Yes, we're back talking about Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's performance, again. Look, if the game had shipped in a better state, then we wouldn't have to, but for now, let's just crack on.
It turns out that, yes, you can actually improve the games' performance yourself. Granted, the actual end result will likely not be noticable to the naked eye for most users, and many of you may already be implementing this particular solution, but it's worth a cursory mention regardless.
As detailed in the below video from our lovely Video Producer Alex, it turns out that performance is slightly improved if you ensure the game is stored on the Switch's internal memory, rather than on an external SD card. As mentioned before, some of you might have already done this, whether intentionally or not, and it turns out that Alex had his own copy of Pokémon Violet stored on the Switch's internal memory this whole time, so all the footage from our video review was from the "improved" version of the game anyway, so... yeah.
Nevertheless, storing the games within the Switch's internal memory will yield minor improvements on refresh rate, as demonstrated in the video. We should repeat, however, that these are very minor. Any significant improvements will have to wait until an official patch from Game Freak. That should arrive any day now, right..?
Right?!
Let us know in the comments if you try out this particular solution and happen to notice any difference!
Comments 43
lol
Might help to explain why I haven't run into anything too egregious yet. Granted, the framerate is ALWAYS subpar.
I tried this last week when it was floating around on twitter. But saw zero difference. Still ran like garbage for me.
I was wondering about this as a possible factor earlier. Could some of the really bad performance spikes be due to playing digitally from SD card compared to playing from retail game card.
That said, this clip is from someone that bought a US copy of Violet from a retail store, and it got pretty bad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4GyDkDH1rg
Unknown if they installed the day one update or not.
Doesn't make any difference. I have a high speed A-quality SD card and as test I even reinstalled the game on Internal Memory (which should be the fastest option). Makes no difference whatsoever.
So maybe for those with cheap slow SD cards that might notice a performance difference when transferring to internal memory.
What would really make a difference is if Gamefreak actually optimised the game properly and released it in a respectable state.
@RupeeClock I got a physical copy, have the day one patch installed and performance is horrendous. Storage really isn't a big factor/excuse at all for how badly the games run.
You can't polish a (non-shiny) Rellor.
I'm wondering when Nintendo is going to step in at Game Freak for some quality control. I know Pokémon if GF's baby, but they need to at least be on par with 5.5 year old games, like BOTW.
I have a physical copy of the game and the best solution I found was to close the game, remove the cartridge, replace it with the cartridge for a different game and then play that instead.
@Theober555
The point is that there could be a factor that results in a measuable change between "bad" and "very bad", that isn't thoroughly as of yet understood.
Maybe it's because I'm using a newer Switch OLED system, and others are using launch day Switch systems that have been through their paces.
Maybe it's because the Switch is connected to the internet or the game is running in Online Mode, even when not directly playing with a group of players via the Union Circle.
I've also heard that in the Switch settings, you can reduce the resolution down to 720p instead of 1080p for some minor improvements. Maybe the combination of this and internal storage might make it a little more optimal.
(All speculation since I dont even own the game. Maybe I will after a few key patches have been released)
I had mine installed on the SD card and never noticed any serious lag. Only a small bit of lag near one of the Team Star bases. The famous lake that apparently is extremely laggy was a little laggy but nothing to the extent that some suggest. As in nothing game breaking. Even the co-op over internet was smooth enough. Moved it to the internal memory anyway to be safe. I have seen streamers having ridiculous lag to the point where the game nearly became unplayable. Its a mystery to me as why some experience terrible lag and some don't. I have the first generation original Switch.
Nintendo just wanted the holiday cash.
The grit is just a part of the experience
What about from a game card? That's what I have, so maybe that's why I haven't run into anything bad.
I’ve only been saying this on the last few Sca/Vio articles.. if people can’t figure it out on their own, maybe they better let “grown ups” do it instead lol..
We are seriously lacking common sense as a society, and it’s only getting worse collectively (singularly speaking, people seem to be fine)
I think as we progress further into the Switch's lifecycle, developers are no longer taking Game Cards and microSD speeds into account. I think Metroid Dread was one of the first Nintendo-published games to have a painfully slow loading time after all of the updates have been released.
This "trick" is true for many games to improve loading times/performance, and has been known since the Switch released.
But we can pretend it's a solution just for Pokemon Vio/Sca if it makes you feel better.
@WizardJ I've read your previous Vio/Sca comments and I'd like to ask you to clarify, if it's not too much trouble.
Is it your stance that (millenial?) consumers are stupid and childish because they purchased a faulty product, complained about performance issues, and didn't instinctively know to install it on their internal drives for slightly better performance?
I eagerly await your explanation.
Ridiculous that it's come to this
Internal storage is always faster than SD card, and A LOT faster than cartridge. We've known this since 2 days after the Switch was released.
Simply because the Switch doesn't support high speed SD cards. (UHS-II) The SD card reader is basically limited to USB 2.0 speeds.
Honestly, I hope the Next Nintendo console has something like an NVME-ssd, which run at PCI-E speeds and then with a nice storage of minimal 1TB.
I'm pretty sure all games perform better (even if the difference is very tiny) when played from the internal storage compared to the external storage or a game cartridge.
Lol I have nothing in the internal memory and barely under half filled my 1 TB so won’t change anytime soon.
Sakurai has a video on his channel that gives tips on TV settings that could make it marginally better. I don't play Pokomon, but perhaps worth a look or not.
I did this a couple days ago and resulted in a small but still noticeable improvement. Better than nothing I guess.
