• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Ventura Beat: Nintendo Switch graphics are based on Nvidia's Maxwell Architecture

A Maxwell Tflop is identical to a Pascal Tflop, and it's largely irrelevant to us whether they achieved that by using a larger Maxwell GPU on 20nm/28nm at a lower clock or a smaller Pascal GPU on 16nm at a higher clock.

So, if R* wanted to put RDR2 on the Switch, they still can?
 
This thread is all about.. 1.Read the Thread title
2.Shit post about the Switch
3.Close the thread.

Yeah, thread doesn't need to be open anymore.

The article is terrible and is hastily and stealthily being edited without documentation or notes to look better based off technical posts like Thraktor's in this thread. Lots of people not reading the more knowledgeable posters in the thread. Shit posts without reading anything at all.
 
If you've been following the threads, it's been 4-6x on average. There are some low balling folks who think 2x is where it will be, but based on the base hardware and active cooling, that just doesn't seem right. I doubt it will get anywhere near 6-10x, but we all may be surprised in the end. I'm thinking 4x is probably a safe bet, though.
I haven't been to the Switch HW speculation threads often, but I wouldn't advise going that far.
Though I'm admittedly not very tech savvy so the numbers don't say much to me.
 
In retrospect, N64 was actually the most progressive system they made.

If we were to apply their philosophy, the system should have been like the Sega Saturn, that focused on the "tried and true sprites" instead of the "completely new and industry changing polygons".

But they did use cartridges when CD's were becoming commonplace so meh, it's was still a Nintendo designed product.

N64 had horrible memory solution that taught Nintendo to not cheap out on memory. Gamecube is by far their most powerful gaming device released for it's time period. The Gamecube CPU blew away Xbox and PS2's CPU so badly that Microsoft and Sony went to IBM for their successors, this same solution happened for the GPU. Not to mention that Gamecube had really great memory, just not a lot of it, had they went with 32MB t1sram memory, they would have gotten many more ports, I'd even suggest that GTA would have possibly came over. The other issue with the system was that the controller didn't have a left shoulder button and the discs were smaller. Tech wise, the CPU and GPU could play any game from that generation and could out perform the other consoles, though Xbox had the more modern GPU.
 
Apparently, they mentioned edits were made (though by a separate person). One of my biggest problems with the article is that it's telling us how to react. Hardcore gamers will likely be upset . . . Along those lines.
 
I haven't been to the Switch HW speculation threads often, but I wouldn't advise going that far.
Though I'm admittedly not very tech savvy so the numbers don't say much to me.

4x is an extremely safe best. A standard run of the mill X1 is already 3x the Wii U in a simple number to number comparison. That is before you even consider performance enhancement from jumping up to Maxwell etc.

As much shit as people want to give it a Tegra X1 is still a 2015 Component. So even if we do no better than an X1. It is not some 10 year old component finding new life in a device or anything. Its a relatively state of the art component for what it is intended to do
 
On the bright side it means it will be $199... Nintendo surely wouldn't overcharge.

No it doesn't. Nintendo wants to make a profit. I remember when people were expecting the Wii U was going to be $250 to 300(max), because the wii was. Nothing is guaranteed at this point. If there's anything to go off of when it comes to price point, it's Laura Kate Dale's 250 to 300.
 
No it doesn't. Nintendo wants to make a profit. I remember when people were expecting the Wii U was going to be $250 to 300(max), because the wii was. Nothing is guaranteed at this point. If there's anything to go off of when it comes to price point, it's Laura Kate Dale's 250 to 300.

After the 3DS and Wii U pricing drama, it would be smart of them to go at least somewhat lower.
 
What is the credibility of this one cite, relative to the other sources?

Ventura Beat? Never heard of it.

Venture Beat? Dean Takahashi's joint, bought up Dan Hsu's and Demian Lynn's Bitmob a few years back, ran as Games Beat for a while.

Tech focus, some scoops IIRC, don't recall a lot of junk articles. What are the other sources, for a guy LTTP?
 
People are freaking out because the Switch could use Maxwell architecture instead of Pascal?
Wow.
Wooow.

Maxwell isn't even that old. It's still a super capable GPU architecture.
Yes, Pascal is the new shit, but still, if Switch uses Maxwell it will definitely do better than Wii U. Way better.

People saying it's closer to Wii U than Xbox One, smh.

Maxwell is the GPU that's used in the 9xx (and 7xx and 8xx) series of nVidia's GTX graphics cards. That includes the Titan X and 980 Ti.
It would definitely be a very capable GPU.

Pascal has only been introduced in the 10xx series of nVidia graphics cards which have only been available as of this year. Yes, Switch using Pascal would definitely be a sensation, because it'd mean it'd use nVidia's most recent GPU architecture (available to the public at least). That always sounded a bit unrealistic to me.

Personally I'd say Switch uses Maxwell architecture slimmed down to 24 or 20nm. Maybe they even use the full 28nm, who knows.
Who cares, too.
It's an amazing GPU that can produce some sweet ass graphics. That should be the most important statement here.

The actual most important statement in this thread should be people should do some research before crying wolf.
 
After the 3DS and Wii U pricing drama, it would be smart of them to go at least somewhat lower.

