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[Relaxed Muscle]

I wouldn't expect a big difference between docked and not cause they probably want the game to run close to each other in quality. A big difference would give us some horrible versions of some games when portable..

Yeah, I expect mostly resolution bumps.

 

[Griss]

1. It really is a portable, I guess.

2. Better be cheap.

3. We witnessed the end of Nintendo's home console business and didn't even realize it.

Plenty of us Nintendo fans immediately realised it. Hell, some of us predicted it.

I just expected a stronger portable.

 

[Fourth Storm]

The CPU staying at a consistent speed is interesting and right in line with what we were speculating months back. Good to know some of us were somewhat on the right track.

 

[Maxim726X]

To be fair here, this console isn't trying to compete with the PS4s and XBones of the world- It's supposed to fill a specific niche.

It's going to play Nintendo games, probably very well. That's all people care about.

 

[Green Yoshi]

Lol, Switch portable is more powerful than the PS3, I hope you where sarcastic when writing this post.

Is the CPU faster than Cell, too?

PS3 GPU runs @550 Mhz, but it is clearly outdated.

 

[Ramsiege]

As long as Nintendo games are there, I'm in, regardless of specs.

 

[Rodin]

Somebody please.... In GFlops numbers

WiiU=?
Switch docked=?
Switch undocked=?
Vita=?
3DS=?
XboxOne=?

176 VLIW5/DX10.1 equivalent
393 (2SM) or 590 (3SM) Maxwell/Vulkan
157 (2SM) or 236 (3SM) Maxwell/Vulkan
28 Powervr 5/custom api
4 PICA (for vertex shader+whatever fixed functions that thing has)/custom api
1300 GCN 1.0/DX12

 

[Peltz]

I'm pretty concerned about framerates in portable mode.

 

[Darkstorne]

And to be fair, the Vita did manage to run this:

Exactly why I'm still hyped about this. Vita is an amazing piece of hardware, just lacks the games. Switch is much more powerful than the Vita, AND it will have Zelda and Pokemon. If it launches at $200 I'll happily buy on day one. Otherwise, I'll wait for Pokemon.

If this is powerful enough to run Breath of the Wild in portable mode, then it's everything I could ever want from a modern handheld.

 

[Vena]

LKD has said this since Eurogamers article went up

Which doesn't make sense if the system features a standard CUDA core count.

Wait, how could only one source report this if its from documentation...? Every source would have this documentation.

 

[Anth0ny]

1. It really is a portable, I guess.

2. Better be cheap.

3. We witnessed the end of Nintendo's home console business and didn't even realize it.

1. of course

2. maybe

3. i realized it, but I ain't happy about it ; _ ;

maybe when this bombs they'll finally just make a traditional console

 

[10k]

IMO they should've designed it as a handheld first. I.e. made the thing no bigger than a 3DS XL.

As it is, it looks like the worst of both worlds: not powerful enough to get uncompromised PS4/X1 multiplats, not small enough to replace 3DS as a handheld game system.

I dunno, maybe it's just a psychological thing. I can get excited for a dock-able 3DS. Not so much a dock-able tablet with detachable controllers.

This is why I never liked the idea of a hybrid. If it underwhelms doing both functions that makes it a poor product to me. Especially as someone who wants a home console from Nintendo rather than another handheld.

But I guess the switch will be what every Nintendo console since than N64 was to me; a $300 box that lets me play 5 or so exclusives a year with software droughts. At least this time it'll have more exclusives.

 

[fronn]

Overall, this gives me hope. The X1 is powerful enough for me to not care, and weak enough that I think the price point could make the switch really competitive next year.

 

[MacTag]

Somebody please.... In GFlops numbers

WiiU=?
Switch docked=?
Switch undocked=?
Vita=?
3DS=?
XboxOne=?

Vita, 3DS and Xbox One each have variable figures depending on the model or clock rate. You'd need:

Vita base clock
Vita over clock
3DS
New 3DS
Xbox One
Xbox One S

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

Is the CPU faster than Cell, too?

PS3 GPU runs @550 Mhz, but it is clearly outdated.

Comparing clock speeds doesn't matter. They are different architectures.

 

[LordRaptor]

I wouldn't expect a big difference between docked and not cause they probably want the game to run close to each other in quality. A big difference would give us some horrible versions of some games when portable..

Portable being a locked 40% capability basically gives you a 'free' resolution bump from 720p to 1080p when docked.

