Yesterday we reported that loading times in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild appear to have improved dramatically with its latest update (the same one with brought VR mode to the menu). The time it takes to load save files, shrines and fast travel have all been slashed by approximately a third (or more).
Super Mario Odyssey also shows improvements - another title which received a VR update. However, it appears that these games may be benefiting from a new feature in the recent 8.0.0 firmware update for Switch.
Enthusiasts have been analysing the changes and it seems that Nintendo may have snuck a 'boost mode' into the update that allows the CPU to be temporarily overclocked from 1GHz to 1.75GHz. The system works harder to speed up loads and, once complete, it drops back to standard.
While this feature would appear to be available to all, games will need to be updated to take advantage of the extra power while loading, so it will be fascinating to monitor updates over the coming weeks and see if other games benefit from shorter load times.
We generally don't have major complaints with load times on the console, but a little alacrity is never a bad thing. Which games do you think could most benefit from a boost when it comes to load times? Let us know below.
[source gearnuke.com, via gbatemp.net]
Comments 50
Neat little feature. Loading a lot of data into (V-)RAM is very CPU heavy, overclocking on the loading screens is a nice solution. You could also clock the GPU down in these instances to give more power to the CPU.
However this won't help seamless loading.
Dark Souls Remastered is my only game on Switch with load times that truly bother me. That is crying out for some overclocking. Might even help me get through the second half of the game!
Resident evil revelations 2 needs this.
@Krull really? I never found that an issue at all.
BotW had some long loading times indeed, although it never was so long that it would annoy me. Still, I wonder how this boost mode can be operated and if it can be used eg during some short, but resource-heavy event in game or is it heavily restricted to loading screens
Civ6 could do with a boost. Maybe Minecraft also.
They should update games chugging on complex scenarios like chaotic fight scenes and such not just on loading times. It doesn't need to go full CPU all the time. Maybe map it in a way how dynamic resolution drops the res on some scenes and areas
Bit late to the party NL
Civ VI is properly slow. And although faster (and loads less frequent) than on the Wii U, Lego City Undercover could do with some speeding up.
Did Super Smash Bros last update benefits from the boost mode too ?
@TempOr
If the overclock is only performed for loading screens in docked mode, and not for prolonged periods of gameplay, it should be no issue.
Actually, the homebrew scene has been taking advantage of overclocking for some time. A little overclock has proven to go a long way in improving game performance, but official software won't do it due to heat generation and energy consumption.
I'm hopeful that a future Switch hardware revision is simply a more powerful system, that can play all existing games with a consistent boost mode for better performance overall.
Someone tell My Time At Portia devs.
I read "beast mode." Now I'm disappointed.
makes me wonder how well it'd benefit the night in the woods port, that game has noticeable load times
Doom could benefit from improved load times sometimes it’s so slow
@Krull on my 4th playthrough and the only issue I’ve had is it rekindled an addiction.
I'd rather a boost mode during actual gameplay, a few seconds faster loading does nothing for me.
@TempOr
The cpu in the switch can be safety overclocked to 1.95 or something close to that.
The only game I played with annoying load time was Regalia of Men and Monarchs. It was a nice little indie game but even the developers admitted the load times were really bad initially.
@Krull @sandman89 Iv never had an issue with this either and iv played about 50 hours on Dark Souls.
Hah love the F-zero reference. Otherwise, pretty cool. This just gives me even more reason to jump into those games.
That's what you get 4gb ram memory. If they would've think ahead they would go for 8gb ram for sure. It can take some up heavy loads from cpu/gpu as well. That extra 4gb would've made a difference with that low cpu/gpu.... but it's what it is
Gear Club One. While I like the racing game, the load time were sometimes half the length of the actual race. I will have to play it again to check it out. Thanks NL.
Boost mode was actually added to 7.0 firmware. Home-brewers had been using the overclocking feature to increase emulator speed. PPSSPP on Switch lets you play PSP games at full speed.
@Alucard83 Nintendo were originally going to have only 2gig of ram. I can't remember which 3rd party dev requested more ram, but Nintendo actually listened on that for once.
@mist ikr
Better loadtimes is great, but what impact does this have on battery life?
@RickD What you mention is part of it, but a small part. The much more complex games we enjoy today simply wouldn't be as ambitious as they are if it had to be machine coded for each new processor and/or GPU like it did back then (no disrespect to the amazing work early game devs did!). Bandwidth and the exponentially larger amount of data is a much bigger issue that is harder to solve.
@Gs69 it's actually faster since the big update from panic button (gyro aiming etc). It was painfully slow upon release.
My Time at Portia.
@Sulleymonster not played it for a while I will give it a go tonight thanks!
Little Nightmares is slowest loading game on Switch, it's the first game I gave up on because of the loading. The dev needs to give it a boost patch.
Cool feature. Not a big deal imo about load speeds. Remembers PS1...
@TempOr They use the word "overclock" but it's more like setting it to the default nvidia shield TV clock, really. Plus the Switch has a fan. I've been using the homebrew OC since it was released and there isn't any extra heat when I play. ^^
Sid Meier’s Civilization VI.
@Krull Not sure FromSoft will give a damn to latch it at this point. They couldn't be bothered to even ask the port guys to chance the button swap feature
@aznable Enter the Gungeon does have that, if you’re interested 😉
@Dizzy_Boy Believe it or not, Capcom was that 3rd party Dev that wanted Nintendo to have 4GB of ram.
@Medic_alert - Darn, I was late to the party on that one.
Faster load times = more play time. Everyone wins.
seems slow to me rip me..
@JDB92 I’m over 60 and on new game plus
What made me give up on Lego City undercover were the crashes that made me loose a lot of time, but sure, faster loading would help, I guess. I would not recommend that game, though.
That's a pretty handy way of utilizing temporary overclocking.
Pretty sure Nintendo will only allow it for loading screens, though.
Cuphead is awesome but can use shorter load times
I read 'You got boost power', and not only did I hear the voice from GX in my head, I really want a remake of GX or a new f-zero for switch now.
I hope Minecraft receives one of these boosts. In my opinion, saving and quitting takes way too long.
This is so great! I love the shorter load times on Zelda and Mario. My highest requests would be Party Golf and Kingdom Two Crowns. I cannot understand why Party Golf takes so long to load! It's only the initial load, then there's no more after that, but it seems like the game should take 3 or 4 seconds at most to get to the title screen. I'd also enjoy quicker load times on Cuphead, Worms WMD, Pacman Champ Edition 2(which also badly needs patched to run at 60fps at all times! Oh, and to vastly reduce the file size!), Snipperclips (initial load seems too long), Taiko no Tatsujin, Ittle Dew 2+, Slime-san, Moon Hunters(I avoid playing this good game because the load times are way too long!), and Child of Light (mainly want the frame rate stutter eliminated, but faster load times would be great too). I would also enjoy a speed up on all the main games too, like Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, Smash Bros, New Super Mario Bros Deluxe, Yoshi's Crafted World, Mario Kart 8, etc.
Blast processing at it's best...wait...this only affects loading times.
Ittle Dew 2. That games load times have made it unplayable for me
Sweet nothing like getting added value out of previous purchase with a software update.
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