Support NeoGAF

[sixteen-bit]

Any chance the Switch has an HDMI input? That would significantly improve functionality having a little portable 720p screen to take wherever.

 

[WhiteWaterM00se]

Any chance the Switch has an HDMI input? That would significantly improve functionality having a little portable 720p screen to take wherever.

Probably on the dock. But maybe they will have an USB C to HDMI converter cord.

 

[thefro]

They might as well give out specs at the event as anyone can sign up to be a Nintendo developer under a fake name and then break the NDA and leak the specs out.

At some point that'll be opened up for everyone to use and not just "Nintendo Partners".

 

[bomblord1]

Probably on the dock. But maybe they will have an USB C to HDMI converter cord.

But the port is on the bottom how would you attach a dongle and use it as a screen with something sticking out the bottom?

 

[calc84maniac]

Probably on the dock. But maybe they will have an USB C to HDMI converter cord.

He said input. As in using the console's screen to display stuff from an external source.

I really doubt it.

 

[Mpl90]

Lol.

You know how much better would be if Switch would sell also to a part of the "core" audience? How much would that help Switch and Nintendo in general and their relations with third parties? The whole presentations will be anyhow rather focused on mainstream, so having a part addressing also the "core" would be great. Who cares about mainstream news not covering that part properly, the rest will be relevant for them.

Your average Joe swallows things like "8GB RAM" and "the best pixels" and runs away with them while opening the wallet.

I actually agree here. Having the Nvidia guy speaking at the Conference, in order to explain with his own words (so, "the best in the history!" galore, lol ) what's powering the Switch would not be a bad move, in order to give a better picture of the device to the core audience (and beyond) in a special occasion like the Presentation is going to be. If they're not going to do it, I wouldn't consider that a major mistake on their side, but it'd be a missed opportunity, especially given how Nvidia themselves are eager to speak about it, so much they've put a blog post mere minutes after the reveal trailer was released.

 

[Skittzo0413]

I actually agree here. Having the Nvidia guy speaking at the Conference, in order to explain with his own words (so, "the best in the history!" galore, lol ) what's powering the Switch would not be a bad move, in order to give a better picture of the device to the core audience (and beyond) in a special occasion like the Presentation is going to be. If they're not going to do it, I wouldn't consider that a major mistake on their side, but it'd be a missed opportunity, especially given how Nvidia themselves are eager to speak about it, so much they've put a blog post mere minutes after the reveal trailer was released.

Yep. This is going to be a big presentation. Possibly a lot bigger than we think right now, both in length and content. They've rented out the biggest convention center in all of Japan- you don't do that just to talk about games lineup for a half hour. The presentation will likely cover all the relevant topics there are: features, specs, games, launch plans/price.

I don't expect to know the specs detailed to a T (like clock speeds) but we will know more than we did with the Wii U.

 

[KingSnake]

I actually agree here. Having the Nvidia guy speaking at the Conference, in order to explain with his own words (so, "the best in the history!" galore, lol ) what's powering the Switch would not be a bad move, in order to give a better picture of the device to the core audience (and beyond) in a special occasion like the Presentation is going to be. If they're not going to do it, I wouldn't consider that a major mistake on their side, but it'd be a missed opportunity, especially given how Nvidia themselves are eager to speak about it, so much they've put a blog post mere minutes after the reveal trailer was released.

Yeah, I'm not saying that it must happen and I actually don't have too much hope for it to happen, but it would be a good thing, Nvidia can better reach an audience Nintendo doesn't reach that well.

 

[ozfunghi]

Lol.

You know how much better would be if Switch would sell also to a part of the "core" audience? How much would that help Switch and Nintendo in general and their relations with third parties? The whole presentations will be anyhow rather focused on mainstream, so having a part addressing also the "core" would be great. Who cares about mainstream news not covering that part properly, the rest will be relevant for them.

Your average Joe swallows things like "8GB RAM" and "the best pixels" and runs away with them while opening the wallet.

lol?

I did not know who that guy is until recently and I've been gaming for about 30+ years and i'm a lot better informed than 90% of Nintendo's target audience.

Have this guy boast about how great the console is with actual numbers in front of the mainstream press, and every half decent reporter will compare those numbers to the competition, even if he doesn't understand them, and it will not be favorable for the Switch.

Have Nvidia release the actual specs in a press release and mainstream news will not pick up on it easily. However, the "core/hardcore" will still know the specs. In other words, those who know how to interpret these numbers will know the specs, those who don't will not easily know them.

This doesn't mean they can't use the Nvidia guy to hype the "performance" on Nintendo's event. But the actual specs, the specs we've been discussing here in this and other threads, leave them out of Nintendo's event.

 

[KingSnake]

lol?

