New 3DS is quicker than the old – but just how much quicker? And simply how much of an improvement do we see in games optimised for the modified hardware? Hyrule Warriors arrived on Nintendo 3DS this week, around 18 months after its Wii launching – and it’s something of an unusual breed of title. It is among the couple of 3DS titles that works out the extra power of the New 3DS, which in turn represents something in the method of incomplete business for Digital Foundry. We understand that Nintendo’s revitalized handheld boasts a considerable boost in power compared to the launch design, but just how much more capable is it? Getting a company concept of the efficiency differential in between the 2 handhelds has actually been something we have actually been eager to check for a long period of time now, and while we have access to an older 3DS ‘Nitro’ kit, which allows for capture, we don’t have a New 3DS equivalent. Nevertheless, capture kits and hardware mods are available to obtain the job done, making use of the exact same core innovation found in our modified PlayStation Vita. YouTuber Tilmendomination owns such a device, and offered the captures that made this short article possible. But initially, let’s talk core specifications. It’s safe to say that the 3DS isn’t really exactly the most effective piece of video gaming hardware on the block. Based on specs discovered on 3DBrew, stemmed from hacking and reverse-engineering the hardware, the initial model of the 3DS included a dual-core ARM11 CPU clocked at 268MHz, along with a second ARM core running at 134MHz. The New 3DS is an interesting revision of the older hardware – ARM11 core count doubles and clock-speed radically shifts up-wards from 268MHz to 804MHz, while memory and VRAM increase substantially. What’s curious is that presumably the GPU stays totally the same – in effect, New 3DS appears to be about bringing CPU power more into balance with its graphics capacity. An older 3DS XL (left) side-by-side with a New 3DS – see the extra nub alongside the face buttons – the incorporated variation of 3DS’s controversial Circle Pad Pro. But it’s the internal upgrades we’re going to focus on mostly i this piece. Graphics responsibilities are taken care of utilizing a DMP PICA processor, once again clocked at 268MHz. It was a remarkably old GPU, even for its time, lacking the sort of programmable pixel shaders we have actually seen considering that the launch of Xbox 360. However, it does have a number of set function obstructs capable of managing per-fragment lighting, hard and soft watching, bump-mapping, procedural textures as well as the rendering of ‘gaseous objects’. Furthermore, customized hardware also speeds up geometry processing. It’s something of a hardware lightweight though, and its library is efficiently a triumph of software design overcoming some harsh constraints. Nintendo in particular has drawn out magic from this meagre specification, to the point where titles like Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros compare favourably to their Wii U equivalents. However, the New 3DS represents a considerable leap forward – sadly, the GPU provides no improvement in any way whatsoever, but the primary ARM processor is upgraded to a quad-core design, CPU frequency can increase to 804MHz, plus there’s far more memory, unlocking to advantages such as shorter loading times, and greater detail textures. Particularly, system RAM doubles to 256MB, the GPU gets an additional 4MB of VRAM, while there’s likewise some extra L2 cache on the CPU. Hyrule Warriors released on 3DS today, with enhanced New 3DS support. Here’s how it compares versus the older design – and the Wii U initial. So how does this all equate to the gameplay experience? We’ll start with a look at this week’s essential release – Hyrule Warriors. This Wii U port just exercises one crucial element of the 3DS spec bump – the processor upgrade. In terms of the graphical cosmetics of the game, absolutely nothing has actually altered, but in regards to the gameplay … well, that’s an entire various story. New 3DS is something of a game-changer, offering up a 50 percent general improvement to performance. Running Hyrule Warriors on an old 3DS, gameplay sticks at the 20fps level throughout, often dipping below and occasionally striking 30fps. By contrast, New 3DS offers up something approaching a locked 30fps throughout the experience. In fact, it even runs more efficiently than the initial Nintendo Wii U version, which typically struggles to keep its 30fps cap – a remarkable state of affairs for a game based on the Dynasty Warriors engine, initially developed to run at 60fps. There’s the sense that the developer has primarily targeted the more modern 3DS here, with less factor to consider to those with older hardware – 20fps for a fast-moving action video game isn’t really fantastic and it’s an often disorientating experience. However, compromises have actually been made for those with the current kit – packing times aside, there’s little in the method of more improvements. The additional memory results in no tangible upgrade to the visual experience, however the frame-rate upgrade is highly worthwhile – and by all accounts, Rodea: The Star Soldier is another 3DS title offering a similar increase on the more current 3DS hardware [UPDATE 27/3/16 13:34: We’ve simply gotten word that Rodea really performs at the same 20fps frame-rate on both systems – this exhaustive thread has more of an in-depth breakdown on New 3DS support.] Beast Hunter 4 Ultimate was the showcase video game for the New 3DS at launch, with texture quality and performance enhancements – the incorporated Circle Pad Pro on the revised 3DS was likewise crucial to the experience. The very same cannot be stated for Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate – the display video game for the New 3DS on its Japanese launch, and still among the most remarkable utilisations of the changed hardware. Benefits offered here move beyond the silicon alone – the New 3DS essentially incorporated the controversial Circle Pad Pro into the primary unit, and it’s necessary for this title. The benefits of the internal hardware increase are two-fold – unlike Hyrule Warriors, New 3DS owners do in fact see a significant bump to the quality of the