely relegated to audio processing.
-The PSP, contrary to Sony's claims, can't even hope to compete with the PS2; even @333 MHz, it's perhaps half as potent. Meanwhile, the 3DS is seen showing one of the most impressive PS2 games, Metal Gear Solid 3, in all its glory; even more glory, really, since it's in 3D.
Overall, a more realistic statement of the clock speeds in the 3DS would be between 400-800 MHz for the CPU, and 200-400 MHz for the GPU; the latter is the entire range that the PICA200 seems to currently be sold in.
Of course, the screenshots speak for themselves, really. I mean, look at Konami's Metal Gear Solid 3D screenshots. Now compare to, say, even Metal Gear Solid 4. And now compare to MGS on the PSP. Note how the 3DS, compared to the PSP, has higher-resolution textures, more detailed hair, use of bump/specular mapping, bloom, and the ability to use a setting that isn't so square and blocky it reminds you of the PS1.
This son of a gun...
Gonna Make me buy a Nintendo 3ds. They put kid icarus in the nintendo 3ds
I bet the guy who married his "Love Plus" girlfriend is getting a 3D woody ...