Rumour: Nintendo Switch Dock Helps Boost Performance, But Not in the Way You Think

It's strange to me that Laura Kate Dale actually got attention from Nintendo and was duly punished for her reports, yet Emily Rogers gets the majority of the backlash and has seemingly never gotten any sanctions for her actions from Nintendo. And now that I'm reading Laura's response to the blacklist, she is being openly malicious in her reporting and basically admitting that she's doing it for her own image now. Even has a bunch of retweets about what a cool revolutionary she is about being banned for revealing confidential industry data. Disgusting.

But that's exactly how I thought it would work.

An extra fan allows you to run at a higher performance. A fan running in handheld mode would drain the battery too much. It's the obvious mode of enhancing performance with the dock, at a low cost.

The more powerful the better.

Interesting, while some of us thought the dock would simply provide mains charge, we were largely shouted down because "Nintendo released a patent, so it's impossible". So it is a LITTLE satisfying to see that we may have been correct.

As for people getting blacklisted... maybe Nintendo doesn't want people releasing/leaking details on their hardware? It's easy to ask why one person is blacklisted while another isn't... but I'd certainly say Dale has been the most high-profile person to release these leaks/rumours.

I want to play with power. Hopefully Nintendo power.

Hopefully

Hmmm....interesting

Is it just me, or is this whole thing that we're going through now reminiscent of the launch of the Wii, back in '06? I don't know, I'm just feeling that somehow, it is...

Either way, what a great system this sucker is shaping out to be.

This is going to be good.

January 12th can't come soon enough.

Dark Soul 3 and a remaster of the first two DS games are being considered.

Makes sense. There would be no way it could do 1080p without a fan. I have the Android TV Nvidia Shield console so that's in line with what I was expecting.

Did Nintendo Life get an invite to the private event in London? I'd love to see your hands on opinion on the Switch.

Makes sense.

Gooood... GooOOooOooOOodd...

Also, wonder if plugging the Switch into a portable battery pack via it's USB-C will trip the full power mode? I'm guessing the packs don't provide the necessary "umph", but would be great to be able to grab a cheap 50,000mAh battery & get full power on the go.

@iGen Not really, we got plenty of information on the WiiU but it was all confusing.. plus Nintendo was handicapped to begin with due to using ancient CPU architecture meaning that a simple port was practically building a game from scratch. I think we'll see plenty of games at launch this time around.

@MarcelRguez I didn't say "more power", I said "power" as in electricity. Lol, maybe I should edit my comment to be more clear?

@Equinox That's probably for the better since she is not so blatantly building a cult of personality around herself at all times.

@joealejos Breath of the Wild launch day can't come soon enough.

Would be great to get a Metroid Prime 1-3 remastered collection, built from ground up, on the Switch.

So it still remains to be seen how much power is actually in the handheld. According to this it is home console power that scales down to extend battery life on the go (and smaller screen so no big if 720 instead of 1080 on the go.) Is it january yet?

I just want good, fun games. The power thing doesn't bother me so much, as this gen taught me: most devs don't know what to do with the extra power anyway!

Yeah it's called overclocking and that requires more power that a battery cannot support but an adapter could

Has anybody had hands on experience with USB-C? I'm a little concerned getting the Switch on and off the dock correctly is going to be annoying. The Wii U Game pad and 3DS just plop onto their respective charging docks, all the metal bits have to do is make contact. And I still miss sometimes w/ my Game pad a fraction of an inch to get the charge light to come on. If Switch is doing both electric and audio/video that's going to need to be well connected every single time. I still have to jiggle HDMI cables around from time to time to get the signal to work. Taking the Switch out of the toaster shouldn't be a problem, but lining it up going in could be. Maybe not so much with the Joycons on, but when their off.

So, who's using a USB-C port for video?

@Exy The reason Emily gets backlash is because she's often been wrong, and the reason Laura is regarded well is because she is more trusted, with company reactions to her leaks strenghtening her credibility

I'm not sure how I feel about this anymore.. after upgrading my PS4 for a PS4 Pro.. I don't think I could sacrifice 4K res and go back to 1080p (by choice).. however.. Nintendo's art style usually trumps anything else.. so I guess it'll be a wait n see kinda approach..

Nice! I don't care much about power, but a lot of people does, so this is good news.

@TheDavyStar And now that she admitted it's largely about her own ability to garner media attention, there's a good reason to hate her too.

@rjejr it's physical and mechanical. The opposite of what we'd want.

I'm hoping for something that connects more easily than that.

I don't know about everyone else, but I'm getting really sick of all of the Nintendo Switch rumors and leaks. We'll get more out of the January event and future events if we are allowed to be completely caught off-guard by them. These leaks and rumors are damaging to the surprises.

Excellent, this means the Sandwich will support USB 3.0/3.1. Finally, a higher speed external USB drive can be utilized... And plenty of potential for transporting data.

As somebody who uses USB C for his Nexus 6 phone, I welcome Nintendo to the USB C Master Race.

I'm not gonna say it, I'm not gonna say it, I'm not gonna...

Aw, who am I kidding? I TOLD YOU SO.

