Nintendo Switch Tech Speculation discussion

[Shifty Geezer]

I'm not getting what's so hard to understand...

You're dismissing the parts about the Foxconn employee seeing this more powerful hardware as irrelevant instead of considering where it fits in with the general picture. As it's not being passed as what's in the vanilla Switch package in March, the rest of us are wondering where it fits in. Was the employee hallucinating? Or do these strange outliers represent some Nintendo experiments, possible other products, maybe a future release? You appear to be trying to end all discussion about all points coming from outside EG.

 

[function]

I don't usually post about my connections, but this is too interesting to pass... This weekend I talked to friends working in the industry, it was a very casual discussion and they told me a few things about their understanding of the switch hardware. They are more artists than programmers or engineers, so take this into consideration. Maybe they misunderstood what my question was, or were not really sure what part of the hardware I was referencing, or maybe we were too inebriated. So here's the thing, they absolutely convinced me the switch contains an Amiga Blitter.

How about ... blast ... processing?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

So here's the thing, they absolutely convinced me the switch contains an Amiga Blitter.

Presumably not in the Agnus chip itself? Did they hint anything at clock speeds? The original was 28 MHz. If part of the GPU I guess it'll be 307/384/768 MHz, but hopefully it'll be part of the CPU and clocked at 1 GHz. That'd be a far more efficient way to handle sprite drawing than GPU quads so it makes a fair bit of sense, although I imagine it's upgraded somewhat with alpha blending and rotation.

 

[bunnybug]

You're dismissing the parts about the Foxconn employee seeing this more powerful hardware as irrelevant instead of considering where it fits in with the general picture. As it's not being passed as what's in the vanilla Switch package in March, the rest of us are wondering where it fits in. Was the employee hallucinating? Or do these strange outliers represent some Nintendo experiments, possible other products, maybe a future release? You appear to be trying to end all discussion about all points coming from outside EG.

Most of the argument is that the foxconn clock leak will be in final vanilla hardware in march, meaning 16nm and a72 cores in vanilla hardware. I expect better specs in future hardware in the switch, that's not what the argument is about, the argument is people just don't want to believe eurogamer specs which are issued by nintendo to developers, unless eurogamer is making everything up for kicks.

 

[Goodtwin]

I'm not getting what's so hard to understand, i already said the foxconn is real, and the part about specs should be dismissed because of eurogamer info is clear, because there is no way a tester is gonna know more then eurogamer sources, which are developers that have recent nintendo docs, in what world would nintendo tell developers to target such low clocks if they had 16nm pascal/maxwell, with 75% increase in cpu power. if nintendo did plans those specs in the foxconn leak they would have known a long time ago, and wouldn't be telling developers to target such low clocks, just common sense.

Fair enough, with so many pages of post, its hard to remember you giving Fox Con any credibility at all, but it seemed as though you didn't want to give the leaks any credit because Eurogamer is the only worthwhile source. Even with Eurogamer, their material was supposedly final, and then a week before launch we learn of a new Portable high performance profile. I'm guessing had a member here made a post speculating that there would be a late in the game clock speed boost, you would have denounced it and referenced Eurogamer where they were saying final retail clocks would be 307 Mhz portable. Things are subject to change, and although some things are much more plausible than others, when it comes to speculation, there is room for a decent amount of wiggle room. The only reason I left the clock speeds Fox Con references as plausible was based on a move to 16nm, saving 30-40% power efficiency. This would have made the clock speeds Fox Con listed plausible, even if just barely so.

Anyone know what type of juice Parker is pulling? Eurogamer has Switch docked pulling 16 watts docked, and if Tegra Parker is pulling upwards of 30 watts or better, we can rest assured that it was always a pipe dream Parker would be powering Switch. It was a good dream none the less. LOL

 

[bunnybug]

Fair enough, with so many pages of post, its hard to remember you giving Fox Con any credibility at all, but it seemed as though you didn't want to give the leaks any credit because Eurogamer is the only worthwhile source. Even with Eurogamer, their material was supposedly final, and then a week before launch we learn of a new Portable high performance profile. I'm guessing had a member here made a post speculating that there would be a late in the game clock speed boost, you would have denounced it and referenced Eurogamer where they were saying final retail clocks would be 307 Mhz portable. Things are subject to change, and although some things are much more plausible than others, when it comes to speculation, there is room for a decent amount of wiggle room. The only reason I left the clock speeds Fox Con references as plausible was based on a move to 16nm, saving 30-40% power efficiency. This would have made the clock speeds Fox Con listed plausible, even if just barely so.

