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RUMOR: NX more powerful than PS4, Splatoon/Mario Maker ports in development

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bomblord1

Banned
10K's gimmick contradicts Nintendo's most recent statement about the NX:



You choose who to believe.

Can you not attribute the info to 10k as if is saying this as a dev or an insider. He's posting all of this as rumors from unproven sources based on personal research. He's not giving it out as the gospel and has even grouped them from most to least likely and put up a disclaimer on his posts.
 

jdstorm

Banned
I'm of the same belief, but recent events have people doubting that we'll even get a handheld under the NX Platform.

Which is funny. Since the 3ds is nintendos big money maker and handheld gaming is huge in Japan.

If anything the NX will be a handheld that will be able to stream Modern games at 1080p/60 to a flatscreen tv

EDIT: the primary arguement against this theory is power consumption, however 3-4 hours per charge is fine for mobile gaming which is what most estimates put how long a battery could last, based on phone/tablet performance. However there are a few easy solutions to this.

1. Make the battery removeable so you can switch it out if you are looking for a long day of mobile gaming away from a power supply
2. Sell a large external powerpack that can be easily transported with the device to extend battery life
3. Have a docking station so you can have long sessions at home on the couch, and you use a pro controller
4. Some kind of inventive wireless charging solution.
 

Mory Dunz

Member
so what if these are the options at launch:

1. nx main console: $299.99 with normal controller, comes with a digital super mario maker or whatever

2. nx deluxe console: $399.99 with fancy screen controller, comes with a physical zelda game plus the digital mario maker.

for those who bought the standalone, you can buy the screen controller separately for $199.99 and it comes with an scd in order to function, but you can't play it on your tv, and it doesn't come with a game. this is essentially the new handheld, and may get an upgrade in 2017 so that it's an all-in-one device with a clamshell design.

I could see this.
Except I think Zelda could come with regular NX console and has been reworked to not need the gamepad, in the past year.
 

Joqu

Member
Anyone know what profit margins on standard controllers are like anyway? I already find those to be way expensive but clearly that's considered to be acceptable.

If they're as big as I'm I thinking they are and Nintendo have found a way to make the screen tech somewhat cheaper compared to the gamepad I could see them bring a controller like that out for a similar price but without those kind of profits? Unless those regular controllers really are just that expensive to make.
 

Vena

Member
I am not surprised in keeping the gamepad idea around, that's a lot of R&D money and features to throw out.

Now...

"designed to perform culling of triangles before they hit the geometry processor. Effectively, what this means is that it runs through the triangles (also known as primitives) as they hit the GPU and tests them to see if they're actually going to be visible on the screen or not (with a variety of tests), then throws out the triangles that aren't going to be on screen (i.e. discards them or culls them).

Now, this is a good thing, pretty much regardless of the type of game. Attempting to render triangles that aren't actually going to end up in the final image is a waste of GPU resources, and preventing that would be a pretty good thing. One of EA's Frostbite developers actually just gave a talk on this at GDC (PDF link, very technical), where they describe the software-based culling methods used in Frostbite. In their test scene, they could throw out over 75% of triangles before hitting the geometry engine, resulting in an almost 20% performance improvement. AMD have also recently released their own software-based culling solution, GeometryFX, which like Frostbite runs as software on the GPU's shader units. Hence, they're obviously interested in the problem of triangle culling, so it wouldn't be surprising if they developed a hardware unit to perform it more efficiently."
This was great to hear, but I asked if it was possible to get this feature set on 28nm GPU's since those are more established and cheaper than 14nm and there isn't a yield risk on those.
"Well, from a purely theoretical perspective, any "Polaris exclusive" feature could be adapted to a 28nm process. Work on Polaris had likely been going on for about a year or so when work on NX started, so it is in theory possible that they said to AMD "Hey, we like this primitive discard accelerator thing, can we have it on our planned 28nm chip?". The issue with this is that Nintendo would have had to fork over quite a lot of extra R&D dollars to get a functional block "back-ported" to 28nm, compared to components from existing GCN 1.2 chips, which were already ready to go for TSMC's 28nm process. The other issue is the assumption that the primitive discard accelerator is single functional block that can be just pulled wholesale out of Polaris. It could be an integral part of the geometry processor or command processor, or the manner in which it operates could depend on the newer geometry or command processors in Polaris. This would mean that you'd need to port the bulk of Polaris's improvements back to 28nm, or do a substantial amount of redesign work on the primitive discard accelerator to get it to work in a GCN 1.2-era chip (either of these would add substantially more R&D cost).

