The Nintendo NX doesn't need better capabilities than the current PS4 to be successful

I think everyone agrees that games like Uncharted 4, Doom 4, Ratchet and Clank, etc...look amazing as is! Now could you imagine how a Metroid, Zelda, Luigi's Mansion etc, would look with comparable tech in the hands of Nintendo? You'd poop your pants right? I know I'd be more than ecstatic!

They recreating gamepad and won't support 86 system which would mean that porting from PC to PS4 is easy and no cost but porting from PC to NX costs lots of money.

Also who said it will have same capabilities than PS4? We heard that it will be same as Xbox One.

Third, YES THY NEED BETTER CAPABILITIES WHEN THEY WANT THIRD PARTY GAMES. Weak hardware = no 3rd party support = another flop

Exactly there is people out there who just like the nintendo brand.

If NX is near xb1/ps4 power and can still play multiplats, that might be good enough for people to make it their only system since nintendo has the best first party lineup.

I'll take a mario kart over driveclub.

I'll take mario maker over project spark

I'll take Smash Bro. over Killer Instinct.

As a Brand nintendo has got the best exclusives and if it gets all the 3rd party I might kick my ps4/xb1 to the curb as it will be my one stop shop for games.

Nintendo is not going fet good 3rd party support.

After speaking to seven different people this week, I can say with confidence that this is false. NX isnot using x86 architecture like PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The NX has special, custom-made chips and the overall design of the hardware is very modern. The chips are industry leading because they are very modern chips, but having modern chips doesn’t necessarily mean Nintendo is aiming to create the most powerful hardware on the market. Furthermore, any rumors on “Polaris chips” and “Polaris architecture” regarding NX is wacky. There’s a good reason why those discussions are wacky.

In terms of raw power, numerous sources tell me that NX is weaker than Xbox One.

NX = Wii U power, weaker than Xbox One

Thats not something you want to say if you want the console to sell better then the Wiiu.

Those games dont need the realistic graphics, but the system itself needs to be powerful enough to attract 3rd parties

Indeed, it's another Wii U if they decide to cheap out on the hardware yet again, they have to ****** see that already.

I mean, why the **** they wouldn't like to have 3rd party games on their system, 3rd party games and their excellent exclusives, would that be so goddamn horrible Nintendo?

Think what happens when Xbox and PS4 Neo more powerful consoles upgrades are true, then NX is dead

Everything is a rumor right now in terms of raw power, so take the X1 comparison with a grain of salt. I'm just saying hypothetically if the system launched with PS4 capabilities, which should be affordable by March 2017

Umm, yeah they do need to be better than ps4. It'd be a joke and a **** you to everyone who is excited if it isn't.

Exactly. I hate talking 'bout the NX, it's so far off and they more than likely just disappoint everyone with the specs. I want progression goddamn it, no reason to release a system that is as weak as the Xbox One.

@Kruiz_Bathory: why? Are PS4 graphics rotten garbage all of a sudden? Gimme a break

Sony and MS are already moving forward, Sony most likely as early as this year! Better crank up that HW Nintendo or you're left in the dust.

The NX will be dead if you´re not going to be able to play all the "garbage" people like to purchase, as much as guys here hate it, games like COD is what most people like to play and that is what sells by the truckloads, it makes cents for Nintendo to make a console and have the on-line capability to allow people to play "garbage" along with their own games, hell I like Nintendo games but I would like to play Nintendo games and something else, can´t play Ben 10 or Planes or Hello Kitty ( with my 11 year old daughter ) all year long even if I love Donkey Kong.

@raugutcon: why do you put "garbage" in quotations? Who said anything about garbage games?

It just has to be a console-handheld hybrid.

If it doesn't compete with the Neo in power, I'm not buying it. Simple as that. It'll be the first nintendo console I don't own. It's 2016, releasing something as powerful as a console that released in 2013 would be a joke. I want nintendo to succeed, but man if these latest rumors are true, nintendo is just going the wii u route again which wouldn't be a good thing. People care about power in a console. They want to be able to play cod, bf, battlefront, assassin's creed, etc with as little compromise as possible while not building a pc to play it. Right now, there is the x1 and ps4 which already do that and the neo will do it even better if all these rumors are true. People have already picked Playstation as the console to own this Gen, and I don't think nintendo will change that perception with a console as powerful as the x1, if they can change it at all.

It's like people have already forgotten how the Wii U did with the same strategy.

The Wii U was an obvious failure.

I hope the rumors that nintendo is switching to the tegra platform is untrue.

If Nintendo wants to sell NX to more than just the hardcore Nintendo fanboys then it needs to be more powerful than PS4 and have full third party support. Even then it would be an uphill battle for them but they would have a fighting chance instead of another WiiU situation.

