Nintendo announce: Nintendo NX

[Shifty Geezer]

Because the games would look better. You'd have Quantum Break style visuals instead of Zombie U style visuals. People are happy to watch films on their 5" devices, so there's just as much need for pushing graphics towards photorealism on small screens as there is large screens.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

There's no way the handheld will be any more powerful than WiiU imo. And that'd be plenty for a handheld.

So what you're saying is this handheld should be less powerfull than Tegra K1, a tablet SoC that will be over 2 years-old when the NX is released.

Why would you need XB1 level graphics on a 5" screen?! Seems like a waste to me.

"Why would you need Y-level graphics on an X gaming device" is an expression I'll never understand.
Do people stop appreciating high-quality shadows and ambient occlusion, absence of aliasing, high-polygon count geometry, etc. beneath a 15" screen or something?

 

[TheLump]

Because the games would look better. You'd have Quantum Break style visuals instead of Zombie U style visuals. People are happy to watch films on their 5" devices, so there's just as much need for pushing graphics towards photorealism on small screens as there is large screens.

I just don't see the benefit outweighing the cost/battery life problems. I'm thinking from a product design perspective here. Obviously in an ideal world I'd have PS4 level graphics on my smart watch if I could

So what you're saying is this handheld should be less powerfull than Tegra K1, a tablet SoC that will be over 2 years-old when the NX is released.

No. I'm saying it will be. Not that it should be.

"Why would you need Y-level graphics on an X gaming device" is an expression I'll never understand.
Do people stop appreciating high-quality shadows and ambient occlusion, absence of aliasing, high-polygon count geometry, etc. beneath a 15" screen or something?

Big difference between a 15" screen and a 5" screen first of all
But thats besides my point; Again, I'm talking from a product design perspective here, not personally (sorry, not exactly clear from my post). Will enough people see a real difference between what they can already see at the top end of iOS games and an XOne level game squashed down onto a 5" screen. Is there enough of a difference there for the average consumer to warrant forking out for new hardware? I'm not sure there is.

Kind of reminds me of the similar debate about whether it's worth having UHD/4K resolutions on monitors smaller than a certain size*. Technically, there is a big difference, (and for graphic designers/photographers/visual artists of course there is) but for everyday use is it worth it?

*Yeah I know resolution isn't the same debate. I just meant the shape of the debate is similar.

 

[AlNom]

Because the games would look better. You'd have Quantum Break style visuals instead of Zombie U style visuals.

Only if the budget permitted such for mobile/handheld developers.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

XB portable playing XB1/Windows10 games?

 

[Deleted member 13524]

No. I'm saying it will be. Not that it should be.

Then they will have learned nothing, because there's no way a console with the power of Wii U - handheld or otherwise - will ever get cross-platform 3rd-party titles from the Xbone and/or PS4.

 

[jason90]

With the rumours of NX being around the same power as an Xbone, I can imagine the battery life for such a device is going to be absolutely dire, unless of course there is a cut down version of the hardware in the base device present in the handheld portion of the console designed for running the same game at a lower res, say 720p instead of 1080p.

THIS can be the only logical solution for a truly hybrid system.

Like someone said a few messages before you,there is 0% chance that Nintendo has been able to put Xbox one levels of performance in something that can fit in your pocket,IMPOSSIBLE.

Whilst the rumors of having a single device that you can plug a dongle into any tv or monitor and stream from is an amazing idea ,the tech just doesn't exist to deliver X1/PS4 types of games in that format atm.

Nintendo is going to have to, in addition to a portable unit, have a base to pump out 900p/1080p to the main tv and the portable is going to have to use a screen similar the the Ps vita's i.e 960x544, which is around 0.5 million pixels.If the NX base station ends up being on par with the Xbox one at around 1.31TFLOPS then the portable unit,with a screen resolution 1/4 that of 1080p, will at minimum need to pump out about 330GFLOPS.

Given that the snapdragon 820 according to http://kyokojap.myweb.hinet.net/gpu_gflops/ can pump out around 400Gflops THIS IS THE ONLY POSSIBLE SCENARIO Nintendo can make work,that is,if the handheld and home console are suppose to play the same games.

Here are my predicted specs for such a console/mobile combo:

Handheld:
14nm lpp Soc
4 Puma+ cores at 1.0-1.6 Ghz
6gb 64-bit LPDDR4X 3200-4266mhz (25.6-32gb/s)
384 (6 CN) GCN Polaris SP's running at around 400-450mhz
Single 4.5-5" LCD running at qHD (950x540/544)

Console Base:
14nm lpp Soc
8 Puma+ cores @ 1.6ghz
8gb 192-bit LPDDR4X 3200-4266mhz (76.8-96gb/s) - Given that GCN Polaris also has Memory Compression that isn't present in XONE/PS4's GCN 1.0,Nintendo can save anywhere 40-45% bandwidth,thus negating the need for Xbox one's ESRAM.
768 (12 CU) GCN Polaris SP's @ 800-900mhz
HDD NOT STANDARD - Reason being Game carts have near instant seek times and would load games alot faster than the slow xbox one hdd drive anyway,NO ANNOYING GAME INSTALLS HALLELUJAH! Obviously Nintendo will support HDD probably much the same way the Wii u currently does for people with large digital libraries.

I've given the handheld less ram as i would not expect it to have all of the features and multitasking abilities that the Base will need,thus it's os will have significantly less reserved ram,1gb vs 3gb for the base as an example.