I did not know who that guy is until recently and I've been gaming for about 30+ years and i'm a lot better informed than 90% of Nintendo's target audience.

The point was reaching outside Nintendo's usual audience. You not knowing the guy doesn't matter, it would be anyhow presented on stage he wouldn't appear out of the blue.

 

[Rodin]

The specs I expect for what Nintendo would reveal:

ARM CPU
Nvidia GPU

6.2 inch HD screen
Battery life of Switch
Battery life of each Joy-Con
Dimensions and weight of the Switch
Dimensions of each Joy-Con

Etc.

Those will be the specs. lol

Fixed

The A72 is smaller (therefore cheaper) as well as giving higher performance at a lower power draw, so there's no real reason to use A57s unless the design was locked down extremely early (which seems to have been the case with Parker). The A73 is also smaller again, and draws even less power (although performance increases seem fairly small going by Kirin 960 benchmarks), but I doubt it was ready in time for use in Switch.

We've heard that there was supposed to be a new "interesting" devkit in august/september, presumably matching the final specs of the system. I remember lcgeek's first post being pretty negative, but then she changed her mind about the design of the console. Did her sources lie to her, or are people like vern referring to the previous devkits? Because i still can't believe that they are actually going to use A57 in a design like this. It's just too stupid and nonsensical.

I do think 2 A72s might be plausible, though. I had previously suggested that a 2:4:2 configuration, with 2 A72 cores and 4 A53 cores for games, and then 2 A35 cores for the OS, might be a sensible direction to take. They'd be able to clock the A72s higher than would be feasible for a quad-core cluster, giving good performance in single-threaded or latency-critical tasks when necessary, and between the six gaming cores there'd be a good amount of performance for multi-threaded tasks at a low power draw. The two A35s would pretty much sip power while performing OS duties (and could be dynamically clocked independent of the gaming cores).

Yeah i'd much rather see this than 4 A57, especially if it means that one of those cores will be used for the OS... Leaving devs with three cores for games. Which would be even more terrible.

 

[ozfunghi]

The point was reaching outside Nintendo's usual audience. You not knowing the guy doesn't matter, it would be anyhow presented on stage he wouldn't appear out of the blue.

For his spec reveal at the Nintendo event to have an impact on the non-Nintendo audience, requires that audience to be looking at the event in the first place. Which they will very likely not. So if they have to hear about it afterwards, it doesn't matter if it's through gaming related media through Nvidia's press release, or if they hear about it and whatch the Nintendo event after it's done anyway.

 

[BronzeWolf]

When does Nintendo need to start manufacturing the Switch?

Will we expect leaks then?

 

[ozfunghi]

When does Nintendo need to start manufacturing the Switch?

Will we expect leaks then?

That's the problem. We expect leaks all the time, we're just not getting 'em

I think i read some speculation that if they started around new year, it'd still be good.

 

[KingSnake]

For his spec reveal at the Nintendo event to have an impact on the non-Nintendo audience, requires that audience to be looking at the event in the first place. Which they will very likely not. So if they have to hear about it afterwards, it doesn't matter if it's through gaming related media through Nvidia's press release, or if they hear about it and whatch the Nintendo event after it's done anyway.

If the non-Nintendo audience is not looking at this event then the event is a rather crazy thing to spend money on instead of just doing a Direct. I think the whole point of doing such an event is to reach a larger audience.

 

[Skittzo0413]

For his spec reveal at the Nintendo event to have an impact on the non-Nintendo audience, requires that audience to be looking at the event in the first place. Which they will very likely not. So if they have to hear about it afterwards, it doesn't matter if it's through gaming related media through Nvidia's press release, or if they hear about it and whatch the Nintendo event after it's done anyway.

If the non-Nintendo audience is not looking at this event then the event is a rather crazy thing to spend money on instead of just doing a Direct. I think the whole point of doing such an event is to reach a larger audience.

Yeah, this is apparently the largest convention center in Japan. This is no Nintendo Direct (which some think is "just for Nintendo fans"), this is going to be hyped as a very large, very important presentation in the gaming industry.

 

[Thraktor]

lol?

I did not know who that guy is until recently and I've been gaming for about 30+ years and i'm a lot better informed than 90% of Nintendo's target audience.

Have this guy boast about how great the console is with actual numbers in front of the mainstream press, and every half decent reporter will compare those numbers to the competition, even if he doesn't understand them, and it will not be favorable for the Switch.