@eaglebob345 why would they, it takes less time and money and everyone will still buy it. I honestly hope they continue to release even more unfinished and buggy games because I'm curious just how low the bar is for pokemon fans
@sanderev Actually several very prominent Switch scene (mod scene) guys have proven that is not true. The Switch SD card slot can hit speeds up to about 100MB/sec which most newer UHS-I cards can accomplish. Meanwhile the internal NAND is capable of 240MB/sec with up to 480MB/sec burst speeds. With games that are decently optimized you really don't see much of a difference, but games that use a lot of small files in their structure tend to benefit the most. There are some famous examples like Lego City which has very long 60sec type loads when coming off SD or Cart but they can be cut to 20sec from the NAND. Another early game BattleChasers NW (great game based off an underappreciated grafx novel) had really bad animation stutter during the battle sequences but when I moved that game to NAND it smoothed right out. The USB ports are only USB2 on Switch but the SD and NAND bus are actually 'full speed'. Looks like this game is just trash, sad that it is selling like hotcakes and fans of the series don't seem to care. Nintendo should definitely step in and demand better from GF and the Poke Co as each generation the tech gets worse, those clowns at GF apparently never learned to code on anything after the GBA/DS.
I got the game physically only don't experience huge frame drops unless I play on my TV.
Has anyone done a digital vs game card comparison?
Play it on the steakdeck with mods
I already had the game on my internal memory because my SD card finally filled up. Not sure if it has helped, but I didn't see a really laggy patch until about 30 hours into the game (which was honestly a bit of a shock when it happened).
Hopefully the game gets patched quickly and people can go back to playing it properly. The Pokemon fans I've heard from really like it outside of the performance issues and glitches.
Stop playing the game with the online function turned on if you aren’t doing any gaming online and that helps a ton
Additionally, you can improve the performance of future games by making sure you don't condone half-a**** efforts like this with your (or your parents') hard-earned cash.
@BenAV Between this game and Mario Strikers, which one do you think is your biggest waste of money? I wish that I can refund this game.. (not possible in my country) just like Mario Strikers lol.
I love 3DS and how well optimized the games on that system. No more quality assurance from Nintendo...
@Miu Mario Strikers was the biggest disappointment of the year for me because I actually had high hopes for it. Its gameplay is actually fine though but it's just the complete lack of content that ruins it. I could see it having some potential value as a local multiplayer game if you had some people to play it with but that's about it.
Pokemon Violet on the other hand is just straight up the worst game I've played this year so I'd say it's thje biggest waste of money of the two. For me though it was actually profitable for me to buy a copy as I found it so cheap and can sell it second hand for more.
It's not like every Nintendo first party game is disappointing these days though, just depends on the studio that develops them for the most part (and Pokemon isn't really Nintendo's doing either). Xenoblade, Splatoon and Kirby were all very good games this year.
@BenAV You're right it really depends on the studio. Imagine if Monolith Soft develop Pokemon in the future... Kirby was amazing too. Hopefully things will be better after this disaster...
@eaglebob345 Nintendo has the largest stake in The Pokemon Company.
So it's really crazy as to why Nintendo is dead quiet about this.
Both Nintendo and Game Freak are completely silent and have yet to come out to take any responsibility in this and even acknowledge all the problems with Scarlet/Violet.
Nintendo cannot simply wash their hands in innocence, as no one is going to believe they knew nothing about the state of these games! Especially since they have the most control over The Pokemon Company!
They darn well knew about the bad state of the games and went ahead and released them anyway! So Nintendo's reputation (and Game Freak) is definitely going to take a hit after this. Especially if they don't start talking soon and show some action!
40 hours in and nothing has made me stop playing. Besides some lame framerates/resolutions here and there, it's totally fine. I'm throughly enjoying my adventure through Paldea.
@HXLXIII based on the comments before you. You should hate the game, consider it the worst product in Nintendo history and condemn buyers for experiencing that bad experience.
All seriousness though, I bought it after seeing the hate for this game (there’s ALWAYS hate for this franchise) and decided I could just get a refund thanks to Nintendolife, and have had the most FUN I’ve had in a Pokémon game. So much fun that I took it to a families house over the Holidays, and now bought 4 more copies to give to my nieces and nephews, because they were having FUN.
Anthem was a great polished glitch free game that was boring and flopped. GF for sure needs to fix some issues, but the game is far from unplayable and a lot of fun which is the point? Sad it’s being farmed for clickbait (I clicked too)
This game plays like a boardgame so I ignore whatever glitches happen. This isn't action based like Arceus where it would matter more.
But hopefully we get a Switch 2 next year to make it easier on dev teams
@Astral-Grain for one, the “majority” blatantly state, “shutting down yields no benefits compared to sleep” mode for one. Considering you’d think the “general consensus”, having grew up with technology in general, “should” realize the benefits of shutting down.
Besides the point, that was just yet another example.
As if I’d expect a conversation with a generation who thought it was cool to eat tide pods, to go anywhere.
@WizardJ If you assume an entire generation of people all participated in eating tide pods together, then you shouldn't mind if I call you a boomer for belittling millenials specifically, and assume you and all people in your generation destroyed the economy for all future generations.
Now back to reality, I never ate tide pods, and you never destroyed the economy.
What benefit is it to clump people together and make large assumptions about them just based on their age?
@Astral-Grain
Little too many participation awards it seems.. sadly, I don’t recall saying there was any benefit. Alas, there are exceptions to every rule; albeit fallen on deaf ears - the majority is what affects (hence the “majority” having issues).
Tell us you’re easily triggered, without telling us you’re easily triggered lol.. the “sensitivity” anymore is ludacris. You can’t truly sit here and play ignorance is bliss all your life, can you? My point stands… can’t believe an entire generation, having the benefit of growing up with more technology than those before them, are this ignorant when it comes to these kinds of things
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