Both Consoles will need to be able to access the same Game cartridges for the whole idea of playing at home and taking your game on the move to work,i'd guess that the majority of games will ship on 16-32gb carts with the odd exception shipping on 64gb carts.

If what i predict comes true then Nintendo will have too either have 2 sets of art assets on each cartridge to cater for both systems or when you insert the game cartridge into the handheld unit,a string of code will trigger the mobile mode and the same assets will compress for the qHD screen.

As someone who is predominately a portable gamer I'm more excited over this concept than of anything that has happened in the gaming space thus far,true current AAA title portability,the Vita kinda tried to do this with it's ps4 game streaming over the net,but in reality when you leave your home it fails miserably and even in the home depending on your network setup it can often provide a sub optimal experience.

The only caveat i see with my prediction are games that will run on the base unit at 900p,they will either have to display at a sub-native resolution on the handheld (like some Graphically intense Vita games do A.K.A Uncharted) or suffer some fidelity and/or framerates,unless Nintendo got early access to Samsungs 10nm Tech,in which case the NX handheld could run a good 30% faster and have no problem with such titles,a stretch but possible,but hey it will still be by far the most capable mobile gaming device native or sub native resolution

The Only Major ??? about all this is that what if someone downloads a game to the NX's Base unit HDD or Sd card,or someone else buys and downloads a title onto his NX handheld unit's SD card,they need to make it easy to transfer and move games between both systems for those who won't but physical cartridges.

Would love to hear people's comments on this,i think I've thought this out pretty well through XD

 

[Globalisateur]

@jason90 A home console designed to output 900p is DOA.

 

[Rodéric]

@jason90 A home console designed to output 900p is DOA.

You mean like current gen consoles ? ;p
1080p or bust !

 

[AlNom]

You mean like current gen consoles ? ;p
1080p or bust !

DOA has it all.

 

[Globalisateur]

You mean like current gen consoles ? ;p
1080p or bust !

Those were released in 2013 (and one of them at least is designed for 1080p30fps gaming, the other has much less success). But we are talking about a 2016 / 2017 release date here.

 

[Rangers]

If you click my sig even the Xbox has over 50% 1080P games...and ratio would be much high if you included all the indies and stuff I assume. It's fair to say Xbox can at least dabble in 1080P which helps it. Though then again, not sure how you could "design" a console for 900P, if it can do 900 then on some games it can stretch to 1080.

We're talking about such weak GPU's as is in current gen, no excuse not to have at least 2.5 teraflops IMO (bottom barrel cheapo PC card). Unless the whole mobile/hybrid thing nerfs it, that I could understand.

Never happen but I'd love the next Nintendo console to maybe have specs like the Nvidia shield (~1TF, 3GB RAM), be uber cheap ($149) and have a heavy retro focus, while still getting new Mario/Zelda titles in nice 3D graphics. Then again Shield isn't cheap and 1TF would be just powerful enough to not handle decent current gen ports, so my own idea is probably terrible.

But yeah that's been my liking for a Nintendo console for a while. Heavy retro focus (sell old SNES games for $5 and so on) with occasional tentpole Nintendo Triple A games at a high presentation level. Solid, clean chipset that packs a punch (but presumably not up to current gen standards), very cheap (realistically 199 is probably the lowest possible). Traditional controls. See how that sells. I'd buy one.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

HDD NOT STANDARD

This would close the door to DLCs, which are very, very profitable to 3rd party developers.

 

[rokkerkory]

NX better be on par gfx wise as the PS4

 

[Shifty Geezer]

This would close the door to DLCs, which are very, very profitable to 3rd party developers.

Support external storage and SD cards and the like. Moves the cost to the user and makes the console 'cheaper'.

 

[Karamazov]

tegra console is 512gflops @FP32, 1TF is @FP16, so still far from xbox one and ps4

 

[jason90]

@jason90 A home console designed to output 900p is DOA.

Rumors point the console being comparable with the xbox one,so games will be mixed between 1080p and 900p,plus the difference between the two isn't that great unlike 720p vs 1080p.

Nintendo are probably trying to get away with a cheap as possibpe base that 3rd parties can easily port over xbox/ps4 titles,but having a small and highly efficent Base will be key to the handheld hybrid idea.

Sticking to xbox one levels, the handheld @ qHD has a chance of making that happening

 

[jason90]

tegra console is 512gflops @FP32, 1TF is @FP16, so still far from xbox one and ps4

Right,the next gen version codenamed parker is thought to be running @ 1TF FP32 but with a higher TDP,it might show up in an upgraded Nvidia shield tv unit later this year.

 

[jason90]

This would close the door to DLCs, which are very, very profitable to 3rd party developers.

But then they would not be able to hqve true console/handheld parity and if the NX doesn't do that then i don't see what the whole idea behind the NX is suppose to be.

Due to the cartridge size contraints Nintendo is obviously not going to have gb's of dlc or multi gigabyte patches like current consoles hqve to put up with,they are going to have to implement limits based on the hardware they will ship,which is a possitive imo.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Support external storage and SD cards and the like. Moves the cost to the user and makes the console 'cheaper'.

But external storage is slow, and they would have to deal with the rage of people who don't usually deal with SD cards and cannot install the DLCs they bought.
16GB of eMMC 5.0 or UFS would save them a lot of trouble for a handful of dollars.