You have this the wrong way around. Simply dumping a press release with the specs mean the press will likely focus on the least flattering comparisons with other hardware, just as they did with Gamecube. Presenting them on-stage means that Nintendo get to control the way the specs are framed, and the non-specialist press and non-techie gamers will focus on what Nintendo wants to focus on, following the buzzwords and favourable comparisons that Nintendo chooses. (See how much attention people paid to the term "turbo-charged PC architecture", despite the Jaguar CPU being well behind PS3's Cell in many ways, or how people jumped onto PS4's GDDR5, despite XBO actually having higher aggregate bandwidth). Nintendo can talk about how Switch's has the most powerful portable SoC ever, how its game cards and internal flash are so much faster than the competition's Blu-Rays and HDDs, how they've customised the GPU with all sorts of buzzwordy secret sauce, etc., etc. And Jen-Hsun Huang wouldn't be there because people know who he is (the average viewer doesn't know half the people giving these presentations anyway), he'd be there because he has a good track record of giving presentations that make every piece of Nvidia hardware seem like the second coming of Jesus, which none of Nintendo's usual suspects would seem capable of. For viewers who vaguely follow tech, the fact that he's from Nvidia (a company known for making high-end graphics cards) would also be a good association for Nintendo to make.

Yeah i'd much rather see this than 4 A57, especially if it means that one of those cores will be used for the OS... Leaving devs with three cores for games. Which would be even more terrible.

I'd be pretty surprised if they used A57s, but to be honest I'd be equally surprised if they didn't use any A53 or A35 cores. Those things are tiny and consume very little power, so even including a couple of them for OS duties would seem pretty obvious. I had even previously thought that may go with a full 8-core A53 configuration, given the performance they could achieve in a very low power envelope, but given the active cooling and reportedly poor battery life it seems like they may be going with a higher CPU power draw than they'd usually do on a pure portable.

It seems like the optimal configuration depends quite a lot on the power allocation to the CPU. Given that games won't scale down their CPU performance as the resolution is lowered in handheld mode it would be reasonable to expect that the power allocation in handheld mode is more CPU focussed, and the distribution in docked mode is more GPU focussed, to give a small (or zero) difference between CPU performance in the two modes, and a large difference between between the GPU performance, to reflect the expected change in resolution. Ordinarily I'd expect a Nintendo handheld to allocate no more than 500-600mW to the CPU, but with Switch they may have reason to go above that, to perhaps 1-1.5W, even in handheld mode.

At 500mW an octo-core A53 config would seem the most sensible, as even a dual-core A72 cluster just wouldn't be able to clock high enough to be of much worth. You could get the A53s to about 1.2GHz in that power envelope, delivering about 55% of the performance of the Jaguars in PS4.

At 1W a 2x A72 @ 1.45GHz + 4x A53 @ 1.3GHz config would give them about 73% of the aggregate (i.e. multi-threaded) performance of PS4's Jaguars, but would actually outperform them on a peak single-thread basis by about 30%.

At 1.5W a 2x A72 @ 1.8GHz + 4x A53 @ 1.6GHz setup would provide ~89% of the aggregate performance of Jaguar with a 60% boost in peak single-threaded performance. Alternative, they could trade off a bit of that peak single-threaded performance in favour of multi-threaded performance by going with 4x A72 @ 1.35GHz + 4x A53 @ 1.3GHz for pretty much even aggregate performance with Jaguar and a ~20% improvement in peak single-thread workloads.

[All of the above is based on Anandtech's Kirin 950 analysis for power curves of A53 and A72 on 16FF+, and Geekbench's single-thread floating point benchmark for performance comparisons between the cores (it's not a perfect benchmark, but it's the most appropriate one I could find which covers all three cores). If they use 16FFC instead of 16FF+, then I'd expect perhaps 10% or so reduction in power consumption for the same clocks, and if they use A73 instead of A72 then you'd be looking at ~5-10% performance increase and ~20% reduction in power consumption for those cores.]

 

[Kimawolf]

Nobody cares, nobody knows who that guy is, nobody understands the difference between 2xA72+4xA53 vs 4xA57+4xA53. The only thing the mainstream news will pick up on is maybe the amount of RAM and something like "Blast Processing". Other than that, your average Joe doesn't even know who Miyamoto is. It's best to leave that side of things to Nvidia.

Hardcore gamers definitely care about Nvidia. If you're a core/ hardcore gamer i am sure if Nvidia came out and said "our SOC for Switch is the most powerful ever for any mobile device" people would care.

I would argue the reason many are willing to even give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt about potential switch power and support is due in part to Nvidia.

I made a thread asking that very thing and may were more optimistic about Switch due to Nvidia writing the tools/api and developing the heart of the hardware.

 

[th3sicknness]

One thing to take into consideration is the fact that Nvidia could be taking less profit margin on the sale of the custom tegra chip to allow Nintendo to lower the cost of the switch out the gate so that it can expand its market penetration. Since Nvidia developed the API and most likely is going to use the device as a Gameworks showcase they stand to benefit from it in other ways than just the sale of the SoC.

