Insider Source: NX Outperforms All But Industry Leading PCs, More Powerful than PS4/XB1

Before we proceed, let me state this unequivocally for the record:

While I am sharing this here for System Wars, I in no way actually believe this.A Nintendo console more powerful than the PS4 and Xbox One is something I find acceptable (and even expect- a PS4.5 in 2016 is the least Nintendo can do). But an actual top of the line console coming from modern Nintendo is a bit... hard for me to believe.

With that out of the way:

This is from Takashi Mochizuki the man who posted the Wall Street Journal article, he just responded to an email that was sent to him regarding the "Industry Leading Chips" quote, here it is:

-Several people who said who have seen a demo said what they saw is impossible to run on a computer without a "industry-leading" or "cutting-edge" chips. Cutting-edge in what way, they refused to elaborate.

-And an important thing to remember, probably you know well already, is that chip specs won't be finalized until much closer date to the release.

hope this helps, and plz ask me follow-up questions if you have.

thanks,

mochi http://www.nintengen.com/2015/10/nin...le-to-run.html

The question here is, what are the specifics in question? What is 'cutting edge,' what is 'industry leading?' The GTX 980ti? I mean, that's industry leading, and probably 'cutting edge' for the outsider, but it's hardly the best that PCs can output.

Or do they mean Nintendo has really crafted a high end console on par with high end PCs of 2015? Because that is... a bit hard to believe.

At the very least, I think there should be little doubt at this point that the NX will be a pretty powerful machine, and more powerful than the PS4, as a baseline.

EDIT: It is at least more powerful than PS4 and Xbox One, that much seems to be a given according to these sources:

Beyond this, we are still waiting for details...

What are the chances that after Iwata's death the NX vision was changed? How much control did he have over the NX?

I don't think AMD has efficient enough chips to pull a 390x or a Fury and place it in a low powered APU, unless they took the $600+ nano and put it in the NX. The console would draw a lot of power (something nintendo has been against recently), make a lot of noise (another thing nintendo has avoided), and cost a lot of money (a third thing nintendo has avoided).

IF this is indeed true I'm going to assume they are going to use some kind of APU technology combined with a cut down Fury nano (don't know how APU/GPU technology crosses over, so forgive me for my ignorance). Though I don't believe this and I'm expecting R9 390 GPU performance tops in the NX.

"industry leading" and "cutting edge" as in it will be slightly faster than tablet CPU's in PS4 and X1... at least that's what i'm assuming...

Imagine a world where PS4 and XB1 have to rely on exclusives to justify themselves.

Very unlikely- even if Iwata had little input on the NX, I want to point out that he died in July this year- way too late in the game to reboot a console in development. Most likely, the console exists as Iwata envisioned it- although it is always possible the specs were beefed up after his death, that's not too late to handle, specs are not frozen until under 12 months are left to release.

The question here is what kind of hardware Nintendo has opted for for the NX- is it x86, or is it ARM? I think ARM are low power draw, I am however unaware if AMD does ARM chips at all.

I doubt it's anywhere close to my 980 Ti.

Still, these recent articles about the NX are great news considering no ones saying it's weak.

I find this extremely hard to believe. We won't be getting a high end Nintendo console unless they want the NX to flop even harder than the WiiU. They need to release a powerful but reasonably priced console, a high end console would just price them out of the demographics they should be going for. I know Nintnedo is known for making extremely weird and stupid decisions but even with that I doubt they'd be stupid to do something like this.

"Industry leading chip" sounds to me like popular chip to me rather than top of the line chip.

more like, "slightly faster chip than PS4 & X1" which shouldn't be too hard...

People shocked at amount of power released when unknowing Ubisoft engineer tried to open up NX dev kit.

Yeah, I can't imagine them pulling a PS3. It'll probably be priced at no higher than $399.

It will not be priced that high. The highest I can see it being is $349, and they are probably too spooked from the Wii U and 3DS to try that right now.

$299 is my bet.

Hope that's the case, but I can see it if there's a handheld unit attached.

