Rumored 3Ds Specs By Ign.

[hosant]

New Nintendo 3DS Hardware Info

IGN has learned that the Nintendo 3DS will pack not one, but two 266MHz ARM11 CPUs, along with a 133MHz GPU, 4MBs of dedicated VRAM, 64MBs of RAM, and 1.5GBs of flash storage. The information comes from persons familiar with the hardware who spoke to us under the condition of anonymity.

IGN.
Hmm... I was expecting more RAM.

 

[Exophase]

Ouch, I was expecting a ~533MHz ARM11 and a 67MHz ARM9. Still has time to be wrong, but at these clocks there's probably no L2 cache and I have a good feeling the second CPU will be inaccessible.

If this is true CPU is going to be pretty weaksauce, expect the term "CPU limited" to come up now and again.

 

[hosant]

Ouch, I was expecting a ~533MHz ARM11 and a 67MHz ARM9. Still has time to be wrong, but at these clocks there's probably no L2 cache and I have a good feeling the second CPU will be inaccessible.

If this is true CPU is going to be pretty weaksauce, expect the term "CPU limited" to come up now and again.

Um, can you elaborate why? That CPU would be a bit weaker than PSPs, which would contradict all the good impressions we are getting from developers.

 

[Nintendo]

Exo, you have to stop speculatin', mayne~

I mean, no offense and you know I love you & all, mayne, but these Ninty and 3rd party devs know all the tricks and ins & outs of programming/developing games.
You might know a lot, but they know more, so if they get stuck by bottlenecks, etc. they find a way around it. Easy fixed.

They're a billion times more talented than any of us and that's why they're making games and getting millions of dollars a year to do so...They could make a good game out of a vaccuum cleaner, ffs.

Bottomline...Nothing is perfect, so lets just let it be and leave it to the big boys to handle or work it out.

 

[sebt3]

Ouch, I was expecting a ~533MHz ARM11 and a 67MHz ARM9.

I'm still expecting something like this. This rumor stink... Come on, no DS compatibility. No way Ninty will do this....

Um, can you elaborate why

See the Wii...

 

[hosant]

Um, can you elaborate why

See the Wii...

Um. No, that's not an answer at all.

 

[Exophase]

Um, can you elaborate why? That CPU would be a bit weaker than PSPs, which would contradict all the good impressions we are getting from developers.

The good impressions I got from developers is "nice GPU!" If you want to do games that are PSP games with better image quality then PSP level CPUs with a better GPU should be sufficient, right?

I'm betting on the second CPU being inaccessible because that was the model on both DS and PSP. I'm betting on no L2 cache because I haven't seen any other ARM11s or other ARM CPUs for that matter clocked that low but paired with L2 (not that many ARM11s clocked higher with L2 either) but we'll see. It probably won't be worth the power consumption, since I guess they want to run that down to the ground.

 

[Exophase]

Exo, you have to stop speculatin', mayne~

I mean, no offense and you know I love you & all, mayne, but these Ninty and 3rd party devs know all the tricks and ins & outs of programming/developing games.
You might know a lot, but they know more, so if they get stuck by bottlenecks, etc. they find a way around it. Easy fixed.

They're a billion times more talented than any of us and that's why they're making games and getting millions of dollars a year to do so...They could make a good game out of a vaccuum cleaner, ffs.

Bottomline...Nothing is perfect, so lets just let it be and leave it to the big boys to handle or work it out.

Pft, go away fanboy ;p Of course Nintendo makes great games, they'll make great games with this too.. so will third parties. But there are still going to be people complaining that the CPU is too slow if it's at this speed. Game developers aren't magic! They're by and large just somewhat above average programmers who went to college then got hired for game programming. The industry is competitive but it's not THAT competitive, they're not all 99th percentile at optimization on a slow ARM..

No need to get all defensive just because I said "wow, that's a slow CPU choice"

I'm still expecting something like this. This rumor stink... Come on, no DS compatibility. No way Ninty will do this....

Nintendo promised backwards compatibility so they're more likely to deliver that than this, but why do you think this means no DS support? It'll probably needs some kinda glue chip sitting on the bus for ARM9 emulation (like what they did for GC mode on Wii) but most of the peripherals hanging off of DS are on the ARM7 and that can be HLEd out most likely. I wouldn't be surprised if this still contains the entire set of geometry + 2D + 3D engines that DS had, verbatim.

 

[DaveC]

Ouch, I was expecting a ~533MHz ARM11 and a 67MHz ARM9. Still has time to be wrong, but at these clocks there's probably no L2 cache and I have a good feeling the second CPU will be inaccessible.

If this is true CPU is going to be pretty weaksauce, expect the term "CPU limited" to come up now and again.

That is the Nintendo MO though so it makes sense.

Look at the Wii, that is pretty weaksauce compared to the others. Then the original DS is no powerhouse either compared to the PSP. Nintendo has a history of releasing less than cutting edge hardware but with some sort of gimmick to make it sell.

 

[hosant]

Ouch, I was expecting a ~533MHz ARM11 and a 67MHz ARM9. Still has time to be wrong, but at these clocks there's probably no L2 cache and I have a good feeling the second CPU will be inaccessible.

If this is true CPU is going to be pretty weaksauce, expect the term "CPU limited" to come up now and again.

That is the Nintendo MO though so it makes sense.

Look at the Wii, that is pretty weaksauce compared to the others. Then the original DS is no powerhouse either compared to the PSP. Nintendo has a history of releasing less than cutting edge hardware but with some sort of gimmick to make it sell.

But PSP battery life was crap. Spoken by someone who owns a PSP and no DS.

 

[sold]

Just a thought, but I doubt that nintendo will remove the promised DS compatibility without good reason, like an exploitable flaw in the hardware that would allow the 3DS to be hacked for homebrew and pirating more easily. And if someone could explain, how powerful a gpu does a handheld really need? The size of the screen would restrict the available resolution to an extent wouldn't it?

EDIT: And the wii is kinda weak hardware wise, but I prefer it to the xbox360 and the ps3. The wii is just more fun imho. I kinda think that a lot of the hype behind HD and nextgen graphics is distracting people from the fact that more and more companies are selling us what is essentially shiny crap.

 

[kuru]

Please bear with me guys, but what's the intent behind putting 2 CPUs in of which only one is accessible?
Edit:

and I have a good feeling the second CPU will be inaccessible.