With recent announcements of new 3rd part games for the Switch, including “the impossible port” of ARK Survival evolved, it made me wondering, how actually difficult it is to port those game to Switch? The question is, what kind of PC it takes to even run them, aka what are the minimum hardware requirements? I know that we can’t directly compare PC and Switch specs, due to completely different architectures, but this is only a thought experiment, so don’t take those results too seriously. Also minimum specs don’t guarantee smooth experience by any means.
Anyways, for comparison reasons, I used PC hardware proposed by Digital Foundry in one of their 2016 Doom for Switch vs PC analysis (link here). I also used PassMark CPU and GPU benchmark scores to see where (roughly) those two sit on the scoreboard. Mind you, in DF video, they had to down clock the GPU, so this is very optimistic scenario.
CPU | GPU | RAM | VRAM | TOTAL | HDD | CPU Score | GPU Score | Total |
AMD | GeForce | GB | GB | GB | GB | PassMark | G3D Average | CPU+GPU |
Athlon 5350 | GT 1030 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 32 | 3,059 | 2,225 | 5,284 |
Down here, I listed few already released, or soon to be released, 3rd party titles, and checked their minimum hardware requirements against the same benchmarks. All of them are Intel and nVidia based.
Title | CPU | GPU | RAM | VRAM | SUM | HDD | CPU score | GPU score | CPU rank | GPU rank | Memory | CPU&GPU |
Intel | GeForce | GB | GB | GB | GB | PassMark | G3D Average | 3059 = 100% | 2225 = 100% | 4 = 100% | 5284 =100% | |
Wolfenstein II | Core i5-3570 | GTX 770 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 55 | 7,160 | 6,078 | 232% | 273% | 250% | 250% |
WWE 2K18 | Core i5-3550 | GTX 670 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 50 | 6,940 | 5,371 | 227% | 241% | 150% | 233% |
Doom | Core i5-2400 | GTX 670 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 55 | 5,954 | 5,371 | 195% | 241% | 250% | 214% |
ARK: SE | Core i5-2400 | GTX 670 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 60 | 5,954 | 5,371 | 195% | 241% | 250% | 214% |
Vampyr | Core i3-2130 | GTX 660 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 20 | 4,059 | 4,127 | 133% | 185% | 250% | 155% |
Dark Souls RM | Core i5-2300 | GTX 460 | 6 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 5,342 | 2,655 | 175% | 119% | 175% | 151% |
Yooka-Laylee | Core i5-2500 | GTS 450 | 8 | 1 | 9 | 9 | 6,328 | 1,557 | 207% | 70% | 225% | 149% |
Crash Bandicoot | Core i5-750 | GTX 660 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 30 | 3,699 | 4,127 | 121% | 185% | 250% | 148% |
South Park TFBH | Core i5-2400 | GTX 650 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 30 | 5,954 | 1,833 | 195% | 82% | 200% | 147% |
Skyrim SE | Core i5-750 | GTX 470 | 8 | 1.25 | 9.25 | 12 | 3,699 | 3,604 | 121% | 162% | 231% | 138% |
FIFA 18 | Core i3-2100 | GTX 460 | 8 | 1 | 9 | 50 | 3,686 | 2,655 | 120% | 119% | 225% | 120% |
Fortnite | Core i3-4330 | GTX 260 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 20 | 5,092 | 1,134 | 166% | 51% | 125% | 118% |
Layers of Fear | Core i3-560 | GTX 560 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 2,943 | 3,120 | 96% | 140% | 125% | 115% |
Civilization VI | Core i3-2100 | GTS 450 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 12 | 3,686 | 1,557 | 120% | 70% | 125% | 99% |
NBA 2k18 | Core i3-530 | GTS 450 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 70 | 2,569 | 1,557 | 84% | 70% | 125% | 78% |
Outlast 2 | Core i3-530 | GTX 260 | 4 | 0.5 | 4.5 | 30 | 2,569 | 1,134 | 84% | 51% | 113% | 70% |
Rocket League | Core 2 Duo E4400 | 8800 GS | 2 | 0.25 | 2.25 | 2 | 1,157 | 546 | 38% | 25% | 56% | 32% |
Payday 2 | Pentium D E2180 | 8800 GTS | 2 | 0.25 | 2.25 | 10 | 1,087 | 605 | 36% | 27% | 56% | 32% |
LA Noire | Core 2 Duo E4500 | 8600 GTS | 2 | 0.5 | 2.5 | 16 | 1,272 | 286 | 42% | 13% | 63% | 29% |
Warframe | Core 2 Duo E6400 | 8600 GT | 2 | 0.5 | 2.5 | 5 | 1,289 | 242 | 42% | 11% | 63% | 29% |
Diablo III | Pentium D 820 | 315 | 1 | 0.25 | 1.25 | 12 | 642 | 253 | 21% | 11% | 31% | 17% |
Minecraft | Pentium 4 3.0 | 8600 GS | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1 | 1 | 353 | 142 | 12% | 6% | 25% | 9% |
I also included couple of games, which currently aren’t on the Switch, just to see how do they stack up against the released ones.