I don't think a handheld unit is attached as much as it is sold separately but compatible. Like iPad and iPhone, basically.

Of course, Nintendo might later introduce an SKU that does bundle both, but I imagine that will be later when the price of both has dropped a bit.

Why do people keep comparing it to nvidia cards? I can pretty much guarantee it will be AMD.

@charizard1605: If Nintendo can capture 3rd parties with a machine that is at least on par with the PS4 power, they have to be confident in the future of the system. My thoughts are they might have bumped up the specs a little after his death if they were below the PS4's. Though any cost above the $350 PS4 needs to be justified through innovation or obvious graphical superiority (something much harder to prove than recent generations).

AMD ARM CPU. However I'm not sure how their APU technology might integrate (ARM is supposed to eventually be APU, but I'm not sure when that will be). My guess is they will need a powerful enough system to emulate Wii U games (assuming they are going to provide backward compatibility).

It will be AMD, but Nvidia cards provide for an easier point of comparison since more people are familiar with them. That's it.

They could just as easily have the Wii U SoC on board and provide native BC- the Wii U SoC is small, low power, and cheap enough to accomplish this, I think.

Nintendo + 3rd party multiplatform support = this.

Said it before, I'll say it again. If Nintendo had a great console with all the multiplats, the there is pretty much zero reason to go out and buy a PS or Xbox.

Would you pay $400 plus for the current PS4/Xbox One exclusives? I wouldn't.

If it can run the Witcher 3 in 1080p and a locked 60 FPS, w/medium high graphics, then I'll believe it's real, until then it's nothing but empty hype

$400 for Uncharted, Bloodborne, No Man's Sky, Persona, God of War, Ratchet and Clank, and Horizon? That sells itself to me, yes. Of course, I would probably not have bought a PS4 as early as I did if Nintendo's consoles got third party support.

Similarly, $350 for Gears of War, Halo, Scalebound, Crackdown, Quantum Break? I would buy it for those right now, so yeah, Nintendo having third party would ensure I still got it- although, again, later than I would right now.

I'll believe it when I see it.

Though if Nintendo is going to have a powerful console, do it right. Otherwise, they'll be in the same position when the PS5 and Nextbox come out.

Question is, can Nintendo afford that type of console?

I still don't buy that the NX will be more powerful than the PS4.

I don't see Nintendo building a box that consumes 100+ watts. That goes against their philosophies in hardware design. You can't currently build a box with 2+ Teraflops of computational power while consuming less than 100 watts.

@pikachudude860: Except each console is now $350 and by the end of 2016 when the NX comes out ... Your answer may change.

They have over $10 billion in the bank, they could afford a PS6 right now if they wanted to.

The question is not can they, the question is will they? And does it make sense for them and for the industry at large for them to do that?

Those philosophies were influenced by Iwata, Konno, and Miyamoto, and none of them are heading the NX hardware. The Wii, Wii U, DS, and 3DS do not apply to whatever the NX is.

Good point. I probably would do the same.

Though, I'm not sure if those games would be enough to convince other most people outside of SW.

@charizard1605: how powerful do you think the NX will be? Do you think it will be in the 950-960 range?

I can't speak in PC gaming terms much, mostly because I am pretty ignorant there, and unsure of mass production costs. I am expecting at least a PS4.5, however, if that answers your question.

If that is the case, then make a true 9th gen console, and sell it for $299. Yeah, they'd take a major loss on it, but what money they lose can be made back in time. What sales they lose could be gone forever.

Nintendo software sells really good. That + large install base = profit.

Will they actually do this? The would may never know....Until next year.

@emgesp: Are you serious? The PS4 was a fairly small console at launch. This is coming out 3 years after the PS4 launch. Not to mention AMDs New memory configurations use far less power. This thing should blow the PS4/X1 out of the water. I'm a cow and I hope it blows them out of the water. It will make Sony and MS step up next gen.

They'll do a 9th gen console like the Dreamcast was a 6th gen console. Almost there, but later on in the generation, it will probably begin to show its age.

