# Video game head-to-head Vita vs. 3DS



## Zense (Feb 2, 2020)

After having heard several people talk about the new 3ds being more powerful than the vita in terms of raw power, which is contrary to my impression of the Vita even though I've never used one, I started thinking if there were any games from this last handheld generation that were on both platforms and kept the same games. This would make comparing them easier, even if no multiplatform games were specifically made for the New 3DS.

I swear I've tried to look for any easily obtainable answer to this without any result. However, I can imagine the typical Lego games being on both and maybe some skylanders. There's probably also Tekkens, Street Fighter and maybe Dead or Alive. Minecraft comes to mind as well. I saw that Senran Kagura came out on both but they seem to be different games.

I've also tried to look for any of the usual [3ds version of a game] vs [Vita version of that same game] videos that you typically find on youtube (of the sorts VCDECIDE and Elanalistadebits make), but I could not find any. So if anyone has something like this then that would be fantastic and quench my curiosity a bit.

Please do not misinterpret this as any fanboy war whatever (both systems have finished their runs anyway).

Thinking about it there's probably a lot of indies that are available on both (?).

NB I'm not interested in the typical discussion of which one has the best specs blah blah blah. I'm purely interested in any games present on both systems and how these compare to each other, since this topic seems to not have been that much addressed.

So yeah, I'm not 100% sure of all of these, but the games I can think of so far are:

*Retail games*


Spoiler: Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate



To be honest I hadn't even heard of this game before, but I found a pretty nice video on them. The difference is not that big really, only the resolution, texture quality and maybe the fps. This one would really have been interesting to see what the N3DS could have produced. There are quite a few effects that the Vita shows too like fog and basic reflection on some textures. Having said all of that I can definetely say that this is the most similar game I've seen between these two systems and I imagine while holding them both in hand it would be hard to tell them apart, mainly if we talk about the 3ds LL editions and not the bigger XL. You could probably only tell a difference by looking at the graphical effects missing on the 3DS. 






Spoiler: BlazBlue



I'm not too familiar with this game, but it's nice to see a 2D fighter compared. Makes you think back to Street Fighter Alpha series on PS1 vs Saturn. The vid I found shows some differences even if the video of it self suffers from video artifacting and probably from streaming no youtube as well. The Vita has some more effects like leaves that float up from the ground and interestingly the goddess finish move has more animation than the firm 3ds one. I guess this must be because of storage medium. Not sure if these games were physically released, but that would explain it.







Spoiler: Conception 2



According to @oxenh this game runs fine on the 3DS but has worse resolution (naturally) and worse fps.



Lego games



Spoiler: Metal Gear Solid 3



I managed to find a video on this one and the Vita runs at pretty solid 30 fps, higher resolution. Even more so at higher clock speeds. The 3DS runs at an unstable 10-20 fps. Setting n3ds clock speeds does make it more stable around 20 fps but it still drops frequently.







Spoiler: Minecraft



According to @Orangy57 the PS Vita version runs a lot better than the exclusively New 3DS version, with better more stable framerate, better draw distance, higher graphics settings.

I managed to find a vid however disregard the choppy gameplay that is caused by the creator streaming the game over wifi and focus on the fps counter. The Vita version runs at around 50 fps when running at higher clocks while the N3DS runs at round 38 fps. 






Spoiler: Rayman Origins



Sure this game is 2D, but it's still interesting to see how it plays on both systems. I even found a nice video on it. It's the first to compare sound quality (or speaker to be more precise) between the two systems and not so shockingly the 3ds has a worse speaker. Would've been nice to hear a comparison using their audio outs. There's not much else to say. The resolution is of course higher on the Vita. Perfomance seems to be the same. 






Spoiler: Resident Evil Revelations 1 vs 2



Revelations 1 was released on the 3DS and was not enhanced for the N3DS but still runs pretty well. The PS Vita sequel runs well too with a higher res and textures but maybe less stable frame rate. 