It's impossible to say how much it would cost them in the scheme of things, but it does seem like an unusual added expense over just taking existing GCN 1.2 tech, which would still be a generation ahead of the competition."

So with this quote, while it's not confirmed, it is highly likely Nintendo is using a 14nm Polaris GPU in the NX based off of the expensive nature of using PDA or any Polaris feature set and putting it on a 28nm chip.
If Nintendo does go with 14nm, it is very likely they will be taking a loss on each NX sold, but we don't know the dealings AMD have with Nintendo. Once source told me "AMD may have been desperate enough for the business to offer Nintendo, say, the first year's supply at a fixed price, to reduce Nintendo's yield risk. They may also have specifically pushed Nintendo into a 14nm Polaris-based chip, as it would allow Nintendo to also use a Polaris-based 14nm chip for the handheld. This would not only be a big business win for AMD in itself (Nintendo's handhelds typically sell a lot more than their home consoles), but it would also big a big PR win for them, by showing their ability to compete in the ultra-low TPD sector, which is a market they've made pretty much no traction in up until now."

This is a little too on the nose for me... to find it fake. And now I don't know what to believe. Your general faker is just not going to know this stuff unless they really did their research, and its not even a "topic on GAF" until this moment.

You wouldn't even find this in a cursory glance on Polaris with google.
 
It's literally the best part about the system. Like no joke. I have trouble going back sometimes. It's a straight up killer app that's been expounded by tons of reviewers, professionals, and and every day men alike.

That may be the case, but it's not a selling point to the masses. It's a nice feature and nothing more. Not a game changer in the way that the Wiimote was.

2x the GPU power is marginally better, aye. It's about the same region as whatever PS4K is supposed to be. Honestly, I expect NX, PS4K and XB1.5 to be roughly the same.

He goes on to say that it could easily run even the most demanding PS4 games with room to spare. That's not "marginally" more powerful. The whole power section seems like it basically puts anything in play. From something that's basically like the Wii U compared to the PS3/360 to something that's a good amount more powerful. Basically the type of rumor where no matter what you're probably right because you cover all bases.
 

Kouriozan

Member
Luigis Mansion 2 was clearly designed as a handheld game with missions. It was a great game, but I prefer the first one and if LM3 is on the console I hope they make an open world game where you can walk to multiple mansions.
Yeah, the missions system made sense for short playing time.
 

AmyS

Member
Aww yeah, 14nm Polaris. Now THERE are the details many of us were yearning for, even if it's T1. Now the question is, how big i.e shaders, ROPs, TMUs, etc.

Exactly.

Imagine Polaris 10 "Ellesmere" GPU in a console and something much smaller than Polaris 11 "Baffin" GPU in a handheld.
 
Side note from me:
I think the gamepad is a wonderful concept.
With a better touch screen and a slightly slimmer design it could be one of the best controllers out there.
But, for Wii U, it kept the price high all generation long. I imagine Nintendo knows this so making it optional would be best.
Force devs to implement off TV play or make it a system wide feature, but 3rd parties aren't going to use it well and raising the already expensive system up a hundred bucks would be somewhat unwise.
 
If that stuff is true it sounds like 399 with Ninty possibly taking a small hit.

I think another screen controller is a mistake no matter how cool off screen gaming might be.
 

Neoxon

Junior Member
Which is funny. Since the 3ds is nintendos big money maker and handheld gaming is huge in Japan.

If anything the NX will be a handheld that will be able to stream Modern games at 1080p/60 to a flatscreen tv
Once again, Iwata shot down the idea of a single-device hybrid of that kind before he died. And to be fair, 3DS sales are on somewhat of a decline (mostly due to the platform showing its age).
 

Malus

Member
That may be the case, but it's not a selling point to the masses. It's a nice feature and nothing more. Not a game changer in the way that the Wiimote was.



