Nintendo Switch Tech Speculation discussion

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No mention of Pascal. Usually companies tend to add "with latest top performing... " etc.

Yep, might be maxwell. Or it might be pascal, hopefully it is pascal (especially important for battery life).
 
No mention of Pascal. Usually companies tend to add "with latest top performing... " etc.

Nvidia said:
Nintendo Switch is powered by the performance of the custom Tegra processor.
Nvidia said:
The high-efficiency scalable processor
Perhaps an indication of a HMP/big.LITTLE CPU arrangement.
Nvidia said:
includes an NVIDIA GPU based on the same architecture as the world’s top-performing GeForce gaming graphics cards.
Probably Pascal-based GPU.
 
Probably Pascal-based GPU.
Have to wonder if there's that much different from the Tegra X1 version of Maxwell in terms of architecture that devs would find useful. TX1 already supported double rate FP16, for instance.

Improvements to the bandwidth compression I suppose, but it could just be simply X1-level of performance shrunk to 16nm, which is probably fair considering the form factor & expectations on battery life.
 
Pascal exists in HBM2 form maybe not Maxwell ?
No idea whether it's practical on mobile console...

Better colour (and Z ?) compression on Pascal, also Tiling (see real world tech)

I kinda would have liked a stereoscopic screen there are pretty good ones @ 720...
 
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How is that different from Wii / Wii U having also an API? o_O
Even XBOX and PS4 have different API despite similar hardware. Missing your point o_O
Nintendo does not have a luxury of being main platform for developers.
For Switch devs can not make minimal adjustments for a game. So learning new API, downgrading graphics, trying to cram assets into cartridge etc.
 
Custom Tegra it is. No mention of IP level or processor, other than "NVIDIA GPU based on the same architecture as the world’s top-performing GeForce gaming graphics cards."

So it should be Pascal. My bet is on a custom Parker which has two Denver 2.0 and four Cortex A57 cores that work together in a fully coherent heterogenous multi-processor configuration.

Wonder if they packed more than the 256-core Pascal GPU they use in Parker though ...
 
Nintendo does not have a luxury of being main platform for developers.
For Switch devs can not make minimal adjustments for a game. So learning new API, downgrading graphics, trying to cram assets into cartridge etc.

They do have the advantage of having nVidia as a partner though. The new API could be based on existing NVidia middleware (e.g. GameWorks) that developers are already familiar with.
 
Looks like nVidia provided almost all software. Now Nintendo stuck with NV for a long time.
I'm not sure if I would be shocked if post-NX was also likely to be nvidia as well. These plans made have already been made well in advance.
 
Custom Tegra it is. No mention of IP level or processor, other than "NVIDIA GPU based on the same architecture as the world’s top-performing GeForce gaming graphics cards."

So it should be Pascal. My bet is on a custom Parker which has two Denver 2.0 and four Cortex A57 cores that work together in a fully coherent heterogenous multi-processor configuration.

Wonder if they packed more than the 256-core Pascal GPU they use in Parker though ...
hmmm, could be close, pure speculation for now but they say these could well be the specs.

CPU:
Four ARM Cortex-A57 cores, maximum 2 GHz
L2 cache, 2 MB
64-bit ARMv8
Crypto extension enabled

GPU:
NVIDIA second-generation Maxwell architecture
256 CUDA cores, maximum 1 GHz
1024 FLOPS/cycle
Texture: 16 pixels/cycle
Fill: 14.4 pixels/cycle

Main memory:
Capacity of 4 GB
Bandwidth: 25.6 GB/s
VRAM: shared

System Memory:
Capacity: 32 GB, Maximum transfer rate: 400 MB/s
USB
USB 2.0 and 3.0
Video Output
60 fps, at a maximum of 1920×1080 pixels
Or 30 fps at 3840×2160 pixels
The screen:
6.2" IPS LCD, 1280×720 pixels
Capacitance method, 10-point multi-touch

Not a hardware expert, but isn't that 1Teraflop?
 
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