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Digital Foundry: Nintendo Switch CPU and GPU clock speeds revealed

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synce

Member
lol 1ghz CPU? Seriously? Good luck with third party support. I'm not sure why anyone would support the Switch over a smartphone.
 

Kthulhu

Member
This is pretty much the successor to the 3DS. It'll be an absolutely brilliant one as well as its a huge update over that system.

I believe NoA called it a 'home console' just to disguise the fact they won't really be in that market anymore. Headlines of 'Nintendo pulls out of the home console market' aren't good for business or mindset.

It's a handheld which can be played on the TV via a dock. There isn't a market for them to be successful with a dedicated home console anymore.

I'm not too concerned about the size compared to the 3DS. Barely anyone walks around with a 3DS in their pocket. Mines always in my bag if I take it away and people are used to taking tablets around with them these days.

Also consoles generally sell better here.
 

mario_O

Member
No it's not
Shield TV
capture6bqbp.png


Iphone 7
2vmqt3.png


Galaxy S7
capturedgpka.png

you seem to forget that the switch is severely underclocked.
 

Waji

Member
Hmm. Too much of this still doesn't make sense for me to draw any real conclusion. Clock speeds alone aren't telling the whole story.

That CPU, as written, would struggle with WiiU ports.

I mean to take this at face value would mean we are throwing other reliable sources information completely out the window (Matt, LCGeek, LKD).

Not to mention we have seen Zelda BoTW, an impressive WiiU title, running noticibly better on Switch...

Still, I'm not surprised that this article is being taken as irrefutable fact already ;)
Well fishes continue to fall for the bait. Nothing new.
 
Sounds bad for PS4/XB1 ports.

But a portable with better then Wii U level graphics with a combined party output still sounds good to me.
 

LordKano

Member
So third party devs next year will need to have their games run well on PS4,Ps4 Pro,Xbox one, xbox one S,Scorpio,Switch undocked and Switch docked and let's not talk about VR.

Sooo yeah good luck with that.

Even worse, think about the studio that makes the LEGO games : PS3, PS4, PS4 Pro, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Scorpio, Wii U, 3DS, Switch undocked, Switch docked, PC, PSVita !
 

Oregano

Member
This isn't even a particularly powerful handheld. A Vita successor would probably be smaller, more powerful and not need a bloody fan.:(
 

big_erk

Member
This is exactly what the rumors stated over the past couple years. They wanted to go for a pricepoint that would encourage impulse buying.

Nintendo has sold 200000 units of a 30 year old console with a fixed number of 30 games, all the while by stepping on their own feet. If they price this thing at $200 it will fly off the shelves. At $249 it will still do well with most folks. Anything more and they will have a problem.

If they price it at $200 I expect the 3DS family to receive a major price cut. Probably $50 or so.
 
So with this news can we agree that the switch is simply a handheld with TV out? Its such a vast power difference from regular consoles, especially when compared to the PS4 pro, that I dont think we can reasonably call it a home console in any serious regard. Even with the context of the Wii/Wii U in previous generations.

It's not, it's 2,5 x more powerfull in docked mode which will make a difference. it's also more modern and stronger than Wii U, which will get us some good looking games in docked mode (and portable mode for a handheld). But it's not a Xbone.

I will wait for how the games look, when we get better footage.
 

Schnozberry

Member
you seem to forget that the switch is severely underclocked.

There's nothing in this leak that specifies that the Switch has the same number of Cuda Cores or CPU cores as a standard TX1. More cores and lower clocks may have been their answer to 20nm power consumption woes. We really have no idea how the chip was customized.
 
I think it's funny that people are crapping on Nintendo for releasing a low specced system, but we are coming off a fall where AAA games are bombing big time in sales. This push for raw horse power is raising dev costs and sales are going down.

I think the whole industry is getting too power hungry for its own good. This is not me being an apologist because graphics on a Nintendo is one of my lower priorities. There's a reason why 3DS was my most played system this year over my PS4 and Xbox One S.

Some games "bombed" but others sold like hot cakes.
 
Not surprising in the least. It's not like I'll be buying third party releases on this anyway; Switch just has to be a cheap route to accessing the handful of NIntendo titles I want to play.

I still remember people analysing the Metroid Prime 3 tease at E3 2005 as proof that the Wii was going to be much more powerful than the Gamecube.

metroid-prime-3-20050726031048656.jpg
 

Matbtz

Member
lol 1ghz CPU? Seriously? Good luck with third party support. I'm not sure why anyone would support the Switch over a smartphone.

Yeah you are so right, the controls, the quality games and especially all those Nintendo games on smartphones make it so easy.
Welcome to my ignore list.
 

KAL2006

Banned
This is pretty much the successor to the 3DS. It'll be an absolutely brilliant one as well as its a huge update over that system.

I believe NoA called it a 'home console' just to disguise the fact they won't really be in that market anymore. Headlines of 'Nintendo pulls out of the home console market' aren't good for business or mindset.

It's a handheld which can be played on the TV via a dock. There isn't a market for them to be successful with a dedicated home console anymore.

I'm not too concerned about the size compared to the 3DS. Barely anyone walks around with a 3DS in their pocket. Mines always in my bag if I take it away and people are used to taking tablets around with them these days.

