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Nintendo Switch Teardown

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Re: Nintendo Switch Teardown

#131

Post by vinceguidry »

kalleboo wrote: post #98
bcook wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno. My ~3 year old neice has her own aging, hand-me-down iPad that she mistreats like it was any other $5 toy and it's been going strong for maybe 2 years.

And yet somehow I see adults everywhere with cracked screens :p It could be the stronger glass Apple is using is too expensive for the price point Nintendo is aiming at

Cracked screens happen when you drop it, and kids just don't have enough height on them to generate the forces needed.

Also adults think nothing of putting huge padded cases on kids' iPads. I can't be bothered with a case for my phone.

Re: Nintendo Switch Teardown

#132

Post by zeta0134 »

agumonkey wrote: post #124
Panoramix wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the negativity based on technical performance. The thing is supposed to be fun to play, not bring you closer to the limits of what modern technology can achieve. Nintendo has some extremely fun games that I'd rather play very much before an extremely high performance super high HD game that ultimately falls flat.

I think it's an uncanny valley because the system is very appealing yet that tiny lack of computing power and resolution make it miss the 10/10 score. (my 2cts) ps: I wonder if having a dock will enable Nintendo to palliate perf with future hardware extension or replacements: a "HD dock".

The system already does this to an extent; it runs at a much higher resolution with more GPU power when docked. But I doubt an HD dock with some sort of offloading could work without serious modifications to the hardware; the GPU bandwidth alone would complicate matters significantly.

Re: Nintendo Switch Teardown

#133

Post by anbotero »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #81
pikzen wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going from 720p to 900p is a ~50% increase in pixel count, but the bandwidth increase from docking is only 20%. And since it already chokes at times in tablet mode, this doesn't bode well for a fix that isn't lowering graphical quality.

The memory only runs 20% faster (maybe?), but the GPU core runs more than twice as fast.

But you know, in a review made by Digital Foundry, they found out Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4) doesn't have physics applied to grass or a lot of environment objects when the character goes through them. Here, the grass has to realistically move to the passing of Link and also the wind. Also, the physics are handled by the CPU, which has a constant speed regardless of the mode the system is running at in order not to interrupt game logic like, you know, the grass, heh. I'm betting that's what's causing the drops, having to apply physics on the grass (and other objects on the environment).

In any case, yeah, hopefully they'll improve it a bit with future patches.

Re: Nintendo Switch Teardown

#134

Post by andrepd »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #105
Panoramix wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the negativity based on technical performance. The thing is supposed to be fun to play, not bring you closer to the limits of what modern technology can achieve. Nintendo has some extremely fun games that I'd rather play very much before an extremely high performance super high HD game that ultimately falls flat.

Much of the negativity is related to the fact that the launch game itself does not play well when docked. And this seems unjustifiable given how well the same chipset does in the NVIDIA Shield, which is capable of driving 4k games just fine.

The Nvidia Shield, 4k games? Are you sure? I'm pretty sure that can only be true if the games are very undemanding, like simple 2D games...

Re: Nintendo Switch Teardown

#135

Post by agumonkey »

zeta0134 wrote: post #132
agumonkey wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's an uncanny valley because the system is very appealing yet that tiny lack of computing power and resolution make it miss the 10/10 score. (my 2cts) ps: I wonder if having a dock will enable Nintendo to palliate perf with future hardware extension or replacements: a "HD dock".

The system already does this to an extent; it runs at a much higher resolution with more GPU power when docked. But I doubt an HD dock with some sort of offloading could work without serious modifications to the hardware; the GPU bandwidth alone would complicate matters significantly.

What about external PCIe docks with full fledged GPU for laptops ? In theory if the graphic subsystem allow for something like SLI the logic could adapt dynamically... (IANAGD)

Re: Nintendo Switch Teardown

#136

Post by poppysan »

Klathmon wrote: post #111
Magnets wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is selling out by 9AM considered 'gauging the demand well'? What about all of the people who go at lunch of after work? I'm pretty sure they always like to sell out as a marketing ploy anyway

Well if you plan to sell out you don't waste any money on extra product you won't sell. Overproducing just throws money away, means you need to push back your launch date longer, or build much more manufacturing than you'll ever need again.

But grossly under-producing infuriates people who won't be able to purchase the product for months due to a silly marketing ploy. I still cannot buy the Nintendo classic in-store, and it came out 4th quarter 2016.

Re: Nintendo Switch Teardown

#137

Post by bane »

In terms of memory architecture, does anybody know if Nintendo went with cartridges in order to better address the limited RAM of the system (compared to other consoles)?

In the old days cartridge ROM was just mapped into the system RAM so you could address game assets without necessarily having to load them into system RAM, thus you could get by with far less RAM than you'd expect.

Re: Nintendo Switch Teardown

#138

Post by greggman »

It's inexcusable that the controllers get jammed to the wrist straps so easily. Google "stuck joy-con" and you'll find articles and videos about how to un-stuck them if you've accidentally put them on backward. Why is it even possible to put them on backward? Even when they're on forward it often's often extremely hard to separate them. We had a switch party and pretty much every single person put them on backward once and we get to get tiny screwdrivers out to un-stick them

Nintendo even has a page up already that just says "send them back"

https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/...

I suspect they'll end up releasing a new model of controller that doesn't have these issues but it's really hard to believe this wasn't found during development.

Re: Nintendo Switch Teardown

#139

Post by CydeWeys »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #8
overcast wrote: post #3

The dock is pretty underwhelming from what I've seen. There is no protection for the screen, sliding in between two pieces of plastic. Pretty cheap, for a premium priced, and well engineered hybrid device, that will be taken in and out. Semi-relevant. Breath of Wild looks like such a fantastic game, but it's completely ridiculous that the performance is often times WORSE in the docked mode. I'm hoping this is just cr…

Yes, the docked mode is grating at times. You've got these great mechanics and beautiful world but constant input lag. Very frustrating. I'd prefer to be able to sit down and play on a TV at a higher resolution, but it's a worse experience. It effectively makes it a mobile game. It's 2017! 1080p or 60fps should be the minimum. To be fair that's not doable at $300 on a mobile gpu, but as a console that's rough. re: sc…

> It's 2017! 1080p or 60fps should be the minimum. To be fair that's not doable at $300 on a mobile gpu, but as a console that's rough.

It is possible on a $300 device, it's just that the Switch has lots of other design considerations (modularity, hardware controller costs) that drive the cost substantially up. You can definitely make a simple $300 tablet with good 3D performance, and indeed that's exactly what the Nvidia Shield is.

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