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Details about "New" Switch revision via OS datamine (LPDDR4x RAM, modest GPU performance boost, no "Pro" model in sight)
- Thread starter Atheerios
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It's going to be $299 for the "now in new color" Switch and the OG is going to be "out of stock". There's no way they're selling this thing along side the original when every indication is it's just a stealth revision of the original.
Note that that quote ("the only new hardware this holiday") is not directly attributed to Bowser.
Also this is the company that denied the existence of a 3DS XL like 5 days before it was announced.
What the chip itself is rated for is not the same as what the setting in the Switch firmware for it is. Nintendo will absolutely not running the GPU at the theoretical maximum 1.267GHz on the enhanced Switch when they maxed out at 768MHz on the previous one (where its theoretical max was 921MHz). Unless I'm mistaken the info in the OP is stating that the new enhanced Switch runs its GPU at a higher profile than the previous Switch does, which was always going to be a choice by Nintendo that we would have no way of knowing just by looking at the hardware.
Also it mentions 8GB RAM support but it did not mention the RAM type. The old Switch uses LPDDR4, this uses LPDDR4X which is more efficient.
It's the other way around actually. A single RAM chip would have to come with a 64bit interface to match the bandwidth of the two 32bit chips used in the original Switch. Also, it would need a revision of the board itself, because the circuit paths between the SoC and the RAM would need to be drawn differently for a different memory configuration.
There's basically three things that they can do here:
- Stick with the current arrangement of a 64bit bus using two 32bit RAM chips (This seems the most likely case to me. They don't need a wider bus for a moderate spec bump like this; using RAM with a higher frequency is enough).
- Keep the 64bit bus but switch to a single 64bit RAM chip (not sure why they would want to do this though, expect perhaps as a cost saving measure and because a single 4Gbyte chip might draw less power than two 2Gbyte chips).
- Double the bandwidth by switching to a 128bit bus with two RAM chips (would be overkill, spec-wise. Also, wider memory interfaces draw significantly more power afaik, so you don't want to do this in a mobile device if there's not a pressing reason for it).
it'll be interesting to see when the hardware refresh hits shelves. it's likely it wont get a direct and simply be sold with new boxing indicating the new internal storage size, while current stock gets sold out. also curious if Nintendo has cheapened out on the screens with the mini or this upcoming mild refresh. they have a tendency to cut corners where they can.
Yup.
Is Xenoblade Chronicles 2 too ambitious for Switch's mobile mode?
It's been a remarkable year for Nintendo's Switch and Monolith Soft is ensuring a strong finish with Xenoblade Chronicl…
www.eurogamer.net
Ah I see, thanks for the info. So simply using a more energy efficient RAM should help increase the bandwidth by a noticable amount? Assuming it's clocked higher to take advantage of the increased efficiency?
just give the normal switch form factor a joycon that has a d-pad. so we dont have to buy a gimped 3rd party joycon...
As to what I expect from the upcoming Switch revision...... I expect we'll see a much better build of the Switch that address some of the issues with the current Switch. It should receive a better built body that is more durable with color variations. An either reduced/ colored bezel for the screen which may be slightly brighter/ larger screen but not 1080p. Also expect An enhanced SOC & ram combination that manages heat and battery consumption more efficiently . This will also allow for faster loading times, more stable frame-rates and "modest" graphic enhancements depending upon the game. Lastly an increase to 64GB on-board storage. That is all.
So we might be looking at 1 GHz docked speed vs the OG's 768 MHz dock speed
He's a marketing guy
Nintendo said no revision days before dropping the New 3DS
People need to understand difference sources have different truthiness to them
Emily and WSJ are more.correct than Bowser who had a vested interest in not completely stalling Switch sales in the summer
So.of course he will be.vague and.say untrue things
You know that Dpad.joycon? My guess is that's coming too
Basically. The LPDDR4 RAM on the original Switch maxes out at 1600Mhz (25GB/sec bandwith on a 64bit DDR interface), while LPDDR4x goes up to 2133Mhz (33.3GB/sec) so they could keep the same bus configuration and simply use faster RAM to increase total memory bandwidth by up to 33% – i.e. a moderate performance bump in line with what can be expected from the CPU and the GPU.
Is this right? Samsung provide 3GB (24gigabit) RAM modules, so I'm thinking the 6GB devkits would be using a pair of these instead of a strange setup using 3 chips.
Possibly. I'm thinking no more than like a 20-30% boost across the board. But I wouldn't be surprised if it was lower.
Gotcha, that makes sense. Thanks.
Ah then either I read wrong or that person was wrong.
I think he's running off my guesses but the retail uses 2x2GB modules and it seems more plausible they'd try to maximize the amount of 2GB modules they purchase rather than buy a mix of 2 GB and and a small number of 3 GB chips just for the DevKits
Damn.Yup.
Is Xenoblade Chronicles 2 too ambitious for Switch's mobile mode?
It's been a remarkable year for Nintendo's Switch and Monolith Soft is ensuring a strong finish with Xenoblade Chronicl…
Switch Pro save me.
They support 3 different RAM suppliers so quite a mix already :D There is only one 6GB ID according to Switchbrew and it's a Samsung one.
What they use for the devkits don't have to be quite so cost effective as they're much more limited in quantity. I'm guessing they still cost a small fortune to devs too.
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Probably doesn't mean anything. All of Samsung's LPDDR4x RAM is fabricated on a 10nm process (in contrast to LPDDR4 RAM, which uses a 20nm process), hence the lower power draw. Mentioning 10nm seems quite redundant here...
