Nintendo announce: Nintendo NX

[MrFox]

Tegra looks like the best choice for portable gaming, I don't see AMD with something similar in this TDP range. Okay NX is not as great as some gaming news journalists were saying, now that all their "credible sources" have been discredited for saying it's more powerful than a PS4.... they moved on to comparing Tegra X1's FP16 performance to FP32 of consoles. And they assume the short term peak on one chip can be compared to the continuous power of the other. They also forgot to talk about the 64bits LPDDR4 bandwidth.

Glad Nintendo still supports physical media. It's obviously some macronix ROM as everybody used them forever in their portable gaming platforms. They call it nitride-based ROM, but I think it's just a fancy name for charge trap instead of floating gate, it's still technically flash. They make custom silicon with whatever copy-protection layer Nintendo wants etc...

Game sizes should be reasonable considering it's a relatively low power console, and the memory bandwidth will be limited. I still expect local storage is going to be a mess, just like the WiiU.

We're still waiting to know their amazing ideas being kept secret because they are afraid the competitors will copy them. I hope it's not some simple thing like a docking station with a blower fan to cool the SoC at higher power. Anybody would think of that.

 

[McHuj]

A 76 GFLOPs GPU? That would be ridiculous even for Nintendo, and I'm being serious here.

That's less than half the theoretical performance of the Wii U and the equivalent of a 3.5 year-old Snapdragon 600.
For that kind of performance, they would be better off just buying an off-the-shelf SoC from Mediatek or Rockchips, whose <$20 mid-ranges are largely surpassing that performance.
nVidia wouldn't want to get attached to such a low-performing device.

Yes, in spreadsheet flops, but not real world performance. Maybe it will be ~256 shaders. I think a Pascal based GPU would perform much better than the other SOC you mentioned in actual games. It would probably be a portable WiiU.

I do hope that the base station does have an external GPU (like the Razer core). Seems that without the base offering some additional functionality and performance, what's the point? Why add the cost and complexity of detachable controllers? It seems like a sort of mess. Just give me a usb stick that I can stream too instead of jigsaw puzzle.

 

[Rangers]

What's all these comments I see speculating a $150-$200 price? This looks like a $400 machine to me. It has a screen right? Same cost constraints as Wii U. You cant really get a quality tablet for under $300 (talking about over 7", Samsung/Apple).

I sort of think Nintendo's only hope is to package a VR headset with NX, looking to Gear VR here, and come in with the only all in one VR solution for $300-$400. Seeing that a Scorpio/Neo and associated headset will run $800-$1000. Of course, the experience would be nothing as good as Scorpio/Neo either, so it would be a bet that might not work.

Anyway, about time the first proper NX leaks came.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Yes, in spreadsheet flops, but not real world performance.

I don't think you're aware of how ridiculously weak the 76 GFLOPs GPU you suggested would be.
With that level of compute performance, there's no proper amount of optimization/efficiency/magic-dust that would make any game look even similar to a 10 year-old X360 (240 GFLOPs), let alone the 1200-1800 GFLOPs consoles from 2013.
The 2.5 year-old 28nm Tegra K1's GPU works at 850MHz and has >4x higher compute throughput than the single SM @ 300MHz you suggested.
And no, 2 SM units at 300MHz would still be ridiculously slow.

 

[BRiT]

What's all these comments I see speculating a $150-$200 price? This looks like a $400 machine to me. It has a screen right? Same cost constraints as Wii U. You cant really get a quality tablet for under $300 (talking about over 7", Samsung/Apple).

Think 5 to 6 inch 720p or 1080p screen for Nintendo NX. That is no where near the quality of the 1440p or higher resolution the Samsun/Apple tablets use.

The reason we're saying $150 to $200 is the Nvidia Shield is currently $199 and has had deals for $149 before. It makes no sense for something with the same or lower performance target that is schedule to release 9 months from now to be more expensive. The lower performance target is because it will be mobile and needs to hit the 6.5 to 8 hours of battery life if they want any chance of being accepted by consumers.

