It was much debated on the Internet what SoC Nintendo's Switch is using. Some say it is powered by Nvidia's 2 years old Tegra X1, others say it is powered by a custom Tegra Pascal chip. It seems we finally have an answer as ARM claimed the Switch will be powered by 4x ARM Cortex-57 cores. For reference, the X1 also uses four ARM Cortex-57 cores. While Nvidia's Pascal based Tegra P1 chip utilises four Cortex-57 cores as well, it also has 2 additional Denver2 cores that are lacking in the X1 and ARM's announcement. That means it's very likely that Nintendo went with the X1, although with some sort of possible customization.

Source

Update

Someone asked ARM via email about the facebook post and ARM says it was 'not an official statement' and removed the post. Whether it was posted by mistake or if there is any other reason behind it is anyone's guess. ARM notably didn't deny the truthfullness of the post, but at present the Switch's SoC remains unconfirmed.

 

[A Plus Ric]

Nintendos first party Ips are the highest selling games. They sell more than all those third party shit games you guys for some reason crave that have ten versions on other systems, then complain when it's ported as a launch title for the switch. This isn't even a false statement, look it up. Systemwise for games nintendo wiiu games have multiple games over 2 mil or more units sold, not many xbox 1 or ps4 even, have those kinds of numbers. Better games, better gameplay, longer games due to not focusing solely on pushing the graphics to make a blurays disc game that needs a 10 gig update for multiplayer which is what those games are for anyways. Yall just get caught up in pretending those games are better because of mp. Those games would barely sell if they had no mp in them......yet those no mp nintendo games........still at the top......

 

[RedBlueGreen]

It's cute when console peasants worry or mock the power of a console.
Nintendo has never been hindered by their underpowered hardware, I doubt it'll be an issue this time around either.

If you want good specs, get a PC. It's really not all about the specs despite that being what most people jerk off to.

There's a chance of it affecting third party support though. Third party devs probably won't want to optimize each version of the game for a weaker console.

 

[Xzi]

There's a chance of it affecting third party support though. Third party devs probably won't want to optimize each version of the game for a weaker console.

Basically any PC game is already optimized for lower-end Nvidia hardware. In some cases I think the ports will be easier for Switch than XB1/PS4, because it supports multiple APIs and those others do not.

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

LuLz you sir, are win.

More on topic, Why does everyone have to care about specs. Is it that modern gamers don't know whats it like to not know a consoles specs? This whole specs things is really stupid. Why can people just play the games and stfu. To many whiny salty players. It was great to be in a time when gamers said oh that game looks cool ima try it. we did not say does it run at 60fps?

Amazing gameplay>top notch graphics etc. A game can look beautiful, but be absolutely awful to play through. Ideally a healthy balance of both is good, but to me, gameplay itself trumps anything else

 

[the_randomizer]

People are still salty because they weren't (even) able to do that with the Wii U.

That's their own damn fault, really. I don't seem to recall the PS2 stopping it from having good games *shrug*.

A game can have nice eye candy but be garbage; a turd polished in gold is still a turd.

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

That's their own damn fault, really. I don't seem to recall the PS2 stopping it from having good games *shrug*.

A game can have nice eye candy but be garbage; a turd polished in gold is still a turd.

While the Wii U honestly can't compete with the Xbox One or PS4 in terms of hardware, surprisingly the hardware it does have can do some pretty impressive stuff. Again, no contest with the other two, but you'd be amazed if I could show you some of the Unity demos I've managed to recompile to run on my dev kit. Holy crap, it would blow you away considering "what's under the hood." If it wasnt a legal issue, I would make a YouTube video and post it here to show what its really capable of. Why most AAA developers didn't push the U hardware to its limits is beyond me

 

[StarTrekVoyager]

It's cute when console peasants worry or mock the power of a console.
Nintendo has never been hindered by their underpowered hardware, I doubt it'll be an issue this time around either.

If you want good specs, get a PC. It's really not all about the specs despite that being what most people jerk off to.

