Topic: How powerful can the NX possibly be, while having a reasonable cost (

Anyone who's expecting a $400 ps4 clone is delusional.

I never said I expected that. I was trying to get a grasp on what Nintendo's upper limit was on power.

Any new console would be in a great position to take advantage of the rapid improvements in SSD.

Also, the "fallback" solution to not being able to increase CPU cycles by instead including more cores and data throughput? 3D graphics and simulations can easily take advantage of these features, which is where GPUs and video cards come into play. Video cards have continued to advance in raw power over the last few years and their graphical contributions shouldn't be ignored.

@iKhan: The thing is though that matching the PS4 strategy isn't the upper limit. It's probably the limit of what Nintendo would do but they could push it a lot further. Going back to the 360 launch for example they put a high end GPU in it and sold it at a loss. The PS4 even when it launched was mid-range and was making money. Barely but still. So I'm going to add this to the mix:

Wii strategy: Matches the Wii U
Wii U strategy: Matches the PS4
PS4 strategy: Would be able to do ~60fps where the PS4 does ~30fps
360 strategy: Would be able to do 4K at ~60fps where the PS4 does 1080p at ~30fps

I didn't really consider the loss leader strategy. But it would be completely asinine for Nintendo to take a particularly big loss given their currently weak profits. I'd say $50 per system is the biggest loss they should take.

O.O

It didn't post x.x! Anyway, I normaly dont post but I had to get in on this.
I don't think NX can survive on their current architecture. They have to go ARM or X86

ARM: I would hope to be a mobile handset with a base station. Play on big screen or on the go, invite your friends over for multiplay on big screen or big screen for spectators. Fits the nintendo idea of local multiplayer, plays to their mobile strength and is full of nifty gimmicks! Plus explains why someone though is may be Android and why it wont be as powerful as ps4. It give them access to a ton of mobile devs, cements their handheld dominance and mobile ARM chips can already do 4k (SD820)
So to answe the topic question, the power of a $400 phone.

X86: I think they would most likely end up with another GC, but hay, maybe Intel will make them a custom dual core i3/5/7 with hyper threading and an Iris 6000/6100(with more of the die dedicated to GPU). Intel might do it to slap AMD who is dominating the console market. Would look like crap on paper but the architecture would slap that AMD 8 core arround.
So to answe the topic question, imagine a $400 Intel computer with 1.5 to 2 times Intel's best graphics.

3rd option? IDK some sort of experimental GPGPU only system with hundreds of compute cores and no actual CPU? Could theoreticaly be more efficient...

Well, in most cases the person making the decision about what to develop for isn't anyone who knows anything about hardware.
It's like...
"8gb ddr4, 8 core 1.8ghz processor, 1ghz gpu and a 1tb storage" (high latency RAM, AMD core, AMD gpu, laptop hdd)
vs
"6gb ddr3, 4 core 1.5ghz processor, 900mhz gpu and 250gb storage" (low latency RAM, Intel core, Nvidia gpu, SSD)
Program for the first one, it will dominate the other... oh wait, in real world the 2nd turns out to be better
And don't forget the money rivals pay to have companies not to develop other systems.
Say Microsoft pays EA so they drop support for WiiU.
PS4 is to popular for EA to drop but they do give the xbox "updates first" on all games.

but I'd say min specs would be 8gb ram, 4 core x86 @ 1.5ghz, GPU = to a $200 off the shelf card, and 500gb hd