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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Should Nintendo release a handheld only pack for 199$

KLXVER on 15 January 2017
VitaminZ said:
Yes.

Personally, I'd like a Switch without the JoyCons and JoyCon Grip. Build the controls into the tablet (Wii U) and give me a pro controller.

Then it might not be compatible with every game.



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Intrinsic on 15 January 2017
SmileyAja said:
Intrinsic said:

I don't even believe that the NS cost that much to make. At its heart its a 2013 chip shrunk from a 28nm process to a 14nm process.

I would be surprised if the NS has a BOM any higher than $180; and that including EVERYTHING in the box including what it costs to make the box itself. Including the paper.

If you're talking about the Eurogamer article, I'll quote this (from the article itself);

"There's an additional wrinkle to the story too, albeit one we should treat with caution as it is single-source in nature with a lot of additional speculation on our part. This relates to the idea that the Tegra X1 in the NX development hardware is apparently actively cooled, with audible fan noise. With that in mind, we can't help but wonder whether X1 is the final hardware we'll see in the NX. Could it actually be a placeholder for Tegra X2?"

"While we're confident that our reporting on Switch's clock-speeds is accurate, all of the questions we have concerning the leaked spec remain unanswered.... Performance at lower clocks could be boosted by a larger GPU (ie more CUDA cores), but this seems unlikely - even if Switch is using newer 16nm technology, actual transistor density isn't that different to Tegra X1's 20nm process - it's the FinFET '3D' transistors that make the difference. A larger GPU would result in a more expensive chip too, with only limited performance gains. And if Switch is using a more modern 16nm Tegra chip, we would expect Nintendo to follow Nvidia's lead in how the new process is utilised. However, the Tegra X2 features the same CUDA core count and apparently boosts GPU clocks by 50 per cent, the opposite direction taken by Nintendo."

They themselves question if the X1 is being used, and if they were to use the Venture Beat article as an example of this statement that would make less sense, since all the points they bring up about Maxwell being more efficent and cheaper than Pascal in the (Venture Beat) article are false. Die shrinking it makes no sense, since they could base the chip off the P1 and get better performance for cheaper and it will even decrease in price as time goes on. Besides we don't know how custom this chip is, it could be minor tweaks to a pre-existing chip or tailor made for the Switch. It's too early to jump the gun on saying that it's a rip-off based on the hardware which we don't know anything about.

Me even saying that its based on a die shrink is even being generous. But get ths, Nvidias own sheild Tv 2 just recently released is also still based on the tegra X1 chip. So even Nvidia isn't using the pascal variant of the still unused tegra X2 chip.

Chances are, ninty is probably using the xame X1 but on a smaller fab process with slight modifications here and there.



Zkuq on 15 January 2017

If the games work well as solely portable games, sure. If not, no.



L_ on 15 January 2017

I could see it happening, could definitely boost sales.



SmileyAja on 15 January 2017
Intrinsic said:
SmileyAja said:

If you're talking about the Eurogamer article, I'll quote this (from the article itself);

"There's an additional wrinkle to the story too, albeit one we should treat with caution as it is single-source in nature with a lot of additional speculation on our part. This relates to the idea that the Tegra X1 in the NX development hardware is apparently actively cooled, with audible fan noise. With that in mind, we can't help but wonder whether X1 is the final hardware we'll see in the NX. Could it actually be a placeholder for Tegra X2?"

"While we're confident that our reporting on Switch's clock-speeds is accurate, all of the questions we have concerning the leaked spec remain unanswered.... Performance at lower clocks could be boosted by a larger GPU (ie more CUDA cores), but this seems unlikely - even if Switch is using newer 16nm technology, actual transistor density isn't that different to Tegra X1's 20nm process - it's the FinFET '3D' transistors that make the difference. A larger GPU would result in a more expensive chip too, with only limited performance gains. And if Switch is using a more modern 16nm Tegra chip, we would expect Nintendo to follow Nvidia's lead in how the new process is utilised. However, the Tegra X2 features the same CUDA core count and apparently boosts GPU clocks by 50 per cent, the opposite direction taken by Nintendo."

