Traditionally prices go down with a node shrink. That's why console manufacturers releases slim versions of their consoles.
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Confirmed: The Nintendo Switch is powered by an Nvidia Tegra X1
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Yeah.
Specifically, from the names attached to the copyright that this appears to be for zlib, the commonly used compression library. Mark Adler and Jean-Loupe Gailly don't hold the copyright on the FreeBSD Kernel as a whole
Describes all the negative posts in here.
For people that are upset about this, please post what you would have changed in the Switch and what you think the retail would then be?
And 256 cores?CPU: 2.0Ghz+
GPU: 1.5Ghz
Edit: To be fair the max clock to X2 is 1.5Ghz for GPU but Nvidia Jetson TX2 goes only up to 1303Ghz.
Definitely means they have an easy upgrade path when they decide to make a switch pro or switch 2. Should be no BC issues going forward hopefully. That being said, Nvidia should hopefully explain what those customizations were, cuz this was inevitable that someone would take a closer look a the hardware at some point.
I does. I wonder why they went through all of the crap to say it's custom when, in fact, it's just a stock chip? What was the point in keeping that secret when it was going to be released anyway?
But Jaguars are objectively awesome creatures. We all saw Jungle Book.
LordOcidax
Member
Yes
Imagine if Nintendo made a standard home console using GP107, the low-end Pascal GPU (used in GTX 1050) and about 1.7 GFLops. Even that would be a large leap over Tegra X1
Goddamn, Switch's stock Tegra is such a disappointment. It's late 2014 Nvidia technology (Tegra X1 was announced January 2015) and released a few months later in the Shield TV.
Goddamn, Switch's stock Tegra is such a disappointment. It's late 2014 Nvidia technology (Tegra X1 was announced January 2015) and released a few months later in the Shield TV.
It would be a custom made chip though on an immature node. That wouldn't be cheaper than some (allegedly discount) TX1s...
Could be on a smaller node though like you say. I mean it's not 100% certain it's stock X1 yet either.
But my main point was, either way it was never going to be noticably more powerful than TX1.
dr_rus
Member
Yeah because NV is so incompetent at selling things that they've ordered loads of X1 wafers just for shits and giggles a year before Nintendo came in looking for h/w. JFYI NV doesn't produce any chips and whatever wafers they do order from a 3rd party they order according to the hard known and signed off requests made by those who actually sell stuff built with NV chips. Their wafers inventory is close to zero most of the time, for all chips.
The choice of X1 for Switch is based on the relative advantage of Parker over Erista when considering the cost of production on the new 16FF process compared to the old 20SoC one. Basically, the only significant improvement in Parker over X1 is twice the memory bandwidth, the rest is close to being negligible in a mobile form factor. With a much higher production cost of Parker it was quite predictable that Nintendo would opt for X1 over X2.
The Hermit
Member
ethomaz
Banned
Yes.
You can read more here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/11185/nvidia-announces-jetson-tx2-parker
In resume the key points:
- It is about 2x power efficiency than X1 at the same clock.
- 128bits mem bus to max 8GB @ 58.4GB/s (2x X1)
- 2x 64bits Denver (over 4x A53) that can be used together with 4x A57 (at lower clock)
- Max. 750 GFLOPS (at 1.5Ghz)
LordOcidax
Member
Another horse for the race..... Nahh. The Switch concept is really good.
Confused Cheeseburger
Member
Ok, but the switch is a great console and is already something I vastly prefer over the Wiiu.
It has one of the best modern games of the century.
I'm good.
It has one of the best modern games of the century.
I'm good.
I think it's plenty powerful from the perspective of it being a handheld.
Obviously it's pretty under-powered compared to home consoles in the same price.
I think if you don't plan to use it as a handheld, it's maybe a bit underwhelming. You are paying for a screen and a form factor that you don't really want.
Either way; games look pretty damn good.. just not incredibly detailed like what PS4 Pro can do. More importantly it's capable of running complicated games; open world games, etc. It's not going to have the detail or the effects that Horizon Zero Dawn has; to me.. that's "oh well." I'm hoping it's at least powerful enough to get modern ports; I'd love to be able to play some PS4/Xbox One games on the road.
Obviously it's pretty under-powered compared to home consoles in the same price.
I think if you don't plan to use it as a handheld, it's maybe a bit underwhelming. You are paying for a screen and a form factor that you don't really want.
Either way; games look pretty damn good.. just not incredibly detailed like what PS4 Pro can do. More importantly it's capable of running complicated games; open world games, etc. It's not going to have the detail or the effects that Horizon Zero Dawn has; to me.. that's "oh well." I'm hoping it's at least powerful enough to get modern ports; I'd love to be able to play some PS4/Xbox One games on the road.
Receipt for what?
The K1 specs are no secret.
4x A15 @ 2.2 Ghz
192 cores @ 852Mhz
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8296/the-nvidia-shield-tablet-review
LordOcidax
Member
Also more expensive than the whole Switch console.
JoshuaJSlone
Member
I mean, sure, Wii U hardware was customized, in that it has some re-re-customized version of turn-of-the-century GameCube hardware.
GameCube's end of life price was $100 less (plus usually a game bundled), but it wasn't done in one swoop in under a year.TwistedFreeze said:
It's the same thing it was yesterday. If it didn't interest you then, how much newly learned chip customization would've changed your mind?Xiao Hu said:
So many vile and hyperbole comments. These posts always bring out the worst in GAF.
Stop worrying about numbers and have fun with the games Nintendo make on the only (except 3ds) platform there games are available on.
Isn't this why we are gamers ? To have fun none of this hate and bile about specs.
Stop worrying about numbers and have fun with the games Nintendo make on the only (except 3ds) platform there games are available on.
