Nintendo's NX Console Becomes Nintendo Switch

[IInuyasha74]

Nintendo finally revealed the hybrid game console previously known as the NX with a new trailer that shows off its design, planned games, and official name: Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo's NX Console Becomes Nintendo Switch : Read more

 

[captaincharisma]

this reminds me of SNK's Neo Geo X hybrid console but it was preloaded with games and no online capability so it wasn't great:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/neo-geo-x-gold-review

 

[Dantte]

Tegra processor with a dedicated Pascal GPU in the dock... Nintendo may have the hardware performance lead on Xbox and PS4 Pro.

On a side note, is that a dual HDMI connection on the side of the dock? If the Switch is going to have dual display support, Nintendo should just take my money now!

 

[wifiburger]

you know what, it looks too good to be practical i'm sure there's some flaw to their design

both Microsoft / Sony didn't go with nvidia, so I'm not buying this garbage Nintendo hardware

 

[esco_sid]

I am not sure if that dock is anything more than just a port replicator/charger to connect it to the TV but i guess we will find out later on but if that's all it is this is basically a tablet with accessories which in my opinion would be a fail on Nintendo's part as tablet would probably have enough harwdare to only run games at 1080p at best and wont be able to compete with new consoles from sony/microsoft as far as GPU performance. But if their games are very good it might be appealing to casual gamers.

 

[IInuyasha74]

Tegra processor with a dedicated Pascal GPU in the dock... Nintendo may have the hardware performance lead on Xbox and PS4 Pro.

On a side note, is that a dual HDMI connection on the side of the dock? If the Switch is going to have dual display support, Nintendo should just take my money now!

There isn't a dedicated GPU in the dock, all of the hardware is contained inside of the tablet. As far as we know at this time, the dock is just a connection hub basically.

 

[IInuyasha74]

you know what, it looks too good to be practical i'm sure there's some flaw to their design

both Microsoft / Sony didn't go with nvidia, so I'm not buying this garbage Nintendo hardware

There isn't any reason to suspect the hardware is going to be garbage. Both Microsoft and Sony have used Nvidia GPUs before (original Xbox and Playstation 3). They just didn't this time, probably because they got a better deal from AMD. It also might be they opted to use AMD so they didn't have to make separate deals with Nvidia and a third company for the CPU. Nintendo on the other hand is probably going to use ARM processors inside of the Switch. They could use a different processor, but it is most likely ARM.

 

[why_wolf]

another huge question is battery life. Sure it's cool if it can play Skyrim on the go but not if it only lasts an hour.

Really the only thing confirmed today is what the physical thing will look like, everything else is unknown.

 

[dstarr3]

First, it's worth noting that hardware power has no influence on a console's marketability. Whenever Nintendo had the most powerful console on the market, it was the worst-selling. For instance, the Gamecube was much more powerful than the X-Box and PS2, but was a commercial failure. Conversely, whenever Nintendo had the least powerful console, it was the best-selling. The original Wii was severely behind the PS3 and 360 in terms of power, but outsold them massively. It's not hardware that sells consoles, it's games.

And that's where the Wii U fell down. It completely alienated the third-party developers with its unconventional control system that even Nintendo themselves couldn't figure out how to implement properly. It was poorly marketed and confused customers more than excited them, and no third-party developer wanted to touch the thing, so it never had anywhere near enough games made for it to draw in a crowd.

And that is what Nintendo seems to be attempting to fix here. The control scheme is perfectly ordinary. It's just two joysticks, some buttons, no touchscreen, no motion controls (not that they're demonstrating, anyway). Just straight-up ordinary controls. Finally. The Switch should have no problem getting ports from other systems and new third-party games altogether. And where there are games, there are players eager to spend money.

There are still some unknowns to be discovered, like battery life. And how to replace the battery when it starts breaking down. But at the very least, even if battery life is awful, it can still function as an ordinary console just fine, even though that would be a bit disappointing.

