More Nintendo Switch details: 4GB of RAM, touchscreen, could support VR in the future

This is really a non issue, considering that the switch is not going to be a system with games made for a stock hard drive that runs at 50 to 70mb per second with disgusting seek time, thus requiring a higher usage of ram.

I also read that it's going to have 32 GB of internal storage running at 400 MB/s. Which I assume will be used to help run games bought over the internet, which won't have the speed of the cartridge.

The ram discussion seems meaningless, as I highly doubt it's going to be a bottleneck.


It's worth noting that the Xbox One only has 5GB of RAM available for games, the rest is used for Kinect and the OS. The PS4 has 7GB for games, with the remaining 1GB for the OS.

Only 4.5 of the PS4 ram is for games, the rest is for the OS. They probably aimed for that configuration because for the system's specs, 8GB of ram is over kill.
 
Wow. Exactly what do you expect to go into the cartrige? A 20 hours por- ahem, documentary collection?
Considering the size of modern games and the fact that it will be a 720p portable console, it won't have to pack all that much in terms of textures and graphics/audio files.

I mean, it won't have 20GB of 4K cinematics, unlike *cough*other*cough* games. Big whoop. For actual game files, it's more than enough.

Well the thing is even the Wii U disks contain 25GB of usable space. Now whether or not that entire 25GB of space is being used is another story. But on the other hand why would you decrease the amount of space you have for a game? That's just absurd especially considering how cheap flash is. They should have gone to at least 32GB per cart. All this means is we will be lucky to get games that look as good as they do on the Wii U.
 
16GB cartridges is fine for them. We all know that most of the data on disc for games are for high-def sound and voiceovers. This is Nintendo and they dont use that sound quality, they use 8-bit sound with bleeps and bubble chat instead of voiceovers. Nintendo is known for kids games tailored to 12 year olds. You want a grown up system get a Xbox or Playstation. Want a even more grown up system get a PC.
 
Why?? It's not a freaking windows computer, you won't need more ram, it's MADE specifically to the specs. Also please read a bit, windows memory hog games run perfectly fine in 4gb systems, considering almost half of it is going to the system. I think a game developed specifically to the console will run just fine.
You're right, I'll stick to PC gaming so I don't end up a mindless zombie playing console games. I'd rather not let other people define what is playable and give up all control. While everybody else buys new consoles every couple of years, I'll stick another $50 ram stick in my PC and be good. Who needs options to expand! You're right :)
 
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Well Nintendo has done it again. They have shot themselves in the foot AGAIN. Look I like the idea they have going with the handheld console hybrid its cool and fits with Nintendo's domination of the handheld market. I LOVE the idea of cartridges as well. I know they are not trying to challenge Sony or Microsoft in the graphics department as they decided not to focus on that since the Wii days. But there is one HUGE problem with this info, which is subject to change of course, that problem is with the storage space on the Carts. 16GB?!?!?! Really are you kidding me? The Wii U holds 25GB on its disc, and flash storage is CHEAP like insanely cheap especially for a company like Nintendo buying it up in bulk. You can buy 16gb micro SD cards at retail for like $8 US, and that's ALL they can be bothered to put on a cart not even going to be on par with the Wii U??? They should be aiming for 64GB on a cart, 16GB is a joke. Man I love you Nintendo but man do you even WANT to make money anymore? Do you even CARE about the home console market at all?

Wow, you have practically ZERO concrete information but have already decided that Nintendo is run by a bunch of fools... 16GB for a game is plenty - 99% of all games fall under 10GB (A dual layer DVD only holds about 9GB) and since this console will almost certainly not even be hitting 1080P let alone 4K, there will be no need for that much space. Wii games were never larger than about 3-4GB... WiiU were MAYBE 6-7GB, usually lower... I'm thinking 16GB is plenty...
 
Wow, you have practically ZERO concrete information but have already decided that Nintendo is run by a bunch of fools... 16GB for a game is plenty - 99% of all games fall under 10GB (A dual layer DVD only holds about 9GB) and since this console will almost certainly not even be hitting 1080P let alone 4K, there will be no need for that much space. Wii games were never larger than about 3-4GB... WiiU were MAYBE 6-7GB, usually lower... I'm thinking 16GB is plenty...

That's why I mentioned its subject to change. Look I love Nintendo I do. I own a Wii U as well as a PS3 and PS4. I really like their games, but I just think that if they are going to have as much 3rd party support as they are claiming to at this time that 16GB will end up hampering them in the future. And while the reports are that its going to be a 720p handheld, I believe it was also mentioned that they would be 1080p 30FPS which I assume will be when plugged into the dock. Truthfully I want them to do good, I don't expect them to compete with the big 2. They haven't in a LONG time, the Wii being the only stand out. I am hoping they have some extra hardware built into the dock itself boosting graphics to at least 1080p on the TV. Anything below that is a step backwards from the Wii U.
 
Most phones have about 2GB ram right now. The Switch will only have 4GB ram. W-H-Y!?!?! Ram isn't even that expensive so why the hell wouldn't they shove a ton in there to make people go ooooooohhhhhh! even if its not really needed? Seriously, spend an extra $50 and give us something to gawk at.