 

[wco81]

It would be embarrassing if it doesn't at least crush the PS Vita.

 

[Cyan]

It's a portable using cartridges powered by Tegra. There's a docking station for home console play, which seems to just be a stand rather than ramping up the power for prettier TV visuals.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-07-26-nx-is-a-portable-console-with-detachable-controllers
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/d...-mobile-games-machine-powered-by-nvidia-tegra

actually, to me, this is the smartest Nintendo's idea yet. Why compete in a market they've lost so badly forever? Where do they shine? Yes, portable consoles. The device is closer to my ideal console than any other, although I'd want a tablet like console, as capable or even more than a Surface Pro 4.

Give the console plenty of Japanese games, Monster Hunter and F-Zero and it can sell like hotcakes. My geeky side prefers capable consoles to put more money into them though, but this idea is fine with me.

 

[BRiT]

actually, to me, this is the smartest Nintendo's idea yet. Why compete in a market they've lost so badly forever? Where do they shine? Yes, portable consoles. The device is closer to my ideal console than any other, although I'd want a tablet like console, as capable or even more than a Surface Pro 4.

Give the console plenty of Japanese games, Monster Hunter and F-Zero and it can sell like hotcakes. My geeky side prefers capable consoles to put more money into them though, but this idea is fine with me.

The smartest thing Nintendo could do is target existing Tablets or Phones for games. Not create their own "me too" mobile platform.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Think 5 to 6 inch 720p or 1080p screen for Nintendo NX. That is no where near the quality of the 1440p or higher resolution the Samsun/Apple tablets use.

The reason we're saying $150 to $200 is the Nvidia Shield is currently $199 and has had deals for $149 before. It makes no sense for something with the same or lower performance target that is schedule to release 9 months from now to be more expensive. The lower performance target is because it will be mobile and needs to hit the 6.5 to 8 hours of battery life if they want any chance of being accepted by consumers.

I don't think they'll price it lower than the New 3DS (that name still annoys me). I imagine that at launch it'll be either 249-299 USD for just the handheld. Meanwhile for 299-349 it'll come bundled with the docking station. And to cap it off the docking station will be 79-99 USD when sold separately.

That would align well with their original launch price for the 3DS at 249.99 USD.

They may also do like they did with the New 3DS and not include a power adapter (helped them to hit a 199 USD price point for the New 3DS). You'll either have to buy that separately or use an existing one from a 3DS (assuming it draws the same power).

Regards,
SB

 

[HMBR]

cartridges? I wonder how digital distribution is going to look on this if there is no decent internal storage...
also isn't the battery life on the tegra devices really poor when running the tegra optimized games (like Half life 2) because the GPU is seriously power hungry compared to the typical ARM GPU?

isn't this thing to much like a "vita 2"?

 

[BRiT]

cartridges? I wonder how digital distribution is going to look on this if there is no decent internal storage...
also isn't the battery life on the tegra devices really poor when running the tegra optimized games (like Half life 2) because the GPU is seriously power hungry compared to the typical ARM GPU?

isn't this thing to much like a "vita 2"?

Just more of my opinions... There won't be any digital distribution for the games. The local storage will only be 16gb (or less) to contain the OS and save points.

 

[Megadrive1988]

This is what I tried to post.

It makes sense that the handheld is getting Tegra X1 (or maybe X2) and docks to a unit that connects to an HDTV.
AMD doing the semi-custom SoC for the primary home console, which is separate from the handheld and its dock.
Both Nvidia and AMD can provide ARM CPUs and both companies (and Nintendo) are on board with Vulkan.

 

[BRiT]

Both Nvidia and AMD can provide ARM CPUs and both companies (and Nintendo) are on board with Vulkan.

There are some users from the PC Forums who are convinced that Vulkan is only a low-level GCN construct.