Since the reveal, I've been saying that the dock will allow the Switch to run in an overclocked mode, and lo and behold. I'm not surprised at all, since all signs pointed to this from the get go.

@rjejr My guess is it will be like the 3DS, there will be a specific, easy to use charging port and then a separate USB-C for charging on the go/out of the dock.

ThanosReXXX You also said there would be more hardware in the dock & that there would be at least a fan in there... if I remember correctly.

Edit: In fact I think you scoffed at me saying it might only provide power.

@rjejr Well, USB-C is a newer standard, with 24 pins instead of just 4. USB 2.0 allows up to 500 mAH, so this USB-C 3.1 will allow for up to 3000 mAH (3AH). This allows it to interact with the new USB 3.1 standard, which in addition to raising the cap on access to power, also allows for much faster data transfer speeds than in the past. It's not widely adopted yet, but it is very promising.

What this means is that the Sandwitch may actually end up having better data transfer speeds than the PS4Pro or XBScorpio.

I never thought about it, but having multiple docks for each room without requiring another full console is a really good idea.

@DanteSolablood I can understand why your comment could be misread, because when I read it, I got from it that you are a little right because the dock provides mains power.

That is a total given, so anyone could have thought of that. The real distinction was between two sides in the camp of the rumor mongers, where one side proposed that there was actually extra hardware in the dock, like a GPU or a graphics card (some even went as far as saying the dock might be the SCD, something that always seemed highly unlikely to me) and the other simply said that the dock would simply trigger an overclock mode, allowing it to go to 1080p/60fps whereas the handheld mode will only allow for 720p.

And yes, I once theorized upon the first rumor being possible in some sort of SLI configuration, but in the end decided it would be too expensive and create too much disparity between the two experiences.

And there actually is a fan in the dock, if this rumor is true, so I don't know what your point is there.

In the most recent comments I made on it, I proposed that indeed all the necessary processing power and even the main fans are in the handheld, but it will only run in 720p and be passively cooled in handheld mode, and when inserted in the dock, it will both trigger the overclock mode and the fans, and the additional fan in the dock will allow for it to easily run at 1080p/60fps.

The old Shield could already do that, so it should be next to no problem for the Switch.

@Dakt Never said that it was my theory exclusively, but it has always been my conviction from the day of the reveal, based upon the info we had. And I was definitely one of the first here on NLife mentioning it, and standing by it.

@ThanosReXXX

I don't want to rain on your parade, but you also argued vehemently that "Madmen Football" had the potential to be a good game and wasn't an obvious sham.

You win some, you lose some, I guess

@Dakt No, I don't. I'm satisfied enough to be right all by myself. You apparently thought it necessary to bash me on a comment that was never meant as anything other than a small poke at disbelievers and not as me thumping my own chest, as which you apparently interpreted it.

@ThanosReXXX Indeed, when we were talking originally I mentioned it was likely the dock would not have much more than power (as in mains charge... which people normally just call "power" when less picky people are about. ) or a fan. And you were against. But I appreciate that you changed your mind.

As for the Switch itself powering up when connected to mains.. this again is something I mentioned & was scoffed at. Nice for you to jump on the second bandwave. Told you so.

@WilliamCalley Yep, we all do. Back then, there was little reason to doubt that it was actually going to be a real game. Well, at least no less than any other indie or kickstarter game. There were tonnes of such projects.

Believable enough. The PSP had a secret 4th level of brightness when running off of the mains it couldn't handle on battery only.

Inversely the Apple TV, essentially an iphone 6 in a box has performance issues on some titles despite having no battery to worry about.

It's similar to a laptop having different power modes depending if running off battery or the mains.

Laua kate dale leaks are all fake

@RadioHedgeFund It's not unknown for systems to get a boost when running on mains power. The fan they mention may not even be in the base... it could be internal "active cooling" which is only used when the power cable is in to conserve energy.

So what's in the dock? Memory?

Everybody wants to be a whistleblower. Why not just let the company release the specs when they are ready? These aren't black bag government secrets you know.

@DanteSolablood But you see: that's the thing. I NEVER changed camps. I started saying from day one of the release that there was no additional hardware in the dock other than that trigger to allow it to overclock.

After that, I only went along for the ride for a bit and theorized that it could contain extra hardware to see where that could go, but I did that because a lot of people on various sites and channels were discussing that possibility at that time, but it never really changed my mindset from what I originally suspected to be true.

It's just something I always do: NEVER throw away any idea simply because it doesn't match with your own. First check it/think it over, look at the options and cross off what is unlikely. If what is left is substantial enough, then it might be better or more likely than the original idea, but if it's not, then you stick with your initial thought.

Which is what I did.

And what confused me (and maybe the other guy too) is the interchangeable use of "mains" and "power". Mains to me is just a "plug it in the wall" kind of thing that does not by default warrant the system getting extra juice. The USB-C connector and the extra fan in the dock do. You could probably also connect a USB-C cable to it when it's outside of the dock, but if it is also correct that the system is only passively cooled when in handheld mode, then that might cause serious problems, because direct USB-C charging or connecting without fans might cause overheating.

@Dakt It'll be true. You will see in January. It would almost be weird and actually quite stupid to have USB-C and all the options that offers in there and not make use of it.