That all depends on what exactly it is. If it's nintendo's 9th gen home console (which it doesn't seem to be) it certainly will need to out perform the ps4.

In fact, even if it does, it will probably be bested by the ps5 and xb two when they come out, causing gen 9 to be a repeat of gen 8.

The group of people who are avid Nintendo fans did not propel the Wii U to success. Nintendo is going to need to diversify their lineup quite a bit and appeal to non fans if they want the NX to succeed. If they just pull another WiiU and only cater to their fanbase while also ignoring some of their larger franchises, they are going to fail again.

Exclusives aren't nearly as important as they once were. The biggest selling games out there are CoD, Battlefield, Grand Theft Auto, Assassin's Creed, Minecraft, and other multiplatform games. Uncharted 4 is making a lot of buzz but the whole series over its life had only sold 25 million up until the launch of Uncharted 4 (so probably 32-33 million sold when it's all said and done). That's four Uncharted games over many years. That's not huge amounts of sales when you consider GTA 5 sold double that and CoD/Battlefield will sell half of that in a single year. The buzz is in the multiplatform games and Nintendo just keeps failing in that department.

No one will give a single flying **** about a Nintendo branded PS4 four years late, just like one cared about the Nintendo branded X360 seven years late.

Time to stop the whinging, crawling excuses and just make a system that isn't lagging miles behind.

Better graphics isn't going to make those Nintendo franchises you listed sell better.

PS4 owners are not gonna downgrade to a less powerful NX as their main console.

It's x86 and a lot of the rumors point to the console being an ARM based console which won't be an issue because a lot of the big engines support ARM architecture.

@super600: Didn't AMD said they are making console parts for future consoles.

Yep,but a lot of rumors lately seem to saying that the console may be using components from ARM to.

The system needs to be powerful enough so, it can get multiplatform titles throughout it's lifespan. It needs to be more powerful than the PS4 and Neo if it exists. It should not be a little bit stronger either.

Cheapening out on specs and overcharging the customers is not a good way to turn around a flagging company.

@DocSanchez: Niintendo will be ok though their fanboys will eat up whatever plate of poop nintendo serves.

@DaHater7: That is true but unfortunately, sales show their fanboy base contracts every gen and the wii u's base wasn't enough so imagine less than that.

If the NX is like a smart device it will not need to be more powerful than a PS, Xbox or PC to surpass the sales of the most powerful console. There could be greater 3rd party support than what the consoles are getting now if the NX is like a smart device. Of course it may not be anything like a smart device. I am just saying that it may be a mistake to equate failure with power level in present times.

I think it's weird if Nintendo doesn't prioritize 3rd party support after the WiiU failure. Making the console at least as powerfull as the X1 and easy to port games to is a start. It needs something to make it sell, and first party titles alone will not be enough. I also think that those first party devs would very much like some good hardware to unfold they're ideas and imagination on. But, I think it will be hard for it to succeed, unless they aim for sales around 30 million.

I agree with the op. Games already look phenomenal. Nintendo just needs to get away from motion controls as their primary and I'll buy the NX for the family. Zelda with even PS3 graphics would be amazing.

Better yet, can you imagine what a whole bunch of new Nintendo IPs would look like? Fucking glorious i bet..

Well Nintendo wont be taking such risks if theyre bleeding money over wasteful specs, theyll be trying to recoup as much as possible off their oldest and most recognizable games, yep more Mario.

@killonsight: Shame they can't do both like Sony. Their games aren't as good as Nintendo's in general, but they DO always balance sequels with new IPs.

NX will be release in 2017...it needs to be on *minimum* on par with PS4...lower than that, its just a joke. You can argue power don't matter all you like..cause it will be another Wii U if its underpowered. Just hope Emily Rodger is wrong..cause she doesn't seem like the tech savvy type. :P

@general_solo76: you have been here since 2013 and still don't know which "garbage" ( according to self entitled game conoisseurs which are abundant in this place ) I'm talking about ?

Yeah pretty sure Nintendo has been saying this the past 2 generations and it's screwed them over every time.. If Nintendo are not going to attempt to keep up with the competition then this might very be the last Nintendo console we see.

All I'm saying is, even if it is just on par with PS4, that's good enough if it's reasonably priced and doesn't have another gimmick control scheme. It's not gonna sell like PS systems do anyway, but if it can sell N64 numbers or slightly better, Nintendo will be just fine. They're not gonna sell for a loss anyway, I'd be thrilled with Nintendo games running with PS4 tech, and I know a lot of parents and other folks would be happy too. Only die hard gamers fuss so much over graphics like on these forums. Most folks seeing a demo in a store of Zelda, Metroid, Mario Kart etc...running on equivalent hardware to a PS4 would be plenty impressed

@super600: AMD's Opteron A1100 SoC is ARM Cortex A57 based. A1100 has 8 CPU cores with 8 MB L3 cache. This Cortex A57 is built on 28 nm process tech.

