3DS to features abilities close to PS3?

Well that is what IGN has stated anyway:

"Several developers that have experienced 3DS in its current form have reported, off the record, that it has processing capabilities that far exceed the Nintendo Wii and bring the device with abilities that are close to HD consoles such as PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. According to several developer sources, the 3DS device is not using the NVIDIA Tegra mobile chipset, a rumor that's been floating around since 2009. - IGN"
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Could the 3DS really be almost as powerful as the PS3/ 360? I can't wait to see what Nintendo has in store for us this E3. It really isn't like them to care about graphics. Maybe they are doing this so it can interact with the new Wii HD when that is announced. Wouldn't surprise me. What do you think about this, do you believe it?

The only way the 3DS will be close to the 360 or PS3 is if you put it on top of one...

I doubt it. It'd be too expensive, and Nintendo knows this. Not to mention that making a handheld more powerful than your current home console will only help to kill the console, and Nintendo won't do that. I'll still stick with the original rumors of around the Gamecube level. Except that maybe now, it's because people have finally learned things the Gamecube could have done?

^^ Not to mention that getting that kinda hardware into a handheld is impossible right now... well not completely impossible... it would just be pretty big for a handheld... turn into a handheld george foreman grill within minutes and only have enough power to play for about 15 minutes... so yeah... maybe gamecube graphics on a small screen will feel kinda like 360 or PS3 graphics... but then again the PSP already has games that get pretty close to the PS2 so I doubt we are going to see a extraordinary leap in graphics here...

Well I am not up to snuff graphics cards in mobile devices however I do know a thing or two about the processors.

Here are some of the speed for various consoles

300 MHz - PS2
485 MHz - Gamecube
733 MHz - Xbox
729 MHz - Wii
3.2 GHz x 3 cores - Xbox 360
3.6 Ghz x 8 - PS3* 8 "cores" but only 6 can used

HandHeld Devices

67 MHz - DS
333 MHz - PSP
667 MHz - iPhone
1 GHz - Htc Droid Incredible
1 GHz - Htc Hd 2
1 GHz - Htc Evo


Another thing to take into consideration is how the architecture of chips has changed over the last 7 years. At my office we have a 2.8 GHz i7 (4 cores) that will smoke a 2 year old 3.2 GHz xeon (4 cores) because of the superior architecture.

PS2 GPU - 150 MHz
GC GPU - 162MHz
Xbox GPU - 233 MHz

I would also note that Nintendo knows how to make hardware, the Gamecube would out preform the Xbox even though the clock speed on individual peaces where higher on the xbox because the Gamecube had superior architecture in integrating the pieces.

Based on the knowledge of all of that I think it is perfectly plausible that the 3DS can preform significantly better then the Wii. The article does not say it can perform as well as the 360/PS3 merely "closer to" which is a relative term that has no real meaning. Obviously it would be highly illogical to believe the same specs would be in the hand held. That said there is no reason to believe that the look of the graphics might not come close or in between the wii and 360 graphics. That stupid iPad only has resed up games from the iPhone right now and some are already Wii quality.

^^ not trying to be a smartass (entirely) but Im 99% sure 360 has 3x 3.0 GHz cores... and that the PS3 cell cores don't have 3.6 GHz individually... naturally console cpus have different architectures from PCs... the cell being very different... also the 360 relies more on a good gpu while the PS3 takes almost all its computing power from the cell... I seriously doubt the 3DS will be as good as the Wii concerning power and graphics... just because it would cost to much, use to much power... and the DS already showed that graphics are not the feature that sell a handheld... or a console if you have a new business model...

Sorry about that the 360 is 3.2GHz and yes next to none is used for rendering the graphics. The point was to show whats in big boxes and whats in handheld boxes, ie. what can be put in the 3DS affortably.

Yes only the controlling processor on the PS3 in actually rated at 3.6. The 8 SPE's I have never found any real info on. Though the fan sites say they are the same
http://www.whatconsole.co.uk/ps3.php

Anyways the point is my wifes $200 phone has a 1GHz processor in it, and I can buy a mini laptop with better specs then a Wii for under $300. Those mini are only like 7 inches wide and have way more embeded cost then a console would like an licensed operating system.

^^ yeah my dad just got one of them 300$ -400$ mini laptops and I was pretty impressed hom much power can be packed in a really small box these days... and I did't know cellphones had 1Ghz processors now... thats pretty cool... though I don't know what you would need that for in a cellphone... I remember our first PC having something like 4 MHz... and modern cellphones easily outperform the computers that where used in the apollo missions... pretty crazy... also a few years ago I red that a computer had the power to match the intelligence of insects... I wonder what animal we can match these days... and when the first PC will rival the human brain... of course there the arcitecture and functionallity are worlds appart...

I read an interesting post on IGN that said they thought maybe the 3DS would actually be the next home console from Nintendo. Like you could plug it into your TV. I doubt it but that does seem to be something that may happen in the future.

Also I really don't understand phones to my knowledge they don't have a graphics processor (the ones like th iphone) and that confuses me. I think they just use the CPU.

Check out these iphone/Ipad Games


iPad - GAMES