Ever since the first Nintendo NX rumors started surfacing Nintendo fans have been speculating who would be the main supplier of the console’s graphic chips. Yesterday NVIDIA announced that the Nintendo Switch will be Powered by Custom NVIDIA Tegra Processor. For years Nintendo partnered with ATI on GPUs and other specialized graphic chips in systems like the Gamecube, Wii and Wii U. With the Switch, Nintendo is shaking up this tradition, by selecting Nvidia, who specializes in high-end powerful GPUs and chip architectures. What does this mean for the Nintendo Switch. For starters it puts Nintendo in the same playing field with it’s competitors – the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The Switch is going to use a custom Tegra processor, which according to Nvidia – “The high-efficiency scalable processor includes an NVIDIA GPU based on the same architecture as the world’s top-performing GeForce gaming graphics cards”.
The Nintendo Switch’s gaming experience is also supported by fully custom software, including a revamped physics engine, new libraries, advanced game tools and libraries. NVIDIA additionally created new gaming APIs to fully harness this performance. The newest API, NVN, was built specifically to bring lightweight, fast gaming to the masses.
During the Nintendo Switch preview video games like Skyrim and other graphic heavy games we’re shown. Nintendo seems to be making a big push leveraging titles that interest hardcore gamers during the console’s preview. Having Nvidia supply the graphics for the Switch could mean that Nintendo will be focused more on graphics this time around than with the Wii U and Wii. According to Nvidia’s blog, the Nintendo Switch has over 500 man years “of effort across every facet of creating a new gaming platform: algorithms, computer architecture, system design, system software, APIs, game engines and peripherals”. This investment could play-out in Nintendo’s favor, as Sony and Microsoft are stuck using their current platforms for the time being. While both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have upgraded versions of their consoles coming out, it’s very likely that Nintendo will soon have the baddest system on the block. No specs or benchmarks we’re given on the custom Nvidia graphics powering the Nintendo Switch, but if the rumors are true (which honestly seemed pretty close this time with the functionality of the Switch) the system may be more powerful than it’s competitors.
Source: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2016/10/20/nintendo-switch/
