Nintendo 3DS specs possibly leaked... that's 'specifications', not 'glasses'

Two processors are better than one...

Words: Justin Towell on September 22, 2010

When something as special as Nintendo's 3DS comes along, it seems almost wrong to poke about inside it and see what makes it work. But we know how much you want to know about its specs... and as luck would have it, they might just have been leaked. We should point out that Nintendo hasn't confirmed any of this (though they will be revealing more details later this month), but the figures reportedly come from a reliable source. Here they are:

Two 266MHz ARM11 CPUs,
133MHz GPU,
4MBs of dedicated VRAM,
64MBs of RAM,
1.5GBs of flash storage

The biggest surprise here are the inclusion of two CPUs and the size of the on-board flash storage. It makes sense to assume each CPU will be responsible for drawing one side of the 3D graphics. That way, graphical quality won't be compromised by one processor having to draw both angles of the 3D. Makes sense, and we already know it works like a dream.

As for the flash memory, this is up from DSi's 256MB on-board storage, which was fine for a few photos and small games, but did need additional storage almost immediately. Don't worry about filling it up with your installed games, though - there's still going to be an SD memory card slot for your 3DS Ware titles.

There's nothing here that's wildly out of our expectations, so we're going to stick our necks out and say that these are probably definitely quite possibly likely.

What do you make of the specs? Let us know in the comments

22 Sep, 2010

Source: IGN

Platforms:

3DS

Topics:

Nintendo

15 comments

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AWBrawler - September 24, 2010 10:12 p.m.

IDK, why do we need you on this thread? You worthless troll! If you don't like it, then shut your lil fruity ass up and hop on over to the Sony threads. Don't deny it, I can see your gay lil puppet avatar you brain dead sony drone. If you gone come hating on threads that don't concern you, prepare to get flamed! Now run and tell that, homeboy!! on topic: those specs are about what I expected from the 3DS! Gamecube/wii with new shaders
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flare149 - September 23, 2010 6:13 p.m.

I'm sorry, but I've seen so much info on the 3DS that I finally need to say it: Why the hell do we need/want this? Yeah, cool 3D! Too bad that the graphics will also be completely blocky and it's still the same dang system that you've had forever. Good thinking Nintendo, charge the consumer AGAIN for basically the same thing. Look, I think 3D has potential and that the DS is a force to be reckoned with but without HD graphics the 3D is kinda silly and it's still the DS. Idk, just my opinion
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Shagnasty - September 23, 2010 5:42 p.m.

lol my Nexxus One is still waaaay more powerful than this... but the games are shit.
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Channel4 - September 22, 2010 7:08 p.m.

Looks fairly modest compared with the Iphone 4. But i suppose this having a graphics card and better developer support makes it quite a bit better in terms of graphics. I'd be surprised if these are the real specs though because I can't see the 64+4MB being able to produce some of the games we've seen so far, especially the Resident Evil demo.
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yagirlfriendsfavoriterapper - September 22, 2010 5:22 p.m.

the ps2 cpu clocked in @ 300 Mhz, this trumps that by far, the gpu also has got a lot on ps2. Nice rumor!
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CoryRX8 - September 22, 2010 5:03 p.m.

More than likely each CPU is more powerful than the PS2's. You can't just compare clock speeds, the MIPS core in the Emotion Engine and the ARM11 architecture are quite a bit different. More than likely the ARM11 is more powerful per clock based on the fact that it's out of order whereas the Emotion Engine was in-order, but that's just a guess.
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awsomemaster - September 22, 2010 3:15 p.m.

so it has the ram of a xbox and is just a little less then the ps2's cpu sound great
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infernox - September 22, 2010 3:14 p.m.

they underclocked the gpu, probably for less power usage. it has to run 3 screens since its a dual screen system plus the 3d screen.
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Imgema - September 22, 2010 2:46 p.m.

It has plenty of RAM too. More than the Gamecube, just as much as XBOX1. Thats great for a handheld...
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EnragedTortoise1 - September 22, 2010 2:39 p.m.

Kewl.
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Camoxide - September 22, 2010 2:35 p.m.

Yes it's more powerful than the PS2 but it's also doing twice the work.
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Austin_SJ - September 22, 2010 2:33 p.m.

The PS2 was 299 Mhz CPU I think, not really sure how the two CPU thing compares to it (I don't think it counts as a single 532).
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db1331 - September 22, 2010 2:24 p.m.

The most surprising thing for me was the 1.5GBs of flash storage. Hopefully this mean they plan on having more titles available for download. That was the main reason I bought a DSi, and the selection of games has been weak to say the least. I still haven't even used all the free points that came with the system.
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NEPAL - September 22, 2010 2:18 p.m.

Justin does this have more horsepower than the PS2.
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bluscorp - September 22, 2010 2:15 p.m.

interesting, if true.
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