Digital Foundry: Nintendo Switch CPU and GPU clock speeds revealed
- Thread starter Vashetti
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What do you mean? Fairly sure it only hits the higher performance when in the dock.
I'm most worried about the position of the buttons placed vertically above / below the d-pad and stick. That looks so painful to use in long sessions, but I'll await impressions.
krizalidzero
Member
It's rumored that the Dock helps with cooling (so overclocking can be done).
It's not only a power issue, but a thermal issue
DrROBschiz
Member
Here we go again
You guys knew what we were getting
Nintendo and Vita fans should be rejoicing
Mammoth Jones
Member
I'll take that. I know what I'm signing up for. But it really depends on a price point to me. Anything above 249 and I'm out. But that price or lower it'll be a day one cop for me...
Zombie James
Banned
Have to keep in mind the overhead of running games on Android. That being said, the Switch is almost literally half the system the Shield is, so...
It is still handheld mode.
Someone mentioned in one the other Switch thread that the Switch will be able to tell when it's connected to the dock and when it's just plugged to a USB-C cable.
th3sicknness
Member
I thought the most recent leak on Venture Beat said 1 TFlop .. I dont think anyone here thought that would be realistic which is why we thought the report was wrong or fake.
Most the posts I saw here were claiming 768 Gflops max while docked (500 or less portable). Which isnt outside the realm of possibility based on the stock performance of Tegra X1 with standard clocks. If you took into consideration the efficiency of Pascal and the wording Nvidia used it wasnt really a far reach to think this was possible.
I haven't been keeping up with those games, but were they 'just' regular Android versions of the games (unoptimized and with a 'fat' OS underneath) or are they specifically built for the Shield TV?
krizalidzero
Member
There's some optimized for the Shield TV, like Half-Life 2 and Doom, but the OS is still shit (Android)
Gamer @ Heart
Member
Holy shit balls.
I go to sleep at 4am and wake up to this 30 page thread.
I'm sad I missed most of the doom and gloom fun.
I go to sleep at 4am and wake up to this 30 page thread.
I'm sad I missed most of the doom and gloom fun.
Hmm I wonder why people would think that...
AtomicShroom
Member
Great stuff!
Nintendo Switch portable mode:
Nintendo Switch docked mode:
Nintendo Switch portable mode:
this thread
Nintendo Switch docked mode:
Need to remove the v from the end of the URL.
th3sicknness
Member
The iPhone or iPad would not be able to run BOTW... If it could it would have already been doing it by now.
1Tflops of fp16 was always the most likely take, and could actually be approximated if the configuration is SM3 instead of SM2 of an stock TX1.
lwilliams3
Member
Heh, I was talking about the Wii U getting PS4/XB1 ports.
Speaking of that, http://wccftech.com/nintendo-switch-supports-vulkan/
In terms of support tools available, I don't think there is a recent comparison to how much easier it will be to port games to the Switch compared to Nintendo's previous systems.
Gamer @ Heart
Member
No? That destroyes the ENTIRE concept of taking the system out and continuing your games on the go. You would be locking the device into the dock if it where necessary to play games and although that's possible, it would be crazy.
Pull up a chair. We can take it even further than one can suppose.
Lupin the Third
Member
We still don't know the FLOPS of the unit, but yeah it's probably not going to blow any minds as a set-top console. But it'll definitely look good as a portable and I'd love to see a better-looking sequel to A Link Between Worlds!
ROUGE_BLOCK
Member
So in it's handheld form its a compromised experience rather than the game running at the systems full potential either docked or not docked?
Man this is kind of a bummer, and makes me feel once a again another ad was misleading but that's not new in any case.
Man this is kind of a bummer, and makes me feel once a again another ad was misleading but that's not new in any case.
I don't understand peope that think Skyrim on Switch is a big deal more.
AtomicShroom
Member
Not to mention USB-C wouldn't have enough bandwidth to accommodate this on top of streaming the video feed from the console...
I really hope Nintendo has an ace or two up their sleeves for The Switch launch. These specs are underwhelming to say the least and the third parties will be running for the hills after 6 months if this thing gets off to a slow start. They will sell well to the die hard Nintendo fans but just they aren't enough anymore just look at the Wii U. I hope they are planning on $249 or less with these specs otherwise this thing will not have a chance...
Meh, don't really need to be PS4, Xbone level to succeed. 3DS is successful? Yes, and it's weak af. Those numbers are more than enough for all Nintendo games and the 3rd parties that already support wiiu and 3ds.
Also, hoping for AAA games on Nintendo makes no sense, companies spend too much money deevloping for PS4, XBone, PC. If they can, they will, but don't count on it.
This said, I will still buy this, if i want power and framerate and all those masterrace thingies i have my PC.
Also, hoping for AAA games on Nintendo makes no sense, companies spend too much money deevloping for PS4, XBone, PC. If they can, they will, but don't count on it.
This said, I will still buy this, if i want power and framerate and all those masterrace thingies i have my PC.
Tools only go so far when the the power gap is so big though. It's still one of the biggest performance gaps within a generation, if not the biggest.
That's a Bethesda game. Nintendo didn't get a Bethesda game since Home Alone on SNES. That's a big deal in itself.
