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Originally posted by: NickNiteQ93
Personally, I hope Nintendo plops down as much, or more, money than Microsoft to ATi for the GPU. I'm sure MS is happy to call their console "the most powerful console available", so it wouldn't suprise me if/when ATi decides to make GPU's for the Xbox Next that they'll make a huge donation to ensure superiority. And even if the next Nintendo system does have powerful specs, it still won't be the most powerful. The Big N, as stated earlier, is money concious, and money concious doesn't equal extreme power. Get your head out of the clouds. Unless Nintendo changes its tune about its money, then I'm looking for the next console from them to be the budget one, as always. But that's fine with me. And if it is the most powerful thing available, then rock on. I'll only buy Nintendo no matter what, so it doesn't matter. Personally, I think ATi should make the GPU for the next Game Boy. Having a portable PS2-type console wouldn't bother me one bit.
Well, thing is both MS and Sony's next systems are most likely going to be "convergence devices" meaning that they'll have a bunch of extra stuff packed in there that has nothing to do with gaming. Because of this, their systems are going to not only be more expensive to produce, but very likely also less durable than Nintendo's. That said, Nintendo can pack more potent gaming hardware into their next system than the competition because they won't be blowing cash on things like DVD licensing fees, ports for digital cameras and recorders, TV tuners for TiVo-type support, and really large hard drives to store digital video on.
All that stuff is really expensive, especially the big hard drive. Granted, Sony and MS will be willing to lose more money than Nintendo on their next systems, but that doesn't mean that this isn't a golden opportunity for Nintendo to launch at the same time with more powerful hardware if MS and Sony really do intend to do convergence devices, which seems very likely. The chances of Nintendo having the most powerful hardware next generation is looking pretty good to me, maybe 50-50 right now, even despite their cash conscious ways.
Look at what Nintendo did with the GC and think about that level of hardware efficiency versus a convergence device and ask yourself "who wins?"
Getting back on topic though, Nintendo should probably go with IBM again and have them make them a modified Power5 processor with the same instructions Gekko had, and maybe a few more little gaming related tweaks. It makes for easy backward compatibility and also easier development for developers returning to the system.