Nvidia: Next wave of mobile graphics will outpace X360 and PS3
But those chips likely won't arrive before new consoles hit the market
An Nvidia executive has claimed that the next wave of mobile graphics processors will mark the oft-discussed moment where they become more powerful than the current consoles.
In an interview with Bit-Tech, Tony Tamasi, Nvidia's senior vice president of content and technology, said that the successor to the company's Tegra 4 model - the generation used for Nvidia's forthcoming Project Shield portable console - will out-perform the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.
"The PS3 and Xbox 360 are barely more powerful than mobile devices," he said. "The next click of mobile phones will outperform [them]."
The notion that graphics on smartphones and tablets will one day match that of consoles has long been a talking point. However, even if Tamasi's estimate proves correct, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 seem likely to be considered 'last generation' by the time it comes to pass.
And Nvidia's role in the future of consoles will be diminished. Sony will use AMD chips for the PlayStation 4, though, speaking at the time, Tamasi claimed that it was a business decision taken by Nvidia over the high cost of the deal.
"We came to the conclusion that we didn't want to do the business at the price those guys were willing to pay," he said.