And some time ago, some Nintendo spokesperson (or maybe even Miyamoto or Reggie) also mentioned that they were going for that 1080p/60fps target in TV mode, so that fits in quite nicely with this rumor here. It sure isn't going to be 1080p in handheld mode, because that'll drain the battery in no time.

@Nintendo_Ninja No real extra juice in the form of additional hardware. Apparently (if the rumor in this article is indeed true) just a USB-C connector and an extra fan with an air duct that connects to the air outlet in the tablet. Once inserted into the dock, the tablet can overclock and will not overheat because of the extra cooling, allowing it to boost the power a little bit so it'll look better when played on a big screen.

@Clownshoes As I already said to the other guy, I don't have to "revel" in whatever. I'm just confident in what I'm thinking, is all.

I don't feel better by being more right than others, if that is going to be the case here. We are all only human, so all of us can be right or wrong at times. It's just that too many people were continuously either saying that the dock was just an empty piece of plastic only meant as a "to TV" connection, which in turn made people ask why there was a dock in the first place and not just a cable or dongle to connect it to the big screen, or they were saying that the dock was filled with all kinds of chips or even that it was the SCD.

By the way, that link that you pointed out to @rjejr tells us absolutely nothing about USB-C itself. It's criticism on some types of USB-C cables that do not adhere to the exact standards that the technology offers, much like what happened back in the SCART days, when there were also lots of different types and qualities of cables.

@ThanosReXXX My original post used "power" also, but someone immediately mistook that for performance. This will always be an issue as I noticed you using the term "juice" which can also mean graphical power & electricity.

It's probably that I caught you at a particular time in your beliefs, I won't bother going back to quote you as it's too important. But remember telling me the dock couldn't be toppled because of the tech inside the dock?

Also, the statement doesn't make it clear the fan is external to the system. Some devices can switch between active & passive cooling without external devices. It could be the Switch's fan is internal.. which would also allow it to transmit to the TV undocked.

@Dakt That's always a funny thing. Sometimes, when people say "well, Nintendo said it, so it must be true" it actually is true, and on other occasions people decide that Nintendo is leaving things out or are downright lying, but apparently it is quite arbitrary which of the two it is and when, based upon the type of information. That goes to such extremes that I can't even make heads or tails from that sometimes...

In this case, I was saying that Nintendo left things out, because of course it's mainly a means of connecting the tablet to the TV, but that doesn't exclude the option of beefing up the power, and more and more rumors are surfacing to support that notion, and purely based upon the tech used (if it really is USB-C) that really doesn't seem all that unlikely, simply because it actually isn't that big of a stretch as it will cost next to nothing, except for that extra fan.

So about how I thought things would be then.

If the rumor is true, obviously.

@DanteSolablood I do remember that discussion. It went on a bit too long and the points I used were that you're not going to topple the dock because of the connectors at the back for video and so on, because there was a logo on the front (admittedly the most stupid of my points) and because it has a distinct underside which will probably have some rubber feet.

The main point I made though, was that the gap in the back (which you proposed could be used to slide the tablet in) didn't run all the way along the backside, so that kind of completely debunked the possibility, unless you would only have to slide it in halfway.

And the statement, provided it's true of course, actually DOES make clear that the fan is external to the system. It makes a VERY clear distinction about it:

"Plugging the system into the dock will also activate a small additional fan to help with cooling when run at higher clock speed. This fan is in the rear of the dock, and there is a gap in the back of the dock to allow the system's inbuilt fans to vent when docked."

So, apparently, there are fans inside the Switch that only activate when docked, and there's an extra fan in the back of the dock as well.

Laura, Emily... and YOU!

I would prefer less clickbait-sounding titles and subtitles on NL articles. That said, thanks for the other articles!

@ThanosReXXX Hmm, fair enough with the fan, that's a mistake on my part when re-reading it the second time.

As for your memory on the discussion, I'm pretty dissapointed as the feet & logo were possibly one out of numerous comments in which you practically called me out for even attempting to think you could topple something with hardware inside (which you did AGAIN after I pointed out the PS2, PS3 & 360 could be turned over).

I know you like to win arguments, but I usually state how much I respect how you approach these discussion. Genuinely can't today.

Sounds solid and logical.

@DanteSolablood That was honestly not my intention, and if I came across as such, I apologize. I just quoted the points I made, so I honestly don't see the harm in that, and I summarized the back and forth with all it's negativity by stating that the discussion went on too long.

I specifically wished NOT to dredge that all up again, also not the part where I called you out, but instead it seems I've triggered quite the opposite, which makes me kinda sad, because as I already mentioned, that was not my intention.

Damn you, written text and your ability of being interpreted in too many different ways...

@Dakt Been scouring the web for an hour now, trying to find a link for you about that 1080p/60fps target that Nintendo is supposedly aiming for with the "on TV" experience on the Switch, but I haven't found anything other than a Reddit page where it is no more than rumored, so my bad.