It also clearly does not refer to the SoC. I think it's safe to assume that Mariko is produced on TSMC's mature 16nm process (the original Tegra X1 uses TSMC's 20nm process, which kind of sucked and wasn't much of an improvement to their 28nm process, so the jump to 16nm is actually quite significant despite the small numerical difference).
Tbh, XC2 is a phenomenal JRPG despite its technical shortcomings, I cannot recommend it enough, Switch Pro or not.
I hope that in the end you'll find a way to enjoy it! :)
Do you guys think we could get a bigger battery? I think it's 4300mah atm right?
It would probably get a boost without a bigger battery but if they're shrinking components internally it would great if they added a bit more battery to it. I'd love to see 4-7 hours standard
It would probably get a boost without a bigger battery but if they're shrinking components internally it would great if they added a bit more battery to it. I'd love to see 4-7 hours standard
For every post like this there is another one saying how XC2 is the worst RPG of the modern era or some shit like that. I've toyed with the notion that a Switch revision that ran XC2 at native or near-native res when handheld might convince me to finally pick it up, but with so much negative feedback regarding numerous non-performance-related elements of the game I doubt I ever will.
Really exaggerating the negative feedback that is always yelled by the same loud voices.
That would be a 128-bit bus? I doubt the SoC would support it. Especially with how small of a package it is. It would also add to costs and be less power efficient.
The stuff being shrunk internally would be on the PCB itself, and wouldn't effect the storage space for the battery.
AFAIK a die shrink from 20nm to 12nm wouldn't actually save any internal space. Maybe they'd be able to cut down on some of the heat sink though? Or use a smaller fan?
No one ever really argues against it, tho. It's always stuff about how exploration and gate-locking field skills are god-awful, and how there are a bunch of sexist anime tropes, but any retorts are basically "yeah, that's true, but I still loved it." Those are a couple of critiques that really speak to me, so the fact that they're never really disagreed with, just pushed aside, doesn't fill me with confidence.
But this is certainly off topic, carry on thread.
I fully expect it but man would a slightly better Switch be really fucking lame, especially coming out the same year as the new consoles.
If it does use a smaller fan, then yeah they could increase the battery, but then we are talking about more than significant gains in battery life. I think both will be kept the same, and the modest spec bump will allow an almost docked handheld profile.
As for Bowser's Statement, a refreshed OG Switch isn't new hardware if you think about it. In any case, I feel this is gonna be a 2DS/New 3DS scenario, but in the same year. Randomly dropped Press Release for the Lite model, more formal Direct announcement for the refresh. I'm thinking September Direct after the Lite/Links Awakening come out, Late October/Early November Release.
As for Bowser's Statement, a refreshed OG Switch isn't new hardware if you think about it. In any case, I feel this is gonna be a 2DS/New 3DS scenario, but in the same year. Randomly dropped Press Release for the Lite model, more formal Direct announcement for the refresh. I'm thinking September Direct after the Lite/Links Awakening come out, Late October/Early November Release.
This thing is coming this year, not next.
No idea if anything is coming next year though.
I thought it was confirmed no other hardware but Lite was coming this year?
Nintendo didn't speak specs (as always) regarding the Switch Lite. However considering it also has a new SOC it should have better performance than the Original Switch. Also I believe all the improvement talk was saved for the Switch revision considering that's more of a selling point for that demographic.
That was never confirmed, just a dubious claim based on something Doug Bowser said that CNET never actually quoted.
And even if Bowser did say no other hardware this year:
1) this is more like a refresh and less like a revision
2) this is the same company that vehemently denied the existence of the 3DSXL 5 days before announcing it
This isn't new hardware though, it's just a revision to the current one that will be phased out.
Makes so much sense. Never got the people saying even though newer and more efficient chip no performance gains. They would be idiots not to clock higher....with all that said this is Nintendo so you never know.
I don't think the T210 SoC handles a 128 bit bus. Do we know how wide of a memory bus the T214 handles?
Given that the memory bandwidth has been one of the bottlenecks (as far as I understand), I'm hoping that they fix that for the revision.
Keep in mind that developers make system calls which set the clock speeds. So even if a faster GPU is in the system, it's not likely to make any difference whatsoever on existing titles, and probably not new third party titles either unless Nintendo lets them do so, which I doubt would happen since this would be a stealth update.
They can't just make everything run faster, because that could break some games.
They can't just make everything run faster, because that could break some games.
If any change is made in this setup, it would probably just be clockrate. More power efficient memory would allow for an easier overclock... but I wouldn't count on it or even if so it wouldn't be dramatically so.
Is this "New" model going to be any new Switch made form now on?
How can I ensure I get a New model if I want to pick one up soon, is my real question
Scale up would make me perfectly happy too.
I guess really fast lpddr4x modules exist too!
The Switch Lite gets better battery life with a much smaller battery. They went for efficiency gains, not performance gains. Which makes sense for that product.
Tegra X1 has a 64bit bus, so Mariko would have to be a redesigned X1 and not just a die shrink. I wouldn't expect this to happen. After all, Nintendo didn't even bother to ask for a customized X1 in the first place; they just went ahead put a stock X1 in there despite the fact that this meant its ARM A53 cores would be unusable.
I would expect that they'll find a way to differentiate.
Like new packaging, or a marker like "64GB Storage" or "Longer Battery Life" or something.
So it's not likely out yet?
I'm going away in September and ideally I was going to pick up a Switch for then, but I was also waiting on a Pro model, so if this is the Pro model then I'll get a basic Switch if I can get an updated one and then maybe pick up a Lite in a few years time
If you can wait 2 months it should be more clear what's what.
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