That might mean native res geometry, but sub-native res (720p) effects like shadows / reflections / VFX which aren't scaled, but we have that now anyway.

 

[The_Lump]

Yes, we call still people insiders although they fucked up at that free form display controller thingy.

LKD confirmed the free-form display???

I'm referring to her, as that's who you mentioned in your post.

 

[Koyuga]

This all sounds great to me! It really doesn't matter how powerful it is compared to other consoles. It runs Zelda and Skyrim and fits in your pocket. That is impressive as hell.

 

[oti]

My takeaway is this.

For Nintendo games this thing will be amazing.
But I shouldn't expect stuff like Dragon's Dogma 2

Spoiler

BELIEVE

on that thing. Bummer.

 

[PdotMichael]

LKD confirmed the free-form display???

Did I claim that?

In fact I even wrote that LKD is one of the trustworthy leakers unlike all the other joke characters running here.

 

[Exile20]

I understand the lower clocks in portable mode but why in docked?

 

[Schnozberry]

Wait, how could only one source report this if its from documentation...? Every source would have this documentation.

Well, one source reported it to her. That doesn't preclude others from talking to Eurogamer.

 

[Sora the Cat]

Well, from what we saw of Zelda, the system is definitely not as powerful as a Wii U when undocked.

What do you mean? From what we saw we can say that it's at least as powerful as the wii u.

 

[AyaisMUsikWhore]

To be fair here, this console isn't trying to compete with the PS4s and XBones of the world- It's supposed to fill a specific niche.

It's going to play Nintendo games, probably very well. That's all people care about.

This. I've realized that Nintendo isn't competing to be Microsoft or Sony. So at this point...I'm just looking for the price point because it's the games that I'm going to focus on. I can't be bothered with the spec talk anymore because it's a waste...this is Nintendo now and I guess it's time to really realize that.

 

[Alienous]

I really got shot down when I suggested that it'd be closer to last-gen than current-gen. It just didn't seem likely that a portable would be capable of near Xbox One level performance, if only for the size and power consumption of those consoles when compared.

Nintendo's best bet is the same as it always was - keep it cheap and sell it as a one-stop-shop for everything Nintendo.

 

[Peltz]

This is why I never liked the idea of a hybrid. If it underwhelms doing both functions that makes it a poor product to me. Especially as someone who wants a home console from Nintendo rather than another handheld.

But I guess the switch will be what every Nintendo console since than N64 was to me; a $300 box that lets me play 5 or so exclusives a year with software droughts. At least this time it'll have more exclusives.

Same here. Now there is only one price of admission for access to their entire library.

Soft-Woo! (-_-)

 

[Forkball]

Can it run Crysis?

 

[MatrixMan.EXE]

I'm not much of a online multiplayer gamer so Splatoon does nothing for me. But people love it and I'm not denying that it's Wii u's most important game.

There are some good games on Wii U, but compared to Wii, number of great games on Wii U is pathetic. Bayo 2, SM3DW, MK8, Splatoon, XCX and W101. And two of them were not made by Nintendo. Rest are all filler games. That actually proves one point: Nintendo needs to stop making crap filler games like Starfox Zero or Animal Crossing Amiibo Party and start funding more second party games. Look how Bayonetta turned out.

This is why I keep saying that, while the Wii U has some incredible games, there aren't actually that many of them considering the system is 4 years old. It's line up is severely overrated and probably one of the weakest 1st party outputs, if not the weakest I've ever seen from Nintendo.

 

[bomblord1]

Can it run Crysis?

Definitely I would even venture to say easily

 

[NaDannMaGoGo]

What was the problem? It perfectly summed up my reaction to such remarkably stupid posts.

It lasts like 0.75s and loops without any fading or slowdown, making it extremely jarring. It's also black and white for some reason. Impressively, it's sub-tumblr quality.

 

[sir_bumble_bee]

I understand the lower clocks in portable mode but why in docked?

The rational reason being it is not a standard Tegra X1.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

Nintendo stealth exiting the console business is low key funny

 

[Sami+]

So deadass if it's substantially weaker than XB1 even in docked mode (? is that the case?) how would it be running shit in 1080p? Doesn't XB1 usually render at 900p on average?

 

[eaise]

I wonder what the mandate is for third party games in terms of tablet mode.

Can they just say "Fuck it, tablet mode doesn't work for this game"?

Because I foresee lots of Devs struggling on those tablet specs.

