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Forums - Gaming - Switch is powered by stock Tegra X1

caffeinade on 16 March 2017
Ganoncrotch said:
Stock tegra chip runs the Game of the Year, really shows that both other parties in the console race sort of have the wrong idea about what to strive for to excite gamers and the gaming industry. Outside of digital foundry there are not a whole pile of people go do a pixel count on a per frame basis in games, most would rather a game which is amazing from a gameplay point of view than an amazing amount of pixels on screen.

I'm not saying that graphical fidelity isn't a great thing to have too, just that it doesn't matter how Pro or how Scorpio the other consoles get, they still wont play Breath of the Wild.

I don't know, playing BotW in 4k on the PC will be nice...
But yeah gameplay first.



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NATO on 16 March 2017

Stock off the shelf part and they're still charging $300.
Lol.



NATO on 16 March 2017
vivster said:
This is why Nintendo needs their own system. So they can put all their knowledge and innovation into the hardware to create unique experiences.

I love you man



Ganoncrotch on 16 March 2017
Pemalite said:
Ganoncrotch said:
Stock tegra chip runs the Game of the Year, really shows that both other parties in the console race sort of have the wrong idea about what to strive for to excite gamers and the gaming industry. Outside of digital foundry there are not a whole pile of people go do a pixel count on a per frame basis in games, most would rather a game which is amazing from a gameplay point of view than an amazing amount of pixels on screen.

I'm not saying that graphical fidelity isn't a great thing to have too, just that it doesn't matter how Pro or how Scorpio the other consoles get, they still wont play Breath of the Wild.

That game was built for a semi-custom chip that in the Wii U first remember. It's a port to the Switch from the Wii U, not a game that was built and takes advantage of all the Switch's hardware nuances.

Scisca said:

I think it's a good thing. A custom one would no doubt be more powerful, but it being stock means it'll be easier to replace the chip with a stock X2 in some time, when it becomes cheaper, giving us a slightly better performance (probably XO -> XOS level) and much better battery life.

That is one good advantage.

A Pascal based Tegra should be able to be a drop-in replacement almost, hardware wise Pascal was an evolutionary improvement over Maxwell, so it shouldn't utterly destroy compatability.

Don't be surprised if you see 50% or more in efficiency gains.

True enough Pemalite my main point was that more Flops aren't really going to guarentee better game experiences when we have something like BotW coming out on what is effectively very weak hardware but is still just a beautiful experience of a game to play.



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zorg1000 on 16 March 2017
Intrinsic said:
zorg1000 said:

Well GBA, DS & 3DS all had their first revisions about 1.5 years after launch so a Switch revision in fall 2018 seems feasible.

That should be awesome news for everyone thats spending $300 for one now. 18 months from now they get to see a better version of what they have right now.... even worse probably chaper too.

What a strange viewpoint, people are buying a Switch because it appeals to them, an improved version down the road doesnt change that.

Did the people who bought a GBA at launch feel burned when the SP released with a more portable form factor, bascklit screen and rechargeable battery?

Were people who bought a DS at launch upset when Lite released with a slimmer/sleeker design, brighter screen, better battery life & lower price?

Were PSP launch owners upset when the smaller, lighter, less expensive, brighter screen model with more RAM & internal storage released?

Were 3DS launch owners upset when the XL released with a bigger screen, better battery life, improved design & lower price released?

Were Vita launch owners upset when the smaller, lighter, less expensive model with internal storage & better battery life released?

These revisions all released about 2 years give or take after the launch model so why would current Switch owners be upset about an improved revision releasing in a similar timeframe?



When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.

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zorg1000 on 16 March 2017
thismeintiel said:
zorg1000 said:

It was heavily rumored last year that Nintendo got a really good deal on the chips for Switch. Apparently Nvidia was desperate to get a major partner for their Tegra line.

Also using outdated tech can actually make things more expensive since they aren't being mass produced anymore, that along with the tech inside the gamepad made Wii U expensive to produce.

While I agree old tech can end up costing you a little more, you still have to account that the Wii U was the follow up to the hugely successful Wii.  Nintendo was on top of the market at that point and should have easily been able to convince manufacturers that their next console would be just as big of a hit, and therefore could take less of a profit on their parts to help lower the price and push sales even further.  Even if the tech was outdated, if the Wii U had launched for $250 and been just as big of a hit as the Wii, the parts would be mass produced to keep up with demand.

And I guess we'll have to wait til Nintendo's financials are released to see if the rumor is true.

Well i suppose its possible that if Wii U sold well than manufacturing costs could have come down but Nintendo still hasnt shipped the original 1st full fiscal year goals they had.

Originally they wanted to ship 5.5 million units in the launch window (up to Mar 2013) and an additional 9 million in the first full fiscal year (up to Mar 2014) for a total of 14.5 million. As of the end of 2016, they had only shipped 13.56 million units so it seems possible that they had the initial units all manufactured and have just been sitting in a warehouse and getting shipped as needed.



When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.

FunFan on 16 March 2017
vivster said:
This is why Nintendo needs their own system. So they can put all their knowledge and innovation into the hardware to create unique experiences.

A unique software experience can always be realized with unique hardware...



