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Confirmed: The Nintendo Switch is powered by an Nvidia Tegra X1

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:/

The 3DS has a lot of 3rd party support. You can't literally talk about games like CoD or BF which have zero chance of running on a 3DS. Valkyria is laughable as big 3rd party support and so is Nino Kuni (which the 3DS did get for reference). 3DS got kingdom hearts too.

The system had pretty good 3rd party support for a handheld.



Do you remember what the 3DS's first year of software support looked like?
Yes, 3ds had: Pro Evolution Soccer, Ridge Racer, Professor Layton, Samurai Warriors and Street Fighter 4 on launch day! Support was miles better than Switch has.
 
Played more Zelda on switch last night


,,, yeah I dont really care thats its only TX1

I do hope they can find ways to max out performance and efficiency out of this chip in the meantime

Also I wouldnt be opposed to buying upgraded revisions in a couple years if they can push the price down

Clearly they are getting a nice hefty margin of the sale of these things at 299
 
This was never a surprise.

Zelda looks dated alrady with blurry textures, low resolution, bad fpsi.

They really cheaped out this time...and to think I paid 400 for it since is sold out everywhere.

Zelda obviously isn't on the same level as C1/PS4 games but I wonder how the average consumer views it. It's obviously anecdotal, but I asked a couple friends who are pretty big gamers and play on X1/PS4 what Zelda looked like in comparison to the average X1/PS4 game. Both responded that it basically looked basically the same as X1 games.

Part of it is probably the differences in art style, but it makes me wonder just how the average consumer compared Graphics. Obviously this doesnt apply to the average gaffer and it's just anecdotal, but I would love to know if the average consumers can tell much of a difference in modern systems abilities.
 
Zelda BotW is such a good game that it just makes you forget the framerate issues, the low res textures and the aliasing.
 
did I know that Nintendo used 20nm? no one did except insiders
Actually, at the very least once we saw that all the passives on the package being the exact same ones in the exact same position as for the current Shield TV iteration, that was the only remotely likely scenario. I posted as much in the relevant thread.

Generally, I consider "speculation" to mean "making predictions based on the currently available facts" -- not every speculation is equally valuable just because it's speculative.
 
Zelda BotW is such a good game that it just makes you forget the framerate issues, the low res textures and the aliasing.

Its weird

Sometimes I really notice it and sometimes I dont

Is this because its doing the dynamic scaling shit during gameplay?

My last session last night went so much smoother than others even when playing docked
 
Played more Zelda on switch last night


,,, yeah I dont really care thats its only TX1

I do hope they can find ways to max out performance and efficiency out of this chip in the meantime

Also I wouldnt be opposed to buying upgraded revisions in a couple years if they can push the price down

Clearly they are getting a nice hefty margin of the sale of these things at 299

If there is one thing you can always count on Nintendo to do, its just that.
 
Actually, at the very least once we saw that all the passives on the package being the exact same ones in the exact same position as for the current Shield TV iteration, that was the only remotely likely scenario. I posted as much in the relevant thread.

Generally, I consider "speculation" to mean "making predictions based on the currently available facts" -- not every speculation is equally valuable just because it's speculative.

I don't know if I've posted in the thread since the Switch came out, the original tear down we had was not from a production model and so it wasn't really known what the final chip was until March 3rd.

EDIT: Yeah, last post in the thread from me is March 1st.
 
If there is one thing you can always count on Nintendo to do, its just that.

Im not holding my breath

At least they had the sense to release this with a very zippy and barebones OS at launch

It took them years to get WiiU run at a reasonable speed in the OS and its still slow as balls even today
 
Don't forget to compare the other side, as it's way more pathetic what happens when you remove your Xbox from the shelf while it's running and walk out of the house with it. People who think it's a console same as the PS4/Xbox One because Nintendo says it is are being a bit too gullible / cherry picking their side. It's very clearly a portable device by definition (and that's not up for debate), that is an entire generation above the Vita, and multiple generations above the previous Nintendo portable. I also think people are conveniently not seeing exactly how many effects BotW is pushing either, there is a really large number of interactive things going on at any moment, and it sets a new standard in portable games without contest.
100% with you on this.

I got to play for 1/2 day and was amazed at what was being put out by the thing. That it manages to look as good as it does while being one of the smallest tablets I've seen is impressive as all hell. It's a worthy successor to both the Vita and the WiiU, tech wise.
 
End of the day the Switch is a fun casual gaming machine and it's hardware is designed around the types of games its aiming for. From the current and future line up its pretty obvious it's going to be a casual gaming beast. I've realised I'm fine with this. I've played the thing and seriously it's just pure fun. Like being in an arcade type or fun. I have a PC with an EVGA gtx 1080 ftw gaming card and if I want eye candy I'll use it for that but I get this feeling that because the games are addictive and damn fun that I'll end up playing on the Switch more than the PC. I preordered mine today for the next shipment :)
 
Part of it is probably the differences in art style, but it makes me wonder just how the average consumer compared Graphics. Obviously this doesnt apply to the average gaffer and it's just anecdotal, but I would love to know if the average consumers can tell much of a difference in modern systems abilities.