$250-300 is doable, if they have a great launch line up. It's not hard to beat Wii U's launch. If it manages to bust 1 TFLOP in dock mode, that price would be amazing to have a portable xbone basically. But I'm keeping my expectations low and expecting 500TFLOPS when docked. Wii U WUST days has got me burned out paranoid..


Anyway, it's not so much that this leaker that worries me, but that emily rogers confirmed the post was legit for using maxwell, and she had a ton of inside sources on the Switch. And she said that the Switch will have 4GB in retail units. Right now it her and Laura Kate Dale that know the most and are the most consistent with Switch(along with eurogamer)
 
People are freaking out because the Switch could use Maxwell architecture instead of Pascal?
Wow.
Wooow.

Maxwell isn't even that old. It's still a super capable GPU architecture.
Yes, Pascal is the new shit, but still, if Switch uses Maxwell it will definitely do better than Wii U. Way better.

People saying it's closer to Wii U than Xbox One, smh.

Maxwell is the GPU that's used in the 9xx (and 7xx and 8xx) series of nVidia's GTX graphics cards. That includes the Titan X and 980 Ti.
It would definitely be a very capable GPU.

Pascal has only been introduced in the 10xx series of nVidia graphics cards which have only been available as of this year. Yes, Switch using Pascal would definitely be a sensation, because it'd mean it'd use nVidia's most recent GPU architecture (available to the public at least). That always sounded a bit unrealistic to me.

Personally I'd say Switch uses Maxwell architecture slimmed down to 24 or 20nm. Maybe they even use the full 28nm, who knows.
Who cares, too.
It's an amazing GPU that can produce some sweet ass graphics. That should be the most important statement here.

The actual most important statement in this thread should be people should do some research before crying wolf.



Tegr X1 is 20nm.
 
$250-300 is doable, if they have a great launch line up. It's not hard to beat Wii U's launch. If it manages to bust 1 TFLOP in dock mode, that price would be amazing to have a portable xbone basically. But I'm keeping my expectations low and expecting 500TFLOPS when docked. Wii U WUST days has got me burned out paranoid..


Anyway, it's not so much that this leaker that worries me, but that emily rogers confirmed the post was legit for using maxwell, and she had a ton of inside sources on the Switch. And she said that the Switch will have 4GB in retail units. Right now it her and Laura Kate Dale that know the most and are the most consistent with Switch(along with eurogamer)

It's going to beat the Wii U's launch no matter what, it's just seems like a much better product all around. I hope it's 250 rather than 300, I'd buy it either way because I'm a sucker for Nintendo games haha.
 
Anytime I look it up it says 176 or 352.. not sure which.

There was some assumption on 352 before we got a good finalized look at the chip itself. Some people still try to extrapolate it to 352 but its pretty well settled at 176. On paper the gpu looks weaker than PS360 but in use due to architecture etc. it was superior. Just lost all of its improvements by being hamstring by a bad CPU.
 
It's as if some were holding horses, waiting for a "bad news" switch thread.

Oh and the article is weirdly written. Some parts don't make sense at all.

If Nate, LCGeek and Matt say pascal, I'm gonna trust these ones.
 
This. Thank you and goodnight.

P.S. Was anyone actually expecting it to be on par with PS4/XBO?

P.P.S. If so, you crazy.

The irony is though the article does say it's on par with XBO.

Most realistic expectations people had were slightly lower than XBO.

Either way it's a poorly written article though.
 
This. Thank you and goodnight.

P.S. Was anyone actually expecting it to be on par with PS4/XBO?

P.P.S. If so, you crazy.
I'm wondering how some people will react when they'll see that some Switch games will look pretty damn close to the PS4/Xbox One versions...
Also, I guess GameCube VC is out. Forget PS4-level power, I just can't see out emulating GC games would be viable on the Maxwell.
Apparently, Dolphin on the Shield TV works pretty decently.
 
I think you might be going a bit too far here. 2-3x is what we've heard.
2 to 3 in raw flops, 176 gflops vs 512 gflops is wii u vs x1. But you are talking about r700 architecture (anyone remember the hd 4800 series Radeon cards? I had the 4870) maxwell architecture is much much faster than the 2008 r700 architecture, so the 3x raw numbers grows even further, which is why 4 to 5x makes sense, GCN on average is much slower than pascal, but also much faster than r700 and just incase you don't really understand architecture performance differences, there is the whole 360 having a 240gflops gpu, but it is so ancient that those flops are consumed on trying to do modern things that the Wii U out performs it (gpu wise) without issue.
 
This. Thank you and goodnight.

P.S. Was anyone actually expecting it to be on par with PS4/XBO?

P.P.S. If so, you crazy.

I think I speak for everyone in saying we expected above the Wii U and below the Xbox1.

The reason everyone is upset is because Maxwell isnt technologically superior to Pascal with regards to efficiency. Pascal is substantially better than Maxwell from a performance per watt standpoint which directly affects battery performance and what to expect graphically while in portable mode.

The article is just looking for clicks with the title.
 
I'm wondering how some people will react when they'll see that some Switch games will look pretty damn close to the PS4/Xbox One versions...

Yeah. I doubt it will mean anything to folks, though. It'll be nice to see actual games running on the system besides Zelda. There's no way to know what to expect until we see that.
 
Top Bottom