Face-Off: Nintendo 3DS vs New 3DS – Just how much faster is the later model?

Digital Foundry:

This Wii U port only exercises one key element of the 3DS spec bump – the processor upgrade. In terms of the graphical make-up of the game, nothing has changed, but in terms of the gameplay… well, that's a whole different story. New 3DS is something of a game-changer, offering up a 50 per cent overall improvement to performance. Running Hyrule Warriors on an old 3DS, gameplay sticks at the 20fps level throughout, sometimes dipping beneath and occasionally hitting 30fps.

By contrast, New 3DS offers up something approaching a locked 30fps throughout the experience. In fact, it even runs more smoothly than the original Nintendo Wii U version, which often struggles to maintain its 30fps cap – a remarkable state of affairs for a game based on the Dynasty Warriors engine, originally designed to operate at 60fps.