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[Rodin]

Handheld:

4 core ARM A72 at 1.5Ghz
500GFlop GPU with GCN 1.3 support 6 CU
4GB GDDR5
2000mah battery
5" 960x540p IPS LCD display

Did i miss 7nm hitting the market? :O

Haha no seriously, that handheld would almost have higher power consumption than the Wii U. If it ends up using 8 A53 core at 1.2GHZ, 3GB LPDDR4 and a 140.8GFLOPs GPU we'll be very lucky. These specs at 540p would be very, very close to the Wii U if not a bit better.

Anyway, spill the beans! We want to know what you heard.

 

[blu]

I'd be very pleased with this, but i still think this is a bit too optimistic.

Optimistic to the point of sub-28nm optimism - none of those two configs would be particularly viable at 28nm*.

* A72 maxes out at about 2GHz @ 28nm (as per ARM's recommendations, IIRC, can't look them up ATM), and 4x A72 @ 1.5GHz @ 28nm could be something one finds in a Chinese phablet, but not a proper (nintendo) hh.

 

[TheLegendOfCap]

You know,
this is going to be the first generation, I think, that I would be completely fine with no Wii U backwards compatibility. I never took advantage of the Wii backwards compatibility on Wii U more than once.

I'll be keeping the Wii U, and I would rather have the right ports that increased function, added content, or took advantage of the better specs.

 

[Manoko]

Come on 10k, you can't keep us in the dark now...

 

[ozfunghi]

Optimistic to the point of sub-28nm optimism - none of those two configs would be particularly viable at 28nm*.

* A72 maxes out at about 2GHz @ 28nm (as per ARM's recommendations, IIRC, can't look them up ATM), and 4x A72 @ 1.5GHz @ 28nm could be something one finds in a Chinese phablet, but not a proper (nintendo) hh.

However, z0m3le brings up a good point. At the time when Nintendo locked their target specs, did they foresee a 2016 release? So, is it somehow possible that they will try to release (hypothetical) 2017 tech in 2016?

 

[Nightbird]

It would be for the best to not try to make the NX Backwards compatible to the WiiU.

The library is small. The most noticeable games can easily be ported or are going to receive a sequel soon anyway.

No need to cripple your new hardware for this. It was understandable for the Wii, but this is like the complete opposite situation. We're not coming from a 100M+ Units console. Those who want to play WiiU games have a WiiU. T
itles like Smash and Mario Maker can benefit from being kept alive trough newer consoles, but we really don't need BC for that.

 

[Atheerios]

Come on 10k, you can't keep us in the dark now...

10k, drop da bomb already

Wait... What did I miss?

 

[Manoko]

Wait... What did I miss?

This:

I could summarize everything I've been told into one post. Nothing too mind blowing.

 

[ozfunghi]

Wait... What did I miss?

He got some info over twitter PM, but "nothing huge".

 

[Nanashrew]

I just woke up and 10k has info? o:

 

[Schnozberry]

However, z0m3le brings up a good point. At the time when Nintendo locked their target specs, did they foresee a 2016 release? So, is it somehow possible that they will try to release (hypothetical) 2017 tech in 2016?

It really doesn't fit their MO. It would be a huge change of direction for them, and given their current market share and risk posture it seems highly unlikely to me.

It's fun to dream, though.

 

[Pokemaniac]

OK, it's possible that the NX controller has a touchscreen and the NX handheld will too, to accommodate that design consideration. That does make sense.

But that doesn't mean Wii U software will be playable, because it would need to be matching 1:1 (at minimum: same buttons, similarly sensitive/sized touch screen, which would mean no capacitive touch).

I'd be surprised if the Wii U touchscreen couldn't be emulated by a capacitive screen (though I really don't like capacitive screens in general, I'd much prefer if Nintendo used multi-touch resistive).

Yeah, it won't play Wii U games, they wouldn't be porting them if it did.

Ports mean nothing. Especially because most of them are probably going to end up with significant new content.

 

[Zarovitch]

I hope NX will support WiiU controller for off screen play

 

[Graphics Horse]

I don't see what you mean with that. Off-tv play has nothing to do with the handheld, and can work perfectly on one screen if needed.
They can also have a big enough display while using two screens. I don't see the point of regressing in terms of gameplay just for a different performance use. It's not as if the competition was proving something there.

Nintendo made something that lets you play console quality games around the house with only a single portable touch screen, all they have to do is extend that to playing anywhere beyond the house. You might think gameplay would regress but I can't think of many examples, and the 3DS lineup is hardly full of control innovations like the DS was.
I quite like the freeform screen idea which would allow more info to be displayed at the edges without intruding on the main game area.

 

[Joegrine_TT]

10k!!!!!!! we believe in you!!!

 

[doop_]

10k is going to blow our fucking minds.

Spoiler

 

[FZZ]

Lol at unverified sources on GAF

cmon

 

[ozfunghi]

It really doesn't fit their MO. It would be a huge change of direction for them, and given their current market share and risk posture it seems highly unlikely to me.