@charizard1605: 950 will play 1080p battlefront at 50-60fps on high, and GTA V/TW3 at 60fps high, if that answers your question (OC'd, standard will be 4fps slower), and GTX 960 depends if you're getting the 2 GB or 4GB version...

it could. Time will tell.

$350, plus PS Plus/Xbox Live Gold. Then potentially $60+ for a game. That was my point. I understand what you mean though.

I think it should at least be on par with an OC'd 950, then. Probably a bit more.

Do you think that the PS4 and Xbox One designs were far too conservative?

I'm sure that whatever Nintendo has planned, it will be a well balanced machine, like all of their machines. It would be great if they found a clever way to get massive power with little energy consumption. People like to mock Wii U but it is amazing for the power it uses.

Coming from Nintendo, this would make the most sense. The only question left is, will it work?

Edit: So that's why they call it Nintendo's Dreamcast. I get it now.

Eh, the Wii U is pretty poor from a hardware design perspective, the GPGPU notwithstanding.

Assuming Nintendo gets everything right, now it depends on marketing.

Well, consider AMD's theoretical HBM APU's that they are experimenting with right now are *supposed to* consume less resources. If theoretically, Ninty went the same route that Sony and Microsoft did this gen and go with an AMD APU, it would be possible (though unlikely seeing as AMD haven't released one yet) they would have a HBM based APU.

As to just how MUCH power an HBM APU would consume in comparison to the PS4's and XBone's, I do not know. I assume it's likely to be negligible. But in theory, there may be something there.

@charizard1605: That is an interesting idea. Though adding in the Wii U SoC would increase costs and would make it harder to sell at a profit if they want to go for a sub $400 price, and we know Nintendo likes to sell at a profit (except for the 3DS price drop that they didn't have much choice for).

Do we know for sure that the NX is going to have a mobile component, versus just an evolution of the Wii U tablet? The Wii U SoC could then be used for both products that way, otherwise the mobile component would likely have no ability of backwards compatibility.

@Zlurodirom: All we know is there is a 'mobile NX' (i.e. a handheld version of the NX) of some sort. We also know from what Iwata said that the NX will 'absorb the Wii U architecture.' That is what made me think they might have the Wii U SoC on board.

Agreed....Didn't they fire/replace they people in charge of recent marketing a while back?

I don't know. I just think they need to have awesome N64/Wii levels of marketing for this thing, and if they can't do that, they shouldn't even bother.

I'm hoping for a Mobile processor with Zen Cores over the obsolete Jaguar cores on PoS4 and the great XB1

At minimum it has to be as powerful as the Xbox One. If third parties developers have to downgrade their games for the new system, they probably won't bother with it. Nintendo has already shown that they simply can't develop enough games on their own to sustain a console, if the they don't have the third party support, they might as well not bother with making the NX if all there doing is repeating the same mistakes like they did with Wii U.

That would be a game changer if they just rolled out HBM APUs for NX. It would be such a major leap forward. Although it would explain why SE was already announcing games for NX before it even was announced formally.

Well, so I hear, Mr. Kimishima was the guy behind the "Wii would like to play" commercials. That makes me feel a bit better.

@pikachudude860: He was? I did not know that.

Nintendo unifying their handheld and console teams would fix this drought problem. Even if the worst case scenario happens and Nintendo is standing with NX alone, they should be in a much better position than with 3DS and Wii U. They just need to make sure that the same game runs on both machines and they're all set.

Hardware specs mean nothing if devs not supporting the platform. I also dont think consumers want another console this early. Maybe, just maybe if they can have a pricetag of $249-299. But that in unlikely if they going for high spec and then again it is Nintendo and they going to Nintendo, i mean they sold WiiU for $400 so go figure.

Lower your expectations people. It is a console. You have to pay for quality. That is why a good PC is more expensive. I doubt they will come out with an expensive console. This is Nintendo. Their last 2 consoles have been a generation behind. They want to make money off each console and they want to target families, not the hardcore gamer.