I don't think it makes financial sense to use 2 different GPU SOC providers for handheld and stationary consoles especially when your message is a unified platform. IF there is a console only model it will have the same cpu and gpu hardware setup as the handheld, only differing in unit counts or clockspeeds. I'm not convinced there will be a stationary console in 2017 for Nintendo.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

cartridges? I wonder how digital distribution is going to look on this if there is no decent internal storage...
also isn't the battery life on the tegra devices really poor when running the tegra optimized games (like Half life 2) because the GPU is seriously power hungry compared to the typical ARM GPU?

isn't this thing to much like a "vita 2"?

If I were to take a guess. I'm guessing they'll do the same as they did with the 3DS.

It'll use MicroSD cards for storage. It'll ship with a 4 GB card. Possibly it'll come with a 64 GB eMMC drive (gives an opportunity to upsell devices with more storage for way more than the cost of the additional storage). I don't think it'll come with eMMC storage, though. A MicroSD card will be enough to hold a lot of DD only games.

Just because physically distributed cartridges are 32 GB doesn't mean that all games that come on cartridge use 32 GB. Additionally, just like 3DS, there are a lot of DD only games made by independent developers. Those are unlikely to come anywhere close to 32 GB. Most of them will likely be less than 1 GB in size.

Oh, and if AAA games do end up being anywhere from 25-32 GB in size, maybe they'll actually make the MicroSD card easier to access. Currently you have to unscrew the back panel on the (New) 3DS in order to access the MicroSD slot.

Regards,
SB

 

[arijoytunir]

if pascal is indeed in nx then

from tegra x1 - base clock will get a boost around 33.629%
cuda cores in the same die size will get a increase to 25%

i.e ; 320 cores at 1.135 ghz

tegra x1 (pixel c) - 256 cores at 850mhz - 435.2 Gflops
tegra x2( probable nx) - 320 cores at 1135mhz - 726.4 Gflops

( the %s are from rough math by comparing maxwell chips to pascal equivalents and pixel c tegra x1 soc )

 

[Esrever]

I wonder what memory configuration they will use. There is no way a mobile part can be built to handle high bandwidth with just lpddr4. The memory controller is going to eat a huge power budget if it goes above 128bit, which puts it at 60GB/s max.

Also since the dev kits are just Tegra X1s, then the SoC in the actual console could be significantly weaker to allow for devs to run their games without much optimizations. Maybe it will be clock very low to hit the power budget because tegras don't really make good mobile parts when running at full power.

 

[orangpelupa]

I don't think they'll price it lower than the New 3DS (that name still annoys me). I imagine that at launch it'll be either 249-299 USD for just the handheld. Meanwhile for 299-349 it'll come bundled with the docking station. And to cap it off the docking station will be 79-99 USD when sold separately.

That would align well with their original launch price for the 3DS at 249.99 USD.

They may also do like they did with the New 3DS and not include a power adapter (helped them to hit a 199 USD price point for the New 3DS). You'll either have to buy that separately or use an existing one from a 3DS (assuming it draws the same power).

Regards,
SB

Or. They will use microusb. So people already have a bunch of of charger lying around.

 

[cheapchips]

It seems a shame that Nintendo aren't providing a platform that can host xbone1/ps4 titles easily. It stops it being a primary games machine in a household with older kids. They probably already have one of the other machine though.

The very capable portable with two player local multiplayer should be great for my kid's first console though.

(And I'll get to play BotW!)

 

[eastmen]

Or. They will use microusb. So people already have a bunch of of charger lying around.

hopefully its usb 3 c

 

[Globalisateur]

It seems a shame that Nintendo aren't providing a platform that can host xbone1/ps4 titles easily. It stops it being a primary games machine in a household with older kids. They probably already have one of the other machine though.

The very capable portable with two player local multiplayer should be great for my kid's first console though.

(And I'll get to play BotW!)

They are targeting the much more lucrative and big tablet market with NX now. It's much easier, cheaper and less risky than designing a new competitive and powerful home console.