He goes on to say that it could easily run even the most demanding PS4 games with room to spare. That's not "marginally" more powerful. The whole power section seems like it basically puts anything in play. From something that's basically like the Wii U compared to the PS3/360 to something that's a good amount more powerful. Basically the type of rumor where no matter what you're probably right because you cover all bases.

Well, they won't be right if it doesn't have Polaris features.

I was hoping the Polaris thing would be Tier 400 but I'll take it :p
 

phanphare

Banned
I think you would be very surprised.

Most people don't want to move a console from room to room.

most people also don't want to have to separate themselves from their family or company or whatever just to play a game

or in my case with the NBA playoffs coming up I really enjoy having the games on while playing something on the gamepad

ever since the 3DS (I say the 3DS and not the DS because they dropped the gimmicky stuff with 3DS games and focused on practicality) and Wii U a second screen has become essential for me personally. it'd feel like a regression to go without it in the future. I literally cannot play Wind Waker on GCN anymore, for instance, because of the reliance on pause menus.
 

Anarky

Banned
But where would that leave games such as Super Mario Maker & Splatoon, both of which rely on a second screen?

a524b143e8f6e823260c8d0b7a414a28700c34deb72cbc7ecd3c44b9a311e849.jpg
 
Yeah, the Wii U gamepad actually has a lot of tech inside of it. Sounds to me like they're reducing what's inside to lower cost but still keep the functions thus keeping the system's price lower.
Never knew that. So I guess in a lot of ways it's practically a handheld but just missing disc/cart media support and a few things (like a wholly decoupled OS)?

Part of me thinks they should have added those media features to 3DS when pairing w/ a Wii U, then at least that way a standard controller would've been the pack-in and costs would have been lower. Then later throw a Wii U + 2DS bundle out there to expand the market to more casual consumers for those wanting more of that type of Off-TV play or multimedia features.

Hell the entirety of 3DS and Wii U just makes me question if their console and handheld teams were ever really in-sync during the development of those projects.
 

10k

Banned
Ditching the handheld feels like a terrible idea. I guess the controller will take up that role but ehhh...

It's right there in my post that the controller is not going to replace the handheld. It can't. It won't have a gpu in it. It'll be a dummy controller with the bare necessities.
 

ultrazilla

Gold Member
They invested a lot of money in the gamepad, which has kept the cost of the WiiU from being discounted, potentially at the cost of greater sales but less revenue. There was almost zero chance they would abandon something they invested that much money on. Besides, it's a great controller with a lot of tech packed into it and if they improve on it? Damn.

The controller is going to have an NFC chip for amiibo. The gamepad is already built for that. Hell it almost looks like a test model for a portable device, but their vision was limited by the technology of the day.

So I don't understand the surprise some of you have for another screened controller. I doubt Nintendo blames the gamepad for the WiiUs failure, and they shouldn't.

If Nintendo had been able to scale down the form factor of the Wii U game pad i.e.; make it smaller/portable the system *may* have had better success. Who knows? Maybe they're at a point where they can make the pad smaller and rebrand it a NX controller(it would also make playing those Wii U remasters easier).
 
i am not liking the sound of that NX gimmick and I really hope it's not the case. Call me crazy but I don't expect Nintendo to really produce a quality out-of-home streaming experience.
 

Vena

Member
2x the GPU power is marginally better, aye. It's about the same region as whatever PS4K is supposed to be. Honestly, I expect NX, PS4K and XB1.5 to be roughly the same.

Just of note, given the info now divulged... this isn't actually impossible because we may end up with a low TDP console (again) that will in practice be just over the ~PS4~ for cross platform titles, say 1080/60 rather than 1080/30, but, when pressed with its rather unique GCN 1.3 functions, able to go toe to toe with the more throughput powered X1.5 and PS4K which are, I am almost certain, going the brute force way of upgrading.
 

LordOfChaos

Member
Screen was rumored to be 540p and the gamepad did have some incredible streaming tech.

True, but that was point to point, Wii U to gamepad. What you said seems to be more open in that you can use it anywhere on your wifi, or even off your local network, but that introduces more variables as I said.

Maybe I'm the exception? But the PS4 streaming often goes chunky and lags out on wifi. Point to point would be no problem, it's router and home networking variables that are.
 