Well considering it seems the spec difference is almost the exact same amount needed to bump a native res game (720p) to 1080p. Whose to say they couldn't release a 4K dock with the same concept (bump the 720p game up to 4k) a few years down the line?
Easily porting 3rd party AAA games over is all relative to what games they're talking about.
It's literally impossible to port Skyrim Remastered, as it exists on the PS4 and XB1, over to the Switch. In part because a big part of the added features (like 4K) aren't even meant for the standard versions of those home consoles.
"easily porting 3rd party AAA games" likely means that the major 3rd party titles of last generation, now receiving up-ports to PS4/XB1, can easily be ported to the Switch. Which they could because, well, half of them were ported to the Wii U and the Switch is pretty much a lock to be some degree more powerful than the Wii U.
It's all relative however and that applies to something like DQXI. Acting like DQXI being on the Switch is proof that Digital Foundry's article isn't accurate ignores that DQXI is releasing on literally both ends of the current gaming hardware spectrum, for 3DS (the bottom) and PS4 (the top standard platform). Square Enix will make a version that fits the Switch, likely landing somewhere in the middle.
Anyone expecting major 3rd party support any time before the Switch actually takes off on Wii levels of sales success were delusional though. That isn't what Nintendo or anyone else is looking for here. Nintendo wants to fill the gaps in the catalog to make the Switch a viable platform for the average consumer, then allowing Nintendo IPs and hopefully a handful of unique 3rd party games to carry it to significant sales success. Then maybe drawing more 3rd party support, but that is not required.
You say this like there's really alternative versions of Skyrim out there. When they released the remaster do you know what happened to by copy on Steam? It suddenly said "Special Edition" next to it and all the mods were broken. Not much else. Just like Dishonored, the Batman Arkham games, etc. it and many other "remasters" are PC assets and a modest amount of touch-ups slapped together into a PS4/XB1 compatible package.
The Switch will get the same treatment, just aimed at a lower threshold. Higher than their initial versions, sure, but these games are entirely scale-able on anything compatible with contemporary PC game code base, which the Switch will be since it's based off of hardware Nvidia has specifically been designing to be compatible with that code base.
You'll get a something between the PS360 Skyrim and the PS4 Skyrim. What exactly depends on the final hardware configuration and how much Bethesda can be bothered to optimize (usually not very much). But you'll get it on a goddamn portable. What else do you expect?
To what end? So games coded with either 720p assets upscaled to 1080p in docked mode or games with 1080p assets downscaled in handheld mode can then be upscaled to some new resolution? Because you aren't going to see much more flex in what additional hardware will do for Switch games.
Unless you seriously think Nintendo is going to waste resources putting out "Switch Pro" patches despite making it really clear for over a decade now that they aren't interested in the hardware dick waving contest Sony and MS continue to engage in.
Because it's portable. And the second best game Bethesda has made basically ever (behind Morrowind). That's pretty cool. I mean, Persona 4:The Golden is pretty stellar on Vita. Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask were a big deal on the 3DS. Updated ports of really great games onto a handheld format has value. Just because it isn't better than the previously best console/PC version doesn't diminish that.
No I don't see it as a big deal still.
Arkam
Member
They will likely just realease a new more powerful device. I fully expect Nintendo to follow MS/Sony/Apple/nvidia lead and have iterative releases.
Trine 2, Portal, HL2 (although with framepacing issues) and the Borderlands games were all also comparable or improved for performance and IQ on Shield TV. And that's under Android load.
Really it's the other way around, RE5 and MGR being the lone standouts for worse performance on Shield TV than 360. Certainly not a majority.
DrROBschiz
Member
oh bummer
you would think it could clock up a bit on direct power
they should put more thought into this but I remain optimistic
Hmmm.
I really hope it's 3 SMs, because 2 SMs with those clockspeeds would make Switch really super low-end as a console.
Edit:
Oh, also:
This is really the only thing that gives me hope.
It would be a signal that third parties are taking interest once more in a Nintendo console, that is the big deal here.
AzureFlame
Member
I'm worried about battery life more than graphics.
SuperDowns
Banned
No rumor tag? Really?
If true, that sucks but that Nintendo cycle is always hardware for a Nintendo games... nothing more, nothing less. Should be a generational PSA.
If true, that sucks but that Nintendo cycle is always hardware for a Nintendo games... nothing more, nothing less. Should be a generational PSA.
I don't expect anything else, why are you so irritated ? It will be the special edition, downgraded enough so it can run on Switch. I mean, they won't port the PS360 version because that would make no sense, that's what my point was.
CrustyBritches
Gold Member
Totally agree. This is exactly what I expected. A portable nobody asked for running ports at 50-75% of the 360's performance.
A wiiu like portable with modern architecture for modern assets and engines would have been great
With a plus deriving from a docked mode, even battere
Ot will be this, but due to their positioning in the preview and with third party it will be disappointing
Still I don't see it. This a remaster of a 5 year old game not Doom, not Dishonored 2 not even Fallout 4. Also as far as we know Nintendo may be paying for this port.
dynamitejim
Member
This assumes every game can run at 1080p in dock mode. Switch will be quite weak even in dock mode if these rumors are true. Dark Souls 3 would struggle at 720p with everything on the PC equivalent of "Low". Will it drop down to 480p in portable mode then? Will it simply not come to the system at all?
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