Because the extra $50 x 10 million units is alot of money.

And secondly this isn't an andriod phone and a stupid spec war it a mobile handheld unit it and the games designed for it will be fine with 4GB of ram.

You want people to go oooooo and ahhhhh designed fun enjoyable games not just check boxes on spec sheet.
 
Wow. Exactly what do you expect to go into the cartrige? A 20 hours por- ahem, documentary collection?
Considering the size of modern games and the fact that it will be a 720p portable console, it won't have to pack all that much in terms of textures and graphics/audio files.

I mean, it won't have 20GB of 4K cinematics, unlike *cough*other*cough* games. Big whoop. For actual game files, it's more than enough.

Well the thing is even the Wii U disks contain 25GB of usable space. Now whether or not that entire 25GB of space is being used is another story. But on the other hand why would you decrease the amount of space you have for a game? That's just absurd especially considering how cheap flash is. They should have gone to at least 32GB per cart. All this means is we will be lucky to get games that look as good as they do on the Wii U.


If you aren't familiar with the emulation community then you might want to delve into it. There is a TON of trash data in Nintendo ISOs. You can literally take for example a 25GB Wii U disc and shrink it down to just a few GB without the trash.

On that note perhaps they plan on approaching their game storage differently now that they will be strictly using flash media.
 
Wow if true this is worse then I thought.. thought it would be 8GB with a 1600 x 900 screen, but 720p with only 4 puts it on par with other "high end" mobile devices.. if confirmed it really is just a mobile device that docks, rather then a console
 
Wow if true this is worse then I thought.. thought it would be 8GB with a 1600 x 900 screen, but 720p with only 4 puts it on par with other "high end" mobile devices.. if confirmed it really is just a mobile device that docks, rather then a console

Let's just take a step back in this matter. A 1080p screen is all nice and well but it brings you a couple of constraints that you're not taking into account.
  1. A higher resolution display brings a higher impact on the battery. While the amount varies depending on a number of factors, it always impacts negatively on the battery life. Which is key to the success of the device. The alternative would be a bigger, more expensive battery.
  2. A higher resolution display also makes the the device more expensive to produce and, consequentially, to the final consumer. Also very important to the success, is the final pricetag of the console.
  3. A higher resolution display requires, which also affects the above two points, beefier hardware. Which consumes more power, is more expensive and might also not fit into the form-factor.
There's a bunch of reasons as to why a 720p screen is the best option to go for. Sure, they could have splurged on 1080p, but you would be picking up the bill on that

As for why 4GB RAM is perfectly fine, just read up on the comments. It's really no problem at all. You're not talking about some ordinary, poorly optimized phone here.
 
They run fine with 4gb? No, no they don't.
Get out of here! Made by techspot.

And if you don't want to click that link I will even quote it for you:
With 16GB of memory available we found that Chrome plus GTA V used 9GB of memory but there was absolutely no difference between the 16GB and 8GB configurations. Moreover, just a single frame was dropped when moving down to 4GB of memory in a single-channel configuration.
Or even another one, for a hog game:
Batman: Arkham Knight might not seem like a wise choice here but it's a memory hog, using almost 10GB of memory with Chrome running in the background. Despite this, the 16GB configuration was just 1fps faster than the 8GB config and 4fps faster than the 4GB config. To put it another way, 16GB was 4% faster than 4GB.
Summary... Yes they do!

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Also, on top of the love wagon, if this will be able to dock and have external video connection, how hard would it be to add an external VR-like headset? If it runs on tegra (And as already mentioned it looks kind of shield-ish) and Android has it, why wouldn't they be able to add VR into the Switch? Maybe not mount the console in the headset but I don't see why they wouldn't be able to do so. Obviously this is all in the theory-crafting department.
And yet it doesn't say anything about poor frametimes or stutters.

You should really educate yourself.
 
Let's just take a step back in this matter. A 1080p screen is all nice and well but it brings you a couple of constraints that you're not taking into account.
  1. A higher resolution display brings a higher impact on the battery. While the amount varies depending on a number of factors, it always impacts negatively on the battery life. Which is key to the success of the device. The alternative would be a bigger, more expensive battery.
  2. A higher resolution display also makes the the device more expensive to produce and, consequentially, to the final consumer. Also very important to the success, is the final pricetag of the console.
  3. A higher resolution display requires, which also affects the above two points, beefier hardware. Which consumes more power, is more expensive and might also not fit into the form-factor.
There's a bunch of reasons as to why a 720p screen is the best option to go for. Sure, they could have splurged on 1080p, but you would be picking up the bill on that

As for why 4GB RAM is perfectly fine, just read up on the comments. It's really no problem at all. You're not talking about some ordinary, poorly optimized phone here.


the biggest performence bottle neck of xboxone and PS4 is the memory through out, ps use of gddr5 is the onlything that really pushes it ahead, and yes memory through put directly afects the performence out put every one like to use now adays (I.e. 1.5 Tflops) , the memory clock rate which has also been release suggest this is not high speed memory, mean while all you fanboys have been screaming it will be more powerful then ps4/ and xbox one.. this will not be on that level.. as I said before it may be premium for a mobile device, but will not function as a full console
 
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