Topic: 3rd party seems reminiscent of wii u. Hmmm?

Digital foundry checked the frame rate. And no, MK8 runs at 720p on the Wii U. The different versions have the same frame rate, but the switch version has higher resolution.

@twindragon MK8 runs at 720p on Wii U.

@Therad If you're talking about that missing frame in the Wii U version, that probably isn't hardware related at all. The game duplicated a frame every 64 frames (resulting in 59fps), that suggest a software issue rather than a hardware issue. Disabling the AI, and everything runs at a smooth 60fps. Nintendo fixed this in MK8 Deluxe, the missing frame is gone, but as I said before, I doubt you could attribute that to better hardware. Just an internal bug they managed to solve.

@Octane really! I always thought most of nintendos first party games were suppose to run 1080 on Wii u. What games run 1080 on Wii u then? Super smash bros?

Ninty have always gone after stable fps rather than resolution. I believe it's only Wind Waker that is 1080.

No, but deluxe runs at 1080p. That is the power increase I was talking about.

@jump Smash Bros. is indeed 1080p, but you're right, most games are 720p on Wii U.

@Therad Ah, I see, I thought you were comparing Switch handheld mode with the Wii U.

@Therad well that's good to hear then that the power increase allows for 1080p

@skywake
Sure - like I said, ballpark is fine. I've never used the word "fine" so much in my life lol

I don't know why you don't consider a 20% swing rather large, though. As @therad already showed, going from 720p to 900p is around a 20% increase in power, and the difference is pretty noticeable in MK8/Deluxe comparison screens and videos.

Anyway, here's another article that just released today from Ars Technica. Yet another reason why we're just spitting in the wind here. This one purports to have a Switch opened up, with some interesting observations about the GPU that completely contradict what most of the other rumors have been saying. Usual bucket of salt rumor alert stuff, obviously.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/02/is-this-what-the-ninte...

@rallydefault
A 20% difference in raw performance isn't a lot because it's the sort of gap that can be closed. For example NVidia GPUs typically get the same performance with ~30% less raw horsepower. Modern desktop GPUs are set to dynamically overclock by ~25% under load. The gap between the PS4 and XBOne is about 40%. So yeah, a +/- 20% window isn't massive.

One thing I will say about those internal photos though is that it looks very much like the NVidia TV. Same sized heatsink and everything. The only difference is the specifics of the layout and some of the components. Instead of a space for a 2.5" HDD they have a battery, instead of a full I/O board they have a cartridge slot, headphone jack and USB Type C port. Not particularly interesting in terms of the spec but it does say something about NVidia's strategy in getting someone to pick up this tech. Shield was very much a proof of concept.

Check out Spawn Wave's newest YouTube video. He seems to think the disassembled picture is real, and has a lot of interesting stuff to say about the chip.

I think people are to obsessed with Pascal. They have the exact same number of cuda cores, which is the important part for gaming. They achieve better performance because they use an higher clock frequency. This could be achieved by using a smaller die size, the 16nm process.

Nintendo might very well be using the 16nm tech. But even if they did, they have probably opted for less energy consumption instead of raw processing power. The battery isn't that big, but they still manage to get 3 hours of play time from an open world Zelda. This is amazing.

@Therad
I think so too, on your Pascal point. I don't think it's going to be a Pascal chip, nor do I care - a second gen Maxwell (literally an "X2" as people are pointing out), heavily modified, is going to do the job just fine.

It just goes to show that you have to WAIT until you start judging, though. Some people around here (not you) like @twindragon were moaning and whining about the chip being an "original" X1. I come along and say that we need to wait and see, I get laughed at and told I'm in "denial," but then we start to get information about ACTUAL Switch hardware in the wild, which is exactly what I was saying we needed to see before jumping to conclusions about the tech.

Regardless, IF this opened-up Switch is the real deal, it is built really well, many saying it's probably Nintendo's finest piece of hardware ever. That's very encouraging if you want to validate your money spent or if you had concerns in that area. That means absolutely nothing when it comes to actual success of the thing, but it's nice to see.

@rallydefault I'd like the switch to be as powerful as the next person but that last leak that showed all of the ui images and all of the details on cartridge sizes etc gave the specs. They said it was maxwell, 256 cores with a maximum of 1000 mhz. 4 a57 cortex CPUs. I even wrote on spawn wave saying that sounds just like the jetson tx1 dev kit so perhaps they've upgraded since then. Unfortunately we don't have any indication that they did upgrade and that's the issue. So many people are imagining xbox one level of performance they are convincing themselves that the switch is much more powerful. They watched spawn waves last video and took his enthusiasm about the design and created their own assumptions based on that and automatically believe it's pascal or 16nm or the clocks are much higher. What if it's exactly the same chip and build as the new shield android tv? Will people be disappointed if the max gflops are 512 docked and maybe closer to a Wii u portable? Ive been speculating since October and I haven't seen any announcements of games that would really put the switch thru it's paces and indicate its power so I'm waiting to see what big game gets announced but I'm also ready to believe that Nintendo went with that less powerful x1. The proof is in the clock speeds and cuda cores. If it's 256 cuda cores with a max of 1000mhz you will only ever get 512 gflops

@twindragon
Just to clear, this discussion is all over the internet now. Even Nintendolife has an article on it. I'm not going off of Spawn Wave's video, actually. I think the Ars Technica article is more interesting, to be honest. I don't read YouTube comments, so I couldn't care less what people are "hoping" for.

I'm just saying it's time to wake up to one thing for sure: it's obviously not an original X1 chip. End of story. That doesn't mean it's a Scorpio in portable form (lol) or even an Xbox One in portable form, but it's not the summer 2015 X1 chip, which many people are still using as fuel for their "weak console" attacks. Just frustrating when people refuse to put corroborating, and in this case visual evidence for the first time, together.

Does this kind of stuff matter anymore???

To be honest, I do not blame the lack of "apparent" 3rd party support on anyway. Nintendo made mistakes with the Wii U but they tried to fix it up. Sadly too little too late but there we go. And the 3rd Party don't want to risk losing a lot of money again on a failed console

But things will be different this time around. Developers have already said how well Nintendo are doing. Easy to develop for and now thanks to an article lately, only $500 to develop for. If the AAA companies don't support it, this platform will still be a definitive Indie Platform regardless. Dev kits for Xbox and Playstation are still incredibly expensive so the Indies will go to Nintendo.

In fact, I only need one thing confirmed to be able to myself confirm development for the Switch. And if that happens, I will be making my team's games console-exclusive to the Nintendo Switch (or better yet, entirely exclusive!)

@Grandpa_Pixel you are an indie developer? Nice! Anything that you can show or say about your game? I am developing a mobile game with a programmer friend. Nothing that would go to the switch but it would be cool to work on a project one day for some sort of console. My other job is freelance 3d artist for a company called artbullyproductions. Currently we are working on that Friday the 13 game. Among other titles

@twindragon We working on an RPG that takes great inspiration from Chrono Trigger and the Batman Arkham series to produce a mature superhero RPG. We did our first game which was a great way to gather feedback and now we are really getting into it

But above all, my aspiration is to develop for Nintendo. I have loved their games as a kid

@twindragon The same with me. There's some games that I rather play on the switch than a PS4 or Xbox 1. Like for example the new 2D Sonic Mania to me is going to be a better experience on the switch. Especially because it's a portable console. And I feel like that game caters to portable consoles. I also think Final Fantasy would be a perfect game to release on the Nintendo switch as well. It fits the type of games Nintendo wants to release.