There has been so much speculation on the hardware specifications and the performance of the Nintendo Switch. All the rumors will not stop until Nintendo reveals everything. Everyone will just have to wait for the Nintendo event that will take place in January next month.
Until then, only unconfirmed and even conflicting information will be available, such as the information initially reported on Twitter by the Wall Street Journal's Takashi Mochizuki who had heard from an Ace Research Institute Analyst that the portable mode resolution of the Nintendo Switch would be 1080p and not just 720p and would output to WQHD resolution when docked. He later corrected himself on Twitter that the internal chips of the console can handle WQHD resolution but would output to 1080p while docked.
According to Yahoo!, Emily Rogers, a blogger with access to Nintendo insider information, responded on Twitter to Mochizuki's post, noting that the portable mode resolution is only 720p to conserve battery and in docked mode, would upscale to 1080p and even 4K resolution. She also later corrected herself, posting on Twitter that the Nintendo Switch would render and not upscale at 1080p resolution while docked.
The news that the Nintendo Switch would be capable of handling WQHD or even 4K resolution led observers to believe that the console could be almost as powerful as a PS4. The news that a docked Nintendo Switch would be twice as fast as the undocked Nintendo Switch in portable mode drew different responses.
Some, such as technology website Engadget, focused on the higher performance of the console while docked saying that the Nintendo Switch was more powerful when in console mode. Others focused on the lower performance of the console when undocked saying it was underpowered.
As seen in Forbes magazine, the underpowered description was reiterated when information came out that the Nintendo Switch would be using older 'Maxwell' Nvidia processors instead of the newer 'Pascal' chips. The newer Nvidia processors were said, could allow the Nintendo Switch to surpass the performance of the Xbox One and almost reach that of the PS4.
In the end, the performance debate may turn out not to be as crucial as most have believed. Gaming website Destructoid has reported that analyst Michael Pachter said that he has heard from many developers that the Nintendo Switch is the easiest console to develop among the three current generation consoles.
The information that the Nintendo Switch is easiest to develop for should not come as a surprise since Nvidia is a strong partner of Nintendo. Nvidia is devoting its resources and expertise in its hardware to optimize the software tools that will be used by developers to create games intended for Nvidia's processors.
Nvidia will ensure that these software tools take full advantage of the hardware they designed so that they will wring every ounce of performance out of the system. Not only will these software tools make it easier to develop games but they will also allow those games to run optimally on the Nvidia hardware inside the Nintendo Switch which should compensate for the less powerful raw performance of their hardware.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