D

Deleted member 465307

Unconfirmed Member
I am not surprised in keeping the gamepad idea around, that's a lot of R&D money and features to throw out.

Now...



This is a little too on the nose for me... to find it fake. And now I don't know what to believe. Your general faker is just not going to know this stuff unless they really did their research, and its not even a "topic on GAF" until this moment.

You wouldn't even find this in a cursory glance on Polaris with google.

From what I could tell, that was a separate post, coming from someone on GAF, to help 10k understand the technical phrase he heard from his source.
 

rokero

Member
the gamepad royally fucked the WiiU, it made the console more expensive, it didn't bring anything revolutionary to the table, they couldn't even figure out how to sell the damn thing at stores in the US and has shit battery, now you telling me Nintendo is going for it again , I really hope that rumor turns out to be false
 

Smellycat

Member
To be honest, I would find it underwhelming if the controller turned out to be just a WiiU gamepad that you can take anywhere. That is basically what many people have been predicting for years and it wouldn't be a surprise. I want something different lol
 

Kouriozan

Member
Hopefully Nintendo isn't going to repeat the same mistake and only show the Gamepad this time
and finish the conference with Nintendoland 2 fireworks
 

HeySeuss

Member
Once again, Iwata shot down the idea of a single-device hybrid of that kind before he died. And to be fair, 3DS sales are on somewhat of a decline (mostly due to the platform showing its age).

Plans change though. It's not out of the realm of possibility that better technology came along since he said that which would allow this to happen. Or they decided it was more cost effective to make the hybrid rather than trying to have different specs to program for to scale games for cross play.
 
With the NXST I put forth the idea of making the console the premium Nintendo system and the handheld the low end system for those that just want to play some Nintendo games.
Those that want a secondary system aren't going to go with something like the Wii U that's $300 bucks when they can go for the handheld that can be $150-200.
I wonder if this power would be enough to get those handheld games on a console at like 4K. I believe someone said the PS4K could get 4K games if they looked like low end PS3 games. Could be a selling point.
 

KingBroly

Banned
Never knew that. So I guess in a lot of ways it's practically a handheld but just missing disc/cart media support and a few things (like a wholly decoupled OS)?

Part of me thinks they should have added those media features to 3DS when pairing w/ a Wii U, then at least that way a standard controller would've been the pack-in and costs would have been lower. Then later throw a Wii U + 2DS bundle out there to expand the market to more casual consumers for those wanting more of that type of Off-TV play or multimedia features.

Hell the entirety of 3DS and Wii U just makes me question if their console and handheld teams were ever really in-sync during the development of those projects.

Considering how much better the 3DS OS is than the Wii U OS...no, they clearly were not. Plus those teams were merged shortly after the release of Wii U.
 

Vena

Member
From what I could tell, that was a separate post, coming from someone on GAF, to help 10k understand the technical phrase he heard from his source.

I am referring to that technical phrase and knowing its application and position as a Polaris enabled capability. People don't generally know said phrase or where and how its used.
 

10k

Banned
Now that I've posted what I've heard I'll post my opinion. I hope I'm wrong on the gimmick. It's not what I wanted from a gimmick, I don't care about taking my controller anywhere to access my home console games. I was hoping for something more unique or nothing at all.

There's always the possibility the three sources piggybacked off each other and all of them could be wrong. That's why I said take it all as a rumor. It could be 100% false.
 
I'm not gonna fall for this. I'll buy the NX regardless of power, but nope not believing that it's 2x more powerful than PS4. The Nintendo I know for the last 10 years, will release a console that is even less powerful than XBone.

That's what I expect, that way I won't get disappointed like you guys probably will. Would be quite nice if true however.
 

MoonFrog

Member
Does anyone have any idea what sort of price range these rumors are suggesting?! I understand that they're vague enough, but they also seem to be routinely above what people were expecting or am I misunderstanding something?!
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
Hmm...

Once again, big grain of salt, but let's assume this is happening for the sake of the discussion:

In my first response in this thread I said this looks like Nintendo possibly actually beginning to pivot towards western markets with its consoles -- a reversal of how the Wii and Wii U were designed as low-wattage appliances for Japanese homes. In old threads I've even suggested Nintendo should sort of give up the Japanese console market or at least let it slip into tier-2 the way Sony has. Still, NX is still very much probably the child of Iwata, so I doubt a move like this would be all Kimishima (a former NOA head). The new posts makes the suggestion Nintendo is basically going balls-out, Gamecube/N64-style, with essentially a Super Wii U. Again, if true, this could go one way or the other depending on how Nintendo handles it.