^This. Completely this. I can see Dark Souls 3 (rumor is FromSoft have DS3 running to their liking on the Switch) running on the docked mode. But in undocked...I don't see it working so well

 

[bomblord1]

The rational reason being it is not a standard Tegra X1.

I'm just going to assuming 3SM's in my head cannon :')

 

[TheGreyHulk]

This is why i was hoping they were using Pascal @16nm instead. Much more efficient power wise and would have been able to secure higher clocks to meet their thermal/battery requirements.

Im very disappointed spec wise but i didnt get my hopes up too high after the wii u incident. I didnt expect it to be this low though.

This thing better be cheap then. It's pretty much the final form of a wii u IMO but the architectural advances in it will make it much more capable.

I'm still down to buy one because it's a Nintendo and i cant play their games anywhere else.

The tech lover in me is just very disappointed. Wish they chose pascal custom chip.

Cpu half the speed and the gpu is really low va the shield. Wasn't expecting anything less than shield. Damn you nintnendo.... ugh

 

[Aldric]

It looks powerful enough to run Nintendo games.... what's the problem?

The 3DS is "powerful enough to run Nintendo games", that's a pointless observation.

 

[OrbitalBeard]

This is why I keep saying that, while the Wii U has some incredible games, there aren't actually that many of them considering the system is 4 years old. It's line up is severely overrated and probably one of the weakest 1st party outputs, if not the weakest I've ever seen from Nintendo.

I don't think its lineup is overrated at all outside of places like GAF. It has by far Nintendo's worst software output for any of their devices, sans Virtual Boy, and the market responded accordingly.

I honestly think Nintendo would have to try to make Switch have a worse library. Hopefully they don't consider this statement of mine to be a personal challenge!

 

[asagami_]

This is why I never liked the idea of a hybrid. If it underwhelms doing both functions that makes it a poor product to me. Especially as someone who wants a home console from Nintendo rather than another handheld.

A Nintendo home console which is insanely powerful as a X1 or PS4 is never happen soon. But, the Switch will receive support from 1st and 2parties never develop games to Wii U, specially their flagship titles. Like Intelligent Systems or Game Freaks.

 

[MacTag]

Nintendo stealth exiting the console business is low key funny

It's a fairly graceful exit at least. Not like Sega in consoles, or Sony in handhelds.

 

[KAL2006]

So deadass if it's substantially weaker than XB1 even in docked mode (? is that the case?) how would it be running shit in 1080p? Doesn't XB1 usually render at 900p on average?

Because it won't run games like Battlefield 1.

It will run games like Splatoon which are nothing the same ballpark in terms of.grapgics but does the job.

 

[Oregano]

It is a leap over Gen 7, for much the same reasons Vita was over Gen 6; architectural improvements. Also a pretty huge memory jump (from 512MB to 4GB).

The clocks are low, but Vita even had it worse there (333 MHz CPU, 111 MHz GPU). There's a reason Sony never announced those specs.

Vita is also much smaller than Switch and doesn't need active cooling. If Vita was switch sized and with a fan it wouldn't have been downlocked that much.

The fact that Switch is so downloaded but still needs the fan when portable is distressing. Especially when it means the battery is still taking a big hit.

 

[guybrushfreeman]

The 3DS is "powerful enough to run Nintendo games", that's a pointless observation.

The NES even

 

[Kibbles]

Bring on the $149.99 launch

 

[calc84maniac]

^This. Completely this. I can see Dark Souls 3 (rumor is FromSoft have DS3 running to their liking on the Switch) running on the docked mode. But in undocked...I don't see it working so well

Literally scale down the resolution for the smaller screen.

Man, this thread. I've never seen so much outrage over numbers.

 

[MatrixMan.EXE]

I don't think its lineup is overrated at all outside of places like GAF. It has by far Nintendo's worst software output for any of their devices, sans Virtual Boy, and the market responded accordingly.

Yeah, I should have been specific sorry. Within GAF it's overrated.

 

[LordRaptor]

This thread reminds me why I've never really had a problem with Nintendo not officially releasing specs for their machines

 

[d00d3n]

Will the low gpu clock frequency lead to excellent battery times, or are we in the territory of diminishing returns with such a massive downclock?

 

[LordOfChaos]

That should be correct

4.8Gflops is the new 3DS btw. Old 3DS was 0.6.

 

[Kssio_Aug]

It lasts like 0.75s and loops without any fading or slowdown, making it extremely jarring. It's also black and white for some reason. Impressively, it's sub-tumblr quality.

Impressive gif analysis.