It is also mentioned here:
http://www.valuewalk.com/2016/10/nintendo-switch-specs-release-price/

However, Ars Technica did a reasonably in-depth article, that comes to certain conclusions based upon the most likely scenario, and that also supports the theory that Switch will be able to provide that sweet spot when displayed on TV:
arstechnica.co.uk/gaming/2016/10/nintendo-switch-hardware-specs/

And keep in mind that both the Shield and Tegra-powered tablets were already able to achieve that goal, and these were powered by the Tegra X1 and Tegra K1 (the X1's predecessor) respectively.

And with the Switch either also having the X1 (worst case scenario) or a custom chipset more like the X2, based upon the new API and Nvidia's own statements, it should have no trouble at all to also achieve those numbers.

So, not officially confirmed then (my bad) but definitely well within the realms of possibility and quite likely.

@Dakt (In response to #40)

False. She was right about us getting new info, and that new info was the Switch presentation being announced.

Also, she reported USB-C before 3rd parties confirmed it: http://letsplayvideogames.com/2016/10/report-nintendo-switch-trailer-prototype-powered-by-usb-c-cannot-be-charged-in-kickstand-mode/

This would make her 3/4, which is more than half.

Rumours rumours...just over a month to go until we find out the truth.

@jimi It's kind of sad. You type that long piece and yet fill it with 90% assumptions.

@Exy I started out pretty interested in Dale's pieces and viewpoints when I first learned of her through Sterling and destructoid, but recently I've completely fallen out of appreciation for her. Her impertinent insistance on snooping around and aggressively spilling industry secrets in the name of "investigative games journalism" "because the people deserve to know them" and her offended defence reactions to being called out on it by said companies really start to piss me off. That and the more of her views and opinions I learn about, the lesser I agree with any of them. In my regard Nintendo has every right to keep whatever information they want under wraps until the time they see fit to reveal it. Insisting on doing what she's doing and making herself out to being in the right is just rude and annoying by this point. It's not like I don't appreciate the resulting news flow, but her attitude really riles me up... and I don't think we absolutely need to know all this at this point.
All this leaking and rumour mongering takes of a lot of the magic of official (potentially surprising) reveals away and at least in my regard the fans and industry are worse off for it.

@PlywoodStick Thanks for all the USB-C specs, but I was more worried about actually making the connection on a daily basis. Every time we slide the Switch down into the toaster we'll have to make sure it's perfectly centered for that little tiny man part to slide inside the Switch's little tiny female part. And if we're off a little to either side we'll be hammering down the bottom of the Switch onto that male part, or putting it on crooked stretching the Switch's port. Over and over and over again. I've gone thru a lot of different ports in my life, RCA, component, DVI, VGA, HDMI, and some are more finicky than other. And none of them are really made to be constantly inserted and removed on a regular basis. Even USB thumbdrives can be finicky at times. (Though that could just be Windows software I suppose.) I'm not to worried about the power, electricity will find a way, I'm not worried about Switch not getting enough power or shorting out. But a 1080p video signal and 5.1 surround sound probably needs a fairly tight connection. And Nintendo may even put in something stupid like a "handshake" for piracy concerns. That's the part I'm worried about. I returned my Wii U b/c the screen went black every 5 seconds, among other problems. Worked fine as long as I wasn't using HDMI, so it was either a physical port - cable was always wobbly - or a handshake issue.

http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1273716

@DanteSolablood We saw those extra charging cables on the EBGames website rumour, I think it was yesterday. I'm not worried about those. Though after the article from @Clownshoes maybe we all should be. That NES Classic controller didn't work either.

@erv Thanks. Out of all my replies you're the only one who I think understood what I was talking about. I probably should have used the word "finicky" or something.

Thanks everyone for all the replies. Only time will tell I guess.

@Ryu_Niiyama seriously, it's gotten so very annoying by this point. Why not just the leave the companies be and reveal their stuff when it suits them? As an advocate of healthy doses of hype at the right times these practices really don't do anything for me :/

@r4ind4nce Agreed. Just an attention leech who will do whatever it takes to stay in the spotlight. I'll be glad when the Switch releases and I won't have to hear about yet another of Nintendo's secrets being spilled by Dale, at least not for a while. Probably a false hope though, since she'll just move on to leaking stuff like games.

@rjejr I didn't mean additional cables... I meant a different type of connector. The 3DS has two small plates either side of the cable port which allow it to be charged sat on the cradle, being charged by the cradle itself. While it's unlikely, the Switch could have some version of this. USB-C for out of dock & a cradle specific means of charging inside the dock.

Of course it's also possible that the dock is designed to guide the main unit in so well that this isn't an issue. All depends how well Nintendo have thought this through (and normally the tech is over-engineered while the marketing is underdeveloped. ).

Why is Nintendo the only platform that seems to have a rumour industry?

@jimi I hear a lot of name calling. And presumptions. And prejudice. Why so negative? There's no need to lash out.

@DanteSolablood OK, sorry, misunderstood. Those small plates for charging would be nice on a nightstand charger, less wear and tear on the port itself. I've tried looking very closely at what we've seen of Switch so far for any sign of grooves down the back or in the toaster but nothing so far. It does seem a nice even slide in w/ the Joycon on, slide in and out straight up and down, but if those aren't on b/c you are playing 2-player just placing it in top down from the screen like a piece of bread in a toaster looks more difficult to center.

