Topic: 3DS Processor and Memory Details Leaked

[NWR_Karlie]

A little more information about what is used.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rumor/24094

Some details have emerged about the technical specifications of the hardware for the Nintendo 3DS.

An anonymous source has told IGN that "two 266MHz ARM11 CPUs, along with a 133MHz GPU, 4MBs of dedicated VRAM, 64MBs of RAM, and 1.5GBs of flash storage" are powering the handheld.

The ARM11 processor is currently used in devices such as various smartphones, the Zune HD, and the Amazon Kindle. Previous reports have named the GPU as DMP's PICA200, with impressive video demonstrations but the performance would depend on the specific chip in use.

For comparison, the DSi has 133MHz ARM9 and 33 MHz ARM7 CPUs, 16MB of RAM, and 256 MB of flash memory.

[Enner]

Mmm, delicious technical specifications. I know why Nintendo has avoided making such details public since the Wii as such information is probably meaningless to the average consumer. Still, I love indulging in such numbers just to know more about the product.

[Sarail]

Excellent. Although, I was expecting a bit more RAM and clock speed out of the GPU. Looks good, though. Can't wait to see what else devs can do with this little device.

[BlackNMild2k1]

2 ARM 11's and a GPU!?
nice.

It's also nice to have 1.5GB of onboard storage*, but I hope Nintendo didn't make the mistake again of not letting your SD card also function the same as the onboard flash.



*assuming this is all true of course.

[NWR_insanolord]

Those numbers aren't that exciting to me on their own considering I already have a handheld device with many times each of them.

[Bboy]

I'm glad Nintendo isn't making a big deal about these numbers, because they mean absolutely nothing to me (except the flash storage).

[Kytim89]

How do these specs compare to the wii and PSP? Also, I was expecting about 4GB of internal flash memory, but 1.5 is good enough for me.

[Jonnyboy117]

Dedicated GPU is a big upgrade from DS. Having 64MB of RAM is probably a good amount for the screens' resolution, although developers always want more. Out of that 1.5GB flash memory, I would bet around 1GB will be available to the user, with the rest allocated for firmware and built-in apps. Huge improvement over DSi, but the SD card needs to be better supported.

[Bboy]

It would be ridiculous if the SD slot wasn't unlocked to playing games off of like it is on the Wii.

[Mop it up]

I hope the 1.5GB comes true, and is an indication that we'll see even more in Nintendo's next home system.

For comparison, here are Wii specs:

CPU: 729 MHz
GPU: 243 MHz
RAM: 88 MB

So, the 3DS is not "more powerful" than the Wii hardware, but it doesn't seem very far behind. I'm sure we'll see some pretty games on it, which may sometimes look better than Wii games due to being in 3D and also appearing on a screen with far more pixels per inch.

[Stratos]

Judging the way they are implying a restructure of online and such I have no doubt that something along the lines of SD card support to expand storage space will occur.

[KDR_11k]

You cannot simply take MHz numbers and attach a linear scale to them. The Wii uses a 2001 PPC design which is significantly less efficient than modern CPU designs. The ARM11 was used in the first two generations of iPhones. While the specs are lower than those of the iPhone that's likely a good thing because the iPhone has a battery life that's worse than the Game Gear when it comes to gaming.

[NWR_insanolord]

I can get 6 hours while gaming on my iPhone 4, and Nintendo would most likely be able to fit a bigger battery in the 3DS' form factor than the iPhone's allows. It doesn't have to be quite to that level, but 233 MHz is a lot less than 1 GHz, and 64 MB of RAM is nothing compared to 512 MB.

Don't get me wrong; I'm still hugely excited for the 3DS, because it has a better control setup and games from Nintendo, but I would have liked more than this.

[MegaByte]

You cannot simply take MHz numbers and attach a linear scale to them. The Wii uses a 2001 PPC design which is significantly less efficient than modern CPU designs.

While your first statement is true, the ARM11 design isn't really "modern" -- it's from 2002.  I'll admit that I'm disappointed if these specs are true, especially after the Tegra 2 rumors -- these specs are more akin to Tegra 1 running at less than half speed!  I'm not too surprised, considering the battery requirements of the system, but the clock speeds are even lower than I was expecting, and I'd hoped for at least a Cortex-class ARM... this is several generations behind.  It also means that we can probably forget about a real OS/hypervisor on the thing.  Still, it's a big jump from what we've got now, but I guess certain phone apps will have to remain phone-only.

[NeoStar9X]

To really simplify this based on what I've been reading on NeoGaf. It seem what we have here is a a device with GameCube/Xbox hardware but with shader, etc tech/software that is used in the 360/PS3. So a mixture of old and new tech that is all very cost effective. Add in the small resolution and the claim that you can get results similar to the PS3/360 seems to be true. So it seems numbers alone can't be looked at. We have to take the entire package into consideration and how it wall works together.

[ThePerm]

how many bits?

Bits aren't important?

Its your usual easy to program 32-bits. It has numerous built in functions though. No nVidia Tegra? The nVidia Tegra is essentially an arm11 cpu with added gpu features. The 3ds is two Arm 11 processors and a pica200 GPU processor.

[MegaByte]

The nVidia Tegra is essentially an arm11 cpu with added gpu features. The 3ds is two Arm 11 processors and a pica200 GPU processor.

Tegra 1 was a dual core ARM 11 with GPU features running at 600-800 MHz.  Tegra 2 is a dual core ARM Cortex-A9 with more GPU features running at up to 1 GHz.  That's quite a big difference.

[Mop it up]

Nintendo has always been conservative with their hardware, especially lately. I don't know why anyone would expect something really big for the 3DS, especially something better that Wii hardware. If it's because of what we've seen in screenshots and video, well, that's because Nintendo knows how to optimize their hardware for great results.

[ShyGuy]

biggest thing: 4mb VRAM

[KDR_11k]

Supposedly the Tegra had trouble meeting the power consumption specs NVidia advertised.

My iPod Touch gets about 2 hours of battery life when gaming.

[Killer_Man_Jaro]

Nintendo stated out of E3 that their goal is to match the battery life of the DSi, which is approximately 14 hours on the lowest brightness setting.

If this is the real deal, those are some solid numbers. Offhand though, without any extra information, the GPU spec doesn't say a lot. We have heard that the 3DS, in comparison to the GameCube, supposedly is capable of fewer polygons but is superior at producing certain graphical effects like bump mapping (got no clarification for that, may have heard it on a podcast). It's a shame there was no detail on the audio processor; I'm interested to see how much of an improvement that will have over the DS, assuming it is an improved sound card et all.

[ThePerm]

because with a handheld you need 16 speaker dolby surround...

[GoldenPhoenix]

Is it really right to compare the 3DS to the iPhone? iPhone is a multi-application device with various functionality, the 3DS will likely be dedicated game system with other features.

[NWR_insanolord]

I've seen what the iPhone is technically capable of, and I want that with real controls.

[ThePerm]

my friend had one of those smart carts for his ds that let him do a bunch of things aside from the emulation, what 3ds needs is that built in without the semi legal stuff.