superchunk said:
Nintendo has a history of not sharing the tech specs of their consoles. At this point their reveal process for the Nintendo Switch (NS) is even more of a pain in the ass as all they've shown so far is core functionality; home console + portable console in one.
Due to the small tablet-like form, many are jumping to dillusions that NS will be barely the power of the WiiU and once again impossible to support the myriad of 3rd party games. Others are grasping at any rumor and arguing that NS will be above Xbox One and potentially PS4 levels. Both of these extremes are based on nothing but opinions and bias either against or for Nintendo, respectively.
But let's take a grounded approach to what we do know, to give a legitimate approximation of what NS will actually contain within its dreamy interior.
List of Partners
Will you just look at it?
Bethesda, CRIWARE, FROM SOFTWARE, EPIC... These are game creators and technology giants that previously have not supported Nintendo specifically due to its lack of powerful architecture. Bethesda specifically stated earlier this year that they would not support "NX" unless it was at Xbox One levels. Unreal Engine 4 requires certain technology to be supported as such only UE3 was available on WiiU. What you see here is a list of middleware used in all AAA game development. Software that produces highly scaleable software for all major game developers. This simple fact that these companies are listed are reason alone to strongly support the concept that NS is well within the realm of XboxOne / PS4 in architecture and general technology support.
Tegra Inside
"Nintendo Switch is powered by the performance of the custom Tegra processor. The high-efficiency scalable processor includes an NVIDIA GPU based on the same architecture as the world’s top-performing GeForce gaming graphics cards."
Tegra's latest flagship is the X1. We know Tegra has been working on what has been lovingly titled the "Parker" but of which we only know rumored details including the GPUs are based on Pascual technology. We know that these SOCs are designed specifically for mobile technologies and that Tegra has decided to not continue their gaming "Shield" line which normally is their platform to advertise their latest mobile tech.
We have to assume that Nintendo is at least going with an X1 but could be going with a Parker as the base architecture prior to customization.
Tegra X1 as compared to WiiU and for top-end we'll toss in the next Tegra SOC Parker.
| |
Tegra X1 |
Wii U |
Tegra "Parker" |
Xbox One |
| CPU |
64-bit ARM CPU in 4+4 configuration
4 cores @ 1.9GHz A57
4 cores @ 1.3GHz A53
2MB L2 |
PowerPC Type 750
3 cores @ 1.25GHz
1× 1 MB, 2× 512 KB L2 |
64-bit ARM CPU in 2+4 configuration
2 cores @ over 2GHz Denver
4 cores @ 1.9GHz A57
2MB L2
|
AMD APU Fusion "Jaguar CPU"
8 cores @ 1.75GHz
2MB L2 cache (per 4 cores)
*6 cores used in gaming* |
| GPU |
Maxwell-based GPU
1000MHz clock
512 GFLOPs
|
AMD HD GPGPU
550MHz clock
176 GFLOPs |
Pascal-based GPU
1000+MHz clock
750 GFLOPs |
AMD HD GPGPU
853MHz clock
1310 GFLOPs |
| Source |
Wiki |
My Thread
Wiki |
Wiki |
My Thread |
Active Cooling
Images of the NS clearly show it has an active cooling system. This futher supports the idea that the system will need to remove a lot of heat being generated, most likely when docked and needing to upscale the images to TV resolutions.
Summary
Looking at this data we can draw some conclusions.
1) NS is clearly going to be a lot more powerful than WiiU. That is obvious.
2) NS is not going to be more poweful than the Xbox One. That is obvious.
3) Tegra CPUs are as good and better than what Xbox One and PS4 contain.
4) Based on customization with a Parker, the NS could be very comparable to that of Xbox One, but that will depend on a lot of other tech that I don't have data for my table including specific trade-offs in teh GPU, RAM, memory bandwidth, etc.
All in all, you cannot toss out the NS as technically incapable of playing AAA 3rd party games. You cannot make claims that it will barely beat that of the WiiU. We will need to wait until January 12 to see if Nintendo actually releases the specs or if someone else breaks it down similar to how we've gotten Wii and WiiU data post launch. Of course January 12th and the time leading up to launch will answer the biggest and most important question, what games will be supported and how will they play?
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