@KirbyTheVampire my guess is that she'll just keep going no matter how much flak she gets... and her leaking game announcements is nothing new either if I remember correctly, I think she leaked Paper Mario Colour Splash back before E3, or at least certain details about it, amongst other things.
As much as she says she loves Nintendo, the amount of ignorance she exhibits clearly states otherwise. Although I'm most definitely a Nintendo fan I'm by no means a fanboy and valid criticism is always welcome, but dang, that person is the pinnacle of negativity when she's not squeezing Nintendo or other game company employees for information. Problem is, by doing that she also makes herself a valuable asset for any gaming news site grasping for content to fall back on and I doubt we'll see any less of her in the near future.

@Dezzy I think it's just the current climate surrounding the Switch. It's the only completely new hardware this gen, from Nintendo nonetheless, and people are accordingly excited. Also, with most of these rumours coming by way of LPVG/Laura Kate Dale, her sources seem rather Nintendo focussed, so there's an abundance of Nintendo leaks to be expected. But don't forget she was also part of the group that kind of spearheaded the early reveal of the slimmer PS4 model by simply acquiring one before it was even announced.

Just waiting for @therealgamer to say that he knew this because he is a "real developer" who knows everything and is not just a random guy on a Nintendo Life comment section.

Since the post stated that the Switch would overclock, or at least run at a higher clock speed when docked to scale to 1080p for the TV, is this also hinting that the switch's screen would be 720p or lower?

@Megas #77 "So I have a Macbook with USB-C charger. Does that mean if I connect that charger to portable I can play full power?"

No. The portable charger that will come with the Switch will use the same USB-C just the same. USB-C is not the point - it's only used for quick charging and the speedy simultaneous transfer of the video-audio signal.

To boost the performance of the machine, it will overclock thus generating more heat and that's why it will need the additional cooling housed in the Dock. If it were to overclock without additional cooling, it might overheat and be damaged.

I'm also wondering how people will be able to trick the switch into thinking it's docked like by using a high voltage battery pack.

Interesting. So, what the article means is not 'But Not in the Way You Think' and actually 'Exactly How You Think'

We were all hoping for a performance gain in the docked position.

Nintendo stated there wasn't much going on in the dock, and that the handheld will contain all of the juice. Naturally, most of us assumed that if there's to be a better performance docked (but with the dock having very little in it), then it was likely to be some sort of overclocking, similar to a laptop or something.

@Link506 I'm pretty sure there's some kind of a little processor in the dock that will communicate with the main unit to let it know that it's docked.

@Moshugan Why would there be an extra processor for that? Don't you mean a sensor? Or maybe some prongs like the Wii U has? But all of that can be duped, as long as you give people some time.

LKDLife.com

@Link506 Yeah, you could be right. Maybe a small chip or something would suffice. I'm not really a hardware guy.. ;p

@rjejr Well, it might get a little hot (hopefully not steamy), but I think Nintendo will find a way to ensure the Sandwitch fits in there just fine, so it won't have any "performance problems."

@DanteSolablood If that's the case, about the external battery trigering the extra power mode, then it would be a bad idea because without the extra fan on the dock to cool down the Switch, the console would overheat all the time.

I wonder what it looks like the backside of Switch docker...

There would likely be something about the dock that lets the Switch know that it's indeed docked and that it can overclock, whereas when it would simply be played while charging in handheld mode, it wouldn't allow itself to overclock to avoid meltdown.

@Dark-Link73 Not necessarily, the fan could be there because it's harder to expel the heat inside the dock without a fan. But you may be right. I was going to quote the Foxconn leak/rumour... but if this information is correct, it completely discredit's the Foxconn leak (stated the Switch was USB 2.0 & 3.0 only).

@jimi The irony was that during the first couple of years from release, the 360 actually cost more overall than the $600 launch priced PS3. This was due to needing to buy extra peripherals separately (even the broadband adapter needed to go on Xbox Live). Not to mention, at least half of all early adopters had to deal with the infamous RROD that was caused by overheating due to a clumsy engineering/design error: the X clamp. Replacing it with four washer pins can fix the problem.

Third parties didn't really adopt the 360 over the PS3 until a few years after release. I don't know how aware you were of the available games situation for the two systems 10 years ago, but I'll just say that they were both pretty lousy during their early life.

All the other systems you mentioned won for reasons other than raw technical power.

The Game Boy had exceptional battery life using alkalines compared to the competition.

The PS1 had the best balance of CGI capabilities, CD data storage up to about 700 MB times number of discs, and cheaper games than N64 carts.

The PS2 single-handedly brought DVD's into the mainstream, offered more opportunities for cinematic gaming than the competition, and had a gargantuan amount of support and marketing from the king of the tech world at the time (Sony).

The Wii offered a very approachable basic control scheme, tapped into a broader variety of people for it's user base, and also actually received a gargantuan amount of support and marketing from Nintendo.

Your timeline completely falls apart with the Wii U.

The DS won over the PSP for the same reasons as the Wii, and the 3DS won because Sony actively killed off the Vita outside of Japan (ironically).

@DanteSolablood the leak specifically said that it was the dock which has usb 3.0 and 2.0, not the handheld itself.One port in the back and two on the side if I remember correctly.

