| goopy20 said: It probably could have beaten the ps4 this gen if it was launched at the same time as the ps4/Xone. The problem, however, is that next gen is just around the corner. Meaning the specs of the Switch will be even more dated next year and I wonder what kind of impact that will have on its sales and support from 3rd party developers. Nintendo could launch a more powerful next gen Switch, of course, but it will probably take a couple of years before they would be able to get next gen like hardware into a handheld device. |
From a hardware feature set perspective, the Switch is doing well, it meets all of the Gen 8 requirements.
Next-gen the buzzword will be "Ray Tracing". - nVidia has not brought Ray Tracing cores to the Tegra line of chips just yet... It's most modern chip is the Volta based Tegra with Xavier.
nVidia's Orin may feature Ray Tracing cores, it may not, still a big unknown. - Otherwise the only real option for Nintendo to meet 9th gen Ray Tracing is with a different chip vendor like Imaginations PowerVR with Ray Tracing, but that can potentially break backwards compatibility with the current software library.
| Alistair said: The Switch uses the CPU core that premiered in the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, 5 years ago, so putting in any modern ARM core next year would get you 3-4x CPU performance in the same power budget |
Well... Tegra X1 did come out in 2015.... 4-5 years ago.
If Nintendo leveraged Tegra X2 for Switch we could have had 50% more performance at the same powerlevel on release.
| Alistair said: As for the GPU, sure, they might only be able to double the number of GPU cores (easy enough from 20nm to 7nm) because of thermal limits, but they can do what Apple did with the iPad Pro and give it a 4x memory bus width (Switch uses a minuscule 32-bit bus, while the iPad pro and laptop GTX 1650 / mobile RX 5500 use a 128-bit bus). Combine that with faster memory like LPDDR5 and they could have up to 8x more memory bandwidth. Increase the price by $100 USD and put a current mobile chip in it. We are asking for half the CPU cores and the same memory bandwidth of any modern mobile chip, minus all the modems and neural networks and DSP (i.e. we want 1/4 the silicon of a Snapdragon 865). The RX 5500 has 224 GB/s memory bandwidth because of GDDR6. The Switch has only 22 GB/s or so because the bus width cuts it by 1/4 and the memory is half the speed of GDDR6 also, so 1/8 to 1/10 overall. |
Switch uses a 64-bit memory bus, not a 32-bit one.
Xavier doubles the CUDA count and increases clockspeeds, so it could be a substantial increase over Tegra X1.
| DarthMetalliCube said: Switch didn't get to where it is because of horsepower, so I doubt that'll suddenly become a problem during the start of the next gen. |
Performance is all relative though. When compared to other handhelds, it's actually very competent, not class leading, but competent.
When compared to other form factors... Then it falls short.
Either way, my phone obliterates the Switch in terms of hardware capability in every regard, mobile hardware is developing at a rapid pace.
| scottslater said: And as a console I find the Switch lineup better than what Xbox/PS offer right now (Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, Zelda: BotW, Mario Odyssey, Pokemon Sw/Sh, Smash, Mario Kart, etc.) |
Breath of the Wild, Smash Brothers and Mario Kart are on the WiiU, they are also cheaper to buy there... So for those three games, I wouldn't buy the Switch unless mobile gaming is super important.
In saying that... I am having an absolute blast with Links Awakening on Switch, the console is worth buying just for that gameboy remake to be honest.
Still want a Switch TV though that drops all the mobile stuff, then I would sell my current Switch, I just don't take my Switch out of the dock.
--::{PC Gaming Master Race}::--