They themselves question if the X1 is being used, and if they were to use the Venture Beat article as an example of this statement that would make less sense, since all the points they bring up about Maxwell being more efficent and cheaper than Pascal in the (Venture Beat) article are false. Die shrinking it makes no sense, since they could base the chip off the P1 and get better performance for cheaper and it will even decrease in price as time goes on. Besides we don't know how custom this chip is, it could be minor tweaks to a pre-existing chip or tailor made for the Switch. It's too early to jump the gun on saying that it's a rip-off based on the hardware which we don't know anything about.

Me even saying that its based on a die shrink is even being generous. But get ths, Nvidias own sheild Tv 2 just recently released is also still based on the tegra X1 chip. So even Nvidia isn't using the pascal variant of the still unused tegra X2 chip.

Chances are, ninty is probably using the xame X1 but on a smaller fab process with slight modifications here and there.

First of all no Tegra X2 exists, while Xavier and the P1 to a lesser extent are touted for cars, the X1 was a safe bet for the use case. Not to mention it's the same old Shield with a new controller and remote, and a software update. The only change on the console is the removal of the SD card slot. 

Again, for Nintendo even now and down the line Pascal is more economically viable and far better suited for their use case, and the Foxconn leak (which got everything right except 4G which was actually part of the unreleased dev kit and 1080p screen which he based off the fact that it wasn't upscaling to 1080p as the system was being benchmarked docked and he went off this, just like he speculated about the A73 cores because of the ARM_v8 architecture which doesn't imply A73s) also says Pascal. Game Informer also says Pascal even though that was 99.9 % definetly not insider info. Pascal is better and cheaper for both Nintendo and nVidia in every way.



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vivster on 15 January 2017

No. Choice is what PC and mobile is for.



If you demand respect or gratitude for your volunteer work, you're doing volunteering wrong.

Intrinsic on 15 January 2017
SmileyAja said:

First of all no Tegra X2 exists, while Xavier and the P1 to a lesser extent are touted for cars, the X1 was a safe bet for the use case. Not to mention it's the same old Shield with a new controller and remote, and a software update. The only change on the console is the removal of the SD card slot. 

Again, for Nintendo even now and down the line Pascal is more economically viable and far better suited for their use case, and the Foxconn leak (which got everything right except 4G which was actually part of the unreleased dev kit and 1080p screen which he based off the fact that it wasn't upscaling to 1080p as the system was being benchmarked docked and he went off this, just like he speculated about the A73 cores because of the ARM_v8 architecture which doesn't imply A73s) also says Pascal. Game Informer also says Pascal even though that was 99.9 % definetly not insider info. Pascal is better and cheaper for both Nintendo and nVidia in every way.

You are just helping me prove my point. My point is that there is no reason that it should cost as much as it does. Now if they are using pascal which will also mean at most a16nm fab process then that means it should even cost them less to aquire their chips than if they were using the older (larger) 20nm process.

I am not talking about nor do i care about the power of the system, I am talking about its price. The whole thing is overpriced to me and i really cant see what about it justifies that $300 price point.

I mean just look at the dock for crying out loud, yh yh i know sold seperately its probably marked up to all hell and back but that thing cant possibly cost more than $20 for nintendo to make. Hell lets give it $30. The switch has no disc drive, no internal HDD, a 720p LCD screen (thats probably not even IPS), 32GB of flash storage (mind you you can get a 64GB USB flash drive on amazon for $15 so it probably cost ninty no more than $5 for that 32GB of flash storage) The joycon controllers cant cost them more than $30 total, maybe another $10 for its grip. 



UltimateUnknown on 15 January 2017
Captain_Yuri said:
irstupid said:

This. 

Anyone thinking the dock is some $90 peice of hardware is just stupid. Risking a ban with that comment, but I don't care, it needs to be said. 

Yea it shouldn't be anywhere near that much!

It has like 3 ports and not even any ethernet port. No fans or anything!

Wait what? That can't be right. Is the Switch wifi only?



 

Jizz_Beard_thePirate on 15 January 2017
UltimateUnknown said:
Captain_Yuri said:

Yea it shouldn't be anywhere near that much!

It has like 3 ports and not even any ethernet port. No fans or anything!

Wait what? That can't be right. Is the Switch wifi only?

Yeaa! You can get an ethernet adapter and plug it in via USB like you could with the wiiU for like $30 or something.



                  

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KLXVER on 15 January 2017
UltimateUnknown said:
Wait what? That can't be right. Is the Switch wifi only?

Yes, just like the Wii and WiiU. You can buy that ethernet adaptor though.