According to reports, Khronos Group has recently included the upcoming Nintendo Switch console in the list of Conformant products that will have the support of Vulkan, OpenGL 4.5 and OpenGL ES. How do developers benefit from the said API authorization?

Switch to support Vulkan

With this incorporation, they now have three options to choose from and develop the modern high-quality definition of graphics for their upcoming games on Nintendo's newest upcoming console.

About Vulkan, OpenGL 4.5 and OpenGL ES

OpenGL 4.5 and OpenGL ES are similar to older generations of API, but Vulkan, originally referred to as OpenGL Next or Vulkan 1.0, is considered as the next generation API. It technically focuses on reduced driver overhead, decreased load on CPUs, and enables an improved multi-core CPU scaling in comparison to OpenGL

New processor for the Switch

NVIDIA has recently confirmed that the Nintendo Switch will be using a much-improved Tegra Processor, which is possibly either a 2nd-gen 20nm, Maxwell iteration or a brand new 16nm FinFET Pascal model. Despite the intricacy in GPU choice, the recent report is a major letdown performance-wise of Nintendo Switch when docked and portable.

Problems and issues

The CPU clock is halved when the console is portable. GPU runs at 768 MHz while docked and just 307.2 MHz while portable. More reports regarding this issue will come out in the next few days.

The Nintendo Switch launches on March 2017, meanwhile, an upcoming Nintendo special event will be held on January 12-14, which is going to showcase specifications, games lineup and more about the Switch.

If you still haven't known much about the Switch, below is the list that you need to know about Nintendo's upcoming console:

  • Nintendo Switch to reveal official pricing, specifications, game lineup and more on Jan 12, 2017.
  • The Console features full 1080p when docked
  • Nintendo Switch features a 6-inch 720p display that features multi-touch
  • Switch to support GameCube Virtual Console games