Nintendo Switch: Uses Maxwell Architecture Over Pascal
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Nintendo's latest gaming console Nintendo Switch will come in March this year. But, this console won't be more powerful than PlayStation 4 because it is using graphics technology based on Nvidia Maxwell architecture.
Mobi Picker says that 980ti is old by now. There is no point putting Maxwell into Nintendo Switch as it is less energy efficient, bigger and more expensive in production. But it is a fact that Maxwell chips are in more demand than Pascal chips which makes no sense.
So, there is one question that why Nintendo prefers Nvidia Pascal over Maxwell. The SoC of Switch was designed before Pascal is one of the main reason behind that. Nintendo did not want to make any big changes after that.
Besides that, Pascal chips cost too much and the size difference between these chips 4nm is not that significant. Many people believed that Nintendo Switch would release on Christmas 2016 but for some reason, it is delayed.
Think about the time duration of development and production. Nintendo and Nvidia started working together before 2 years and the Pascal chip launched in June 2016. Nintendo Switch was almost developed by then and it is obvious that they did not want any change at that time.
As written in Nintendo Insider, sources indicated that Nintendo was in such a rush to replace Wii U that they weren't prepared to wait to implement Nvidia's Pascal architecture and continued with their plans. And if they had decided to wait, then Nintendo Switch would not have been able to release this March.
There must be an integrated chip which consumes less space, requires less power and reduces cost because they choose Maxwell graphics embedded in the ARM-based Tegra processor. Inside the Nintendo Switch console, that two chips could perform better to compete with Sony PlayStation 4.
Nintendo is competing with Sony and Microsoft. As Microsoft has promised the most powerful console, Scorpio with 6 teraflops performance while PlayStation 4 is around 1.8 teraflops and Switch is said to be around 1 teraflops.
There must be a good reason why Nintendo choose Nvidia Maxwell architecture over Pascal for its gaming console. Nintendo will release its upcoming gaming console Nintendo Switch worldwide in March 2017.