@brutalpanda metroid prime on the switch would be amazing.

@Kafei2006 The USB-C is on the bottom of the Switch according to breakdowns of the teaser which is inside the dock when seated. How are you expected to use the USB-C when in the dock if the dock has no USB-C port?

Sounds odd to downgrade functionality when you dock it.

@DanteSolablood The dock would have a male lead USB-C that would "penetrate" (sorry ^^) the handheld itself, and not a female port. I doubt the port will be used for anything else than fast charging, transferring potential inputs from the USBs on the dock to the switch itself (like GC controller adapters for example) and video and sound being sent to the dock, at least until further down the line perhaps they pull something like that thunderbolt thing, where you can add extra GPUs to help the main system performing better. And since Nintendo already said there would not be compatibility with external HDDs, I don't see what USB-C compatible ports would be needed for on the dock itself, especially since according to what is said above, the dock is supposed to remain cheap to produce.

@Kafei2006 Wait, you're not seeing the problem... the USB-C might be used to transfer data into the Switch from say HDDs or other sources. If you only have USB 3.0 & 2.0 on the dock, you are only getting USB 3.0 & 2.0 data speeds into the Switch. You're limiting the functionality (and point) of the USB-C.

If the dock only has USB 3.0, the Switch effectively only has USB 3.0 while docked.

@DanteSolablood I edited my message above. Nintendo has already stated that it wouldn't be compatible with external HDDs.

EDIT: correction, that's also a rumour from Let's Play Video Games. It makes sense though, because otherwise, while on the go, how would you play those games installed on an external HDD since you can't bring it with you? Unless you wanted to play it on the go with your hard drive dangling from the bottom of the handheld itself?

@Kafei2006 You can see my point though? You have a console with the latest USB-C connection & you also have a dock with USB ports so you know you want it to do things that need USB... so why limit the data speed of the Switch by having a maximum USB 3.0 in the dock?

It might be something to do with outputting to the TV, but would USB-C be the best way of getting the best picture on HD TVs?

No but USB-C allows for MUCH faster charging for the handheld itself, it's much more versatile in the uses it allows and it's future proof in case they do release that rumoured additional processing unit down the line in the form of a new upgraded dock. You could choose to have only USB 3.0 on the dock to limit costs, just like Nintendo limited costs by having only USB 2.0 on the Wii U when USB 3.0 was already out there and becoming the standard of the industry.

Here, look, you can clearly see that on the system, the two on the side are NOT USB-C. If Nintendo aren't planning to let you load data to the system from anything that connects to the dock itself, then they don't need to put more expensive ports on the dock, when they can simply fall back to something much cheaper.

@Kafei2006 So they're using USB-C for charging, despite existing, cheaper methods being available but are not putting one on the dock to save costs. Also, if those two are the USB 3.0s, the 2.0 is reserved for the rear of the console. An odd choice.

Again, you could be right. I never say I am always 100% correct because that would be arrogant. However, if you are correct & the Foxconn rumour is reliable, I look forward to the 520mAh batteries in the Joyconns & the bigger more powerful Switch also mentioned in the rumour.

asus gx800 comes to mind.

This "rumour" was circulating ages ago, keep up.

Just to add it is the only rumour I actually think that will eventually become factual.

Over/Under: 1 year until graphic intensive games debut with the inability to be played in "Portable Mode".

@gatorboi352 I give it 3, by then Nintendo will be in place to release the Switch Lite (sounds like a sex aid) with more power & a longer lasting battery.

Thought to be honest, it should be easier for devs to reduce the power needed for their games on Switch than it was on WiiU. The WiiU was practically running on late 90s chips, the Switch is 2016 tech.

I didn't even think about being able to purchase separate docks for different rooms. Remarkable idea. A console you can play on any TV in the house without the inconvenience of unplugging it all and plugging it back in. God I hope this thing sells better than the Wii U.

This is a rumour?
I assumed this to be the case the first time I saw the dock!

Although the same is true with a lot of her alleged "leaks", but everyone's still going along with them being legitimate, so whatever.

This report makes sense. It would be nice to have higher frame rate on tv but I guess this supports the rumours that the screen is not hd, I guess at that size you would not be able to tell the difference anyway.

@rjejr I'm imagining a slot on the back inside lining it up just. Not worried about that. In fact it's nice that it's one connector rather than a couple which I originally imagined (one for power, one for video) USB-C makes good sense because the connection is small and flat too.

Article title has to be wrong for many of course. Besides the detail of using USB-C this is exactly how I speculated the base would boost the performance when docked. (I didnt think of video passing through same port though) https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/10/report_suggests_nintendo_switch_wont_be_offered_with_a_portable-only_bundle_at_launch#comment3689595

@ollyander 720p is HD technically. 1080p is just better HD

@Baker1000 yeah, that is a nice idea. Not sure how common a use that would be though.

@Kafei2006 Even if there is no "official" external drive functionality, there will almost certainly be mods hacked in using that precious USB-C to allow an external drive to be used.

@aaronsullivan "I'm imagining a slot on the back inside lining it up just"

Yeah, 1 slot down the middle sounds like the way to go. And it makes sense. So Nintendo won't do it.