It's fun to dream, though.

I don't know. Would they have guessed to burry the WiiU this soon two years ago? Wouldn't they have gone for better tech with a 2017release (which would have been the normal timeframe for a successor)?

 

[BitStyle]

At this point, any legitimate info is good info to me, so I'll take it!

 

[dcx4610]

Something tells me the handheld will be sold separately and will used to stream games when at home but have its own game library when used portably.

I can't imagine an 8 or 12GB handheld that's at least as powerful as the PS4. The price would be insane and the battery life abysmal.

A powerful but traditional home console with an optional handheld that works together seems to make a lot of sense.

 

[Mpl90]

10k, if you really have infos of any kind, even if not too mind blowing...be careful about them

 

[Schnozberry]

I don't know. Would they have guessed to burry the WiiU this soon two years ago? Wouldn't they have gone for better tech with a 2017release (which would have been the normal timeframe for a successor)?

It really depends on where their R&D went. Getting better performance than the PS4 wouldn't be tough with 2015 tech let alone 2017 tech.

 

[Instro]

A53 cores make more sense for mobile. They could even do 8 of them, since they generally come in 4 core clusters. I wouldn't expect that much GPU power either unless AMD has some real magic planned at low wattage with Polaris. LPDDR4 makes sense for both home console and handheld. They can achieve near GDDR5 bandwidth and get lower latency. They'd need 8 chips for the console for a 256 bit bus and can scale down to their needs for the handheld.

Why? Wouldn't A72 cores at 14nm make more sense for a handheld? I mean the handheld may well be releasing in 2017 after all.

 

[10k]

Guys verification takes time I don't just want to throw shit out there and then if it doesn't end up being true I get crucified. I'm just the messenger.

If I just post it then the next 10 pages will be about if it's real or not and the discussion becomes divided.

 

[MoonFrog]

Guys verification takes time I don't just want to throw shit out there and then if it doesn't end up being true I get crucified. I'm just the messenger.

If I just post it then the next 10 pages will be about if it's real or not and the discussion becomes divided.

Ok. Is that to say you are getting it verified? Or just not going to post it?

 

[Instro]

Ok. Is that to say you are getting it verified? Or just not going to post it?

I think he said he was getting verification from mods earlier.

 

[DaSorcerer7]

Guys verification takes time I don't just want to throw shit out there and then if it doesn't end up being true I get crucified. I'm just the messenger.

If I just post it then the next 10 pages will be about if it's real or not and the discussion becomes divided.

Agreed.

 

[MoonFrog]

I think he said he was getting verification from mods earlier.

Thanks. Didn't read last couple of pages.

 

[georly]

Guys verification takes time I don't just want to throw shit out there and then if it doesn't end up being true I get crucified. I'm just the messenger.

If I just post it then the next 10 pages will be about if it's real or not and the discussion becomes divided.

Just DM me the deets on twitter or reddit then

 

[Not]

The thirst is real

 

[Manoko]

Guys verification takes time I don't just want to throw shit out there and then if it doesn't end up being true I get crucified. I'm just the messenger.

If I just post it then the next 10 pages will be about if it's real or not and the discussion becomes divided.

I understand.
I don't think you would get in trouble though, even without verification I mean, by posting simply what you heard without making a huge deal of it.

 

[Davey Cakes]

It's important to be patient. 10K is right. Verification is the LEAST of what we should expect from someone with actual information.

 

[Nanashrew]

I'm patient. I can wait.

Spoiler

DM me if you want 10k.

 

[Dark Cloud]

Hmm some new hidden info! I guess we'll have to wait until he gets verified...

 

[Schnozberry]

Why? Wouldn't A72 cores at 14nm make more sense for a handheld? I mean the handheld may well be releasing in 2017 after all.

They're cheap and good enough. This is Nintendo we're talking about. It could be a BIG.little design as well.

 

[Mpl90]

As said earlier, better be careful, yeah.

Spoiler

I'm Mpl90 on Twitter, you know what to do

 

[Thraktor]

Ok, a mis-transcript is a valid concern. And it more and more looks like one : /

Yeah, I've found the original quote:

...we projected earlier this year that we would have at least one to two semi-custom design wins and I’m pleased to report that we have those design wins, the work to design the products that has already started, the contract assigned and those parts get introduced in 2016.

[...]

I’m not going to give too much detail. I’ll say that one is x86 and one is ARM, and atleast one will be on gaming, right. But that’s about as much as you going to get out me today, because the customers from the standpoint to be fair to them. It is their product. They launch it.

(Link)

So either one or both of their late 2014 semi-custom wins are gaming devices, and then there's I believe another semi-custom win in 2015 which they haven't commented as much on. For all we know they could all be games consoles at this point.

