From the very beginning, we were told that the Nintendo Switch would be a “hybrid”. Of course, that means the main system is a handheld. It just happens to have a dock that makes it more suitable for home gaming. Still a big improvement over the GB Player of the Gamecube or any other attempt at hybrid systems.
What lies ahead for the Nintendo Switch
Battery life might be poor. Because we keep asking more and more from the system. Raw power, screen size, and resolution, wireless communication. All are known to be battery killers. While batteries themselves have been lagging behind for years. The fact so many people expect new systems to be always online, filled with permanently updated “social” functionalities and useless gadget features certainly doesn’t help.
TFLOPS is just another “bit war” we have here. Of course, the Nintendo Switch will not compare with desktop PC. It’s a 1 cm thick tablet that runs on limited power and with limited heat exhaust. Nintendo said it would be a home console first. That means it must be judged at least somewhat based on home console specs.
Nintendo has a long history of skimping on costs just to make a tiny profit on the hardware. It’s nonsense and it’s killing their brand. That’s why it’s a reasonable assumption that it’s happening again. It’s ridiculous if true. It is rumored they are underclocking the GPU to save on battery. You can buy a larger Wii U gamepad battery for like $10. And that’s at the consumer end.
They saved what, maybe $20 per unit by installing another low capacity battery? And all it will cost is – perhaps yet another 5 years of failure for their home console brand? You don’t decide on the battery and then underclock your GPU to reach your playtime target. You set your needed power level and playtime and then decide on the battery.
PS4, XB1, Wii U, 3DS ad infinitum — these are all essentially PCs. Personal computers which have been specialized and modified and run a separate library of games. Specs matter. “TFlops” matter. Switch doesn’t have to compare with current PC GPUs, thankfully. But it does have to compare reasonably with Xbox One.
If it can’t do that, it’s already another Wii U, because it won’t be getting ports. Were people not paying attention the last 4 years as the Wii U died a slow death? It didn’t have the 3rd parties because its CPU was crap.
Source: iDigitalTimes