 

[dstarr3]

Also, this makes me wonder if all of the nVidia Shield stuff that's basically evaporated was just marketed research and development for what would become the Nintendo Switch SoC.

 

[iPanda]

I want to see specs. If it can't properly drive games at 60fps then I can't justify purchasing it.

Already see how poor that looks with the current consoles.

Most of the games do not appeal to me, so the cross-platform titles are out of the question (as they probably would run better on the other consoles).

Does nintendo support the trend of mods on the console games?

Are the controllers running bluetooth, wireless or a combination of the two?

Will it include shadowplay? nvidia game stream?

I guess it is pretty stacked against my usage. Definitely can't use it for media player (no blu-ray player). So this is especially for a cloud-based person.

 

[dstarr3]

I want to see specs. If it can't properly drive games at 60fps then I can't justify purchasing it. Already see how poor that looks with the current consoles.

The Wii U runs the vast majority of its games at 1080p/60. It's a standard that Nintendo take seriously and it's unlikely they're going to drop that standard.

 

[why_wolf]

there seems to be some confusion over the Nvidia Tegra. Tegra is Nvidas (mobile) equivalent of an AMD APU, Qualcom Snapdragon or Apples Ax CPUs. In other words an ARM CPU + GPU (Nvidia) on a single chip.

Link to their X1, though since they say Pascal for the Switch that probably means Nintendo is getting an X2? or some sort of custom job. http://www.nvidia.com/object/tegra-x1-processor.html

Review of the X1. http://www.anandtech.com/show/8811/nvidia-tegra-x1-preview
and again with its uses in the Nvidia Shield TV
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9289/the-nvidia-shield-android-tv-review/4

It's a capable chip in its X1 incarnation, maybe around PS3/X360 era level power in terms of what it can throw out for games. But will have to wait till launch to figure out what the Switch is really packing.

 

[GOKU4LIV]

For me __________ BIG FAIL _________ low power, delicate system, and big price

 

[moogleslam]

Despite being a PC gamer who has moved away from consoles in recent years, I am super impressed with this.

 

[Felix_20]

For instance, the Gamecube was much more powerful than the X-Box and PS2...

Are you mad !? Gamecube had 485 MHz PowerPC "Gekko", 162 MHz ATI "Flipper" and Main RAM 24 MB 1T-SRAM, 16 MB DRAM Video RAM 3 MB embedded 1T-SRAM VS 733 MHz x86 Intel Celeron/PIII Custom Hybrid,233 MHz Custom Nvidia NV2A and 64 MB unified DDR SDRAM for the Xbox.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixth_generation_of_video_game_consoles

 

[turkey3_scratch]

This is fascinating! What I find interesting, though, is that all the processing is done inside the tablet rather than the docking station. My thought process was something along the lines of both the docking station and tablet having their own dedicated processors, but on-the-go the graphics would be downgraded, but that seems to not be the case. Apparently it is backwards compatible with Wii U games, so that is good. It's also good that they marketed it with adults in the commercial. Wii U has 2-year-olds on their commercials which severely hurt a wide range of ages by making it seem like a baby product.

I was happy when it said it was using Pascal. Consoles seem to go AMD mostly but Pascal is a more efficient architecture than Polaris, so that was a smart choice. I just wonder how much heat that thing will generate and how it's going to be exhausted in a tablet? If this tablet really has graphics beyond the Xbox One and PS4 that is extremely impressive for a tablet. I hope this is successful!

I think GCN was slightly better than PS2, if not on-par. I owned both so I can say fairly they were very close. Xbox exceeded both PS2 and Gamecube IMO. Also remember with consoles you can't compare paper specs.