An HPC part could, but in practice, those looking for HPC server parts tend to go with stand-alone GPUs. Because if your workload maps well to GPGPU, then going with larger GPUs over smaller ones normally pays back in efficiency - larger GPUs have better FLOP/Watt ratings. That's just the norm though, exceptions can occur.

True, but integrating CPU, GPU and RAM on a single package may have advantages of its own, for example by removing the PCIe bottleneck and allowing both CPU and GPGPU code to operate on the same HBM pool. You could also substantially increase node density and simplify cooling. I could see situations where this kind of approach may be suitable, such as simulations which are only partially suited to GPGPU and where CPU-GPU data transfers are a bottleneck. I don't know how typical this is, but given than Nvidia have developed NVLink as a replacement for PCIe in HPC it's obviously an issue in some cases. Considering that PCIe v3 provides about 16GB/s on an x16 interface, and NVLink provides 80-192GB/s (from Nvidia's 5-12x claim), having a shared 1024GB/s interface to a common memory pool may be advantageous in some situations where you would otherwise be writing back and forth a huge amount of memory between CPU and GPU.

That said, I'm more than willing to admit that I'm even less qualified to talk about this than I am for the rest of my contributions to this thread. I took a short module related to HPC in college, but they don't let undergrads play with the supercomputers, and we never even got so far as GPU-accelerated HPC, let alone the potential bottlenecks inherent for different GPGPU workloads.

 

[-Horizon-]

Guys verification takes time I don't just want to throw shit out there and then if it doesn't end up being true I get crucified. I'm just the messenger.

If I just post it then the next 10 pages will be about if it's real or not and the discussion becomes divided.

 

[doop_]

Emily tweeted again implying there will be some kind of third party support at launch.

 

[Kissenkopf]

10k will crush our foolish dreams of a powerful Nintendo console in a heartbeat. We will be a sad bunch of idiots, laying in our own tears and pee...wishing for the devil to take our soul and lock it away in a hype train that never stops. An endless nightmare because we thought it would be clever to believe in a dream. But at the end of the day we remember...dreams are for the night. ;_; 10k...do it.

 

[Vena]

10k will crush our foolish dreams of a powerful Nintendo console in a heartbeat. We will be a sad bunch of idiots, laying in our own tears and pee...wishing for the devil to take our soul and lock it away in a hype train that never stops. And endless nightmare because we thought it wouöd be clever to believe in a dream. But at the end of the day we remember...dreams are for the night. ;_; 10k...do it.

Expect it to be weaker. That's my moto.

 

[GamerJM]

Emily tweeted again implying there is some substantial third party support at launch for the NX.

She just said not to expect Nintendo to launch the console without some kind of third-party support. I'm guessing this is mainly just in response to the (now proven false) Reddit Rumor that third-parties aren't really releasing games until a few months into 2017.

 

[atbigelow]

Emily tweeted again implying there is some substantial third party support at launch for the NX.

Doesn't say substantial.

 

[-Horizon-]

Emily tweeted again implying there is some substantial third party support at launch for the NX.

Some unprecedented partnerships.

 

[Nanashrew]

Well, everyone was a bunch of crazy dreamers and looking for ultimate power. Only normal for many to be crushed.

I just expect parity is all.

 

[doop_]

She just said not to expect Nintendo to launch the console without some kind of third-party support. I'm guessing this is mainly just in response to the (now proven false) Reddit Rumor that third-parties aren't really releasing games until a few months into 2017.

I mean obviously the console would come with "support" so i thought she meant a sizeable number of titles.

 

[Vena]

Well, everyone was a bunch of crazy dreamers and looking for ultimate power. Only normal for many to be crushed.

I just expect parity is all.

Ultimate power is generally rare, seeing as how it can't be very ultimate if there are more than one of it.

Spoiler

And I have it.

Settling for parity/less than is a good baseline from which everything is generally good news!

 

[ffdgh]

10k will crush our foolish dreams of a powerful Nintendo console in a heartbeat. We will be a sad bunch of idiots, laying in our own tears and pee...wishing for the devil to take our soul and lock it away in a hype train that never stops. An endless nightmare because we thought it would be clever to believe in a dream. But at the end of the day we remember...dreams are for the night. ;_; 10k...do it.

Eh my expectations are already low as is. I have nothing to lose and more to gain at the moment.

 

[Davey Cakes]

Emily tweeted again implying there is some substantial third party support at launch for the NX.

Well if it's at least two or three games that aren't overpriced ports then it'll be a step up from Wii U.

 

[ozfunghi]

10k will crush our foolish dreams of a powerful Nintendo console in a heartbeat. We will be a sad bunch of idiots, laying in our own tears and pee...wishing for the devil to take our soul and lock it away in a hype train that never stops. An endless nightmare because we thought it would be clever to believe in a dream. But at the end of the day we remember...dreams are for the night. ;_; 10k...do it.

He was the one posting the optimistic specs just two pages back. So i'm guessing his info has nothing to do with specs.