All is confirmed the Nintendo Switch is powered by stock Nvidia Tegra X1, same chipset used in Shield TV. The most surprising is the retention of 4 Cortex A53 processor cores, which have no use in the Nintendo switch as they can't be operated at the same time when Cortex A57 cores are running due to the ARM big.little configuration setup.

After subsequent processing of the GPU from the Nintendo Switch, we have determined that the processor is the Nvidia Tegra T210. The T210 CPU features 4 Cortex A57 and 4 Cortex A53 processor cores and the GPU is a GM20B Maxell core.

http://techinsights.com/about-techinsights/overview/blog/nintendo-switch-teardown/

Nvidia Tegra X1 features

• 8 core CPU (4 x Cortex A57 and 4 x Cortex A53)
• GPU is a GM20B Maxell core

A comparison to Shield TV. Switch specs on the left, and Shield TV on the right. The clock speeds are reported from Eurogamer, which are very much true.

• RAM: 4GB vs 3GB
• CPU: 1Ghz vs. 2Ghz
• GPU: 3 modes:307.2Mhz/384Mhz/768Mhz vs 1Ghz

Shield TV is clocked higher initially in both CPU and GPU, but don't forget Shield TV can't keep these clock speeds up for long, it throttles down to the exact switch's dock clockspeeds. Which further supports a stock X1.

 

[Foxi4]

Excellent work my man!

So we have 0.5gflop machine in console mode and in handheld mode just slightly above the Wii U in power. I can see it struggling to run demanding ports running from PS4/Xbone. hmm... I also believe memory bandwidth is a bottleneck, 25.6GB/s?

I don't know where people get that 176GFLOPS value for the Wii U from, the system scores 352GFLOPS:

320 Stream Units * 2 Ops * 550MHz = 352GFLOPS

Any less would put it well below the 360 and PS3 which makes no sense.

The Switch is actually weaker than the Wii U when undocked, unless I'm missing something - care to elaborate?

 

[Mr. Wizard]

I normally don't reply to ridiculous "PC Master Race" wankery, but I'm going to have to stop you right there. Claiming that "PC gamers" have "amazing hygiene"? Have you been to *any* League of Legends tournaments? (or other popular LAN party games; LoL is the first one that comes to mind right now.)

LoL gamers are in a *class* of their own, and I would not step foot in event that had to do with that crap. Not to mention what you probably smelled was the crapple Mac hipsters since unlike a real PC game, LoL can be run on Mac as well...

 

[Xzi]

I don't know where people get that value for the Wii U from, the system scores 352GFLOPS:

320 Stream Units * 2 Ops * 550MHz = 352GFLOPS

The Switch is actually weaker than the Wii U when undocked, unless I'm missing something - care to elaborate?

Yeah Google has conflicting information on this but I thought 352 GFlops was correct. This throws the idea of X1 in Switch into contention though, because undocked Switch runs BotW at the same 720p30 that Wii U does, and with less severe frame rate drops.

 

[Fire_Slasher]

I think we can pretty much agree that Nintendo will pull a ''New 3DS'' later on with the Switch.

 

[GerbilSoft]

LoL gamers are in a *class* of their own, and I would not step foot in event that had to do with that crap. Not to mention what you probably smelled was the crapple Mac hipsters since unlike a real PC game, LoL can be run on Mac as well...

"Mac hipsters" using a gigantic tower case with RGB LEDs plastered all over everything? Uh huh, sure.

Also I like how you can summarily dismiss an entire game for being "fake" because you don't like it (and it's not the case that LoL is an "app", either). In that case, I hereby dismiss all Switch criticism as "fake" and declare it the #1 best gaming device ever.

 

[Foxi4]

Yeah Google has conflicting information on this but I thought 352 GFlops was correct. This throws the idea of X1 in Switch into contention though, because undocked Switch runs BotW at the same 720p30 that Wii U does, and with less severe frame rate drops.

My theory is that it was never a port in the first place, the two games were developed at the same time and the Switch was simply kept secret until much later. There's also the matter of the instruction set - Maxwell is just a more capable GPU compared to the dated Radeon in the Wii U. All of the volumetric fog and other physics can be offloaded to PhysX cores which helps the GPU focus on geometry. Anywho, whoever spreads the lower figure either screwed up the math or has more intimate knowledge of the system.

 

[DiscostewSM]

considering they couldn't make a super nintendo VC on old 3DS happen, while hackers did, kinda makes me believe that Ninty won't write a better one.

Homebrewers got SNES emulation running on o3DS by using the 3D hardware to render tiles as textured polygons, all the while ignoring various parts that would otherwise make it slower and more accurate. Mid-frame palette changes at the scanline level is one such thing, as the method for rendering is converting an 8x8 block from SNES-paletted format to 3DS direct-color texture format with using polygons. Any changes to the palette would result in having to redo this conversion with the new colors. When there are as few as 224 scanlines, that would be a LOT of reconversion time. Other things like background position changes at the scanline level demonstrate some problems too because for each change on the scanline is a new set of polygons that are culled to fit in the spot.