Title | CPU | GPU | RAM | VRAM | SUM | HDD | CPU score | GPU score | CPU rank | GPU rank | Memory | CPU&GPU |
Intel | GeForce | GB | GB | GB | GB | PassMark | G3D Average | 3059 = 100% | 2225 = 100% | 4 = 100% | 5284 =100% | |
Battlefield 1 | Core i5-6600K | GTX 660 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 50 | 8,054 | 4,127 | 263% | 185% | 250% | 231% |
PUBG | Core i5-4430 | GTX 960 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 30 | 6,313 | 5,804 | 206% | 261% | 250% | 229% |
RE VII | Core i5-4460 | GTX 760 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 50 | 6,707 | 4,938 | 219% | 222% | 250% | 220% |
MH World | Core i5-4460 | GTX 760 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 20 | 6,707 | 4,938 | 219% | 222% | 250% | 220% |
Far Cry 5 | Core i5-2400 | GTX 670 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 30 | 5,954 | 5,371 | 195% | 241% | 250% | 214% |
FF XV | Core i5-2500 | GTX 760 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 100 | 6,328 | 4,938 | 207% | 222% | 250% | 213% |
Witcher III | Core i5-2500K | GTX 660 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 40 | 6,477 | 4,127 | 212% | 185% | 200% | 201% |
AC: Odyssey | Core i5-2400 | GTX 660 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 46 | 5,954 | 4,127 | 195% | 185% | 250% | 191% |
Prey | Core i5-2400 | GTX 660 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 45 | 5,954 | 4,127 | 195% | 185% | 250% | 191% |
Evil Within 2 | Core i5-2400 | GTX 660 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 40 | 5,954 | 4,127 | 195% | 185% | 250% | 191% |
Black Ops 4 | Core i3-4340 | GTX 660 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 55 | 5,240 | 4,127 | 171% | 185% | 250% | 177% |
Forza Horizon 4 | Core i3-4170 | GTX 650Ti | 8 | 2 | 10 | 55 | 5,189 | 2,660 | 170% | 120% | 250% | 149% |
Evil Within | Core i7-860S | GTX 460 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 50 | 4,711 | 2,655 | 154% | 119% | 125% | 139% |
Fallout 4 | Core i5-2300 | GTX 550Ti | 8 | 1 | 9 | 30 | 5,342 | 1,925 | 175% | 87% | 225% | 138% |
MK X | Core i5-750 | GTX 460 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 25 | 3,699 | 2,655 | 121% | 119% | 100% | 120% |
Far Cry 4 | Core i5-750 | GTX 460 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 30 | 3,699 | 2,655 | 121% | 119% | 125% | 120% |
GTA V | Core2Quad Q6600 | GTX 750 | 4 | 0.5 | 4.5 | 65 | 2,955 | 3,303 | 97% | 148% | 113% | 118% |
Black Ops 3 | Core i3-530 | GTX 470 | 6 | 1.25 | 7.25 | 60 | 2,569 | 3,604 | 84% | 162% | 181% | 117% |
Overwatch | Core i3-540 | GTX 460 | 4 | 0.5 | 4.5 | 5 | 2,688 | 2,655 | 88% | 119% | 113% | 101% |