Nintendo Switch Specs Confirmed, Could Be Twice As Powerful In Dock Mode
The gaming world was excited when the Nintendo Switch was unveiled to them last month. While the Nintendo Switch had an extremely cheery reception by the public, the teaser trailer failed to answer a lot of questions. Some are quite important, like how much will the Switch cost? But one thing that really bothered fans is the lack of information regarding the power of the Nintendo Switch. The company announced that all will be revealed in January. But a major leak reveals just how powerful the Nintendo Switch is when it finally hits stores on March.
According to Engadget, the specs of the Nintendo Switch will have two different numbers. One is for the portable and the other is in the docked mode. The Nintendo Switch leak is said to have been given to developers by the Nintendo company themselves. Before going into the different profiles of the Nintendo Switch, the whole system will support the Tegra X1 chip by Nvidia. This might disappoint fans who are hoping that the Switch may just make it in time to sport the latest Tegra X2 chip.
The Nintendo switch will clock out at 768 MHz in docked mode and will have a dip of almost 40 percent when used as a portable device. For those who love console comparison, the Nintendo Switch will be less powerful than both the Xbox One and the PS4. This may come as to no surprise considering that the Nintendo Switch will be slimmer and lighter than its beefier rivals. Good news though is that the Nintendo Switch will be much powerful than the WiiU, debunking some rumors that say otherwise. According to the same article, the Wii U can do around 400 gigaflops on FP32 in docked mode.
One thing to note however is that Nintendo has given the developer the option to match the docked mode speed to that of the portable mode. According to BGR, that means that developers are given the ability to cripple the performance of their games for the Switch should they choose to. This is a concern since the Nintendo Switch’s portable mode might only be able to go up to 720p resolution while the docked mode can do full 1080 high definition.
This is particularly worrisome to those who are concerned that the Switch’s biggest flaw will be in the graphics department which is something both the PS4 and the Xbox one has been focusing on. However, the same article also notes that if the Nintendo Switch does possess the rumored vent fans that were speculated when it appeared at a late-night talk show, then there could be a slight increase in the performance of the Switch.
It is worth noting that the Switch does not really need extreme graphics and raw power to compete with the Xbox One and the PS4. The Nintendo Switch will be played based on the strength of its first-party games. It also has enough power to still play the latest games and the promise of portability may be enough to for the Switch not to get hindered by the lack of power.
All that matters is that the Switch is an upgrade for Nintendo’s last-generation console, which became a sales disaster for the company. The Nintendo Switch has also gained a lot of eyes and buzz in the gaming world which is something that the doomed WiiU never had. With the specs finally revealed to be not as bad as others are suggesting, it looks like the Nintendo Switch hype train will still keep rolling. According to the teaser trailer, the Nintendo Switch has a release date of March 27 of next year.
[Featured Image by Sean Gallup/Getty Images]
