Rumor: Leaked 3DS Hardware Specs Prove Its Power

Tom Goldman

Crying on the inside.
Aug 17, 2009
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Rumor: Leaked 3DS Hardware Specs Prove Its Power



Nintendo may have said we were playing with power on the NES, but we really will be when the 3DS comes out.

The Nintendo 3DS is said to be a powerful machine [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/101571-Resident-Evil-3DS-Runs-On-RE5-Marvel-3-Engine] that far outpaces the original DS's capabilities, and now we may have the tech specs to back it up. IGN reports that they've gotten their hands on the details of what's under the 3DS's hood.

If the report is true, the 3DS uses two 266MHz ARM11 CPUs (the system's "brains"), whereas the DSi uses a 133MHz ARM9 and a 33MHz ARM7. The 3DS will also use DMP's PICA-200 graphics processing unit running at 133MHz and will have 4MB of video memory. It'll quadruple the amount of RAM in the current DS with a total of 64MB, and will also provide a whopping 1.5GB of flash storage as compared to the current model's 256MB. So it's more powerful, but what does that mean?

Eurogamer has done an in-depth analysis of the specs, their likelihood to be real, and what they mean compared to the other handheld electronics currently available. The 3DS's processors appear to put it close to the iPhone, which runs on a single 412MHz ARM11, but the 3DS can unleash dual cores on games without having to worry about running an operating system in the background.

The 4MB of video RAM seems paltry, but the lack of details on exactly what it will be used for - textures or other properties - leaves its power level a mystery. The GPU appears to be running at a "surprisingly low" speed, as the PICA-200 can run faster than 133MHz, but speed doesn't beget it's ability to support self-shadowing, per-pixel lighting, procedural textures, and refraction mapping. These are the types of things that make the previously shown [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/101571-Resident-Evil-3DS-Runs-On-RE5-Marvel-3-Engine] Resident Evil: Revelations demo look as good as it does according to Eurogamer.

The 1.5GB of flash memory also raises a mystery as 3DS development kits are believed to have a 2GB chip. Eurogamer says: "Reserving a mammoth 512MB suggests that Nintendo has serious plans for the functionality of the unit over and above what we have seen so far." Nintendo seem to be the masters of surprises, so who knows what they have in store. Dimensional portal perhaps?

The 3DS is rumored to be coming out anywhere from on September 29 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103413-Rumor-3DS-Release-Date-Tweeted-By-Accessory-Designer].

Sources: IGN [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-3ds-techspec-exploration-blog-entry]



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ChromeAlchemist

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Aug 21, 2008
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At this point the fact that they're showing me Super Street Fighter IV 3D means that it's powerful enough. Original titles and ports from the PS360 on the go? I'll take it.

November please.
 

-Seraph-

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May 19, 2008
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...Those tech specs seem rather unimpressive. If they are real, then it's not much more powerful than a PSP, and I thought Nintendo would have used more beefier hardware than tech that's 4-5 years old. Unless the developers are really pushing the hardware with some interesting techniques to make the games look as good as they are; that's if they aren't just bullshots.

Either way, it's still a fine tech boost from the original DS comparatively speaking. Just have to see the games in action to see how they've used this hardware. I was just expecting something more powerful i guess seeing how a few months back devs were raving about how this thing was more powerful than the wii and could produce current gen graphics. We'll just have to see how much those claims hold up when we see some game play footage.
 

Xan Krieger

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Feb 11, 2009
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64mb of RAM is powerful? My old computer had 96MB and that was a long time ago. I know this is a handheld and I have no previous knowledge of the power of handheld devices but for 2010 this seems weak.
 

-Seraph-

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mad825 said:
*sigh*

I'm still waiting for those battery specs.......
If those tech specs are real, I'm sure the battery life will not be all that much different from the current DS. May be a little less due to the dual processing, but it'll probably still pump out a reasonable amount of hours.
 

RejjeN

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Aug 12, 2009
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Xan Krieger said:
64mb of RAM is powerful? My old computer had 96MB and that was a long time ago. I know this is a handheld and I have no previous knowledge of the power of handheld devices but for 2010 this seems weak.
Most consoles have specs that seem on the low end, but that's because they are completely optimized to work with their applications and don't need a secondary OS running in the background, thus freeing up nearly all resources for what is currently being played/used.

Like Mad825 said, I'm gonna wait for the battery specs before I get any hopes up :)
 

Gigaguy64

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Apr 22, 2009
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Im not tech wizard.
And a lot of that is still confusing to me.
But just comparing the 3DS's Specs to the Older DS's makes me a Excited boy.
 

BrunDeign

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Feb 14, 2008
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What was that meme about Marvel's Civil War?

"They're all f@#$ed when Hulk gets back"?

The same could be said here in regards to the Kinect and the Move.

"They're all f@#$ed when the 3DS is released."
 

-Seraph-

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Gigaguy64 said:
Im not tech wizard.
And a lot of that is still confusing to me.
But just comparing the 3DS's Specs to the Older DS's makes me a Excited boy.
Well from what I can gather, it looks like it'll be around the same power of a PSP/PS2, MAYBE close enough to Gamecube if they know how to work the hardware. All you really need to know if that it curb stomps the current DS so expect some pretty games on the go.
 

Towowo2

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Feb 6, 2009
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Well, beefier hardware means that the price point for it has to go up. Nintendo tends to go for affordability in it's handhelds.
 

gabe12301

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Jun 30, 2010
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Wow...still not as powerful as an iPhone?The 3DS a gaming system and the iphone is a phone that has thousands of retardedly fun mini games.A gaming system should be more powerful than a phone!
 

TLatshaw

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Aug 30, 2010
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Behold: NUMBERS AND LETTERS!

I was never good at reading this stuff. Just tell me it'll be fast and look awesome and I'll believe you.
 

RejjeN

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Aug 12, 2009
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TLatshaw said:
Behold: NUMBERS AND LETTERS!

I was never good at reading this stuff. Just tell me it'll be fast and look awesome and I'll believe you.
It'll be fast and look awesome.
 

Space Jawa

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Feb 2, 2010
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BrunDeign said:
What was that meme about Marvel's Civil War?

"They're all f@#$ed when Hulk gets back"?

The same could be said here in regards to the Kinect and the Move.

"They're all f@#$ed when the 3DS is released."
I thought the traditional meme was "It prints money!"
 

Gigaguy64

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Apr 22, 2009
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-Seraph- said:
Gigaguy64 said:
Im not tech wizard.
And a lot of that is still confusing to me.
But just comparing the 3DS's Specs to the Older DS's makes me a Excited boy.
Well from what I can gather, it looks like it'll be around the same power of a PSP/PS2, MAYBE close enough to Gamecube if they know how to work the hardware. All you really need to know if that it curb stomps the current DS so expect some pretty games on the go.
That's interesting, there were a lot of good looking games on the Ps2, and the PSP has some amazing looking games as well.
Really Graphics are great but for me i want it to have enough processing power to play faster and more complex games.
Iv got jump Ultimate Stars and even on my DSi there are still points when there is so many things happening on screen it starts to slow down.
So with this DS, Fast Paced Fighting games would be an excellent Idea.
Especially 2D Fighters, already the DS has some Beautiful Sprite based games.
And it even has some great 3d games like Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days.
The Cutscenes look AMAZING and the normal Animation you see and Play looks really good too.
Im expecting some cool things from the 3DS.