I'm with you in not giving video out a lot of thought until now. Lots of ways to do battery recharging, I've owned more than a few Dusterbusters in my lifetime, but sending that signal probably requires a more reliable connection. In my head it looked more like the Gameboy player or laptop battery dock, lots of wire connections.

That little circular USB-C just doesn't look like a reliable firm fit to me. I know it was made for video, but how many times will I have to get off the couch to give it a little extra push to "seat it" snugly b/c it was about 1/32" too high? Besides being old and cheap I'm also lazy, and very easily annoyed.

@PlywoodStick Nintendo should put the words "Switchus Interruptus" on the TV screen if there are connection issues between the toast and the toaster.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE Yes and no, if the games suck, no power in the world can salvage.

So like a laptop. That's about what I was expecting.

I may know NOTHING since I haven't followed this closely to game rumors for too many gens but I don't remember there being reporters dishing out rumors this frequent for a new console... was it like this back in the Wii days? Wii U? GameCube?

@gloom Nope, this is a relatively new phenomenon, brought about by social media. The Wii and Wii U had a lot of rumors going around about them during 2004-2006 and 2010-2012 respectively, but not nearly so many as this. Up until the Wii era, most of the rumors were much slower paced, with many people only knowing about the ones in print publications. (Although some printed rumors did become infamous, like the notoriously well done fake mock up of Tails in Super Smash Bros Melee.)

@PlywoodStick um... I'm sorry if my short interlude from this site has me appearing ignorant, but two things:
1) When did a metaphor of the NS as a "sandwitch" develop and
2) I believe that may be the most beautiful thing I've heard.😂

@Capital70Q I don't know if anyone else is using that name, but I came up with it myself for a few reasons:

1) "Switch" in my mind is the name of a part of an electronic device, not of the entire thing.

2) The sandwich/bread reference is analogous to the toast/toasterish design of the system.

3) People have been desiring a Nintendo sandwich for years now.

4) My stomach has a miniature black hole hidden in it that desires consumption to prevent it from collapsing. Sandwiches are a nice remedy for that.

@ThanosReXXX @Moshugan
I don't think its so much 'overclocking' as its going into a power-saving mode when in handheld mode, and docking brings it out of it. That's exactly what the Nvidia Shield tablet does.

Obviously I could be wrong though, and its clocked higher than normal Tegra chips would be.

Since its designed with this setup in mind it may just have generally beefier hardware than you'd typically want in a seeing as heat and battery life is less of an issue, and its not reliant on passive cooling. Its a bit more laptop-like in its design.

I called it. Makes perfect sense.

Performance will be a function of supplied power and cooling. Even if battery pack doesn't run at full speed, it will last a lot longer. And no upscalar in the dock.

@Exy You... You do know she's joking right? She not only said that in the tweets before the leaks, but also on letsplayvideos and the tweets after the leaks. It's a joke. Don't take it so seriously. Are you going to believe her tweets about how she 3D printed a PS4 slim and a copy of FFXV?

@Mijzelffan Yup. She totally 3D prints all her news and videos of unreleased games. Legit scammer.

Depending on the bump, this would go a long way towards helping me feel this isn't just a dressed up portable.

@Nintendo_Ninja

But that IS the way I thought it would work.

Almost everything else would be silly and counter-intuitive.

@Uzuki lol she has zero videos of unreleased games, emily rogers is more trustworthy than this literally who

Having two different operating modes isn't necessarily a good thing. Like how the 3DS has 3D on and 3D off. You end up essentially giving developers the extra overhead of making sure both set ups work and whether or not to take advantage of the extra performance being docked gives.
I would hope this extra performance impacts things like home menu responsiveness and not actual in-game performance. I wouldn't want my framerate tanking when I undock just because the game was optimised for docked mode.

@iGen
This is better, because it seems like this system will be powerful enough to handle the best third party games. The Wii never had that. The Wii U never had that either. Now, just need to get Rockstar on board and everything is in place for the best Nintendo system since the SNES.

@ThanosReXXX
Hi Thanos, My favourite blue haired girl is back as expected, and such gall this time. Do they really think Nintendo would invite people that try and damage their business to exclusive events. She takes the biscuit, which she is probably what she is eating at her computer right now, whilst claiming off the social.

Also thank you for your previous reply, you was right there too. But I am a BIG Nintendo fan with terribly narrow minded, un-business like views which I have learnt not to comment. In the past I always felt Nintendo strategy was to do what they thought was right and to hell with the business side, but I'm afraid Nintendo, and the world, has changed. Oh and please don't mention Sega, I haven't dropped that one yet!!

@aaronsullivan yeah I know what you mean. But it's a step up from the Wii U's off-TV play scenario where someone wants to watch the TV you're using, and rather than just go off-TV you could take switch to another TV in the house. A bit like Sky Q I guess, which lets you pick up watching a recording where you left off on another box in a different room.

@Zombie_Barioth That also sounds plausible, so who knows. I'm mostly going with the overclocked thing because of what's being discussed on Nvidia's own forums concerning the capabilities of the Parker in combination (apparently) with the new software. Interesting reading material.