It is entirely possible that they get more money on the back end after certain sales thresholds OR they make a small % of game sales. So there might not be a CPU or GPU within the scope of what we are discussing that is out of Nintendo's grasp.

 

[Thraktor]

One thing to take into consideration is the fact that Nvidia could be taking less profit margin on the sale of the custom tegra chip to allow Nintendo to lower the cost of the switch out the gate so that it can expand its market penetration. Since Nvidia developed the API and most likely is going to use the device as a Gameworks showcase they stand to benefit from it in other ways than just the sale of the SoC.

It is entirely possible that they get more money on the back end after certain sales thresholds OR they make a small % of game sales. So there might not be a CPU or GPU within the scope of what we are discussing that is out of Nintendo's grasp.

There's not much point for Nvidia using Switch as a showcase for Tegra, given that it looks likely to be the only Tegra powered device outside automotive, with Nvidia seemingly dropping any plans for future Shield devices. Nor would it make much sense to use it to promote their consumer graphics cards (they hardly need it at the moment).

Nvidia will likely do a similar deal with Nintendo as AMD have for MS and Sony; a flat up-front fee for R&D (probably including tools/API development as a sweetener during negotiations) then a ~15% margin on the chips themselves, with a timetable of price reductions over the next few years.

 

[Schnozberry]

I'd be pretty surprised if they used A57s, but to be honest I'd be equally surprised if they didn't use any A53 or A35 cores. Those things are tiny and consume very little power, so even including a couple of them for OS duties would seem pretty obvious. I had even previously thought that may go with a full 8-core A53 configuration, given the performance they could achieve in a very low power envelope, but given the active cooling and reportedly poor battery life it seems like they may be going with a higher CPU power draw than they'd usually do on a pure portable.

Nvidia has yet to build a big.little configuration that uses heterogeneous multiprocessing. They've been using a custom cross connect that transfers workloads between A57 and A53 clusters for the Tegra X1 during low power operations. I'm assuming they are using similar tech for the Denver + A57 combo in Parker, since they don't even advertise the A53 cores anymore.

It isn't that it wouldn't be possible, it's just that Nvidia never seemed impressed with the tech, and preferred their own.

 

[Thraktor]

Nvidia has yet to build a big.little configuration that uses heterogeneous multiprocessing. They've been using a custom cross connect that transfers workloads between A57 and A53 clusters for the Tegra X1 during low power operations. I'm assuming they are using similar tech for the Denver + A57 combo in Parker, since they don't even advertise the A53 cores anymore.

It isn't that it wouldn't be possible, it's just that Nvidia never seemed impressed with the tech, and preferred their own.

Parker actually uses cache-coherent heterogeneous multiprocessing (see here, second image). There shouldn't be any reason to believe they wouldn't do the same for Nintendo if requested.

 

[AzaK]

There's not much point for Nvidia using Switch as a showcase for Tegra, given that it looks likely to be the only Tegra powered device outside automotive, with Nvidia seemingly dropping any plans for future Shield devices. Nor would it make much sense to use it to promote their consumer graphics cards (they hardly need it at the moment).

Nvidia will likely do a similar deal with Nintendo as AMD have for MS and Sony; a flat up-front fee for R&D (probably including tools/API development as a sweetener during negotiations) then a ~15% margin on the chips themselves, with a timetable of price reductions over the next few years.

Was this a recent development? I ask because am I being an eternal optimist in wondering if one of the unrevealed special things about switch is that it will allow you to stream your PC games to it?

It could be a good tick on the box, and because Nvidia has already done it, the partnership could mean this gets moved to Switch.

 

[mrklaw]

Was this a recent development? I ask because am I being an eternal optimist in wondering if one of the unrevealed special things about switch is that it will allow you to stream your PC games to it?

It could be a good tick on the box, and because Nvidia has already done it, the partnership could mean this gets moved to Switch.

Would love this

 

[Hermii]

For reference here is Nintendos idea of a spec sheet. I wouldn't get too exited.

http://www.nintendo.com/wiiu/features/tech-specs/

 

[Plinko]

Was this a recent development? I ask because am I being an eternal optimist in wondering if one of the unrevealed special things about switch is that it will allow you to stream your PC games to it?

It could be a good tick on the box, and because Nvidia has already done it, the partnership could mean this gets moved to Switch.

This would be quite an amazing inclusion, actually.

 

[TyMiles2012]

Like i said on the previous page, i could easily see Nintendo just releasing some very rudimentairy spec info (number of USB ports, screen size, weight, size...). The mainstream news will just pic up these "specs".

Then they can let Nvidia release the specs of "their" SoC inside the Switch in their own press release. The regular / mainstream gamer will not pick up on this, since Nvidia isn't prone to feature frontpage mainstream news.