All in all, compromises had to be made to get it running well, and even then, there's still some performance problems

 

[Xzi]

My theory is that it was never a port in the first place, the two games were developed at the same time and the Switch was simply kept secret until much later.

Well, I don't think specs for Switch dev kits were even finalized until October/November of last year. The earlier dev kit released in summer. So that seems unlikely.

 

[Foxi4]

Well, I don't think specs for Switch dev kits were even finalized until October/November of last year. The earlier dev kit released in summer. So that seems unlikely.

The game was developed internally, this wouldn't surprise me at all. Metroid Prime 3 was developed on a suped up Gamecube before the Wii prototype even existed. To be fair, those systems are very similar, but it points to a trend.

 

[Xzi]

The game was developed internally, this wouldn't surprise me at all. Metroid 3 was developed on a suped up Gamecube before the Wii prototype even existed.

The hardware in GC and Wii is pretty closely related though, Wii U and Switch architectures aren't much alike at all.

 

[Foxi4]

The hardware in GC and Wii is pretty closely related though, Wii U and Switch architectures aren't much alike at all.

They had 3DS devkit experience, and those are quite similar to Tegra. I guess we'll never know. Either way, they had ample time to adapt.

 

[GerbilSoft]

They had 3DS devkit experience, and those are quite similar to Tegra. I guess we'll never know. Either way, they had ample time to adapt.

About that... https://gbatemp.net/threads/3ds-development-hardware.327858/

There *were* prototype 3DS units with a Tegra SoC. It never went anywhere, and we ended up with the PICA200-based system instead. (PICA200, of course, is notable for the fact that nothing else uses it.)

 

[Xzi]

They had 3DS devkit experience, and those are quite similar to Tegra. I guess we'll never know. Either way, they had ample time to adapt.

I think given another year to work on BotW, 900p with a smooth 30 FPS or 1080p with some of the same frame drops it has now would've been achievable. Nobody wanted to wait any longer for it, though.

 

[Molina]

I think given another year to work on BotW, 900p with a smooth 30 FPS or 1080p with some of the same frame drops it has now would've been achievable. Nobody wanted to wait any longer for it, though.

I agree with that. Overall everything would have won with more time. They could have twiched spec a bit, but more work in optimization,...

But Nintendo couldn't wait, hype was here, guaranteed sells, why wait? When you can have the money right now.
On Christmas release, more games would have been here, and more sells guaranteed.

 

[heartgold]

I don't know where people get that 176GFLOPS value for the Wii U from, the system scores 352GFLOPS:

320 Stream Units * 2 Ops * 550MHz = 352GFLOPS

Any less would put it well below the 360 and PS3 which makes no sense.

The Switch is actually weaker than the Wii U when undocked, unless I'm missing something - care to elaborate?

It was figured out by guys at neogaf when the Latte die scans came through.

20 ALUs per shader unit, so with total of 8 sharder units is 160ALU's@550mhz=176Gflops.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=511628
I'm linking neogaf alot lol, well the technical nerds are there.

 

[Mr. Wizard]

"Mac hipsters" using a gigantic tower case with RGB LEDs plastered all over everything? Uh huh, sure.

Also I like how you can summarily dismiss an entire game for being "fake" because you don't like it (and it's not the case that LoL is an "app", either). In that case, I hereby dismiss all Switch criticism as "fake" and declare it the #1 best gaming device ever.

Glad you finally see the err of your ways and joined the rest of us. It is the best portable gaming device ever.

 

[Nemix77]

I was really hoping for a Pascal chip when the Switch was announced but seeing that it's a X1 chip with no modification just down-clocked is also good news.

I think the Switch is going to be hacked sooner than people think since the console is based on older hardware, it's going to be bad news for Nintendo but good news for the Homebrew community.

 

[Mr. Wizard]

I agree with that. Overall everything would have won with more time. They could have twiched spec a bit, but more work in optimization,...

But Nintendo couldn't wait, hype was here, guaranteed sells, why wait? When you can have the money right now.
On Christmas release, more games would have been here, and more sells guaranteed.

I don't think they "needed" any more "sells" considering they can't even keep up with the March launch. My best bet is they will save a holiday launch for the new and improved Switch+.

 

[Xzi]

I agree with that. Overall everything would have won with more time. They could have twiched spec a bit, but more work in optimization,...

But Nintendo couldn't wait, hype was here, guaranteed sells, why wait? When you can have the money right now.
On Christmas release, more games would have been here, and more sells guaranteed.

Ultimately people won't hold a grudge about it, especially once stuff like Mario Kart 8 is released in 1080p60.

 

[slingblade1170]

I wonder if the switch will take the same route as the DS? Upgraded hardware and added features every few years.