Finally someone who understands. People say the Switch is UP, OK. But please, never, ever take XBullshit/CrapStation4 as a reference. Again, Ninty tries to innovate. Sony/MS are selling overpriced underpowe'red PC replicas with the same games. Any gamer will buy both a PC and a Nintendo console, but no XB1/PS4.

 

[Molina]

Sony/MS are selling overpriced underpowe'red PC replicas with the same games.

Right Nintendo never did that. That's why I love them. /s


About the price, if you want something powerful, go for a PC. BUT there is something, hardware part's price is generally in relation with the tech needed to build it (old/new tech, easy to produce in big amount or nah, ...). Even though Nvidia went YOLO with the price as AMD fail to be a decent opponent for the moment (I'm looking forward for their news CPU/GPU).

We are not sure about Switch's spec, yet. And I really hope than we'll not end up with an overpriced piece of tech
Or else Nintendo will join Alienware in the "Overpriced Hardware but eh, it sell anyway" club.

Not that I will not end up buying one someday, those games seem awesomes, but I'll stick on my PC for now. (being salty about GamesWorshop doing bullshit again).

 

[StarTrekVoyager]

Yeah. If this is confirmed (a Tegra X1), I will be fine. Because this is 1 whole Tflop, ie 3.5 times the Wii U's power, in a portable console. I know it's hybrid, but you can bring it with you outside with a reasonable battery life (3-6 hours, think about the 3DS that has the same with 50 times less power), and this is awesome. Plus, as we know Nintendo is a beast at optimizing their games (Mario Kart 8 is one of the most beautiful games I've ever seen in my life, yet running 1080p@60fps on a dirty 0.25 Tflop PowerPC that is basically 4-5 GameCubes sketched together. There's also Super Mario Galaxy 2, which is running on an even weaker console. And no, BoTW isn't a good example, cause that's a port. It isn't 900p@30fps because the Switch can't do more, it's like this because they rushed a port from a Wii U game to have a good launch game for the Switch.

 

[maxGREGSZ]

Nintendo just made another 8 gen console it's not a 9 gen cause it has to be more powerful than xbox one and ps4 for it to be that like the Wii u was slightly more powerful than 7 gen consoles.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

Nintendo just made another 8 gen console it's not a 9 gen cause it has to be more powerful than xbox one and ps4 for it to be that like the Wii u was slightly more powerful than 7 gen consoles.

It's a console and it's being released in the 9th console generation. Power has nothing to do with what generation it's considered to be a part of

 

[Bladexdsl]

Nintendo just made another 8 gen console it's not a 9 gen cause it has to be more powerful than xbox one and ps4 for it to be that like the Wii u was slightly more powerful than 7 gen consoles.

stop it your making us Australians look dumb by saying nonsense

 

[sarkwalvein]

It's a console and it's being released in the 9th console generation. Power has nothing to do with what generation it's considered to be a part of

I agree power has nothing to do with it, but also there is no 9th generation.
For it to be a generation there should be contenders.
And the contenders are still PS4/XBONE, the same contenders, the same generation.
Unless there is a big change or something to consider it in a whole different generation, that I really can't see.

EDIT: I mean, PS4 Pro and Scorpio are also 8th Gen IMHO.

 

[Reecey]

It's a console and it's being released in the 9th console generation. Power has nothing to do with what generation it's considered to be a part of

I suppose it is the 9th Generation, I presume its supposed to be along side the PS4 Pro & the X1 to make up the big 3 giants together. I've just read this thread for the first time and the Switch does sound very promising on paper. I really hope that 3rd Part Developers don't go a stray with the power issue and make a big number about it, too give them excuses not to port games over to this lovely handheld/console because my opinion that's where the WiiU was let down with 3rd Party Support, it started off very well and looked great on paper but then when 3rd Party Developers started to go away very quickly you noticed its downfall drastically reducing its lifespan and I think the Switch could go the same way!. I believe and state a company cannot survive solely by itself and that includes any business's running, not just consoles that's on the agenda here. Nintendo needs support and back up from 3rd part developers for it to prosper and grow strong, without it, I think it will fall fast in my mind!