Spoiler: Ridge Racer



I was not aware that this game came out on both systems. I haven't found any concrete comparisons on gameplay other than the below video. It is obvious that the resolution is quite different and I would expect the Fps as well to be better on the Vita. Would be interesting to hear what fps they run at and how higher clock speeds affect both systems





Severed



Spoiler: Sonic & Sega All Star Racing



Again I only found a vid showing footage of the two games. However I seem to remember people saying the 3ds version tends to crash when running at N3DS clock speeds. Would be interesting to have a comparison showing the fps on those as well.

Here's another nice comparison vid with a lot of good commentary. The framerate seems to be around 5 fps lower on average on the 3ds compared to the vita.





Street Fighter IV (?)
Tekken (?)

Virtue's Last Reward

Zero Time Dilemma


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## yuyuyup (Feb 2, 2020)

The bottom line is, "3D makes everything better" this is the unassailable consensus, and do not listen to anyone else on the matter because they're foolish.


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## orangy57 (Feb 2, 2020)

I don't have any video comparisons, but I know Minecraft runs far better on the Vita than the New 3DS. Minecraft on the 3DS was made exclusively for the New 3DS line, and that version ran horribly despite using all of the New 3DS's extra power. Render distances are locked to essentially their bare minimum, and the graphics are all set to what would be the "fast" counterparts on the PC. The vita version does not run perfect, but the render distance is higher, the resolution is larger, it has smooth lighting, and it can usually keep a stable 30 FPS, with a couple dips when large structures load in. I'm not sure whether the 3DS porting team dropped the ball, or if the New 3DS is just that much worse spec-wise.


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## Daggot (Feb 2, 2020)

I like the selection and hombrew better on the vita. It has a bunch of unique dungeon crawlers and EDF on the go so thats a + for me.


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## Zense (Feb 2, 2020)

yuyuyup said:


> The bottom line is, "3D makes everything better" this is the unassailable consensus, and do not listen to anyone else on the matter because they're foolish.


As a matter of fact I am considering getting those specific 3D glasses so I can enjoy the full 3D experience without ghosting (since sooo many games do that sadly).



Orangy57 said:


> I don't have any video comparisons, but I know Minecraft runs far better on the Vita than the New 3DS. Minecraft on the 3DS was made exclusively for the New 3DS line, and that version ran horribly despite using all of the New 3DS's extra power. Render distances are locked to essentially their bare minimum, and the graphics are all set to what would be the "fast" counterparts on the PC. The vita version does not run perfect, but the render distance is higher, the resolution is larger, it has smooth lighting, and it can usually keep a stable 30 FPS, with a couple dips when large structures load in. I'm not sure whether the 3DS porting team dropped the ball, or if the New 3DS is just that much worse spec-wise.



Very interesting. Thanks for sharing this! As statistics would have it we would need a bigger sample so more games to be able to give an answer to whether the devs dropped the ball on that game.

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Daggot said:


> I like the selection and hombrew better on the vita. It has a bunch of unique dungeon crawlers and EDF on the go so thats a + for me.


Yeah, I was thinking since quite a few homebrew ports are on both systems they could be used to compare as well. Actually, one of the threads were I heard the N3DS described as stronger was over at the Diablo 3DS port thread. I wonder how that game compares between the two. Of course there's the Dooms, Quakes and potentially emulators (where those running on native hardware can't really be counted.).


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## spectral (Feb 2, 2020)

Overall the new 3ds isn't more powerful than a Vita. It is true that the CPU in it is clocked higher than the Vita's CPU, but especially when it comes to gaming the CPU is only part of the story. The Vita has a much better GPU and more RAM. So even with its weaker CPU the vita is more capable when it comes to gaming.

