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bonzobanana on 15 December 2017
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Miyamotoo said:
bonzobanana said:

When you state that it can be very misleading to people. wii u was in theory more advanced than 360 and PS3 in so called architecture but it was a very low performance version of that architecture compared to high end for their time versions of earlier architecture of the ps3 and 360. That's why gflops are important because it helps give a rough indication of power across different generations and architecture.

So even if there is some technical improvements in the architecture of Switch compared to PS4 and Xbox one clearly the Switch is massively inferior in performance. The huge downgrades in Doom to get it working on Switch compared to PS4 and Xbox one. Even games like LA Noire on Switch struggle to repeat the same experience as ps3 in many ways, draw distance is much reduced and there is actual slowdown on Switch where the gameplay itself becomes sluggish along with the frame rate drops. Many games drop below 720p to maintain frame rates. The Switch is a nice console but lets not get ridiculous about its performance. In cpu terms it is less than 360/PS3 in gpu terms much better docked and broadly similar in portable mode. Space is at a premium on Switch due to use of cartridges and flash memory so there is a push to downsize games but on the other hand there is that huge 4GB of memory which gives the system a significant boost in performance and the game engines it can handle. 

The Switch is performing exactly as expected for a Tegra chip with a down clocked CPU. Nintendo could be 2 generations away from offering anything as powerful as the Xbox one or PS4 in a hybrid format.  I mean its about 400 gflops docked, sub 200 gflops portable and PS4 is 1800 gflops that is a huge gulf that I'm not sure can be achieved in one generation for a hybrid.

The important thing is many games simply don't need a huge amount of power.  If you want huge sprawling realistic detailed worlds then power is important but the Switch achieves a good level of performance with the huge benefit of portability. No need to pretend somehow the Switch is competitive with PS4 or Xbox one in performance terms it isn't and no one seriously thinks it is.

Gflops are totally irelevant when you comparing different tech and architecture, especially if there is difference 5-10 years between them. Also fact is that Wii U didnt had good tools and APIs and did not supported some modern engines.

Yeah but Doom works, and its still same game. We already talk about LA Noire, and DF basicly pointed that, that LA Noire is only one specific case because hole game and engine is build around very complex PS3 CPU and to use it most of it, thats actualy only one of few multiplatform games (game is later ported to Xbox360) that runs worse on Xbox360 compared to PS3. So porting such a specific game that from start build to run with specific hardware on mind, can't have best transition on totally different hardware. Every other multiplatform game runs and look better on Switch compared to PS3/Xbox360 versions.

 

As ever we will agree to disagree. My early comments about the Switch having limited cpu performance right at the beginning certainly seem to be true with clearly some games struggling in both portable and docked mode where cpu resources are the same and when I wrote that the Switch might struggle more in docked mode due to cpu restrictions that seems to be true too with digital foundry commenting that some games perform better in portable mode with regard more consistent frame rates. When you make heavier use of a gpu at higher performance often that does need some extra cpu resources.

Again though I don't really care Switch seems to be performing very nicely for what it is. Nintendo games don't need huge performance and portability is a great feature. I don't have a Switch yet but looking forward to getting one sometime in the future. It's great to see the success of Nintendo again. I was one of the rare early adopters it seems of wii u and while I was very disappointed overall with the hardware performance on many occasions I still had great times with the console and I'm sure I will with the Switch too. I'm hoping for a revision or price cut to Switch. Here in Europe the Switch hasn't been quite as successful as US or Japan so Nintendo are under a little more pressure to price cut over here.