It is brilliant as a successor of the 3DS. But in terms of rumoured price. $250 is way too much. So in terms of pricing this is a dissapointment. Handheld market doesnt pay more than $200.
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
Hmm. Too much of this still doesn't make sense for me to draw any real conclusion. Clock speeds alone aren't telling the whole story.

That CPU, as written, would struggle with WiiU ports.

I mean to take this at face value would mean we are throwing other reliable sources information completely out the window (Matt, LCGeek, LKD).

Not to mention we have seen Zelda BoTW, an impressive WiiU title, running noticibly better on Switch...

Still, I'm not surprised that this article is being taken as irrefutable fact already ;)

Zelda? It's running at a better frame rate, and that's about it. That's not particularly impressive. Hell, just by having and additional 512 MB of RAM would help achieve that.
 

prag16

Banned
Yes, they did. There's even 3DS games already announced for next year. I'm not at all convinced the Switch is particularly 'portable' with it's size, active cooling and speculated battery life.
With those clocks, something much higher than 3 hours should be doable.
 
I have been wondering what Nintendos plan is for years.
With the Wii, they lost 3rd party business and the WiiU was obviously not equipped to regain it.
Sony and Microsoft have a huge head start with PSN and XBL, they have gamers and communities connected to their eco systems, gamers won't switch(no pun intended) system lightly.
I think Nintendo has actually given up on becoming a 3rd viable platform for 3rd parties again. Its basically impossible for them to compete with Sony and MS at this point.
I think they made the right choice to not try to compete and rather go for affordable hardware. They don't need to get into the teraflop race.

However, I think that focussing on their own Games won't be enough. The WiiU showed that Nintendo games alone pull in 10 maybe 15 mil people, I don't think thats enough for Nintendo.

Will be interesting to see if they have something up their sleeves.
 

Peltz

Member
So with this news can we agree that the switch is simply a handheld with TV out? Its such a vast power difference from regular consoles, especially when compared to the PS4 pro, that I dont think we can reasonably call it a home console in any serious regard. Even with the context of the Wii/Wii U in previous generations.
I will accept this in terms of power. But in terms of gameplay, it still allows traditional console local multiplayer with multiple controllers on a single screen.

So as far as the gameplay possibilities are concerned, it's still a hybrid. It allows handheld style local multiplayer as well as console style local multiplayer.
 

TunaLover

Member
Still not sure how they manage to get Gamecube VC on this thing, games must be heavely customized in order to run, most when they are coded with PPC architecture.
 
Hmm. Too much of this still doesn't make sense for me to draw any real conclusion. Clock speeds alone aren't telling the whole story.

That CPU, as written, would struggle with WiiU ports.

I mean to take this at face value would mean we are throwing other reliable sources information completely out the window (Matt, LCGeek, LKD).

Not to mention we have seen Zelda BoTW, an impressive WiiU title, running noticibly better on Switch...

Still, I'm not surprised that this article is being taken as irrefutable fact already ;)

We saw a much newer and optimized version of a game running a few frames better than an older less optimized version of such game.
 

bomblord1

Banned
you seem to forget that the switch is severely underclocked.

76% the clock with an unknown cuda core count featuring unknown customizations.

However The post I was replying to said "If he has an iPhone 7 or a Samsung Galaxy S7, his phone would technically be more powerful than an nVidia Shield X1"
 
Some people are grossing overestimating the difference between the specs discussed in the other thread to this one.

Sure it has architectural advantages but its grossly underclocked low, doesn't even compare to our "confirmed" leaked devkit in the other thread. So its still utterly bizarre.

Moreover, this wouldn't even run Zelda at 30 in handheld.
Even assuming the GPUs are A57s, the specs will outperform the Wii U undocked. The CPU alone will makes a difference.

I wonder what customizations they have done.
 
Which ports would you have expected prior to this information? Serious question.

There were tonnes of people convinced stuff like FFXV was a sure fire bet for Switch. That shit can barely run on an Xbox One and PS4 so good luck getting a Luminous Engine game on Swtich. I think the whole idea of Switch running UE4 romanticised it's real world performance for a lot of people. UE4 means nothing. The iPhone can run it too.

TIL people are disappointed that a handheld system is weaker than a dedicated console. What?

At no point has this been marketed as a handheld system. Please stop the revisionist history.
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
It's not, it's 2,5 x more powerfull in docked mode which will make a difference. it's also more modern and stronger than Wii U, which will get us some good looking games in docked mode (and portable mode for a handheld). But it's not a Xbone.

I will wait for how the games look, when we get better footage.

Switch is more powerful in non-docked mode than the Wii-U?
 

Peltz

Member
I have been wondering what Nintendos plan is for years.
With the Wii, they lost 3rd party business and the WiiU was obviously not equipped to regain it.
Sony and Microsoft have a huge head start with PSN and XBL, they have gamers and communities connected to their eco systems, gamers won't switch(no pun intended) system lightly.
I think Nintendo has actually given up on becoming a 3rd viable platform for 3rd parties again. Its basically impossible for them to compete with Sony and MS at this point.
I think they made the right choice to not try to compete and rather go for affordable hardware. They don't need to get into the teraflop race.

However, I think that focussing on their own Games won't be enough. The WiiU showed that Nintendo games alone pull in 10 maybe 15 mil people, I don't think thats enough for Nintendo.

Will be interesting to see if they have something up their sleeves.

The 3DS was still a profitable venture for them though. This needs the same style of Japanese and indie support that their handheld line has maintained over the years.
 
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