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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Digital Foundry: Nintendo Switch CPU and GPU clock speeds revealed

bonzobanana on 19 December 2016

I've been saying 400 gflops since the beginning much to most people's protesting. It was never going to be 600 gflops with 25.6GB/s memory bandwidth. Honestly it could have been worse.

Cpu power is the same between portable and docked. I havne't worked it out exactly but its 1ghz not 2ghz over 4 cpu's so probably in the region of 20,000 mips give or take a bit. About 2.5-3x wii u power or maybe 30% over xbox 360 due to its superior 64bit architecture.

So you have effectively a last generation console in peformance on the move plus a bit and 2.5x that when docked to create higher quality 1080p visuals on the big screen. I really don't have a problem with this. Cartoon graphics need far less resources than realistic. I don't see anything bad here. Battery life will now be much better. Still capable of VR experiences equivalent to last gen consoles.





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hunter_alien on 19 December 2016
Mr Puggsly said:
Random_Matt said:
Pre-order cancelled, that's just shocking.

I'm more intrigued in what this can do in practice versus numbers.

I mean if this thing can pull off Wii U graphics on a portable gaming device, its still a very capable machine. The new Zelda game and Skyrim reflects that.

I expect lower resolutions on portable mode which is why they can bring that speed down. 540p can look fine on a screen that small for example. Vita games looked fine pushing 480p.

The Vita was 544p. This ismply seems underwhelming a bit. I was expecting a clear 2:1 lead when compared to the WiiU, evena  bit more... Never the less software will sell it for me.



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vivster on 19 December 2016

So handheld mode around Wii U?

Can't wait for the secret sauce rumors claiming it's actually much faster because of magic.



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ihh on 19 December 2016

They should have just made a regular box and put their previous handheld games on phones. smh.



zorg1000 on 19 December 2016
ihh said:
They should have just made a regular box and put their previous handheld games on phones. smh.

That would be a much worse idea. Nintendo's handhelds consistently outsell their consoles by over 50 million so why would focusing on consoles while killing their handheld line make any sense whatsoever?



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Pyro as Bill on 19 December 2016

"Tegra X1 is a fully-featured HDMI 2.0 capable processor, so why is video output hobbled to HDMI 1.4 specs? What's the point of a 4K, 30Hz output?"

4K video confirmed?



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Conina on 19 December 2016
SonytendoAmiibo said:
And the Wii U was said to be a 176 Gflop machine? Whats the problem with this. This is a portable system that is more powerful than Nintendo's last home console. Anyone thinking this thing was going to complete with current gen are fooling themselves. This machine at these specs will be an affordable, super reliable peice of kit that will probably last for decades of gaming use. The game are on cartridge and will also last for decades. The battery will last for long gaming sessions and quick charge for convenience. This is the ultimate Nintendo machine a Nintendo fan could ask for.

So you fooled yourself:

SonytendoAmiibo said:
But every game made for the Scorpio HAS to also work on the standard Xbox One. Same with every game made for the PS4 Pro, it HAS to also work on the standard PS4. So bringing the Pro and Scorpio into this discussion is mute point. Every game will have a standard version so that is where you look at the power difference. The gap between Switch and standard PS4 and standard Xbox One is small.

Every Switch game also HAS to work in handheld mode. So it is a small gap between 150 GF (Switch worst case scenario) and 1300 GF (Xbox One worst case scenario)?



Hapuc12 on 19 December 2016

Meh no matter the console was never expected to be on X1 level since all the components are in the tablet.
But i wont be getting this console for multiplats -----------> Zelda,Donkey Kong Pl0x
And if the specs are true which are eerily specific they can't go over 250$.



merman on 19 December 2016

i really hope the Switch is massive because Nintendo need it, but they don't deserve it.
im a Playstation/Nintendo fan but haven't brought a Nintendo machine since the gamecube because everything they do seems half hearted. if this was there next handheld then yeh sounds alright but a home system? really? its not all about graphics but how long can they keep running the same franchise into the ground without it at least looking sexy.

i am enjoying Mario Run lol



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bonzobanana on 19 December 2016
vivster said:

So handheld mode below Wii U?

Can't wait for the secret sauce rumors claiming it's actually much faster because of magic.

There is no secret sauce its all pretty much out in the open. The nvidia gpu will kick well above its weight compared to wii u for simply being a better later gpu architecture with a better feature set and the whole system is running with 64bit datapaths. The wii u had a much, much weaker cpu arrangement based on 32 bit chips designed in the last century (no joke) that couldn't even muster 10,000 mips collectively. The Switch at least doubles cpu performance possibly a bit more. CPU performance is the same between portable and docked modes.