It's hard to say without solid market research to back you up. But on an anecdotal level as someone who works in the industry, the accuracy of technical discourse on this forum is very low, and in the general population nearly nonexistent. Which is fine, people should make purchasing decisions based around perceived value for their use-cases, and in the vast majority that is playing games, not analyzing them. However it gets awkward when people get their social signalling tied up in proclaiming or speculating around how things are architected and used.
 
Im not holding my breath

At least they had the sense to release this with a very zippy and barebones OS at launch

It took them years to get WiiU run at a reasonable speed in the OS and its still slow as balls even today
The Switch os is already snappy, and I was referring to games. Botw, xenoblade x, mk 8 etc are impressive for the Wii U hardware.
 
If we zoom in the die shot could we see a 1060?

The only thing that is surprising is how good the x1 is.




Actually, after looking at the die, it seems it may be packing more punch to it and be equivalent to the GTX 970 but low clocked:
1489666017-switchgtx4.jpg
 
A lot of the 3rd parties I cited where announced BEFORE the 3DS release, that is for Layton 5, Layton VS Ace Attorney, Kingdom Hearts, Ace Combat, Metal Gear Solid 3, Resident Evil Revelations, Super Street Fighter IV, Tales of the Abyss, Tekken 3D, One Piece, Dead or Alive Dimensions, Samurai Warriors Chronicles.

The 3DS was also announced at E3 and didn't have a soft launch like the Switch seems to have. E3 is 3 months away, it's not hard to just wait to see what's being cooked up.
 
Has anyone done a detailed comparison of the two shots yet? It would still be quite odd if this is physically the exact same chip, especially because A) Nvidia and Nintendo both called it a custom chip in official documentation, and B) these chips have their own special packaging and were fabbed in October, so it's not like Nintendo was just using extra chips that were sitting in a warehouse.

I'm still betting there are a few minor changes that are hard to see in these shots. Nothing that changes anything performance wise, but it's just very hard to believe it's exactly the same as a stock TX1 in every way.
 
Has anyone done a detailed comparison of the two shots yet? It would still be quite odd if this is physically the exact same chip, especially because A) Nvidia and Nintendo both called it a custom chip in official documentation, and B) these chips have their own special packaging and were fabbed in October, so it's not like Nintendo was just using extra chips that were sitting in a warehouse.

I'm still betting there are a few minor changes that are hard to see in these shots. Nothing that changes anything performance wise, but it's just very hard to believe it's exactly the same as a stock TX1 in every way.

Best we have is this:

I made a .GIF comparing the Switch and the X1:

ogCFzAz.gif


Larger version:

http://i.imgur.com/pe8SQSm.gif
 
Most people on here have far more technical expertise than I will ever have, but I am continually amazed at how we miss out on the fun of gaming because we debate nuances in chip configurations with (sometimes) extreme passion. I enjoy he learning from people here, but don't forget to just have fun.
 
This news isn't really bad news outside of the fact that we have a better idea of how little savings were passed on to the consumer from greedy Nintendo

Smart fuckers know how to make some money on hardware

should have been 250 at launch but clearly aiming high at 299 worked for them with the marketing and the Zelda hype

they will have to back down come the holidays I have to imagine
 
This news isn't really bad news outside of the fact that we have a better idea of how little savings were passed on to the consumer from greedy Nintendo

Smart fuckers know how to make some money on hardware

should have been 250 at launch but clearly aiming high at 299 worked for them with the marketing and the Zelda hype

they will have to back down come the holidays I have to imagine

They can probably get away with a bundle for a little while. Push it down to $250 early next year.

500 man-years of warehouse operatives stacking unused Tegras.

LOL
 
Most people on here have far more technical expertise than I will ever have, but I am continually amazed at how we miss out on the fun of gaming because we debate nuances in chip configurations with (sometimes) extreme passion. I enjoy he learning from people here, but don't forget to just have fun.

When it comes to Nintendo people care more because they miss out of lots of third party support due to weak hardware.

At this point though imo, just accept it will be underpowered. As far as a handheld is concerned shit it pretty solid. As a console it's basically in line with what they have been doing for a decade or so.
 
This news isn't really bad news outside of the fact that we have a better idea of how little savings were passed on to the consumer from greedy Nintendo

Smart fuckers know how to make some money on hardware

should have been 250 at launch but clearly aiming high at 299 worked for them with the marketing and the Zelda hype

they will have to back down come the holidays I have to imagine

The $300 price makes sense if you consider everything in the box, I imagine they would have sold it at $250 if they could have made a profit off of it.
 
Switch vs. Shield TV:

RAM: 4GB vs. 3GB
CPU: 1Ghz vs. 2Ghz
GPU: 3 modes:307.2Mhz/384Mhz/768Mhz vs. 1Ghz

Custom API and different OS.

