Nintendo Switch Technical discussion [SOC = Tegra X1]

To me, the Switch port is very disappointing because the framerate is really bad. A sub-hd resolution and reduced graphics are fine as long as the framerate is stable. It's not the case.

There is no evidence that the video was recorded at a higher difficulty level than normal.

 

I am assuming your opinion is one of ignorance because there is no way you have played Doom on Switch. Not to mention you either didn't pay attention to John's video or read the article on Eurogamer. Here is a quote from the article.

You can plainly see in the video clip that show the framerate dips is in arcade mode. I'm not suggesting this is a perfectly locked framerate, but my experience has been a stable 30fps most of the time. The most demanding scenes that also took the Xbox One game down into the 40's are probably the same demanding areas that will take the Switch build down into the low to mid 20's.

I think John did a great job giving valuable information to consumers. If your a Doom veteran who prefers the higher difficulty modes the Switch build buckles under the pressure. If your a Doom noob looking for the easy and normal difficulty, then it holds up nicely. I am hearing multiplayer runs great, but I haven't tested it for myself yet.

 

You can play the arcade mode at any difficulty level... but you're right, the video seem to be recorded at the ultra violence setting.

In this video, the framerate is not even locked on Switch while almost nothing happens on screen... :

 

This video shows the frame pacing issues that John talked about in the DF video. It shows 31fps just as often as 29fps. This should get patched. I haven't personally taken issue with it, but just the same it should be fixed.

Look, the game dips below 30fps in crazy scenes, but like John said at the end of the video, Doom plays nicely on Switch. This is not game breaking performance issues.

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The video from DF has a mix of footage on normal and ultra violent, he says any major fire fight results in dips to 21-22fps , he says easy mode helps the frame rate, not normal mode.

 

Quick question. If there's a mid-gen Switch revision (like the 3DS, PS4, Xbox got) would it be possible to patch these games to take advantage of better hardware? I don't see why it wouldn't, but I'm not a tech guru to be honest.

 

Sure.

 

Well, at least the frame rate could benefit, seeing how the PS4 Pro got a Boost mode after release to do precisely that without game patches.

 

Assuming there is a mid gen revision, I expect the screen to be upgraded to 1080p, and the shrunken Tegra X1 will operate at docked clock speeds at all times. The A57 cores could see a pretty substantial clock speed increase as well. If Nintendo does do this I would hope they offer similar benefits to the existing library of games like the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X do. I doubt they would change the memory bus size, but perhaps a faster LPDDR4 memory chips will be available to improve memory bandwidth. I would venture to guess that a game like Doom on Switch runs into memory bandwidth contention before anything else.

 

What they need is a semi custom soc and to stop cheating out on their hardware

 

It'd be nice, but I'm betting they won't upgrade the screen. They'd probably rather have the extra battery life. Extra bandwidth would help a lot, though.

 

Good video on the technical tricks used to maintain 60fps on the shipping version of SMO, both docked and in portable modes:

 

Mario Odyssey is fantastic all around. Nintendo has prioritized 60fps for their Mario games for a long time now, and Odyssey maintains that tradition. It looks great, it plays great, and technically speaking it holds up very well.

Now Skyrim on Switch:



It is the remastered version, docked is 900p, and the framerate is nearly rock solid 30fps. The game is charting rather well on Amazon leading up to release, and on the eshop it is already at #5. It is good to see Bethesda's efforts being rewarding with people buying these exceptional efforts.

 

Is that definitely Skyrim SE or is it a reworked version of the original release?

It is something to see Skyrim on a portable.

 

Digital Foundry confirms that it is indeed based on the special edition.

 

i'd like to see a comparison with skyrim VR.

 

It's pretty cool to be able to play these games on the go in a practical manner. But my gut feeling is that we won't see a change in the status quo of Nintendo systems and 3rd party support: people won't bother buying the same game for on the go when the other platforms play it much better. Getting these PS4 and Xbone games to run on the Switch can't be all that easy.

That said, it would pretty awesome to be able to play CoD for instance on the home consoles, and be able to pick up your same account while playing on Switch and take your character on the go.

 

That looked surprisingly good! And with stable framerate as icing on the cake. The visual impact of the compromises vs. the special edition on PS4 is subjectively very small. And it’s feature complete.

 

Yup, very impressive port. I needed them to pause and highlight the differences between versions: they're apparent once you know of them, but they're nothing that would detract from the game itself.

I should imagine that it looks bloody spectacular in portable mode, on that little screen.

 

Personally I fail to see this as anything other than par for the course here. It's a 6 year old last gen game and it hasn't aged all that well in my opinion. The difference between Switch and the X360 version is not large. It's great that Switch is getting 3rd party support and if you haven't played this, it's a fantastic game, but Bethesda milking this old horse with all these different full price versions is literally getting old in 2017. I hope to see a sequel for this one of these days. It'll be another challenge to squeeze that into the Switch.