New Nintendo Switch hardware versions?

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Btw I just stumbled upon "Mariko", that was supposed to be a hardware revision that fix the Nintendo switch hacks. But despite its already referred in the firmware for months it's still not in any production hardware

Probably Nintendo merged Mariko with the new lcd? Thus the long release time of Mariko.

But if Mariko was supposed to fix the hacks, why even wait for a new lcd?




The 1.75GHz? That was done before launch.

My memory swears it was added post launch. But my memory often lie to me hahaha
 
Btw I just stumbled upon "Mariko", that was supposed to be a hardware revision that fix the Nintendo switch hacks. But despite its already referred in the firmware for months it's still not in any production hardware

Probably Nintendo merged Mariko with the new lcd? Thus the long release time of Mariko.

But if Mariko was supposed to fix the hacks, why even wait for a new lcd?

Right, the T214. Given nVidia's wacky numbering scheme for Xavier & Parker, it's hard to tell anything other than it's not T210 (vanilla Tegra X1). There's probably no need to wait per se since it comes down to acquiring the components for final assembly, and they've already switched suppliers for the screen before. At the same time, I'm not sure if anyone's checking the retail batches regularly or if it's easy to identify (ala Playstation model numbering) without tearing things apart needlessly.

My memory swears it was added post launch. But my memory often lie to me hahaha
I don't have a cat to worry about.¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Seeing as how the current Tegra X1 doesnt run at max clock speeds, wouldn't a move to a smaller more energy process be the simplest solution to a more powerful Switch revision?
More-or-less. The 16nmFF family (including 12nFFC) should also be yielding quite well at this point (nevermind next year).

I guess the question is what they hope to market after 2 years, and if they're positioning it for better ports; next generation consoles are on the horizon, but cross-gen will likely be around for some time, and currently we haven't seen too many current gen ports as is.

If the Tegra X1 could run the 768Mhz in portable mode, this would allow for a new 1080p screen, and run 1Ghz docked. Not sure how much they could do with the CPU clocks, but Microsoft was able to get a bump with the S model, and I do not recall any compatibility issues.
Screen res has a fairly big impact on battery life, so it wouldn't be surprising if they stuck to 720p, albeit better quality. They certainly weren't too shy about the CPU upgrade in New3DS, so it wouldn't be too surprising to see a bump there if a major revision happens. The iso-CPU clock in Switch's docked mode was probably for power/heat since the primary issue is GPU performance there.

I wonder if the SDK just imposes specific clock speeds at runtime since the game has to determine operation mode? If that's the case, unpatched software might not even care about a fully compatible chip revision.

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Anyways, there's maybe only so much they can do since bandwidth is going to be an issue of sorts. LPDDR5 is probably going to be in short supply when it arrives i.e. premium.

Doubling the bus width has implications to base power consumption & # of chips attached (obviously, fewer chips = less stuff to power just to turn on).
 
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They certainly weren't too shy about the CPU upgrade in New3DS, so it wouldn't be too surprising to see a bump there if a major revision happens. The iso-CPU clock in Switch's docked mode was probably for power/heat since the primary issue is GPU performance there.

Speaking of the New 3DS revision, Nintendo launched it almost 4 years after the original 3DS' launch. A revision to the Switch with similar timing would put it with a Q4 2020 launch.
They did a "major" upgrade to the CPU (dual 268MHz to quad 804MHz, effectively getting 6x more CPU resources) and RAM (128MB 3.2GB/s to 256MB 6.4GB/s), but apparently left the Pica200 GPU unchanged.

Seems to me that the upgrade was more directed at QoL/O.S. improvements and software Super Nintendo emulation than improving the visuals in their games library.
 
Seeing as how the current Tegra X1 doesnt run at max clock speeds, wouldn't a move to a smaller more energy process be the simplest solution to a more powerful Switch revision?

In essence that is pretty much what the Tegra X2 is and it is "ported" already.
 
In essence that is pretty much what the Tegra X2 is and it is "ported" already.
Problem with that is that 16nmFF isn’t much smaller than 20nm planar. You get transistor performance improvements, but dies/wafer and thus cost will be similar. (Even though nVidia charges a lot more for their TX2 development boards.)
 
Problem with that is that 16nmFF isn’t much smaller than 20nm planar. You get transistor performance improvements, but dies/wafer and thus cost will be similar. (Even though nVidia charges a lot more for their TX2 development boards.)

I could not find anything about the die size of either Tegra X1 or 2, but I don't think that is going to be a problem. The GP108 chip with 384 cores is about 70mm and the GP107 with 768 cores is 132mm2 to give some perspective. I would not think Tegra X2 is significantly bigger than GP108, maybe about equal or even smaller? (edit not much more than 100mm2 in any case) I don't think silicon cost is the main factor here, it comes down to nVidia's and Nintendo's deal and I assume they had some type of roadmap for the future secured or at least planned. High performance dock would be nice! I don't see them porting Tegra X1 to 7nm, but I guess some type of custom SOC in the future could be possible...
 
