Nintendo Switch Houses a Nvidia Tegra X1-SoC
Analysis from Chipworks shows that the Nintendo Switch makes use of a Nvidia Tegra X1 SoC, much like the one used in the Shield that we reviewed yesterday. The usage of this SoC is not a surprise but never was openly admitted by Nvidia and Nintendo. Many assumed the unit would use a custom designed SoC.
Here's techinsights with their update:
After subsequent processing of the GPU from the Nintendo Switch, we have determined that the processor is the Nvidia Tegra T210. The T210 CPU features 4 Cortex A57 and 4 Cortex A53 processor cores and the GPU is a GM20B Maxell core. Download the high resolution image here.
The unit is based upon an 8-core Tegra X1 SoC (64-bit) which is an in-house Nvidia ARM SoC from the Tegra series. It features what is called a BIG little setup that has been arranged as four ARM Cortex-A57 processor cores and then four ARM Cortex-A53 cores.
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NVIDIA Tegra GPU Specs Compared | ||
K1 | X1 | |
CUDA Cores | 192 | 256 |
Texture Units | 8 | 16 |
ROPs | 4 | 16 |
GPU Clock | 950MHz | 1000MHz |
Memory Clock | 930MHz (LPDDR3) | 1600MHz (LPDDR4) |
Memory Bus Width | 64-bit | 64-bit |
FP16 Peak | 365 GFLOPS | 1024 GFLOPS |
FP32 Peak | 365 GFLOPS | 512 GFLOPS |
Architecture | Kepler | Maxwell |
Manufacturing Process | TSMC 28nm | TSMC 20nm SoC |
The big A57 cores have more L2 cache (2MB) plus slightly bigger instruction and data-caches. The unit houses 256 shader/stream/cuda processors based on an all too familiar Maxwell architecture, the codename for the SoC is GM20B. If you look at the upper screenshot, you can literally count the 256 cores arranged in 32 sets of 8. So albeit it won't be high-end gaming, simple Android games will be plenty fast thanks to this design. Despite what many people think, it's not a 28nm fab but actually is one of the few products fabbed on 20nm.
- CPU: ARMv8 ARM Cortex-A57 (1.9 Ghz) quad-core + ARM Cortex-A53 quad-core (64-bit).
- GPU: Maxwell-based 256 core GPU
- MPEG-4 HEVC & VP9 encoding/decoding support
- TSMC 20 nm process
- Power consumption less than 10 Watts
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The Maxwell Cores on the X1 are 20nm, not 28nm like Maxwell on desktop - so the gap isn't going to be as large in terms of power consumption. Nvidia has the Drive PX2 with a Pascal based SoC on it, but I think it's optimized for deep learning with packed math cores and stuff.
I think it was mostly a cost decision. At $300 it already seems too high and I'm sure a Pascal variant, which would need to be built specifically for the Switch, would cost even more.
They should just come out with a "Pro" dock in a year, slap a 1070 or similar performing Volta card in it and do like 4K@30 - 1080p@60. Would bring it up to parity with the new consoles and if they charge like $250 and by then switch should be cheaper so its like $450-500 for a 4K console experience. Idk if they could do that, idk if Tegra is setup for offloading the GPU like thunderbolt 3 laptops, but it would be neat.
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I expect them to very quickly move to nvidias next tegra chip and either increase battery life by a large amount by virtue of smaller node and being able to completely disable the fan in portable mode. Or they will have it running in "docked" mode 100% of the time potentially with a 1080p screen. They would be smart to make a full on portable (controllers don't remove) and a full on home console and price them in the $150 range. For that price and with zelda, mario, pokemon, smash, metroid etc who wouldn't buy one?
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Wasn't this confirmed several months ago?
Anyway, I'm a little bit surprised Nintendo went for a BIG.little setup. I don't really see the benefit of it for a gaming system, unless they happened to figure out how to take advantage of the weaker cores for background processes (to my knowledge, Android doesn't do this, and it's often a burden to get Linux to do it). Since Nintendo isn't really fond of running specialized software (like another OS) on their systems, intentionally "crippling" the CPU would make it more difficult for tweakers.
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Rumours are that they have a "Supplemental Computing Device" waiting in the wings which might be revealed this year.
However, the route I'd like them to take is to go PS4/PS Vita; make a much more powerful main console which can stream to the Switch while keeping compatibility with Switch games. I think the "SDC" route is a waste of time. They've got plenty of gpu options now they've gone with Nvidia.
At a push, "Sli" linking to an SDC dock could provide PS4 or better power, but, this means there's a chance games that take advantage of this method will lose portability.
Final thought: New Nintendo console to compliment the Switch.
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Well the X1 chip is still a great chip though. However I think having a Pascal based chip would have been more power efficient but maybe the X2 or whatever the pascal chip is called wasn't ready yet. Maybe when or if Nintendo decides to make a Switch Pro or plus version that it may have an X2 chip in it if it is ready by then.