I know someone has already posted a few tidbits but here's a rundown of the LKD AMA from gonintendo
gonintendo said:
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Nintendo Switch Dev Kit Stats Leaked? Cortex A57, 4GB RAM, 32GB Storage, Multi-Touch.
- Thread starter Robert at Zeboyd Games
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Panajev2001a
GAF's Pleasant Genius
Sigh...
Candescence
Member
To be fair, they have to essentially start from scratch with the emulation again. If the hardware is indeed iterative and digital titles account-linked rather than hardware-linked this time, though, the library won't need to be reset yet again once the next piece of hardware comes out.
Could be worse, though. At least Nintendo are still committed to VC on their new hardware, unlike Sony, who can't be fucking bothered with PS1 Classics on PS4.
UnemployedVillain
Member
I'm hoping they actually go with what they did for the NES Mini and use emulator on a per system basis as opposed to each game being its own emulator+ROM package
Can't Nintendo simply release a firmware to overclock the GPU so it gets an additional 25-50% Gflop boost (from 400 to 525 or 600) so that devs can target 900p resolution or higher. Is that impossible to do or? Otherwise 400gflop on the handheld itself is very impressive
It's easy enough to do if the cooling/ battery can support it.
James Scott
Banned
Yeah, I imagine games that struggle to reach 1080p/900p would be lower rez among other downgrades.
Smurfman256
Member
NES is relatively easy to emulate since it's hardware was used in a lot of PCs at the time, so people know it like the back of their hands. Other systems, the N64 in particular, were based on weird custom hardware that has fixed functions that are basically impossible to emulate (which explains the game-by-game approach Nintendo took for those VC titles).
Also depends on how they binned/selected the chips.
Booooo. Should be Baten Kaitos Origins style combat. I don't even care if they add in some TCG elements to it. Xenoblade's combat is a fucking snooze fest.
Not really, they already have a lot of experience working with ARM processors..
NES, SNES, GB and GBC already running on much weaker ARM chips. GBA and DS actually use much weaker ARM chips.
N64, GC and Wii would take the most work. And Virtual Boy if that VR patent leads to anything.
Looked again and it was only for the memory speeds, but if they let devs choose memory speeds for the undocked mode I can see them doing the same for the GPU
Smurfman256
Member
Xdrive05
Member
I'm curious what reasons developers would choose to keep the handheld profile speeds in docked mode. Isn't battery life the only reason for that compromised profile in the first?
Eolz
Member
Might be just for indie devs that don't need more power at all? Maybe more OS features are available?
Panajev2001a
GAF's Pleasant Genius
NES emulator runs on ARM already (3DS and NES Classic), SNES emulator runs on ARM already (New 3DS), GB/GBC emulator runs on ARM (3DS), GBA was an ARM system and its emulator runs on modern ARM systems already (3DS ambassador games for example), but yes they may have to do new work for the N64 emulator, but they are not reinventing the wheel from scratch and had plenty of time to work on it...
C'mon
...I am talking about the opposite, using docked speeds undocked
NERD has already showcased their NES emulator with the NES Classic mini, as well as their DS emulators on Wii U. I await and see how they match up to M2's porting finess. Were they also the guys behind SNES VC on new3DS?
GPU clock has far more power implications than the memory, and if they're that sensitive to mere RAM clocks, then it seems unlikely they would allow it.
calc84maniac
Member
NES emulator runs on ARM already (3DS and NES Classic), SNES emulator runs on ARM already (New 3DS), GB/GBC emulator runs on ARM (3DS), GBA was an ARM system and its emulator runs on modern ARM systems already (3DS ambassador games for example), but yes they may have to do new work for the N64 emulator, but they are not reinventing the wheel from scratch and had plenty of time to work on it...
C'mon
3DS ambassador games ran on backwards compatibility mode, like DS games did. Though the GBA emulator from the Wii U would probably be a good base to start from.
This is my guess as well.
Might be true, but that didn't help VC games come out faster on Wii U even though Wii U basically is a higher clock multi-core Wii
castaction
Member
so in term of power if we go with the eurogamer spec leak how much can we expect the switch to be?
Who's to say those are the final clockspeeds anyway? Both gamecube and wiiu had cpu boost late in the game.
JoshuaJSlone
Member
Final devkits 4 months from launch is late in the game, isn't it?
Duckhuntdog
Member
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP0LUeR5YeQ
What's this about revised dev kits that were sent out to larger developers in the fall, that have power upgardes???
Could DF be referencing the old summer dev kits?
What's this about revised dev kits that were sent out to larger developers in the fall, that have power upgardes???
Could DF be referencing the old summer dev kits?