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Problem with that is that 16nmFF isn’t much smaller than 20nm planar. You get transistor performance improvements, but dies/wafer and thus cost will be similar. (Even though nVidia charges a lot more for their TX2 development boards.)
From looking at pictures of the Jetson boards, TX2 seems to be substantially larger than TX1.
The TX2 has an enormous amount of I/Os, twice the LPDDR4 PHYs, they traded the tiny A53 module for 2 big Denver cores, etc.

It's a chip even less directed at gaming.
 
From looking at pictures of the Jetson boards, TX2 seems to be substantially larger than TX1.
The TX2 has an enormous amount of I/Os, twice the LPDDR4 PHYs, they traded the tiny A53 module for 2 big Denver cores, etc.

It's a chip even less directed at gaming.

They are quite similar in size... TX2 is a little bit bigger, they are both small chips. More flops and memory/bandwidth would be nice for gaming as far as I'm concerned.
 
Okay just got my hand on a switch the last few days.. I hope Nintendo's new screen won't be just a production cost reduction but also quality improvement

The current screen is horrible.

  • Visible jagged pixels even on home screen (button logo, etc). Maybe they have "space between pixels" that are too big ?
  • Black is dark gray. It's as if it runs in incorrect rgb level range..
  • The amount of reflection is crazy.but to be expected as the screen is not fused with the outer plastic.
  • Dull color
  • Too warm color (yellowish tint)
  • Visible horizontal "scan lines" when the switch is tilted to various angles (luckily totally imperceptible in gameplay).

My 6 years old sony tablet and launch-model VITA have much better screen that this.

Edit:
The screen uniformity is good. Although I'm not sure whether it will stays good after a few years.

My vaio tap 11 got yellow spot right on the high temperature area. Was like thst on the original screen, and the new replacement screen already starts yellowing on hot area only in a few months .

I guess as long as I play switch in mobile mode the heat won't be a problem tho. As it stays cool even after 3 hours of zelda
 
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Have you been letting your cat get close to your hardware again? ;)

My Switch has none of the issues you talk about and neither do other Switches as pretty much all reviews say the screen looks good.
 
Have you been letting your cat get close to your hardware again? ;)

My Switch has none of the issues you talk about and neither do other Switches as pretty much all reviews say the screen looks good.

It's either a really bad lcd lottery or simply the majority of population can't see the problems (or a mix of both) .

Googling switch screen yellow, switch screen quality, etc results in various complains.

Generally the conclusion was that switch have pretty wide range of screen quality, so it's down to luck to get the good one. But even if you get the bad screen, you probably won't even notice its woes.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/the-nintendo-screen-lottery-its-a-thing-and-it-sucks.57152/#content



https://gbatemp.net/threads/nintendo-switch-display-color-temperature-variation.466647/
 
My Switch screen is pretty damn great. It's no Vita screen in terms of contrast (how could it be?), but in terms of color accuracy and vibrancy it's really, really good. Almost on par with my Surface Pro.

Does your switch screen goes black when displaying black or when turned off? (like surface screen)

Or it goes grayish, like transflective screen that was popular many years ago on phones?

Mine looks like transflective screen.

Ill try to post a photo tomorrow
 
I've never noticed it on my Switch but on a quick test I don't think my screen is super black either but I can't say I'm bothered by it. Looks fine to me in games tbh.

I'd say overall picture and color quality is a lot more important than some checkerboard that isn't ever going to show up in games anyway.

But if you're not happy with it, why not trade it for a new unit?
 
My Switch Screen isn't super black either. It's definitely black enough, though. As far as I know, super deep black levels aren't the strengths of IPS panels. Viewing angles are. VA panels are the ones with the deeper blacks, but you pay for that with narrower viewing angles.
When playing games, everything looks great on the panel. Ultimately that is what counts. I'm really liking the color accuracy as well. Reminds me of the picture from my Samsung Plasma (R.I.P.)
 
That monitor is only 1000:1 ips so it's not super black. It just looks super black on the picture. In real life the black looks dark gray.

Can't trade switch due to no warranty and I'm in the middle of nowhere.

Even if I trade, the screen lottery could give me even worse screen. Clouding, uneven backlight, etc.

In my switch, The black not black is visible in all games as "picture looks dull" and very easy to see in zelda Botw loading screen due to its bottom half are black but dark grey on switch..

And its not just when compared to an IPS PC monitor, even my 150 dollars cellphone have better screen than switch.

That's why I hope the new switch screen from new supplier will not be just a cost cutting measure but also an quality upgrade.

Sure there's no display that are free from defect unless you are really lucky, but better blacks would be nice to have on switch, and it's something that won't vary too much between units.

Other issues like the warm color screen (my screen no longer warm! Yay it fixed by itself ) , grainy texture, and horizontal scanlines are much less perceptible, at least thst what I got from my own experience and when I Google around
 
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