Hardware Nintendo 3DS CPU Speed and Details (number of cores)

[spark1223]

I've got mixed reports on this. Some say it's 233 mhz. Most agree its a variant of the ARM11. However the brand of ARM11 that is suggested is unlikely to be that speed given its minimum clock speed is around 800 mhz. It's possible Nintendo underclocked it. Being that its a mobile processor they often change clockspeed depending on what is needed but, it would be nice to know how powerful the 3DS is. 128 MB RAM isn't bad, it could be better, but not too bad. The graphics card I heard is very good. But it still seems somewhat unknown, or unconfirmed what the CPU is. (please don't post the Nintendo CPU model number; I've read the iFixit tear down).

 

[Snailface]

These are the most detailed speculative specifications out there. Nobody can really be for certain what's under the hood, but ifixit's expertise is pretty reliable.

http://3dbrew.org/wiki/Hardware#Specifications

 

[Nimbus]

I've got mixed reports on this. Some say it's 233 mhz. Most agree its a variant of the ARM11. However the brand of ARM11 that is suggested is unlikely to be that speed given its minimum clock speed is around 800 mhz. It's possible Nintendo underclocked it. Being that its a mobile processor they often change clockspeed depending on what is needed but, it would be nice to know how powerful the 3DS is. 128 MB RAM isn't bad, it could be better, but not too bad. The graphics card I heard is very good. But it still seems somewhat unknown, or unconfirmed what the CPU is. (please don't post the Nintendo CPU model number; I've read the iFixit tear down).

128MB of Ram. That easily more than the Nintendo 64 had, if my memory doesn't fail me on this matter. Processor speed seems to be quite powerful for such a system, even if it does happen to be underclocked. It's no wonder the 3DS is capable of what it is.

Ah, wonderful...according to the Specs, it's also a Dual Core. Nice Nintendo...good to see some semblance of intelligence in your design these days.

Oh and not sure what everyone's crap is about it having crappy battery life. I can get mine to last 5-6, to even 7 hours, on full brightness, before it even starts to run low.

Now we just need to make a game that pushes it to it's limits.

 

[Midna]

It's not dual core.

It's dual processor. There's a huge difference.

They needed to do it this way to keep backwards compat with the DS.

 

[spark1223]

128MB of Ram. That easily more than the Nintendo 64 had, if my memory doesn't fail me on this matter. Processor speed seems to be quite powerful for such a system, even if it does happen to be underclocked. It's no wonder the 3DS is capable of what it is.

Ah, wonderful...according to the Specs, it's also a Dual Core. Nice Nintendo...good to see some semblance of intelligence in your design these days.

Oh and not sure what everyone's crap is about it having crappy battery life. I can get mine to last 5-6, to even 7 hours, on full brightness, before it even starts to run low.

Now we just need to make a game that pushes it to it's limits.

iPod and Vita have more RAM. Still its a major improvement over the other DS consoles.

Not getting much issue on battery here either, but I don't play too long. I keep brightness down because full level hurts my eyes. I also turn off wifi when I'm out and playing games not online. I don't expect streetpass too often and spotpass I think is just for sleep mode. I think most battery tests were done with wifi enabled. I think 3DS, like iOS searches for Wifi all the time not to mention streetpass and spotpass. That would wear any battery down.

 

[Sicklyboy]

128MB of Ram. That easily more than the Nintendo 64 had, if my memory doesn't fail me on this matter. Processor speed seems to be quite powerful for such a system, even if it does happen to be underclocked. It's no wonder the 3DS is capable of what it is.

Ah, wonderful...according to the Specs, it's also a Dual Core. Nice Nintendo...good to see some semblance of intelligence in your design these days.

Oh and not sure what everyone's crap is about it having crappy battery life. I can get mine to last 5-6, to even 7 hours, on full brightness, before it even starts to run low.

Now we just need to make a game that pushes it to it's limits.

iPod and Vita have more RAM. Still its a major improvement over the other DS consoles.

Not getting much issue on battery here either, but I don't play too long. I keep brightness down because full level hurts my eyes. I also turn off wifi when I'm out and playing games not online. I don't expect streetpass too often and spotpass I think is just for sleep mode. I think most battery tests were done with wifi enabled. I think 3DS, like iOS searches for Wifi all the time not to mention streetpass and spotpass. That would wear any battery down.

I always walk around with my WiFi on in sleep mode, and when I am playing, it is usually on brightness 3 or 4 with power save mode usually on. I can EASILY get 6-7 hours out of it on the stock battery.

 

[DiscostewSM]

Well, in comparison of the DS to the 3DS with the N64 to the GC, the 3DS got quite a bit more RAM with the jump.

GC - 43MB RAM (24MB main RAM, 3MB embedded with "Flipper", and 16MB for DVD drive and audio buffer)
3DS - 128MB main RAM (assumption of 96MB devoted to 3DS apps/games, 32MB allocated to OS functions, including "multi-task" apps like the web browser). No info on graphics memory, if it is separate, or shared with main RAM.

The CPU architecture may be known, but it's frequency isn't, as the only "proof" is from an IGN article stating both are set at 266Mhz from a "reliable source".

 

[Critica1]

I've got mixed reports on this. Some say it's 233 mhz. Most agree its a variant of the ARM11. However the brand of ARM11 that is suggested is unlikely to be that speed given its minimum clock speed is around 800 mhz. It's possible Nintendo underclocked it. Being that its a mobile processor they often change clockspeed depending on what is needed but, it would be nice to know how powerful the 3DS is. 128 MB RAM isn't bad, it could be better, but not too bad. The graphics card I heard is very good. But it still seems somewhat unknown, or unconfirmed what the CPU is. (please don't post the Nintendo CPU model number; I've read the iFixit tear down).

Your bring up an interesting point here. People only agree it's a variant of ARM11 because the DS, DSi, and DSi XL all used a variance of ARM9 and ARM7. Based off of this it might be safe to assume that the ARM11 uses ARM9 and ARM7 for DS, DSi, DSi XL(?) cartridge instruction sets. Unfortunately I don't know too much about this subject and I don't have any suggestions where to start debugging for these kinds of answers.

 

[_47iscool]

Now that emulators are being developed for it, does anyone yet know how fast it's CPU is?

 

[Snailface]

Now that emulators are being developed for it, does anyone yet know how fast it's CPU is?

We knew a long time ago it was 2x268 mhz. Just one core is used for game apps though.