 

[why_wolf]

This is fascinating! What I find interesting, though, is that all the processing is done inside the tablet rather than the docking station. My thought process was something along the lines of both the docking station and tablet having their own dedicated processors, but on-the-go the graphics would be downgraded, but that seems to not be the case. Apparently it is backwards compatible with Wii U games, so that is good. It's also good that they marketed it with adults in the commercial. Wii U has 2-year-olds on their commercials which severely hurt a wide range of ages by making it seem like a baby product.

I was happy when it said it was using Pascal. Consoles seem to go AMD mostly but Pascal is a more efficient architecture than Polaris, so that was a smart choice. I just wonder how much heat that thing will generate and how it's going to be exhausted in a tablet? If this tablet really has graphics beyond the Xbox One and PS4 that is extremely impressive for a tablet. I hope this is successful!

I think GCN was slightly better than PS2, if not on-par. I owned both so I can say fairly they were very close. Xbox exceeded both PS2 and Gamecube IMO. Also remember with consoles you can't compare paper specs.

if you notice in the pictures there is a clear vent at the top of the device, so probably the same fan style cooling a laptop uses.

 

[tacgnol06]

Pleasantly surprised. PC has replaced my consoles for gaming at home, but on the go and during lunch breaks, 3DS all the way. And while I still get use out of my Vita for it's quirky weeb games, I think this is the final nail in the coffin.

 

[beshonk]

Nvidia's SoC will have no problem driving games at 1080p/60. Both the tegra K1 and X1 had enough power to do that with moderate detail levels. I expect the X2 based on 16nm to work a lot of magic here, especially with a well implemented dedicated API.

Based on my experience with the nvidia shield tablet, i expect this to get 4 hours of battery life gaming at 1080p/60. Although you could cap the frame rate at 30 and get more battery life out of it.

 

[why_wolf]

apparently there is some indication now that the screen is a 720p (for the dev kit at least), which would help with power consumption considerably. Not to mention keep the cost of the device down too.

Though standard rumor rules should apply, nothing is real until Nintendo says so.

 

[atljsf]

the idea in general seems good but they are aiming at mobile with this tablet thing, their strong point is mobile with the gameboy/3ds, so what are they trying, destroy what they already have?

about the tegra/pascal, that means weaker performance on the go, weird approach, if they used nvidia, surely will be more expensive, the main reason both microsoft and sony went with amd, great platform at a decent price

 

[why_wolf]

the idea in general seems good but they are aiming at mobile with this tablet thing, their strong point is mobile with the gameboy/3ds, so what are they trying, destroy what they already have?

about the tegra/pascal, that means weaker performance on the go, weird approach, if they used nvidia, surely will be more expensive, the main reason both microsoft and sony went with amd, great platform at a decent price

true but Nvidia has been pushing and failing with their Tegra line for a number of years now. Their main push recently is for its use for onboard computers on cars a far cry from its mobile gaming powerhouse they initially marketed it as. So I would suspect Nvidia probably dropped their price to make Nintendo go with them. Nintendo traditionally designs their own chipsets so going with outside party is kind of new for them.

 

[clonazepam]

Sign me up for 2 of these, please.

 

[atljsf]

failing with tegra? that is the best, most kind description for a platform that failed so bad that no one bought their products, more people bought the wii u

still, nvidia charges alot for their stuff,

something tells me that if they developed the api, the cpu, surely most of the os and the platform, it will be more closed than what it had been nintendo in the past, sounds like the coffin is almost closed there for nintendo

still, some people will buy it to play legend of zelda, and legend of zelda only, this thing won't run any form of big game, forget battlefield 1, gta VI, farcry 5 and any other big title expected for the next 3 years

things seems to get worse for nintendo in their attempt to be different, innovative, creative and, weird at the end, and not the weird cool, just weird, those detachable joysticks, the tablet at the center, a ragequit with that, seems thew worst case possible made reality

still, it will be fun to watch them fight again with this multipart design, full of accesories that end up lost or broken and costing lots of money because nintendo does things their way, always

anyway, if they don't succeed this time, we will play mario and zelda in the ps4, not that bad after all