That thing can run Quake 3! 
The Other Troper
Wow. That's impressive. It could possibly be more powerful than the PS 2, or at least close to it. Certainly many times more powerful than the original DS.
For reference, the DS's specs (from Wikipedia, omitting irrelevant parts):
- CPUs: Two ARM processors, an ARM 946 E-S main CPU and ARM 7 TDMI coprocessor at clock speeds of 67 MHz and 33 MHz respectively. The ARM 946 E-S CPU processes gameplay mechanisms and video rendering while the ARM 7 TDMI processes sound output, Wi-Fi support and additionally, when in Game Boy Advance mode, processes what the other processor used to do.
- RAM: 4 MB of mobile RAM, expandable via the Game Boy Advance slot (The expanded memory is officially only used by the Opera web browser.)
- Storage: 256 kB of serial flash memory.
The system's 3D hardware performs transform and lighting, texture-coordinate transformation, texture mapping, alpha blending, cel shading, and z-buffering; however, it uses point (nearest neighbor) texture filtering, leading to some titles having a blocky appearance. Unlike most 3D hardware, it has a set limit on the number of triangles it can render as part of a single scene; the maximum amount is about 6144 vertices, or 2048 triangles per frame. The 3D hardware is designed to render to a single screen at a time, so rendering 3D to both screens is difficult and decreases performance significantly. The DS is generally more limited by its polygon budget than by its pixel fill rate. There are also 512 kilobytes of texture memory, and the maximum texture size is 1024x1024 pixels.
The system has 656 kilobytes of video memory[25] and two 2D engines (one per screen). These are similar to (but more powerful than) the Game Boy Advance's single 2D engine; however, the cores are divided into the main core and sub core. Only the main core is capable of vertex 3D rendering.
edited 21st Sep '10 8:35:42 PM by DYRE
Somebody from Neo GAF's comments on it(A user named brain_stew):
The CPU setup is interesting but perhaps not surprising, two low clocked CPUs can often mean a lower powerdraw than one higher clocked CPUs (both Intel and AMD use this approach in their netbook chips and ARM themselves are going this way with the Cortex A9 and Eagle) and it should make BC with the NDS (which is a dual CPU system as well) a lot easier.
266mhz is a super low clockspeed for an ARM 11 chip but two of them together should be more than sufficient I would think. I never expected an A8 and was kinda worried they'd go with something even simpler so two modestly clocked ARM 11 is decent news in my book. Loading just two CPU cores really isn't all that difficult these days, most developers have plenty experience loading 6+ threads now and its even a skill NDS developers had to learn. The amount of L2 cache will have a big say in just how well those AR M11s perform.
64MB always seemed the most likely from what we'd seen so far but I was still hoping for 128MB.
We knew about the dedicated memory but a dedicated 4MB framebuffer is pretty damn roomy considering the modest rendering resolution.
The 133mhz GPU clockspeed tells us little really without knowing how many pipelines the chip has but its certainly not discouraging news. A 100mhz or lower clockspeed didn't seem out of the question previously
I really like the design, it seems to take all the good points of the various previous generation systems without any of the drawbacks and it should deliver fantastic battery life. I'd definitely take this design over a PS 2 and GCN and probably even an Xbox as well because of the dedicated framebuffer which overcomes one of the major bottlenecks of that system.
One things clear, its certainly a gaming focused design. This really wouldn't be very good at all for a smartphone but for a machine that only has to worry about pumping out great looking games it seems to be terrifically balanced. Its not cutting edge but its a smart use of the available technology to deliver a system that should deliver the best gaming experience for the given cost and power constraints. Pretty much precisely what you'd expect from a Nintendo system.
edited 21st Sep '10 9:33:46 PM by Meophist
Helpful Scripts and Stylesheets here.
The Other Troper
And with the 3D, having a dedicated frame buffer just makes sense.
I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.
The Final ECW Champion
It won't sell, everyone's saving up money for Pokemon.
Modified Ura-nage, Torture Rack
^ What.
The Final ECW Champion
Its coming out in 2011. Darkrai's evolution is in White and Sceptile's is in Black. They will be on the regular DS so there is no reason to get a 3DS.
Modified Ura-nage, Torture Rack
o-o; What. The. Frick.
Are you on something, or thats some weird kind of sarcasm?
And with the 3D, having a dedicated frame buffer just makes sense.For comparison to the 3DS' 4MB frame buffer, the Wii has 3MB. The 3DS pushes 268800 pixels total while the Wii pushes 307200.
edited 21st Sep '10 10:00:57 PM by Meophist
Helpful Scripts and Stylesheets here.
There are no amount of facepalms large enough to display my displeasure at that "logic".
In any case, the large frame buffer should prevent colour banding
and dithering that occurs in some Wii games and many PSP games.
Unless "evolution" means not the obvious, I really don't know how to respond to that.
Like, seriously. WTF.
Also, Pokemon is way cheaper than a 3DS. Sure, you'd have to save money longer for the 3DS if you bought it, but let's face it. You'll be saving money to get the expensive thing anyway.
The Final ECW Champion
Darkrai has a thing on its head and the guy on the white box has a thing on his head. Based on the ghastly line, Darkrai is growing more body parts, and thus evolving.
Sceptile has a huge tail, which evolution turned into an electrical motor, giving fans that second type Treeco's line never got.
No one's even going to know about the 3DS, everyone will be too busy looking on Smogon for spoilers to pay attention to IGN(which is the root word for ignorant). And the PS 3 will outsell the PS 2.
Modified Ura-nage, Torture Rack
The Final ECW Champion
^^ What.
So, about the 3DS guys...
This is going to be a system that can outperform the Wii. That itself is pretty exciting, isn't it?
Helpful Scripts and Stylesheets here.
All that freaking power... on a handheld. JESUS CHRIST.
Wait, it can outperform a WII?
Holy handbaskets in a Hell.
I mean.
WOW.
I've been saying this a lot lately, but...
I. Came.
I should add the qualifier that it can outperform it in some respects. It can't outdo the Wii on everything, for example the polygon count will likely be lower and it'll obviously be lower resolution, but it's capable of better shaders and has other neat tricks, like 3D.
Generally speaking, games on this system will look better than games on the Wii.
...Not that it's really going to be that big of an accomplishment, but still.
Helpful Scripts and Stylesheets here.
The Final ECW Champion
Well it wasn't that long ago that Gamecube and X-box were the pinnacles of console gaming graphics and a system twice as powerful as them is said to "Look like Golden Eye"
Modified Ura-nage, Torture Rack
IGN has gotten reports from anonymous developers on the specs of the Nintendo 3DS.
—
Sources reveal new details regarding the handheld's processors, memory, and storage.
While it remains uncertain whether or not we'll see the Nintendo 3DS released in western territories before the end of 2010, we have received new information regarding the hardware powering the 3D-enabled handheld.
IGN has learned that the Nintendo 3DS will pack not one, but two 266MHz ARM 11 CPUs, along with a 133MHz GPU, 4MBs of dedicated VRAM, 64MBs of RAM, and 1.5GBs of flash storage. The information comes from persons familiar with the hardware who spoke to us under the condition of anonymity.
(See the link for the rest of the article.)
edited 21st Sep '10 7:07:52 PM by DragonQuestZ
I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.