Report: The Nintendo Switch is less powerful than the PlayStation 4

This article is over 7 years old and may contain outdated information

That’s fine

Recommended Videos

While Nintendo has told us what the Switch basically is, we still don’t know a lot of nuts and bolts type stuff. I mean, it uses custom Nvidia Tegra hardware, but it hasn’t been fully stress tested yet. According to two sources over at GamesBeat, however, it’s allegedly less powerful than a Playstation 4.

The outlet claims that the system uses a custom Maxwell Tegra (that doesn’t match up to the Pascal), which is naturally better than the Wii U, but already less impressive than the start of this generation. Why is this? Supposedly Nintendo wanted to rush it to market (because they were killing the Wii U), and didn’t want to wait for the Pascal — instead, they just went with the Maxwell.

There’s speculation that in order to accommodate more intensive games, the tablet screen has the option to drop to 540p (which is what the Vita runs at), from the standard of 720p. We’ll probably have all of this cleared up in January when Nintendo spills the beans, but either way, this is exactly what I expected and basically what we already knew.

I was fine with the same situation on Wii U — the real question is, will third party developers also be okay with it years down the line when we start moving into PS4 Pro-only and Scorpio games?

Nintendo Switch specs: less powerful than PlayStation 4 [GamesBeat]


Destructoid is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more about our Affiliate Policy
Author
Image of Chris Carter
Chris Carter
Managing Editor/Reviews Director
Managing Editor - Chris has been enjoying Destructoid avidly since 2008. He finally decided to take the next step in January of 2009 blogging on the site. Now, he's staff!