I totally agree. I commented on a reddit post that Jen-Hsun Huang needs to go on stage at the start of the big presentation and talk about specs. Not be too detailed, but enough to not confuse journalists and show benchmarks, have Nintendo come up and present the system and first party titles, then have third parties show off their games. I'm hoping for a 2.5 hour conference, honestly. Nintendo is making this sound huge.

 

[Schnozberry]

Parker actually uses cache-coherent heterogeneous multiprocessing (see here, second image). There shouldn't be any reason to believe they wouldn't do the same for Nintendo if requested.

Ah, ok. Well, I guess it's certainly plausible then. I wonder how they would approximate the additional threads in the dev kits then? I suppose they could have told developers to plan for them, but it would be suboptimal.

 

[Hermii]

I totally agree. I commented on a reddit post that Jen-Hsun Huang needs to go on stage at the start of the big presentation and talk about specs. Not be too detailed, but enough to not confuse journalists and show benchmarks, have Nintendo come up and present the system and first party titles, then have third parties show off their games. I'm hoping for a 2.5 hour conference, honestly. Nintendo is making this sound huge.

I would rather have a shorter conference without filler. Awesome game after awesome game, a short bit about Nintendo account and OS, an end it with Metroid Prime 4 or something.

 

[th3sicknness]

There's not much point for Nvidia using Switch as a showcase for Tegra, given that it looks likely to be the only Tegra powered device outside automotive, with Nvidia seemingly dropping any plans for future Shield devices. Nor would it make much sense to use it to promote their consumer graphics cards (they hardly need it at the moment).

Nvidia will likely do a similar deal with Nintendo as AMD have for MS and Sony; a flat up-front fee for R&D (probably including tools/API development as a sweetener during negotiations) then a ~15% margin on the chips themselves, with a timetable of price reductions over the next few years.

Well it is less about Tegra and more about Nvidia as a whole. The shield itself was suppose to be a showcase of their tech so that other people could partner up and use the tech. Part of the issue was they didnt have the software library to grow the idea... The Switch has a software library and a set of Nintendo developers who are wizards.

This is literally a tech showcase for hardware and software for Nvidia. If you take Tegra out of the picture it is still using tech from their desktop cards. This still could push things like Gameworks, GRID, Shadow Play, and Emulation.. This is a trojan horse to developers who decide to make games for the switch.. it could push Nvidia middleware onto them.. So I think this is a way for Nvidia to market themselves if anything

 

[Speely]

Was this a recent development? I ask because am I being an eternal optimist in wondering if one of the unrevealed special things about switch is that it will allow you to stream your PC games to it?

It could be a good tick on the box, and because Nvidia has already done it, the partnership could mean this gets moved to Switch.

I need this.

 

[ozfunghi]

If the non-Nintendo audience is not looking at this event then the event is a rather crazy thing to spend money on instead of just doing a Direct. I think the whole point of doing such an event is to reach a larger audience.

So... i'm a "core" gamer who's been jumping back & forth between PS/PC/XBX for the past 15 years. I don't care about Nintendo, because they have not been catering towards my taste in games. The fact that Nintendo "wants" me to look at their new system, wants me to watch their conference isn't going to make me watch it, because i don't care about Nintendo, with their kiddy games and underpowered consoles...

So make me. This is the reason i'm not following Nintendo news, i heard they'd be going for mobile GPU's in their new console, which will again be underpowered because of it. What are you going to do to make sure i watch this conference about a company and device i'm 100% convinced is not for me. Why the hell should this hypothetical version of me be crazy enough to spend his time watching that? That's like saying "I have no interest in animals, but i'm going to force myself to watch the Discovery channel, because you never know something interesting might pop up".

You have this the wrong way around. Simply dumping a press release with the specs mean the press will likely focus on the least flattering comparisons with other hardware, just as they did with Gamecube. Presenting them on-stage means that Nintendo get to control the way the specs are framed, and the non-specialist press and non-techie gamers will focus on what Nintendo wants to focus on, following the buzzwords and favourable comparisons that Nintendo chooses. (See how much attention people paid to the term "turbo-charged PC architecture", despite the Jaguar CPU being well behind PS3's Cell in many ways, or how people jumped onto PS4's GDDR5, despite XBO actually having higher aggregate bandwidth). Nintendo can talk about how Switch's has the most powerful portable SoC ever, how its game cards and internal flash are so much faster than the competition's Blu-Rays and HDDs, how they've customised the GPU with all sorts of buzzwordy secret sauce, etc., etc. And Jen-Hsun Huang wouldn't be there because people know who he is (the average viewer doesn't know half the people giving these presentations anyway), he'd be there because he has a good track record of giving presentations that make every piece of Nvidia hardware seem like the second coming of Jesus, which none of Nintendo's usual suspects would seem capable of. For viewers who vaguely follow tech, the fact that he's from Nvidia (a company known for making high-end graphics cards) would also be a good association for Nintendo to make.