Anyone know what type of juice Parker is pulling? Eurogamer has Switch docked pulling 16 watts docked, and if Tegra Parker is pulling upwards of 30 watts or better, we can rest assured that it was always a pipe dream Parker would be powering Switch. It was a good dream none the less. LOL

Nope i would have not, in fact i saw that post already. Clock speed boost are common, i expected it slightly higher clock speed to be honest, just like xb1 and ps4 had one, it's pretty common, but changing the whole architecture, and cpu's when nintendo is clearly telling developers to target 20nm maxwell with a57 cores in final hardware so it can work in handheld is unheard of.

 

[Rodéric]

I'm gonna help too, I'm a AAA game dev working for a major publisher, and I can tell you I know nothing about the Switch at all, besides what's been made available to the press !
There, hope it helped !

 

[Goodtwin]

I wonder how much this Portable performance profile helps Compute shader performance? I would assume Compute shaders need to be limited to the portable profile, so getting a 25% boost in Compute performance across the board could be very helpful with some games. From what I have read, Maxwell is very efficient with lighter loads of Compute shaders, but as you ramp up the load it loses ground to GCN by a pretty good margin. I'm curious if Nvidias physic engine they created for Switch is tailored to Compute, and thus keeping heavy physic loads off the CPU cores.

 

[Malo]

DigitalFoundry Switch technology review

 

[Shifty Geezer]

"The Ultimate Hybrid?" Well, uh, yes, because it's the only one.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

"The Ultimate Hybrid?" Well, uh, yes, because it's the only one.

Therefore it's also the worst hybrid Digital Foundry have every been unfortunate enough to use!

 

[function]

"The Ultimate Hybrid?" Well, uh, yes, because it's the only one.

Therefore it's also the worst hybrid Digital Foundry have every been unfortunate enough to use!

Don't forget the Sega Nomad brehs! Sega did everything first!

Portable? Also outputs to a TV? Home game library? Two players on one device? Terrible battery life?*

*Joke! Joke! Switch battery life is okay all things considered. And at least it doesn't use AA batteries ....

 

[Karamazov]

technically you could also play the gameboy on TV, at the time there were demo stands in shops with gameboy connected to a TV in an arcade case form.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lJ0zE8Z4G3I/UvWUC4hTxlI/AAAAAAAAAIw/x1JDU2ofNVc/s1600/retial_display.JPG

 

[Shifty Geezer]

You could play PSP on TV. It wasn't a hybrid though. Nomad sounds like the first hybrid.

 

[bunnybug]

Here is a pic of a retail switch taken apart http://images.multiplayer.it/thumbs/images/2017/03/01/img_1722_JPG_0x0_q85.jpg looks the same as the previous taken apart pics, except for the battery not being final.

 

[bunnybug]

DigitalFoundry Switch technology review

As a portable is a ok value, 50$ overpriced. if you want it as a home console only, my god it's terrible deal.

 

[Allandor]

As a portable is a ok value, 50$ overpriced. if you want it as a home console only, my god it's terrible deal.

They should just make a non-portable version that you just connect with your TV, a Pro controller and cut $100 off the price. Just like they stripped away the 3D functionality and launched the 2DS to get a bigger audience.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

As a portable is a ok value, 50$ overpriced. if you want it as a home console only, my god it's terrible deal.

Different people see different things. I see this as a fan-freaking-tastic deal. It's the only home console that interests me, as I can also take it on the go. Considering the 3DS is the only console I've used in over 1.5 years, this is fantastic. Especially as I've wished multiple times that I could hook my 3DS up to my TV. I get neck cramps from extended play looking down at a handheld. When at home, it'll be invaluable being able to just connect it to my TV.

Regards,
SB

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Yup. This is a console that will be plugged into my TV a lot of the time but when I take it on the go, I'll have my existing library and no compromises on the games I play. That's where the portable PlayStations failed.

 

[BRiT]

Different people see different things.

Yup. I see it as $150 overpriced hardware with $30 overpriced software titles.