From Extreme Tech. http://www.anandtech.com/show/9956/the-silver-lining-of-the-late-amd-opteron-a1100-arrival

From the early reports, performance is somewhere between 80 to 90% of the Atom C2750 (Eight 2.4 GHz Silvermont cores at 2.4-2.6 GHz). Even if AMD has used the delay to tune the A1100 significantly, it is very unlikely that the chip will be able to beat the Atom chip by any tangible margin.

For clock cycle, AMD Jaguar is similar to Intel Silvermont.

Relative CPU power level can give some indication for GPU's power level.

My guess...

AMD/ARM Cortex A57 at ~1.7 Ghz 8 core with Bonaire 14 CU + Tonga's GCN ver 1.2 improvements e.g. geometry/tessellation and ROPS delta compression improvements. The proposed GCN modified from lower power consumption FX-8800p's 8 CU GCN ver1.2

GCN ver 1.2 has about ~1.6X pref/watt improvements over the original GCN.

Options 1

If Nintendo decides to use TDP headroom from FX-8800p for higher clock speed and keeping the GPU size small

GPU: GCN v1.2 8 CU at 1.2 Ghz yields 1.228 TFLOPS

-------

Options 2

GPU: GCN v1.2 8 CU at 1050 Mhz yields 1.075 TFLOPS

----

Options 3

GPU: GCN v1.2 12 CU at 900 Mhz yields 1.382 TFLOPS. Bonaire 14 CU config.

GCN ver 1.2 has the unused 16bit FP mode that can speed up performance while lowering shader precision.

16bit FP shader mode is heavy used on mobile games.

The options above are available for 28 nm process tech.

PS4 and XBO doesn't have GCN ver1.2's 16 bit FP hardware mode to speed up performance.

ALU precision

YOUi Labs has an Android app which tests the floating point accuracy of the GPU inside your mobile device and here are some very noticeably different results obtained on two competing GPUs:

The precision of a GPU’s ALUs also has an impact on image quality, along with the precision you store the final results in. The major distinction between today’s desktop and mobile GPUs is that on mobile you’re much more likely to find very low-power (but also lower precision) ALUs.

Developers are able to employ which ALUs are used by the GPU when running their shaders, forcing them to consider ALU precision as another possible factor in image quality.

For AMD GCN version 1.2

AMD implemented native FP16 instructions, but they execute on the FP32 pipeline at clock parity. AMD saves power by powering off half of the FP32 transistors while in FP16 mode. FP16 also reduces register file usage and data movement to improve performance; register pressure can be a significant performance constraint for complex shaders.

@locopatho: Yeah credit to Sony in that regard. Theyve built up alot of good will with gamers over the years and its allowed them to take risks on extravagant hardware and new IPs, but the PS4 is very safe and conservative compared to their usual shenanigans, being severely underpowered compared to PCs didnt hurt them one bit, isnt the PS4 the fastest selling Playstation?..

You only need to look at the PC to see what high end specs get you in modern gaming, unoptimized ports with razor sharp foliage and reflective puddles. This wont get people excited, i want new Nintendo IPs every other month, i want a new 3d platformer, an RPG puzzler, a hot potatoe 3d brawler and i want ma damn helicopter game.

You sheep deserve that stinky epic failure of a product known as wii u, you disgust me lol. Stop supporting a company that cheap out on its hardware, have a stand for once and not be content with what's in the front. Think for the future, wii u did not have enough power thats why it failed. NX weaker than a Xbone at launch? Just what kind of low self esteemed peasants are you sheep lol? More power would potentially make your beloved Zelda or Mario 10x more awesome by introducing much bigger levels, more physics, better gameplay and graphics. Yes, to achieve better gameplay would ultimately need more power. I'm not asking for 3-4tf of power but something at least better than a PS4 since it has been 3 years since it launched.

It needs to be better than PS4 if they expect anyone to give a crap about the it when it rolls off their playdough money maker. There's no chance I'll even give it a second look if it isn't a strong system and that goes for any console maker.

@gpuking: If you saw a new Zelda or Metroid at a store kiosk with graphics and animation comparable to Uncharted 4, you'd poop your Nathan Drake underoos right there on the spot and you know it!! :D

@general_solo76: Alright go ahead and buy an underpowered next gen system then. PS4 is good but NX has to be better.