No, i'm pretty sure i don't have this backwards. I also have no problems with having the guy from Nvidia hype up the device during the conference and control the presentation. Like i already said.

But I'm talking about very specific specs. I think you're gravely mistaking if you think that the average mainstream journalist is going to be looking into which Arm cores at which fab node are being put inside the system if the press release with this info is coming from Nvidia at a different time/place. He/she might look into it though when that info is disclosed during the main event. So they can hype it up for the average Joe with "Now you're playing with power" and "Blast Processing" slogans, present it as the most powerful portable device ever... no problem, but i'm talking about the actual specs.

Hardcore gamers definitely care about Nvidia. If you're a core/ hardcore gamer i am sure if Nvidia came out and said "our SOC for Switch is the most powerful ever for any mobile device" people would care.

And i have not claimed anything differently. But first of all, this hardcore gamer you are talking about, is very likely not going to be looking at a Nintendo event to begin with. And secondly, this hardcore gamer is also just going to know that Tegra is a mobile chip with mobile performance, if he decided to watch it. But there is a difference between having the hype-meister from Nvidia claim it's the best thing since sliced bread, or having him say it has a Pascal Tegra inside, running at 800MHz, with 2 A72 and 4 A53 cores all on a 16nm fab node, good for a whooping 750GF... which is basically half of the weakest console that was released over 3 years ago.

 

[Schnozberry]

Steamworld Developers gave an encouraging remark on the Switch:

https://mobile.twitter.com/ImageForm/status/793482754767945728

 

[darkazcura]

So... i'm a "core" gamer who's been jumping back & forth between PS/PC/XBX for the past 15 years. I don't care about Nintendo, because they have not been catering towards my taste in games. The fact that Nintendo "wants" me to look at their new system, wants me to watch their conference isn't going to make me watch it, because i don't care about Nintendo, with their kiddy games and underpowered consoles...

So make me. This is the reason i'm not following Nintendo news, i heard they'd be going for mobile GPU's in their new console, which will again be underpowered because of it. What are you going to do to make sure i watch this conference about a company and device i'm 100% convinced is not for me. Why the hell should this hypothetical version of me be crazy enough to spend his time watching that? That's like saying "I have no interest in animals, but i'm going to force myself to watch the Discovery channel, because you never know something interesting might pop up".



No, i'm pretty sure i don't have this backwards. I also have no problems with having the guy from Nvidia hype up the device during the conference and control the presentation. Like i already said.

But I'm talking about very specific specs. I think you're gravely mistaking if you think that the average mainstream journalist is going to be looking into which Arm cores at which fab node are being put inside the system if the press release with this info is coming from Nvidia at a different time/place. He/she might look into it though when that info is disclosed during the main event. So they can hype it up for the average Joe with "Now you're playing with power" and "Blast Processing" slogans, present it as the most powerful portable device ever... no problem, but i'm talking about the actual specs.



And i have not claimed anything differently. But first of all, this hardcore gamer you are talking about, is very likely not going to be looking at a Nintendo event to begin with. And secondly, this hardcore gamer is also just going to know that Tegra is a mobile chip with mobile performance, if he decided to watch it. But there is a difference between having the hype-meister from Nvidia claim it's the best thing since sliced bread, or having him say it has a Pascal Tegra inside, running at 800MHz, with 2 A72 and 4 A53 cores all on a 16nm fab node, good for a whooping 750GF... which is basically half of the weakest console that was released over 3 years ago.

Not all 'core' gamers are like you. There are plenty of core gamers who are excited for something pretty different from the typical PC/PS4/Xbox offerings. The largest reason over the last decade that core gamers have walked away from Nintendo has more to do with control scheme and archaic architecture than actual raw power (especially with the Wii U). A lot are excited just to see Nintendo go back to a standard control scheme with consolidated efforts between the handheld and console teams and a modern architecture to bring it all together. Not all core gamers are interested in all of their tech being top of the line (by the way, PS4 and Xbox One tech is based off of laptop/mobile tech also and wasn't even close to top of the line at release compared to what is offered on the PC).

Do you not consider the gamers here on GAF who enjoy Nintendo consoles to be core gamers? You are being too black and white with your definition of core gamer and how this console will appeal to others. Sounds like Nintendo won't lure you in, but to assume all core gamers think like you isn't really a good idea. Nintendo won't appeal to some core gamers still, but there are plenty they have gained the attention of. 750TF in a handheld console with potential for more power (due to underclocking in handheld mode) on the dock sounds freakin awesome to me, and I consider myself a core gamer. Nintendo has my attention way more than they did with the Wii U (which I didn't pick up until 1-2 years after launch).