 

[TotalInsanity4]

I agree power has nothing to do with it, but also there is no 9th generation.
For it to be a generation there should be contenders.
And the contenders are still PS4/XBONE, the same contenders, the same generation.
Unless there is a big change or something to consider it in a whole different generation, that I really can't see.

EDIT: I mean, PS4 Pro and Scorpio are also 8th Gen IMHO.

Is Scorpio not supposed to be a new console? I got that impression, but I don't follow Microsoft stuff too closely

 

[DiscostewSM]

I agree power has nothing to do with it, but also there is no 9th generation.
For it to be a generation there should be contenders.
And the contenders are still PS4/XBONE, the same contenders, the same generation.
Unless there is a big change or something to consider it in a whole different generation, that I really can't see.

EDIT: I mean, PS4 Pro and Scorpio are also 8th Gen IMHO.

I'm gonna blow your mind. If it required competition and wasn't simply time, then there would be no generations as they'd all fall into the same one, since each new device couldn't be in its own gen. They'd fall back into the existing one.

We're already about 6 years into Gen 8. That's higher than the average for a gen. Just like any generation before, the previous gen can continue while the new one begins. I think we even had 2 previous gens still going at one point when a new one started.

 

[spiderman1216]

LuLz you sir, are win.

More on topic, Why does everyone have to care about specs. Is it that modern gamers don't know whats it like to not know a consoles specs? This whole specs things is really stupid. Why can people just play the games and stfu. To many whiny salty players. It was great to be in a time when gamers said oh that game looks cool ima try it. we did not say does it run at 60fps?

I under what your saying, but specs are important, they influence the third party support, also popular games in the 6th before generations ran a lot better than games now, because they were smaller back then, they didn't try to be graphical showcases. The reason why it matters now is because games themselves have just become bigger, and more advanced. So when a game runs at 30FPS with bad frame pacing it ruins the experience as a whole, it's a lot more noticeable than it was during the PlayStation 1 era. Also graphics wars were always a thing, spec wars were always a thing, they were just yelling bits instead of teraflops.

 

[grossaffe]

I under what your saying, but specs are important, they influence the third party support, also popular games in the 6th before generations ran a lot better than games now, because they were smaller back then, they didn't try to be graphical showcases. The reason why it matters now is because games themselves have just become bigger, and more advanced. So when a game runs at 30FPS with bad frame pacing it ruins the experience as a whole, it's a lot more noticeable than it was during the PlayStation 1 era. Also graphics wars were always a thing, spec wars were always a thing, they were just yelling bits instead of teraflops.

third parties care about install base. They care about how many people will buy the games. They could have put their games on the Wii U but decided against it because they didn't think they'd get the return on investment they would have liked.

 

[spiderman1216]

third parties care about install base. They care about how many people will buy the games. They could have put their games on the Wii U but decided against it because they didn't think they'd get the return on investment they would have liked.

It also has to do with specs, if a game can't run, it won't run, and they are likely not going to develop three versions of a game, that will hamper the other versions as well. For example Batman Arkham Knight that game isn't on the PS3 or Xbox 360 because it wouldn't run on those systems, as well as investment, but sometimes it's just sheer impossibility

 

[grossaffe]

It also has to do with specs, if a game can't run, it won't run, and they are likely not going to develop three versions of a game, that will hamper the other versions as well. For example Batman Arkham Knight that game isn't on the PS3 or Xbox 360 because it wouldn't run on those systems, as well as investment, but sometimes it's just sheer impossibility

It's seldom the case. All you have to look at was early in the Wii U's life when it wasn't getting the multiplats going to the 360 and PS3. Or how about all the multi-plats that didn't come to the Gamecube which was more than powerful enough? The Wii U is not as underpowered as people like to proclaim. It is a capable system that developers could have put their games on if they wanted to, but ultimately they decided it wasn't worth it.