Duckhuntdog
Member
Not really, technically dev kits are never really final per se. Since they get upgrades constantly., even after the console has shipped.
If I remember correctly there was the update to the PSP that doubled it's clock speed that came out after the PSP launched.
The GC dev kits were down clocked about 4-5 months before launch. So it's not unheard of to have spec changes close to or after launch.
Panajev2001a
GAF's Pleasant Genius
... that speaks more about Nintendo's priorities than the technical difficulties IMHO.
ShadowFox08
Member
It really ends up being 400GFLOPS at max clock speed, and if you include architecture differences, it could probably be around 40% of Xbone in power.
castaction
Member
ok so around 2x a wii u, i hope mario kart will be 1080p on my tv and not upscaled
James Scott
Banned
At 2x Wii U it should be able to reach 1080p. Not sure if NIntendo will push for it, but hopefully they will. 900p with AA would be nice as well, I guess
ShadowFox08
Member
No a bit more actually.
Wii U's gflops are 176. Undocked(based on clock speed from Eurogamer) is like 160, but the architecture is much more modern. A couple of tech people here have been saying the newer and more efficient architectural differences makes switch 1.5x as powerful in GPU processing than Wii U. And Docked(or fully clocked) is like 400GFLOPS which is about 2.5x that of undocked.
So 1.5x Wii U undocked, and roughly 3-4x as powerful than Wii U in docked mode. Ram should be 2x as much(4GB as Wii U), and CPU should be a lot better as well.
We still don't know how many GPU cores there are or how customized it is(like if it ends up being pascal there could be 40% more power)., Nintendo decides to upclock the GPU(as well as CPU) in the last minute, which could raise the GFLOPS a bit.
All we know are the clock speeds, with particularly the clock speed for GPU is an X1 and its only 75% of the X1--according to eurogamer.
It's best not to expect more. Don't want to get your hopes up.
Smurfman256
Member
FCC documents got posted. There's no 3G/4G connection capabilities, but it does support proper 5GHz WiFi bands (and it also supports Bluetooth).
Link?
blu
Wants the largest console games publisher to avoid Nintendo's platforms.
Here's something more entertaining instread: marcan's 33c3 account on the ps4 - it's highly educational.
xxbrothawizxx63
Member
Hopefully the Bluetooth can be used for headphones and isn't just for controller connection.
It will just be for controllers and you know it.
Milly Osworth
Member
Nintendo doesn't need a big classics library, they're in a confortable lead in the console race!
I mean..
The gap in RAM will be at least 3x. 3.2 if vern is right.
According to Laura, Switch can run at full clock even when undocked if devs want to.
Latest FCC documents suggest that the AC Adapter is 37W, so maybe the console draws around 20W when docked, like the TX1. So maybe we're missing something (like possibly 1 extra SM).
VC would bring them in first place in this "race"? 🤔
I want a big VC library like anyone else, but...
Hiiiighly doubt that, doesn't makes sense, wouldn't do very much (as the dock increase is going to be used mostly towards resolution increase) and would mean a lot of troubles.
Why doesn't this make sense? Short battery mode and high long battery mode.
Mr. Pointy
Member
You can just plug the portable Switch into a charger as well.
Enabling a Short Battery mode would imply a marketing apocalypse, youtube switch vídeos titled "Switch battery lasts 30 min" would pop in a matter of hours even if not telling all the truth.
Plus engines are not going to support enhanced effects by running full clock undocked, so the most that would get is a bit of overall modest quality increase undocked.
castaction
Member
Ok cool ,my expectation have been low for the switch , i got my lessson with the wii u lol(still love my wii u)
Skittzo0413
Member
I'm pretty sure the Shield TV drew 20W also including the hard drive- I'm not sure how much power that requires but I would think it's more than what's in the Switch. So that could mean more powerful than the Shield TV if we want to be super optimistic.
The idea is that some developers could choose to only develop for a single power level, the docked power level, and the console would run at that level in both docked and undocked modes. She was saying the 3 hour battery life likely corresponds to that mode, so I wouldn't worry about terrible battery life there.
That said, I don't think this is a good idea because very few third parties would then develop for the two separate power modes, as they would just target the highest possible level. But it does correspond to what lherre said a few months back about not hearing about two different power levels.
Smurfman256
Member
Have a theory on the lack of an Ethernet port . I know this sounds really not Nintendo, but what if the dock has an HDMI 1.4b port (or even, since they're currently in-production, HDMI 2.0a) that accepts Ethernet over HDMI? Would save Nintendo a whole bunch on not including an Ethernet port and would mean freeing up a USB port for the consumer.
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