Nintendo Switch Tech Speculation discussion

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On a second look at the info
No Denver?

On a second look, it could very well be Denver based, since it only shows as ARM_V8, A73 is pure speculation based on performance against Tegra X1, but Denver would also achieve that:

specualted CPU is arm A73 pascal, much powerful than X1, when tested only shows ARM_V8 structure hence the spcualtion"
 
Of all things, that's the one info that I wouldn't take at face value. Looking no further, when Tegra X1 was firstshown it was described as also being 10x10mm or even less than that.

Truth be told, unless someone measured the chip with a paquimeter, the difference between 100mm^2 and 120mm^2 would be as small as measuring 1mm less on each side (11*11). And Tegra X1 is indeed 121mm^2.
 
Im thinking this is a BS post. The quality leaks from Emily Rogers and Laura K Dale have reported a 720p screen. Even in the post, a lot of it seems to be speculation, and yet this is someone who is taking part in the stress testing of the hardware? Like someone else mentioned, its unlikely for them to use the A72 cores with them being so new. With the Tegra X1 being what has presumably been the dev kit hardware, any changes to the final hardware would want to avoid significant architecture changes, basically if your dev kit has a quad A57, you wouldn't want the final hardware to be a octacore A53, that would play havoc on developers. Outright increases in performance would be welcome, something like doubling memory bandwidth would only help developers code run better for example. I would think that since Maxwell and Pascal share so much in common, developers might not even realize there was a change unless Nintendo/Nvidia told them.

Bethesda is now on record talking about how impressed they were with the Switch when Nintendo demoed it at E3. They also confirmed Skyrim will be the same game on Switch no matter what screen you play on. Bethesda has a history of not supporting Nintendo hardware because of hardware limitations. The fact that they are supporting Switch is a good sign that performance of the hardware is pretty decent.
 
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Do you have a source on that? Been trying to look for one...

I can't find exactly where I saw it right now. Maybe the number is wrong.


EDIT: Actually the Cortex A73 cores are already shipping in the Kirin 960 for the Huawei Mate 9, so it's not impossible for those cores to be in the new console, especially if production started recently.
 
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If that rumor is true, 16Wh battery means relatively low power console during portable gaming, while the fan and heat sink indicates more than a few watts (when docked?). If they want 4 hours of gaming use, that's only 4 watts average. So maybe 1 or 2 watts for the display, leaving only 2 or 3 watts for the SoC.

What would be the TDP for 256 pascal cores at 921MHz, and four A73 at 1785MHz? Does it add up?
 
What would be the TDP for 256 pascal cores at 921MHz, and four A73 at 1785MHz? Does it add up?

No one but insiders know how much a 2-SM Maxwell/Pascal would/will consume at 920MHz using 16FF (or TSMC's 16FFC).. The PC Pascal chips are clocked much higher and have a much higher TDP to somehow scale down to sub-10W Soc levels.

If we look at anandtech's review of the Kirin 950 with the Cortex A72, 4 cores A72 at ~1800MHz would consume about 2.1W:

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ARM claims the Cortex A73 is over 20% more power efficient than the Cortex A72 at the same process and frequency.
So assuming ~25% higher efficiency would put those 1785MHz 4 cores at around 1.65W.


But I don't think you'll have 4 hours of battery life with the Switch. I think it'll be closer to 3 hours while gaming, or even less if a game is constantly pushing the TDP limits. Simpler games like Pokemon Go or 2D indie titles may allow for something outrageous like 7+ hours, but Skyrim will probably do a whole lot less.
However, USB for charging will make it very easy to charge anywhere, or just use a powerbank.
 
Was thinking...
- the switch can be the most pawerfull portable 3D device at launch...
- it has a detachable screen...
- it has detachable motion controllers...
- it's supposed to have a decent resolution...
- it can use nvidia' single pass stereo tech...
- it can be mounted on a cheap headset...

Switchtuarl boy 2?
 
Why does it say that 1.8GHz A73s are way more powerful than A57s at 2GHz? Is the difference really that big? I thought A73s were for efficiency more than performance? Judging by those clocks, the chip looks weaker than the X1.
 
A really cheap VR
Remember that outside of htc and oculus a lot of vr headset use cheap mobiles with resolutions from ~700p to ~1080p, with old mediateck inside.
The weight is a concern by the way...
 
But you need 6 DoF for a good VR experience, things like the Samsung GearVR and such have awkward limitations of only allowing rotations (3 DoF), and trust me, it's not natural at all !
But with both controllers and the device itself, it could double as a VR experience, provided it can catch translations too.
 
Probably the Screen is still 720p, 1080p is while connected to the dock outputting to your tv.

My thoughts exactly. Screen is 720p, but there's no reason why the dock's output wouldn't be 1080p by default, regardless of what scaling is done after rendering.
 
Gameseek over in the UK is doing a price guarantee on the Switch at just 200 pounds. I think its safe to assume that this retailer knows their wholesale cost at this point, so this reaffirms the previous reports on pricing. I believe this further discredits the supposed Foxconn leak, that was far to optimistic on the specs.
 
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