With that kiddy game nonsense in the first paragraph, it seems like you are a lost cause when it comes to Nintendo anyway, and honestly I'm fine with that if that is how you think of Nintendo games. You don't seem to be the type of core gamer Nintendo is trying to go after honestly.

 

[KingSnake]

So... i'm a "core" gamer who's been jumping back & forth between PS/PC/XBX for the past 15 years. I don't care about Nintendo, because they have not been catering towards my taste in games. The fact that Nintendo "wants" me to look at their new system, wants me to watch their conference isn't going to make me watch it, because i don't care about Nintendo, with their kiddy games and underpowered consoles...

So make me. This is the reason i'm not following Nintendo news, i heard they'd be going for mobile GPU's in their new console, which will again be underpowered because of it. What are you going to do to make sure i watch this conference about a company and device i'm 100% convinced is not for me. Why the hell should this hypothetical version of me be crazy enough to spend his time watching that? That's like saying "I have no interest in animals, but i'm going to force myself to watch the Discovery channel, because you never know something interesting might pop up".

"Me", "me", "me", "me", "me". This is not about you personally.

 

[exmachina64]

Maybe the Denver cores for dedicated for the OS?

That would be overkill.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

Was this a recent development?

Fairly recent. Quoting Wikipedia's Shield Tablet article:

In August 2016, Nvidia announced it had cancelled plans to release a hardware upgrade to its Shield Tablet product line - a speculated reason for the cancellation was product conflict with the Nintendo Switch, which uses similar technology.

 

[Roo]

because i don't care about Nintendo, with their kiddy games

Stopped reading right there.
Fuck off with that bullshit.

Steamworld Developers gave an encouraging remark on the Switch:

https://mobile.twitter.com/ImageForm/status/793482754767945728

We discussed this yesterday actually.
"No skimping on power" is a pretty subjetive remark.

 

[LordOcidax]

Steamworld Developers gave an encouraging remark on the Switch:

https://mobile.twitter.com/ImageForm/status/793482754767945728

Interesting, because they have experience on PC,PS4 and One. Good sign.

 

[Buggy Loop]

Nintendo is kiddy? Are you from early 2000 ozfunghi?

Is nintendo not enough MLG for you?

 

[Schnozberry]

So... i'm a "core" gamer who's been jumping back & forth between PS/PC/XBX for the past 15 years. I don't care about Nintendo, because they have not been catering towards my taste in games. The fact that Nintendo "wants" me to look at their new system, wants me to watch their conference isn't going to make me watch it, because i don't care about Nintendo, with their kiddy games and underpowered consoles...

So make me. This is the reason i'm not following Nintendo news, i heard they'd be going for mobile GPU's in their new console, which will again be underpowered because of it. What are you going to do to make sure i watch this conference about a company and device i'm 100% convinced is not for me. Why the hell should this hypothetical version of me be crazy enough to spend his time watching that? That's like saying "I have no interest in animals, but i'm going to force myself to watch the Discovery channel, because you never know something interesting might pop up".

Man, I feel like a just had a flashback or something. Been a while since I heard someone complain about games being "kiddy". Solipsism is a hell of a thing.

General gaming audiences will pay attention to a Nintendo conference, as witnessed by the Switch reveal video. If you want to stake out an area of the gaming world where you are too grown up and hardcore to join the plebs and their kiddy games, that's on you. Enjoy the walls you've erected for yourself and quit demanding other people toss you a rope.

 

[Kurt]

Nintendo is kiddy? Are you from 2000 ozfunghi?

Is nintendo not enough MLG for you?

Hah, ironic that this is true.


Btw, DID PreOrder the switch now. So day one here.

 

[Schnozberry]

We discussed this yesterday actually.
"No skimping on power" is a pretty subjetive remark.

Yeah, I don't think you're going to get much else prior to January. It's just encouraging that a developer that has hands on all platforms, and has no reason to be an exclusively Nintendo cheerleader, feels good about making games for the platform.

 

[ozfunghi]

Not all 'core' gamers are like you. There are plenty of core gamers who are excited for something pretty different from the typical PC/PS4/Xbox offerings. The largest reason over the last decade that core gamers have walked away from Nintendo has more to do with control scheme and archaic architecture than actual raw power (especially with the Wii U). A lot are excited just to see Nintendo go back to a standard control scheme with consolidated efforts between the handheld and console teams and a modern architecture to bring it all together. Not all core gamers are interested in all of their tech being top of the line (by the way, PS4 and Xbox One tech is based off of laptop/mobile tech also and wasn't even close to top of the line at release compared to what is offered on the PC).