And the giant holes on top of the tablet seem to strongly hint at there being fans, or at least one fan, inside the Switch itself, but apparently it won't run when in handheld mode. And overclocking generates heat, so that is why it would potentially need the extra cooling.

Of course it could also simply be underclocked in handheld mode and run full speed, but not overclocked, in docked mode.

Guess we'll find out in a month or two, when someone gets their hands on an actual system and tears it apart.

@dew12333 You know what happens when you tell people not to think of pink elephants, right?
So, having said that: what's up with Sega?

@Uzuki I wrote my bit before her confession that she's totally not bitter about being duly reprimanded for her actions. It doesn't change the fact that it was unprofessional of her to frame her reporting the way she did.

@rjejr
You aren't going to lift that thing out of the toaster and you know it!

Nintendo could go proprietary on the connection point and still use the USB-C spec. I sure hope not though!

@Baker1000 If the price was right for the toaster I could see myself getting one for my parent's house so we could use their TV with no fuss no muss just by bring the Switch over when visiting for get togethers.

I know people balk at this idea of the Switch at get togethers but this is the sort of thing that makes people change their mind. Playing a local competitive game is a blast as long as it isn't too hard to get right to the fun. Once someone causes a stir at an event by trying to set a bunch of stuff up, or try playing games on little screens it becomes socially weird or even anti-social.

People will take 10 - 15 minutes out of a get together to laugh together while playing a game as long as they can drop it at anytime and there are others doing it.

Not sure how many people are willing to try, though. Maybe local multiplayer is too much of a hurdle nowadays as people like to retreat to their devices even when they are face-to-face rather than interact more efficiently and powerfully, so who knows. Kinda hope Nintendo helps fight the fight to keep it more social (without the foggy wall of online multiplayer or worse anonymous multiplayer).

@aaronsullivan If they sell the toaster separatly I'll probably have 1 hooked up to every TV in my house. Yes I know I'l personally never take it out of the dock, I'm old and feeble, but you know w/ the 2 kids in the house it will be out of there as much as it's in.

I was laying in bed thinking about it this morning, and decided the bottom of the toaster could be spring loaded like a real toaster. Wouldn't that be funny?) Rather than just having a flat hard bottom w/ the connector sticking out of the bottom, they could have a false floor half an inch above the connector w/ 2 springs on each side. The springs shouldn't be so hard that you have to really push it down, just enough to take up some of the weight from the initial drop going in.

So I feel better about it now.

@ThanosReXXX
That's a good point, I forgot Parker supposedly can do that. I imagine it would be similar to their GPU boost technology , so if the heat/power headroom is there it'll do so automatically.

I was thinking of the openings and built in fan being more in line with that of a laptop, which do need extra cooling and can get hot.

Of course, your guess is as good as mine. Its a custom chip, so there's no telling what they've done with it. Parker, much like Jaguar its completely scalable. The Switch's version could be unlike anything else.

@Zombie_Barioth Exactly. But whatever it is going to be, let's just hope it's good enough to hold up in today's market. As long as it's not just on par with a standard X1 and supports all the engines, I think that they can go a long way, especially with Nvidia's help.

I can also see them doing the incremental upgrade like the other two, but instead of by releasing a newer and more powerful version of the console, simply by releasing a newer dock that actually does contain additional hardware, or by releasing that SCD device, that is also still heavily rumored to be an actual thing.

@aaronsullivan it would be great if the Switch could bring people together to play again. I don't have a family who has ever really gotten together around the TV to play a game but there are always non-Nintendo friends who I would love to play some of my favourite games against. Problem is they never come to my house so finding a way to play Mario Kart with them is difficult. With the Switch, you need one console and I can take it anywhere and both controllers are already there in the form of the joy-con. I really hope it will be like in the trailer where you can take it out at a party (indoors or out) and throw the gauntlet down.

OMG, in 2017 Nintendo will finally step into FullHD era!

@Gamer83

Preach, brother.

Everything will look the same, docked and undocked. Nuff said!

Reads

So...the dock has an additional fan, and it gets an overall power boost in order to allow for/improve 1080p output?

...That's exactly what I expected it to do. This is the most believable rumor I've heard about this damn machine.

Not being locked to a single dock sounds like an interesting tidbit, if true, though.

@DrRandle to be in the master race, you need to be accurate. The Nexus 6P uses USB type C.

The Nexus 6 does not.

@johndevine I honestly forgot the 6 and 6p were even different things, heh. You are correct and I was mistaken. But I didn't know 6 was not USB Type C, I thought both models would have been. Either way! it's nice to know I'll have one charger for my phone and Switch!

@Baker1000 Taking the Switch out to play at a party is going to be technically possible, but it's going to be up to the people as much as Nintendo on whether you can do it. Hopefully Nintendo marketing helps sway a few that it's socially acceptable and worthwhile, and hopefully there are games that reduce the friction as much as possible. I'll be trying.

How could a person so infamous for giving away secrets enrusted to them be banned from an event and future events where more secrets are told? HOW COULD THIS HAVE HAPPENED?

So there actually were people who thought all the power would be in that little gamepad-like thing? I didnt even consider that as an option.