The clock speeds of the Nintendo Switch gaming console's CPU and GPU have been revealed and, according to the specs, the new console runs much faster when docked.
Nintendo Switch Specs
According to Game Spot, a report claims to reveal new information about the Switch's specs, ahead of Nintendo's January briefing. Venturebeat reconfirmed a report published in July by Digital Foundry, revealing that Nintendo Switch is featuring a GPU based on second generation Maxwell technology, being based on Nvidia's Tegra X1.
Eurogamer speculated that the March 2017 release would open the door to longer battery life and better performance by allowing Nintendo to transition from the Tegra X1 to the more modern Tegra X2 utilizing Pascal technology based on a FinFET processor production technology.
Nvidia itself claimed that the custom processor used in its Switch gaming console is based on the same architecture as the world's top-performing GeForce gaming graphics cards. This seems to be a clear indicator that Pascal new architecture is used in Switch.
Nintendo Switch CPU & GPU Clock Speeds
Based on the previously leaked information, tech experts assume that the clock-speeds are not the 768/307.2MHz combo but the theoretical maximums. According to these speculations, the CPU used in the Nintendo Switch would be a Four ARM Cortex A57 cores, working at a maximum clock speed of 2 GHz, while the GPU will come with 256 CUDA cores, working at a maximum of 1 GHz.
Memory bandwidth and CUDA core count are certainly in line with a standard Tegra X1. However, but the leaked spec regarding the actual speed of the CPU and GPU is extremely vague, referring only to the maximum speeds seen on Nvidia's Shield Android TV micro-console. For a relatively small, handheld, battery-powered console, those clocks were never going to be attainable, assuming that Switch uses the same 20nm process technology as Shield.
The new Nintendo hardware does feature two performance configurations, mobile and docked. Compared with its performance when docked and attached to an HDTV, the Switch gaming console is categorically not as capable in mobile form.