Second screen play in itself wasn't the problem with Wii U. The problems were that 1) Nobody freaking knew what Wii U was from the jump, 2) Nintendo never had the software to justify second screen play, and 3) the Wii U was pretty much poised to never get real developer support.

Having a console powerful enough to run everybody's games and an easy development environment is just one step towards getting everybody's games. No rumor right now can tell us how or if Nintendo is building relationships with publishers differently than it has been. No rumor right now can tell us how those publishers feel about the NX's chances of building an audience for their games. EA and Ubisoft might fall in, but Bethesda? Take-Two? I think in order to even build that audience Nintendo would have to suck it away from Sony and Microsoft, because I don't think the conventional AAA console game audience is going to magically grow enough to accommodate a third hardware competitor in that market. I could be wrong though, Sony has said a big chunk of PS4 owners didn't own a PS3 or didn't normally buy consoles. But does Nintendo honestly have a good chance at figuring out why that is? And at the same time, a $350 - $400 console in 2016 is really going to have to prove itself to customers.
 

thefro

Member
I can see wireless streaming to the controller being a feature they keep and adding remote play on top of that, but I don't see that being the main gimmick/hook for the system from a control interface standpoint.
 

LordOfChaos

Member
When it comes to the GCN ( Graphics Core Next ) engine itself, AMD outlined a number of fundamental features that define the architecture and they include :

– Primitive Discard Accelerator
– Hardware Scheduler
– Instruction Pre-Fetch
– Improved Shader Efficiency
– Memory Compression


So if NX has Polaris and a Polaris feature, I'd safely assume the rest of them in it too.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...8-amd-polaris-gpu-architecture-preview-3.html

http://wccftech.com/amd-polaris/

One notable new feature is primitive discard acceleration, which in no certain terms is AMD’s way of revealing that its upcoming GPUs will add support for additional key DirectX12 features such as Conservative Rasterization.
 
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Deleted member 465307

Unconfirmed Member
I am referring to that technical phrase and knowing its application and position as a Polaris enabled capability. People don't generally know said phrase or where and how its used.

Ah, okay.

Now that I've posted what I've heard I'll post my opinion. I hope I'm wrong on the gimmick. It's not what I wanted from a gimmick, I don't care about taking my controller anywhere to access my home console games. I was hoping for something more unique or nothing at all.

Agreed. I'd like to just use my NX handheld as my screen controller. If possible and this is true, I hope I can avoid buying the screen controller and do exactly that.
 
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Deleted member 752119

Unconfirmed Member
the gamepad royally fucked the WiiU, it made the console more expensive, it didn't bring anything revolutionary to the table, they couldn't even figure out how to sell the damn thing at stores in the US and has shit battery, now you telling me Nintendo is going for it again , I really hope that rumor turns out to be false

Agreed. Just make the NX handheld have all the buttons the console has and build in great remote play for it (and ability for it to be used as a controller for the console) for people who want both.

I've got a dedicated gaming room and a media room so there's no issue of my fiancé and I fighting over use of a tv. And we're not having kids. So I have no need for remote play/off screen play.
 
I called being able to take your controller with you on the go a long time ago. It doesn't surprise me if this actually ends up being the gimmick considering the Wall Street Journal posted about it awhile ago.
 

georly

Member
Really really hope that controller is optional, at least in the US. I want it, off-screen play is awesome. Maps/inventory/mario maker on it are awesome. I also know that a huge portion of US consumers won't care. They just want to play games on their TV without having to fork over extra money for something they won't use.

My guess? 2 Bundles in the US, one with, one without. Same for EU. Japan? Mandatory.
 
Hmmm... Having a controller as an add-on that's basically an expanded version of the Gamepad...

I suppose it depends on if they force it with the system, or sell it separately as a clear add-on. Though, that could lead to confusion with the handheld unless they're careful...

Interesting. It's probably for the best they make it optional rather than creating the image that they're doubling down on the Wii U, I'd say though.
 
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