I appreciate that this is the "this one has the better specs, blah blah blah, you don't want. However like it or not the two are related. How capable it is and its specs are directly tied. The Vita's GPU is in another league to the one in the 3DS systems and this is why there is the difference others have mentioned,


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## oxenh (Feb 2, 2020)

The only experience that i can share is the game Conception 2. The game run fine in 3ds but in worst resolution and less fps


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## Zense (Feb 2, 2020)

spectral said:


> Overall the new 3ds isn't more powerful than a Vita. It is true that the CPU in it is clocked higher than the Vita's CPU, but especially when it comes to gaming the CPU is only part of the story. The Vita has a much better GPU and more RAM. So even with its weaker CPU the vita is more capable when it comes to gaming.
> 
> I appreciate that this is the "this one has the better specs, blah blah blah, you don't want. However like it or not the two are related. How capable it is and its specs are directly tied. The Vita's GPU is in another league to the one in the 3DS systems and this is why there is the difference others have mentioned,


Yeah the hardware is essentially what determines and I don't think, but of course I don't know, that the New 3DS would even be capable of running something like Uncharted Golden Abyss or God of War in the same way as the Vita at the same resolution. My point of this thread was just to get some game to game comparisons as I felt those have been very lacking, even if both consoles should be able to run quite similar games. Albeit at varying results.



oxenh said:


> The only experience that i can share is the game Conception 2. The game runs fine in 3ds but in worst resolution and less fps


Thanks! I added this to the list of games with your description. I'm not personally familiar with the game except for by name.


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## The Real Jdbye (Feb 2, 2020)

Zense said:


> After having heard several people talk about the new 3ds being more powerful than the vita in terms of raw power, which is contrary to my impression of the Vita even though I've never used one, I started thinking if there were any games from this last handheld generation that were on both platforms and kept the same games. This would make comparing them easier, even if no multiplatform games were specifically made for the New 3DS.
> 
> I swear I've tried to look for any easily obtainable answer to this without any result. However, I can imagine the typical Lego games being on both and maybe some skylanders. There's probably also Tekkens, Street Fighter and maybe Dead or Alive. Minecraft comes to mind as well. I saw that Senran Kagura came out on both but they seem to be different games.
> 
> ...



CPU wise it may be faster but the 3DS has a pretty weak GPU and this is the same on all models. Some games still manage to look pretty good but they are specifically made for the 3DS. A multiplatform title is not going to have the same level of optimization to take full advantage of the hardware, and might be better optimized on one console than it is on another, so it's not a good metric.
Also, not a single game takes full advantage of the n3DS' increased CPU power, other than the like two exclusives it got, as they don't want to segment their user base by making n3DS exclusive games unless it's the only way it will run, so the most they can do is offer better framerates on a n3DS, or somewhat improved functionality by utilizing the extra RAM, like Hyrule Warriors does in order to show more mobs on screen at a time on the n3DS.
Additionally, one of the cores are dedicated to background tasks and online functionality, so that's 25% of the performance locked away anyway.


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## Zense (Feb 2, 2020)

The Real Jdbye said:


> CPU wise it may be faster but the 3DS has a pretty weak GPU and this is the same on all models. Some games still manage to look pretty good but they are specifically made for the 3DS. A multiplatform title is not going to have the same level of optimization to take full advantage of the hardware, and might be better optimized on one console than it is on another, so it's not a good metric.
> Also, not a single game takes full advantage of the n3DS' increased CPU power, other than the like two exclusives it got, as they don't want to segment their user base by making n3DS exclusive games unless it's the only way it will run, so the most they can do is offer better framerates on a n3DS, or somewhat improved functionality by utilizing the extra RAM, like Hyrule Warriors does in order to show more mobs on screen at a time on the n3DS.
> Additionally, one of the cores are dedicated to background tasks and online functionality, so that's 25% of the performance locked away anyway.


Yes, you are right. I might've explained myself a bit bad since I didn't really claim that it is stronger, but that this interest in seeing these two systems compared came from hearing people say that it is stronger. Think of this thread more like a comparison you could do between the N64 and Sega Saturn for the games they share, or even PS1 and the Mega Drive (like Mickey Mania).

