Rumor: Leaked 3DS Hardware Specs Prove Its Power

[Ayjona]

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.

That was the first-gen iPhone, from 2007. Rather sad comparison. And curious. Would not comparing the 3DS to contemporary devices be more telling?

The current iPhone model runs an ARM Cortex-A8 Apple A4, at 800 MHz - 1 GHz. The 512 mb is another point where the iPhone 4 has drastically different specs to the 3DS.

Of course, the graphics chip, buses and less apparent specs are probably just as important in determining the 3DS' performance. Let's hope they are not as outdated as the processor and memory specs.

 

[RatRace123]

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."

That's inevitable, and it will most certainly happen.

 

[-Seraph-]

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.

The PSP is pretty kick ass when it comes to fighters dude, and they look oh so pretty. So if these specs are the real deal, I have no doubt you'll see some pretty looking fighting games. I'm sure Street Fighter will look excellent as it's art style is not too hard to emulate with lower end tech. With the processing power this thing has, don't except any real noticable slow down from 2D games. I played Guilty gear and Blazblue PSP all the time and those things run as well as their console borthers.

 

[Rayansaki]

If those are real then its really disappointing. They are only marginally better than the psp, and thats a 5yo system. Even iphone4 puts this specs to shame.

 

[dochmbi]

If those are real then its really disappointing. They are only marginally better than the psp, and thats a 5yo system. Even iphone4 puts this specs to shame.

Shouldn't really expect anything else from nintendo, if you want next-gen handheld gaming, wait for the PSP2.

 

[mjc0961]

a mammoth 512MB

I never thought I'd hear that in this day and age... Maybe back when there were 8MB HDDs and such, but not now.

If those are real then its really disappointing. They are only marginally better than the psp, and thats a 5yo system. Even iphone4 puts this specs to shame.

The only thing the iPhone puts to shame is itself.

 

[Outlaw Torn]

The extra 512MB is probably for a cup holder or some kind of love pillow interface.

 

[blarghblarghhhhh]

im happy that others are saying the tech is apparently old and sucks, that means it will likely be affordable, which is my main concern. im going to buy it no matter the price, i just need to know how much i have to save and when i need it by.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Anybody have any idea what all this means?

 

[-Seraph-]

Judging by the tech, I'm guessing the thing will be priced at 200 bucks, 250 max on launch. This tech is pretty old so it's cheap to produce, and 200 dollars is a reasonable selling price for a portable gaming device like this.

Anybody have any idea what all this means?

It means that all those devs claiming this thing could pump out current gen graphics were either full of shit or they have some impressive game development skills. These specs make it roughly the same power as a PSP.

 

[Rainforce]

*sigh*

I'm still waiting for those battery specs.......

yep, theyre already pretty weak in the current DSi :/
man, I dont want to charge this thing every 2 hours or somethingXD

 

[lacktheknack]

Wow, it's like an early century budget desktop.

 

[Talon Julius]

Wait that video in the "previously shown" link is running on a 3DS? Jesus christ. Finally we might get some developers working with a handheld other than Nintendo itself.

 

[Kinokohatake]

3DS, CAN'T WAIT. Why wait for the new PSP? Excited for their fantastic line up of games? The PSP had possibly a grand total of 5 games worth playing. Not really worth buying but worth playing.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Next Wednesday can't come soon enough. I'm preordering as soon as I can. I'm trading in my glorious pink DS Lite for it so hopefully it's worth it. That Resident Evil 3DS video... so good... if we can play MGS3 on it I will forgive Nintendo for the Wii.

Oh, and by the way Nintendo? If you're reading this... a Christmas 3DS release would kill Kinect. I'm wanting to see this happen.

 

[Sovvolf]

Not even going to pretend to know what all that means... I'll just have a cautious guess and say it's good for a portable...

3DS, CAN'T WAIT. Why wait for the new PSP? Excited for their fantastic line up of games? The PSP had possibly a grand total of 5 games worth playing. Not really worth buying but worth playing.

Guessing a Nintendo fanboy... Can we not pull one console down just to big up another.

 

[jebbo]

Christ how moronic are most of you people. This isnt a PC or a multimedia smartphone, its a Nintendo handheld. The hardware will be optimised for the games and nothing else. iPhone 4 has to run iOS and act as a multimedia device before it even contemplates running games. Very similar could be said of psp and future variants. The technical specs are therefore irrelevant to compare because what the devices are actually designed to do is so different from the earliest stage of development. Wake up, its Nintendo and its the newest innovation in the handheld line, theres about a less than 0% chance of this failing. Well thats what Ziggy says anyway

 

[jamradar]

I have no ides how to read these. So I will assume that this is good. For a handheld at least.

 

[Ironwampa]

At those specs if the 3ds doesn't have good battery life I'll laugh at nintendo's meager tech department.

 

[CrystalShadow]

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.

That was the first-gen iPhone, from 2007. Rather sad comparison. And curious. Would not comparing the 3DS to contemporary devices be more telling?

The current iPhone model runs an ARM Cortex-A8 Apple A4, at 800 MHz - 1 GHz. The 512 mb is another point where the iPhone 4 has drastically different specs to the 3DS.

Of course, the graphics chip, buses and less apparent specs are probably just as important in determining the 3DS' performance. Let's hope they are not as outdated as the processor and memory specs.

Did you miss the part about the dual core processor?
Coding for multi-core systems is a pain in the ass, but if the software is designed properly, a dual core system runs about 90% faster than a single core one of the same clock speed.
(of course, if coded badly, it can run worse. - double edged sword really.)

Granted, it's only 266 mhz, so ideal case it'd be about the equivalent of a 500 mhz processor or so.

However, the reality is, clock speeds and battery life are closely related...
Raise the clock speed, and you drastically increase the power requirements.
Tell me, how long does a current generation Iphone's battery last when doing demanding 3D graphics?

This has often been a fatal weakness of Nintendo's handheld competitors, so I suspect they're keen to avoid copying their competitor's mistakes...

But yeah, the stats don't sound the best on paper, but a lot depends on the way a device is used.

After all, a typical gaming PC will murder a console in terms of specs, yet you can't necessarily say the apparent performance difference reflects the difference in stats.