Switch Graphics! Don’t give up on them just yet.

[FunFan]

After the Switch reveal a few days ago, many people had already assumed the tech on the new system is around the same level as the WiiU or sightly more powerful. Understandably most of the games have an art style that isn’t really meant to flex any GPU muscles. And it still seemed to struggle a bit. Even Zelda is only running at 900P 30fps. The skepticism is understandable. 

One exception to the more cartoony visuals, however, was the Skyrim trailer, as that game boasts a more realistic art style. The trailer didn’t made it clear if it was a port of the special edition and many may have assumed and claimed it looked like the 360 version. Yet...

An article on a website called Gearnuke did a nice job of comparing and proving the footage shown in the Switch event looks a lot like the Special Edition.

Heres the comparison:

Old ugly vanilla PC version:

New Shiny Special Edition PC version:

Nintendo Switch supposedly 360 quality version:

Neogaf agreed. Link to the article. (Note that all this is assuming the footage they showed was even from the Switch version).

 

I’m not claiming the Switch is on par with the XB1 or PS4, but it doesn’t need to be. It just need to get close enough. But can it?

We all remember when Digital Foundry tested the Tegra X1, which is rumored to be the chip inside the Switch dev kits. It concluded it could run last gen games with slightly better performance. Of course it still left many questions in the air, like how would it perform in a console environment. It also only tested games available on android, most of them last gen ports. So how would it do against a more modern game. At this point there is no way to know, but that shouldn’t stop us from doing some highly educated conjecture

Enter the GeForce 830m. What so special about it? Two things: 

1- It’s based on the Maxwell architecture. That is one of the rumored architectures the Switch custom GPU is based on. The other possible GPU architecture being the much improved Pascal.

2- Its rated at 526 gigaflops. The Tegra X-1 (also Maxwell) is rated at 512 gigaflops.

 

Anyway, here is how the GeForce 830m performs on Dark Souls 3:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJhBD6e21VU

 

and The Witcher 3:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0Nl--5F1GA

 

What does this means? Is this acceptable? Unplayable? Can we directly compare the performance of a PC to a console? Is it imposible for the Switch to run these games? Did Nintendo underclocked the GPU so much is not able to perform any flops at all?

You tell me. I have no idea. But I still think we should wait and see if more third party ports of “serious” games find their way to the Switch.

Update: justiceiro made a thread comparing the Switch version of Steep to current gen consoles. http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=224733&page=1