visuals, with enhanced textures adding significantly to the overall discussion, though the complete efficiency is curtailed somewhat owing to the still-crude 400×240 resolution. However, there are no other upgrades, highlighting the absence of modification in the GPU hardware design between the two 3DS revisions. Nevertheless, performance sees an upgrade on par, if not better than that seen in Hyrule Warriors. The older 2DS is adept – it hands in a read-out in the 30fps area, however the game is running opened, so the video game does lack some consistency in its update. That is there is no bar on efficiency below the 3DS panel’s 60Hz refresh extends to the same code running on New 3DS too, where we find a performance bump a lot more excellent than Hyrule Warriors – gameplay sees anything from a 50 to 66 per cent uplift, bringing gameplay approximately 45-50fps. Oddly however, engine-driven cut-scenes see hardly any enhancement. Xenoblade Chronicles continues to be the standout New 3DS title – the showcase game that reveals exactly what the enhanced hardware might provide. It’s uncannily much like the Wii original. Software application special to the brand-new 3DS is thin on the ground – to be anticipated possibly when the userbase is controlled by owners of the older hardware modification – which’s something of a shame based on the quality of Xenoblade Chronicles, a port of the traditional open world Wii title, and the most prominent New 3DS unique. Put simply, if you currently own Nintendo’s top-tier 3DS, you truly need to examine this out. It’s an astonishing conversion. Resolution aside, there’s one essential compromise in result here – texture quality, where the detail level is clearly lower than the Wii original. Nevertheless, it doesn’t actually matter that much owing to the fact that it’s a portable video game. The media on this page can put a rather ruthless spin on the drawback of Nintendo’s handheld – and the same thing occurred when we accumulated PlayStation Vita versus PS3 – but in hand, the smaller screen manages to mitigate many of the compromises, be they detail and even performance-related. Definitely, the cutbacks somewhere else are minimal. To all intents and purposes, this is effectively the very same video game – the title is feature-complete in regards to content, the environments and characters are left unblemished in regards to geometry levels and even effects-work is a match. The designer makes some compromises in regards to level of detail (LOD), so you do see more pop-in on objects are you pass through the environments, however once again, the smaller sized screen helps to make a small issue end up being more of a non-issue throughout actual gameplay. Frame-rate is likewise extremely excellent too. The Wii version sticks relatively doggedly to its 30fps target, and New 3DS does a remarkable task in following suit during gameplay – particularly in traversal areas. GPU-stressing effects – in specific transparent alpha textures – do cause concerns for the New 3DS though and this can affect the experience a little during battle. Otherwise however, the hit happens primarily during cut-scenes where the gamer is passive, so aside from a little judder, there’s not truly a concrete hit to the overall experience. Xenoblade Chronicles cements its technological qualifications on New 3DS with an incredibly strong level of performance during gameplay, though effects-heavy sequences see the initial Wii variation take point. Xenoblade Chronicles is an amazing accomplishment – the most highly advanced Nintendo portable game we have actually played, however alas, also something of an outlier for New 3DS, standing apart from the crowd in regards to its unrestrained utilisation of the more effective hardware. You can’t help however question how the quality of 3DS titles would have enhanced throughout the board if Nintendo had chosen this design right from the get-go. After all, the spec revision does not in fact present any new technology as such – there’s simply more RAM, more CPU cores and a clock-speed boost. The fact that we still see such excellent performance increases when the GPU element apparently continues to be entirely unchanged from one 3DS to the next is hugely exposing – it tells us that the initial launch hardware was out of balance, that the GPU was left significantly under-utilised, owing to a serious lack of CPU resources. Extremely perhaps this was down to that battery life was a genuine problem – we assume that the New 3DS makes the most of a smaller procedure node for its hardware. As things stand, existing 3DS titles see no efficiency bump when operating on New 3DS hardware, even those with unlocked frame-rates. Unless the software requests for the additional power, the New 3DS simply goes for the old variation’s speed – though you do get packing time improvements from the bigger pool of RAM. That hasn’t stopped hackers with customized firmware kicking in New 3DS’s 804MHz speed on older 3DS content. Regrettably, this is something we couldn’t test, however there are reported enhancements on titles such as Pokemon XY (which ran improperly), Beast Hunter 3U and Luigi’s Estate 2 (opened frame-rate), Ace Fight 3DS (unlocked frame-rate). Oddly, you can likewise downclock New 3DS to old 3DS’s 268MHz clock-speed, and not remarkably, Xenoblade is crippled as an outcome. General then, putting this contrast together has actually been an extremely explanatory and pleasurable workout – but we cannot assist however feel some level of regret that exactly what is a clearly considerable revamp of the hardware never really got the traction it should have in regards to software application support. Just the number of video games were held back from being the best they perhaps could have been owing to the preliminary design’s weak CPU? As Nintendo shifts towards its NX hardware, hopefully the designers can get the hardware balance right on the first try. Sometimes we consist of connect to online retailers. If you click on one and make a purchase we may get a small commission. To learn more, go here. Rich has been a games reporter since the days of 16-bit and specialises in technical analysis. Frequently known around Eurogamer as the Blacksmith of the Future.See all stories onthis topic
Face-Off: Nintendo 3DS vs New 3DS