Isn't this why we are gamers ? To have fun none of this hate and bile about specs.
LordOcidax
Member
A15 vs A57 ok then.... lol.
Calm Mind
Member
You are the worst kind of person.
LordOfChaos
Member
The one thing I would have reasonably expected within that mild customization is adding an SRAM buffer like Apples A9 uses, to reduce memory bandwidth pressure, as Nintendo has cared a lot about the memory chain since the troubles with the n64.
Not even that little change, it seems.
Not even that little change, it seems.
Not anytime soon indeed, but I'm not writing it off.
Nintendo are good at making new iterations after all.
My guess is two and a half/three years before even having an inch of a hint towards a redesign.
The whole point of the Switch is merging handheld and console development.
A powerful console does Nintendo no good at all, they need to do this and as this concept works so well in practice I'm struggling to understand the people complaining.
Jonneh3003
Banned
Is it really that disappointing? Can you point out any mobile software that surpasses games like these technically?
SuperRaddy
Member
So the switch is still going to have great games on it from Nintendo, and probably indies too. It was never ever going to have ports of Xbox one or PS4 games... I mean cmon did you all think otherwise ?
Happy with my purchase and for the good games that will come
Happy with my purchase and for the good games that will come
TheGreatMightyPoo
Banned
Post-order cancelled.
shark sandwich
tenuously links anime, pedophile and incels
Nintendo went with the cheap option over the cutting-edge option. Same as every handheld and every post-GameCube console they've ever released.
LordOcidax
Member
That's not how it works...
……forgetit
Member
I assume you mean GFLOP lol
ethomaz
Banned
That is the stand alone module that anybody can buy... it is like to say a RX480 8GB costs close to the price of the Pro.
I don't know how the contract for million of units Nintendo did with nVidia for X1 but I can beat the price of the X2 is not that more expensive than what they get with X1.
Anyway the stand alone modules includes 32GB eMMC, WiFi, Bluethoth, etc... these are things not included in the chip that Nintendo buys from Nintendo... Nintendo buys only the X1 and not everything that come with the stand alone module.
lol yeap.
KingGreasy
Member
If it's a stock Tegra X1 that would mean 20nm. I wonder when we can expect a die shrink to 14/16nm or 10nm. I'd like a passively cooled Switch. At least one where the fan could shut off when undocked.
The talk of the Switch being a FreeBSD based operating system is based on the inclusion of the BSD license attribution. Reading peoples opinions in open source, Linux, and BSD communities, a lot think it's more likely that Nintendo took the FreeBSD networking stack rather than taking the whole kernel and basing their operating system around it.
The talk of the Switch being a FreeBSD based operating system is based on the inclusion of the BSD license attribution. Reading peoples opinions in open source, Linux, and BSD communities, a lot think it's more likely that Nintendo took the FreeBSD networking stack rather than taking the whole kernel and basing their operating system around it.
Not the same specs...not the same content
LordOfChaos
Member
Lol. That's a heavily stylized graphic from Nvidia, not a die scan. This is the TX1 die scan.
Rotate, and bam, Switch.
Hey OP, this should be included in the first post as I predict a few people confusing these.
Right. It's different clock speeds on an older CPU and older GPU. The K1 topped out at ~350 GFLOPS. The X1 at 512 GFLOPS.
ArchedThunder
Banned
My guess is 4 years from now a new version with a 1080p screen that runs games in their docked mode while portable.
Before then though I bet we see a cheaper handheld focused sku with the controls built in, but it would still be compatible with all the switch controllers, though they'd probably have to sell a unique dock for it since I imagine it'd be smaller.
dr_rus
Member
Why? The next considerably better thing is Volta based Xavier and it won't be out for some time yet meaning that there was no better option for Switch really. X1 may be relatively old but it is built on a rather solid 20SoC process (which is actually close to 16nm for mobile SoC uses) and uses Maxwell GPU which isn't at all worse than a similarly clocked Pascal one of the same complexity.
If you think that Parker will have the same clocking advantage over Erista as desktop Pascal has over Maxwell then this is unlikely to be the case as desktop Maxwell used a different process and mobile power envelope limits Pascal's frequency bump even further.
Pie and Beans
Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
Isn't the X2 pretty old news by this point too? Xavier is the new one right? Does Nvidia just not have anything better for mobile since 2015? Would be a bit odd. Must have been a REALLY good deal on those X1's. Dumpster diving NVidia does it again!
If the Switch had come out at £199 or something, yup you'd be correct and it's a good pelt 720p handheld the kids can kick around and it does portable Zelda. Good enough!
But the feature creep and bad production in other areas at £280 just makes the package look poor, especially in the hyrbid space it wants to occupy. Realistically HD rumble and all the JoyCon fartery is never going to offer more than a slight spec bump would have for the handheld. Zelda wheezing on launch day is a terrible look for brand new exciting hardware you're looking at maybe half a decade with.
The dock having absolutely fuck all in it, not even felt, when "they got a good deal on X1's" is one of those situations where I'm not sure Nintendo is passing on any savings whatsoever.
ethomaz
Banned
The second photo is not a die scan... it is a graph created to show the chip content lol
ArchedThunder
Banned
Let me list all of the mobile devices that use the X2:
2/10, the Xavier does not even physically exist as a purchasable product yet.
It's also slated to have a TDP of 20-30W, RIP battery life.
Yeah, because 3 useable or even 4 A57 @ 1Ghz are faster than 4 A15 @ 2.2 Ghz.
Lol for real.
The dock price is in line with other USB-C docks on the market, especially once you exclude the $30 power supply which is also in line with the price of other usb-C adapters on the market.
The X2 is not old, it's not even in any devices outside of automobiles and no mobile devices whatsoever. It's not even in Nvidia's gaming devices.
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