Genyo Takeda, Nintendo’s ‘Technology Fellow’ who researches and helps create Nintendo hardware, recently spoke out about how getting NVIDIA‘s GeForce onto the Nintendo Switch was a top priority for the firm. In their recent investor Q&A, Takeda had the following to say on the matter:
“If I can sum up my impression in one short phrase, I would use “high performance but low power consumption” to describe Nintendo Switch”, he said. “The PC has been a major gaming device, especially outside of Japan, and my top priority in the development of the Nintendo Switch hardware was to bring NVIDIAʼs GeForce, which has played a key role in realizing high-performance graphics for PC gaming, to our hardware with low power consumption. The term “crossover” is sometimes used to describe the unprecedented value that is realized when merging two different attractive things (such as, in this case, high performance and low power consumption, and playing both indoors and outdoors). I feel that Nintendo Switch is a new and unique crossover in its achievement of high performance, comparable to that of PC, both in front of your TV set and in your hands.”
It’s no surprise that their goal was to create a piece of hardware that pushes a good amount of pixels without sucking too much power, given the handheld nature of the Switch.
Sounds awesome
Very cool.
How exciting. That’s why they make the Nintendo Switch more powerful.
Nintendo and NVIDIA truly know how to make the impossible possible… especially with GeForce based technology built into the Nintendo Switch.
They always say the same thing. Look, just tell us exactly whats inside the Switch and then show us what it can do instead of beating around the bush.
It has some form of a X1 chip from Nvidia and 4GB Ram. Why do you need to know more??? Play some games on it, if you like them, then it has all the power it needs. Specs ultimately mean very little…and if you’re still worried about specs, you’d better have a high end gaming computer at home and not a toy like the PS4 or Xbox One otherwise you just lost all credibility.
Have you read the blog from NVIDIA, Freddy? If not, I strongly suggest you to read it instead of using damage control with no proof!
https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2016/10/20/nintendo-switch/
He does no research. He’s just a troll.
>high performance but low power consumption
Then why the hell did you use Maxwell instead of Pascal?
Maybe because Nvidia doesn’t have a X1 type chip with Pascal done yet!
Remember this is a customized Maxwell chip. It could have the same power and efficiency as the Pascal variant. The games will tell.
Actually, it’s a customized TEGRA processor. It’s not officially confirmed by Nintendo or NVIDIA.
Ahh, you are right.
We don’t know if it’s a K1, X1, or P1 (pascal)
Maxwell is an excellent architecture. The two are almost identical, major differences are:
1. Manufacturing process (Pascal’s 16 nm maybe too costly for now).
End.
In terms of FLOPS they are identical.
Nintendo has obviously looked at Pascal but have seen the differences were not worthed, that’s it. The advantage was 16 nm, but would have raised the cost of it. It will be ‘cost-ready’ for the Nintendo Switch Pocket eventually.
A big difference is in FP16 computation that’s not a big part of 3D graphics. FP32 is. Memory HBM also, but we are talking about 720/1080p content and the necessity to have cheap hardware to sell.
Why do people say switch pocket or lite or whatever? A handheld only switch is not a switch. It just sounds wrong when people say that.
If the games will run on it it will be. Remember Nintendo 2DS?
Purpose of switch is the many different play styles. Switch pocket or lite is just a one play style product.
No, I don’t think so. Purpose of the Switch is to sell Switch games. Playstyles are just features, like it’s 3D in the 3DS. Remember the cam in the Xbox? It got removed. It’s selling even better.
Think about the name. Nintendo switch. The slogan. Switch & play. A switch lite or pocket would be a handheld. What would you be switching to? You won’t be playing tabletop or home console mode. It would just be a handheld.
Yes, but it will play Switch games. DS played GBA games, they were different. In the end it’s a name. They can’t be prisoners of a name.
Whatever it has, I expect Nintendo to make the most of it and I hope other developers do as well.
And this is why Nintendo went with Nvidia to power the Switch and not Samsung or Qualcomm. Sure, the newest PowerVR and Qualcomm Adreno GPUs can go toe – to-toe with a stock Tegra X1. However, Tegra’s GPU cores are the same cores used in NVidia’s desktop/laptop GeForce graphics cards.
This makes Tegra much more compatible with the desktop/laptop grade AMD GPUs found in the PS4/XB1, which makes it much easier for game developers to port to. Devs are already familiar with AMD’s and NVidia’s PC architectures, which is why home consoles have used them since the Gamecube/Xbox days.
If Nintendo was looking to bring home console quality gaming in a more portable package with the Switch, then Tegra was an excellent choice. It struck that excellent balance between performance, power efficiency, and ease of development and portability.
Also let’s remember that nVidia has a complete package in terms of tools/APIs, etc. They have to offer quality software too.
I wonder if this means flash games could work on a Switch internet browser when Nintendo adds it.
I can’t believe I didn’t wonder about this sooner.