“Simple minds have always confused great honesty with great rudeness.” - Sherlock Holmes, Elementary (2013).

"Did you guys expected some actual rational fact-based reasoning? ...you should already know I'm all about BS and fraudulence." - FunFan, VGchartz (2016)

darkrulier on 16 March 2017
JRPGfan said:
bonzobanana said:

Did they have a huge stockpile, not read that anywhere. Also do Nvidia do anything cheap, they are one of the most profiteering companies out there who often price themselves out of contracts and treat their business partner's badly. 

Maybe your right though, Nintendo get their first batch on the cheap and then Nvidia ramp up the price when they can deliver a 16nm chip.

Lets say you make a chip, and assume you can sell it for x amount of $.

You make a couple of million of them (x$ times millions), hopeing to score some Tablet contract...... it falls through.

Now you have millions of these chips laying around in a warehouse.

No one wanted to buy them, so nvidia started makeing Shield TV, shield handheld, ect trying to not lose so much on the chips.

But its not selling well.... so you still have millions left.

Nintendo offers to buy them from nvidia, but knows nvidia cant really sell from a position of strength.

Its sell it to nintendo for dirt cheap, or risk never getting anything for them.

Nvidia choose to sell them dirt cheap.

Semiaccurate wrote a article about it, where they heard it from a inside guy, Nintendo got a really good deal on them.

 

"Nintendo get their first batch on the cheap and then Nvidia ramp up the price when they can deliver a 16nm chip."

Yeah I wouldnt be surprised if its something like that.

Nvidia takes a huge loss on the first batches of chips,  and hopes the switch goes on to sell like the "Wii" did, and think "we ll make profits down the line".

Wow its amazing the ability that you have to make things up out of thin air. Are you a project manager for nvidia or Nintendo? Do you have any legitimate information about how the and for how much were the Tegra chips sold to Nintendo? Do you have a magical ball that reveal things from the tech industry? Im sory but you are just speculating here.




d21lewis on 16 March 2017
JRPGfan said:

Nintendo didnt use any R&D on the chip....
and they got them dirt cheap from nvidia (that had a huge stockpile laying around they couldnt sell).

It bugs me Nintendo decided to go for 299$ price point.
However if their still selling them faster than they can make them, its all good for them.

Guys dont be suckers though, if you wait like 6months time Im pretty sure you ll see them do a 50-100$ price cut.

People say that all the time but, to me, waiting 6 months to a year just to save what amounts to a movie with popcorn isn't worth it 



JRPGfan on 16 March 2017
darkrulier said:
JRPGfan said:

Lets say you make a chip, and assume you can sell it for x amount of $.

You make a couple of million of them (x$ times millions), hopeing to score some Tablet contract...... it falls through.

Now you have millions of these chips laying around in a warehouse.

No one wanted to buy them, so nvidia started makeing Shield TV, shield handheld, ect trying to not lose so much on the chips.

But its not selling well.... so you still have millions left.

Nintendo offers to buy them from nvidia, but knows nvidia cant really sell from a position of strength.

Its sell it to nintendo for dirt cheap, or risk never getting anything for them.

Nvidia choose to sell them dirt cheap.

Semiaccurate wrote a article about it, where they heard it from a inside guy, Nintendo got a really good deal on them.

 

"Nintendo get their first batch on the cheap and then Nvidia ramp up the price when they can deliver a 16nm chip."

Yeah I wouldnt be surprised if its something like that.

Nvidia takes a huge loss on the first batches of chips,  and hopes the switch goes on to sell like the "Wii" did, and think "we ll make profits down the line".

Wow its amazing the ability that you have to make things up out of thin air. Are you a project manager for nvidia or Nintendo? Do you have any legitimate information about how the and for how much were the Tegra chips sold to Nintendo? Do you have a magical ball that reveal things from the tech industry? Im sory but you are just speculating here.

May 12, 2016 : http://semiaccurate.com/2016/05/12/guess-whos-silicon-is-in-nintendos-nx/

Oct 24, 2016 : http://semiaccurate.com/2016/10/24/nintendo-nxswitch-uses-tegra-like-semiaccurate-said/


Im not a "professional and student level subscribers.", but the info in his articles had a way of getting out and re-reported by other news sites or the forums would have threads talking about it.  So basically what Im saying and the opinions I have are from old rumors and what people said back then. 


also its stupid to assume that a project manager would say anything about the matter, on a forum. They would end up loseing their jobs, and or getting sued, most likely.  Typically what happends is someone in the techworld, that knows others in the techworld, but runs a news site talks to people, and keeps it anonymous, just saying "sources said so and so" (I assume).


Thats what semiacurate did, they had sources/moles tell them this stuff, and it was news worthy. He wrote about it.

The guy likes to speculate and isnt always right though, so hes not well liked, so often his "news" is just disreguarded.

However he was right about it being Nvidia Nintendo would use back in early May of 2016, and knew it was a normal tegra chip well in advance too.

Im assumeing his "sources" that talked about the deal and why nintendo picked them, is also right.

 

So no what I talk about above isnt from a "magic crystal ball" but from news articles explaining why nintendo picked nvidia.