Like if you take a look at the batman game, you'll probably be as surprised as me at how similar they look, however, as you said earlier it is very apparent that the PS vita has the better gpu because of all the effects it pulls of and the higher quality models. For me this is a nice way to actually put a concrete image on what their differences are, like the SNES mode7 vs Mega Drive's implemantation.

Of course you're right that there's always gonna be the problem that maybe the game wasn't well optimised or badly coded for one of the systems, but as I said above if you manage to get a bigger sample than just one game then you can start to draw some lines with a lower risk of making a wrong interpretation.

And for the cores being locked for background tasks I guess that sort of goes for both systems since they both have functionality in the background. The PS Vita seems to have more going on, but I wouldn't be able to give a technical explanation of it.


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## Tom Bombadildo (Feb 2, 2020)

In terms of pure, raw power the Vita definitely beats the New 3DS, no idea who says it doesn't but they're quite wrong. While the New 3DS does have a higher frequency CPU (800mhz vs the Vita's actual max of 444mhz), the Vita uses a newer gen of ARM CPU vs the N3DS, which results in better performance thanks to newer instructions and such. The New 3DS uses like a 2005ish ARMv6 CPU vs 2008ish ARMv7 Cortex-A9 the Vita uses. 

And then there's the potato PICA200, which is nowhere near as fast as the PowerVR GPU sitting in the Vita which is really the most important part in a gaming console. Add in double the RAM and the dedicated VRAM on the Vita, and it's definitely got more punch to it vs the N3DS, hands down.

As for "head to head", it's difficult to say because as Jdbye said there aren't really any multiplatform titles that have been "perfectly" optimized for both systems since their hardware, while somewhat similar at the basest level, isn't similar enough to be as simple as like...PS4 VS Xbone comparisons which run basically the same APU. 

And unfortunately the same thing ends up being true for similar homebrew, as well. The 3DS has "native" support for GBA/DS games, and "official" emulators for all the various VC systems which tend to always beat out homebrew ones, so it's difficult to compare those vs homebrew emulators on the Vita. Same thing for the Vita, it runs PSP/PS1 games natively using a MIPS co-processor, so you can't compare PS1 emulation really, either (even though a homebrew PS1 emulator exists via retroarch on the Vita, it's not remotely optimized since we have native so it's a bad comparison vs N3DS PS1 emulation). 

Maybe things like mGBA comparisons? But even then I'm not sure how accurate that would end up being.


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## Zense (Feb 2, 2020)

Tom Bombadildo said:


> In terms of pure, raw power the Vita definitely beats the New 3DS, no idea who says it doesn't but they're quite wrong. While the New 3DS does have a higher frequency CPU (800mhz vs the Vita's actual max of 444mhz), the Vita uses a newer gen of ARM CPU vs the N3DS, which results in better performance thanks to newer instructions and such. The New 3DS uses like a 2005ish ARMv6 CPU vs 2008ish ARMv7 Cortex-A9 the Vita uses.
> 
> And then there's the potato PICA200, which is nowhere near as fast as the PowerVR GPU sitting in the Vita which is really the most important part in a gaming console. Add in double the RAM and the dedicated VRAM on the Vita, and it's definitely got more punch to it vs the N3DS, hands down.
> 
> ...


Yeah I was thinking the very same about emulators. I guess homebrew snes emulators and sega emulators would sort of work but there's still the problem of optimization on both systems.

While as said in the op, this thread is not about which system has the most horse power since as you said, the Vita is more powerful, it's more a look back at what differences you could find between games from the same systems. I'm not interested in which system has the best version or is the best system overall, that has been discussed to death and frankly isn't very entertaining as a topic. This is more about seeing how the differences in hardware manifested themselves in the shared games, as a way to understand that handheld generation further. There is no winner to be crowned here in other words.

So far the games that have proven more apparent are Batman, Minecraft, BlazBlue and MGS3. There are the expected framerate differences, but also the graphical effects (like leaves in BlazBlue, some sort of volumetric fog in Batman and texture quality differences.). I'm curious about how the sound quality fares batween the two, and by that I mean when you use the audio jack.


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