Topic: Nintendo 3DS Graphics Chip Revealed

[NWR_Neal]

No, it's not from anybody you've heard of.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=23466

 Despite rumors indicating that the Nintendo 3DS would be powered by an Nvidia Tegra chip, a press release has revealed that the system's graphics chip is in fact the PICA200 chip produced by Japanese hardware company Digital Media Professionals.    

The chip's clock speed is 200MHz, and it can push 15.3 million polygons and 800 million pixels per second.  It also features alpha-blending and full-scene antialiasing at a low level of power consumption, and employs the company's proprietary "Maestro" 3D graphics technology.    

Here's a demo reel of the chip in action.    

   

Thanks to BlackNMild2K1 and Greybrick for the news tips!

[MegaByte]

The specs fall in line with what we experienced at E3.  This chip can't push as many polygons as GameCube, but it can do more advanced texture/shader effects.

[AV]

so it's somewhere in between Dreamcast and GAMECUBE in graphical quality? 
 

[MegaByte]

You can't make a direct classification against Gamecube because it's better at some things and worse at others.  Kind of like N64 vs. DS.

[greybrick]

Really the most direct comparison I can make is that MGS 3 looked better to my eyes on the 3DS, especially with the 3D effect going.

The idea of a portable Wind Waker just surfaced in my mind, I am gonna start my letter to Reggie right now  :

[GearBoxClock]

All I can say is that it looks pretty good and that I hate hearing tech descriptions.
They always seem to large to give a good frame of reference to me.

[Fatty The Hutt]

Nice demo, but that guy isn't a very good swordsman  :

[BlackNMild2k1]

You can't make a direct classification against Gamecube because it's better at some things and worse at others.  Kind of like N64 vs. DS.

I would say close to GC but has a hand reaching towards Wii.

And from what I've read about this chip, it's not as powerful as the TEV units in the GC & Wii but is more flexible and has many more modern shader effects hardwired into the chip. What does that mean? It means 3rd parties already know how to work this chip and won't have issues with learning the ins&outs of it like the odd ball TEV unit that you have to learn to use only for that system. That's why most 3rd parties never bothered to push the system since there where no other applications for learning the TEV unit.

To make it even easier, it's like being in a group of friends where everyone speaks English a little different (some with an accent, some with lots of slang) but you can basically understand what everyone saying except for one friend who only speaks Russian. Now a few of the other friends know a little bit of Russian, but only enough to communicate.

That Russian friend is the TEV unit, everyone else, including the 3DS, speaks English.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Here is something you might want to add to the OP

It's a PDF from 2008 stating tha tthe chip can be clocked at 400Mhz @ 65nm
http://people.csail.mit.edu/kapu/EG_08/Mobile3D_EG08.pdf

that was 2 years ago, and I'm sure they've gotten the chip down to 40nm by now, so 400Mhz shouldn't be a problem at the same or less wattage.
I posted a pic so you don't have to sift through all the pages of that pdf

[BlackNMild2k1]

All I can say is that it looks pretty good and that I hate hearing tech descriptions.
They always seem to large to give a good frame of reference to me.

The graphics look on par with (or even better than) the PlayStation 2 version of Snake Eater – developers told us prior to the debut of the 3DS that the hardware is well beyond Wii and approaching 360/PS3 capabilities with what the system can do, and when you see this demo in action you can see why they would have said that.

[Rize]

From the screen shots I've seen, the 3DS looks polygon challenged, but with excellent shading capabilities.  Honestly, this isn't a bad thing for games that will appear on such a small screen.  The industry is getting much smarter about its 3D hardware design.  Only Sony with their ulterior motive (pushing the Cell to be used in more than just the PS3; or trying to have the best specs on paper) comes up with poor architectures these days.

[oohhboy]

On the smaller screen raw polys aren't going to matter as much. Why render 100 million polys when you can fake 90 Million of them.

I just hope they get enough RAM in the thing so they can take real advantage of it.

[UltimatePartyBear]

Nintendo does tend to scrimp on RAM.

I have to say, this line:

developers told us prior to the debut of the 3DS that the hardware is well beyond Wii and approaching 360/PS3 capabilities with what the system can do

...really drives home how poorly devs thought of the TEV.  Merely having more familiar shaders makes something with less poly-pushing power than Wii "approaching 360/PS3" in their eyes.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Visually they can make the games look alot better than on Wii and with a whole lot less effort.

[ThePerm]

shaders save polygons...you could have an 8 polygon mesh, and make it looks like it has 120 polygons with the right shading. Gamecube doesnt have a lot of built in shaders, and neither does Wii. In some way this hardware is weaker than gamecube and more powerful than Wii. None of that matters, what matters are results. The results look good. That demo reminds me of a prettier Soul Calibur 2. Nintendo could have made the graphics even better, probably at the same price...but then it would eat battery power and you'd never play your system as much, and then it woul cease to be important to you. low level Battery power consumption  is what has kept Nintendo systems relevant compared to their rivals for decades now.

[Shecky]

Well, that settles it.  Now every time the graphics chip in the 3DS comes up, I'm going to think PICA(CHU).  Thanks Nintendo, just thanks.