Do you not consider the gamers here on GAF who enjoy Nintendo consoles to be core gamers? You are being too black and white with your definition of core gamer and how this console will appeal to others. Sounds like Nintendo won't lure you in, but to assume all core gamers think like you isn't really a good idea. Nintendo won't appeal to some core gamers still, but there are plenty they have gained the attention of. 750TF in a handheld console with potential for more power (due to underclocking in handheld mode) on the dock sounds freakin awesome to me, and I consider myself a core gamer. Nintendo has my attention way more than they did with the Wii U (which I didn't pick up until 1-2 years after launch).

With that kiddy game nonsense in the first paragraph, it seems like you are a lost cause when it comes to Nintendo anyway, and honestly I'm fine with that if that is how you think of Nintendo games. You don't seem to be the type of core gamer Nintendo is trying to go after honestly.

"Me", "me", "me", "me", "me". This is not about you personally.

Stopped reading right there.
Fuck off with that bullshit.



We discussed this yesterday actually.
"No skimping on power" is a pretty subjetive remark.

Man, I feel like a just had a flashback or something. Been a while since I heard someone complain about games being "kiddy". Solipsism is a hell of a thing.

General gaming audiences will pay attention to a Nintendo conference, as witnessed by the Switch reveal video. If you want to stake out an area of the gaming world where you are too grown up and hardcore to join the plebs and their kiddy games, that's on you. Enjoy the walls you've erected for yourself and quit demanding other people toss you a rope.

Nintendo is kiddy? Are you from early 2000 ozfunghi?

Is nintendo not enough MLG for you?

Great reading skills guys. Fuck me. Have been a Nintendo only gamer for 25 year.

Why the hell should this hypothetical version of me be crazy enough to spend his time watching that?

PS darkazcura, the message i was replying to, was talking about core gamers that are NOT interested in Nintendo. Obviously, there are core gamers that are interested. But the point was about getting core gamers outside the Nintendo faithful watching the conference.

 

[LordOfChaos]

It's using a SoC, a simple teardown won't tell us all that much. It might even use custom memory chips (like 3DS) or a stacked design and we won't be able to figure out the memory configuration on our own. Last time, we needed Chipworks to figure out what makes the thing tick, and a former GAF member had to ask them directly to give us access to their die shots.

Anyone here still have a relationship with Chipworks from then? I'm hoping for a die shot soon after a teardown, iirc it was partly 'gafs push that influenced Chipworks to just give the Wii U out where normally their high res ones have a cost.

 

[Skittzo0413]

Great reading skills guys. Fuck me.

Yeah I read it, but your main point doesn't really make sense to me. Why did so many people, core gamers included, watch the Switch reveal trailer yet you think they won't watch an actual conference (which everyone says reaches SOOO many more people than a Nintendo Direct aimed at the Nintendo crowd)?

Nintendo will be promoting this conference. They spent quite a bit of money renting out the largest space in the country. People will be paying attention. I wouldn't worry about who will be watching it.

 

[Schnozberry]

Great reading skills guys. Fuck me. Have been a Nintendo only gamer for 25 year.

That's....just as sad.

There is nothing that will make people with closed-minded attitudes suddenly have an epiphany. It will be something they have to come into on their own.

 

[dampflokfreund]

As long as Nintendo creates enough buzz for their conference, I'm pretty confident it will be watched by everyone interested in gaming, and not only Nintendo hardcore fans.

 

[Herb Alpert]

Great reading skills guys. Fuck me. Have been a Nintendo only gamer for 25 years.

Yeah I was surprised when I read these posts... "But I swear i've read him in Nintendo threads before!"

 

[ozfunghi]

That's....just as sad.

There is nothing that will make people with closed-minded attitudes suddenly have an epiphany. It will be something they have to come into on their own.

What's just as sad? Being a Nintendo only gamer? I'll choose what i play and i don't need anyone here telling me what to play and/or buy, thank you very much.

Yeah I read it, but your main point doesn't really make sense to me. Why did so many people, core gamers included, watch the Switch reveal trailer yet you think they won't watch an actual conference (which everyone says reaches SOOO many more people than a Nintendo Direct aimed at the Nintendo crowd)?

Nintendo will be promoting this conference. They spent quite a bit of money renting out the largest space in the country. People will be paying attention. I wouldn't worry about who will be watching it.

The discussion was about core gamers that are not interested in Nintendo. That was his argument. So, why would a core gamer that has been playing Battlefield, Grand Turismo, WoW etc... suddenly start watching a Nintendo press conference when he hasn't been interested in the brand for decades?

Yeah I was surprised when I read these posts... "But I swear i've read him in Nintendo threads before!"

haha