Eh, you have to remind people that the Shield TV throttles though. Actual clocks for Switch vs max clocks for Shield TV is a bit of a disingenuous comparison when those max clocks can't be used for any appreciable amount of time.

2 hours of battery isn't building a solid case for it

2.5-6 actually. And if you don't use brightness at maximum you'll never see it go below 3.

500 man-years of warehouse operatives stacking unused Tegras.

The chip torn down by Chipworks was fabricated in October. So, no.
 
Switch vs. Shield TV:

RAM: 4GB vs. 3GB
CPU: 1Ghz vs. 2Ghz
GPU: 3 modes:307.2Mhz/384Mhz/768Mhz vs. 1Ghz

Custom API and different OS.

Edit: just to note that Shield TV throttles quite a lot at those clocks.

I wonder why they dont push the clock speeds higher in docked mode

Does Shield TV just have better cooling and power supply in general?

I know a lot of the performance setup for the Switch was done to allow smooth and fast transitions from portable and Docked modes
 
Eh, you have to remind people that the Shield TV throttles though. Actual clocks for Switch vs max clocks for Shield TV is a bit of a disingenuous comparison.

Yeah, I edited that in my post already.

I wonder why they dont push the clock speeds higher in docked mode

Does Shield TV just have better cooling and power supply in general?

I know a lot of the performance setup for the Switch was done to allow smooth and fast transitions from portable and Docked modes

Because Shield TV is practically a docked Switch and it throttles quite a lot. Also Switch is already getting way too hot when docked even at the current clocks.
 
Switch vs. Shield TV:

RAM: 4GB vs. 3GB
CPU: 1Ghz vs. 2Ghz
GPU: 3 modes:307.2Mhz/384Mhz/768Mhz vs. 1Ghz

Custom API and different OS.

Edit: just to note that Shield TV throttles quite a lot at those clocks.

Just saw your edit. Was gonna say. You know that shit throttles like hell :P

I'm pretty disappointed about no memory customization though.

Does Shield TV just have better cooling and power supply in general?

GPU in the shield throttles to Switch docked clocks. Shield is not portable so the devices temperature doesn't matter.
 
If you just call it a games console you then don't have to be concerned with whether it's a TV console or a handheld console in every single topic about the Switch.
 
I wonder why they dont push the clock speeds higher in docked mode

Does Shield TV just have better cooling and power supply in general?

I know a lot of the performance setup for the Switch was done to allow smooth and fast transitions from portable and Docked modes

The Shield can't run those clock speeds for very long before having to throttle them down. Nintendo basically just clocked the Switch so it would never have to be throttled.
Also Switch is already getting way too hot when docked even at the current clocks.

Not way too hot, it gets acceptably hot, but there isn't really room to up the clocks any more.
 
Does it matter?

People dont seem nearly as confused about what this system does compared to the WiiU

Its an improvement for Nintendo in many respects with a few regressions here and there

Overall though I consider it the best hardware they have put out in a long time
 
I wonder why they dont push the clock speeds higher in docked mode

Does Shield TV just have better cooling and power supply in general?

I know a lot of the performance setup for the Switch was done to allow smooth and fast transitions from portable and Docked modes

The Shield TV is much bigger in general so it should have better cooling. Also what you said, that it needs to be removable at a moments notice, so they can't have it burning people's hands when they do that.

Yeah, I edited that in my post already.

Gotcha, I'm slow today.

Maybe it's because Nintendo themselves branded it as a home console first? What a bunch of delusional tools.

http://www.polygon.com/2016/10/20/13347910/nintendo-switch-home-gaming-system

They have always called it a home console which becomes a portable console. i.e. exactly what it is.

Either way, what they call it means absolutely nothing. They market it as a home console to ensure people know it will get home console games, that doesn't change the fact that it's a hybrid.

I'm pretty disappointed about no memory customization though.

This is also my main takeaway. Especially since it looks like memory was already a bottleneck for porting Zelda, though that could likely be worked around with more optimization.
 
Eh, you have to remind people that the Shield TV throttles though. Actual clocks for Switch vs max clocks for Shield TV is a bit of a disingenuous comparison when those max clocks can't be used for any appreciable amount of time.

http://imgur.com/pe8SQSm

Took a quick look at this for you, I lost my glasses a month ago, but I don't see anything that would lead me to believe there is a physical difference, the shapes all look the same and they match up pretty much 1:1. There could be slight variations to what is being done here, but I'd suggest speculation should move to the current X1 without customization.
 
Yeah, I edited that in my post already.



Because Shield TV is practically a docked Switch and it throttles quite a lot. Also Switch is already getting way too hot when docked even at the current clocks.

I think way too hot is a bit hyperbolic. I've pulled mine out of the dock after a long gaming session to continue on the handheld and it barely qualified as warm to the touch.
 
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