Some time ago, everything was done with FRAPS. These days, however, Riva Tuner Statistics Server and OCAT are the go-to tools. For decades, PC users have relied on frame rate information and monitoring various parameters displayed on the screen to get a sense of how their PC has been used. What if similar tools were also available to console gamers? Well, a recent intervention in Switch Modding has made this possible. Frame rates, percentages of CPU and GPU usage, temperature monitoring, fan speed: all these parameters have come to the fore and give us a fascinating insight into the use of Switch hardware by the various titles. during the game.
Obviously, all of this is only possible on the early versions of Switch, which were vulnerable to a hardware exploit recovery mode on which custom firmware was developed. Yes, you can fire up these tools on your own, but they do offer a way of piracy and it’s no wonder if these modified consoles connect to Nintendo’s online services, they are regularly banned. But the interesting part for us at Digital Foundry is the proliferation of homebrew software. Recently released was the Tesla Framework, code that runs on the Switch’s CPU-only SoC, and capable of bringing an interactive overlay to the screen during any gaming session. Tesla was immediately followed by the release of the switch overlay mod, which essentially brings a lot of the functionality of Riva Tuner Statistics Server to Tesla. So here we are at the full analysis: what does it tell us?
Basically you have instant confirmation that Nintendo is reserving an entire processor core for the OS and UI: the overlay shows that cores 0, 1, and 2 are dormant while navigating through the menus, with only heart three active. Likewise, the information on the screen indicates that during the docked configuration, the clock frequencies are fully unlocked during the game: 1020 MHz for the CPU and 768 MHz for the GPU, and 1600 for the EMC (controller of built-in memory).
Anyway, we now have the opportunity (and we have somehow done this in the past) to see how the hardware behaves in real time with the boost mode. This is the ability for some games to temporarily overclock the CPU to improve load times. For example, when you die in Mario Odyssey, the screen turns black and the game returns you to the previous checkpoint. This is a relatively quick operation normally, but in Mario Odyssey it is faster thanks to the boost mode. While loading, the CPU is temporarily overclocked to 1785 MHz, equal to + 75% of normal frequency. In contrast, the GPU is under-synchronized at 76.8 MHz, which is 1/10 of its maximum frequency. Nintendo essentially balances the heat output inside the SoC by overclocking the processor to the maximum and reducing the GPU to its minimum conditions.
This technique is used in many modern games: Wolfenstein Youngblood and Crash Team Racing exploit it, while Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey have been fixed to include it. The load times are determined not only by the speed of the internal NAND and your SD card, but also by the CPU which has to decompress the assets in the background. With the screen black or displaying a static image, the graphics component does not need to be operating at full power. From the first touches of gameplay, the system restores the default clock frequencies. The boost mode certainly works great, as we found a 7 second lead in loading the main menu to the Grand Plateau in Breath of the Wild (23s vs 30s).
The system monitor overlay also reveals how some titles have managed to push Switch’s hardware to its limits to the point that Nintendo was forced to step in by providing an OS-level performance mode (one thing aside from the boost mode which only applies to portable configuration) When the switch clock frequencies were first revealed, the CPU was locked at 1020 MHz and the GPU at 307.2 MHz. Right before launch, portable mode saw the GPU increase more reasonably to 384 MHz. There are some more complex titles these days pushing the GPU to 460 MHz, but that’s only part of the story.
Mortal Kombat 11 is a prime example. Once the arena is loaded, the GPU increases by 460 MHz from opening cutscenes to gameplay. This is an exceptionally high clock rate, but limited to gameplay only. In fact, the menu reverts to 384 MHz. Super Mario Odyssey uses the same improved clock mode, but some surprisingly they don’t use it. Hellblade: Senua’s sacrifice would have benefited tremendously: Its dynamic resolution would be higher and the frame rate more solid, but it runs on the standard GPU clock of 384 MHz.
We find the same situation in Link’s Awakening, which experienced frame rate issues, and some scenarios in the past have shown huge benefits in overclocking the console. The developers may have gone for standard frequencies to conserve battery life, as users are more prone to playing RPGs for long, continuous sessions. But there is an interesting starting point regarding this game. GPU overclocking certainly helps solidify the frame rate, but CPU and GPU monitoring suggests that a lot of resources go unused in the SoC when these issues are running. stuttering occurs, suggesting that the problem lies elsewhere.
One of the most fascinating results of this monitoring tool is the dynamic clock in portable mode. Games use them are few, and among them there is Luigi’s Mansion 3. The GPU varies between 307.2 MHz and 384 MHz, depending on the scenario, and in the lighter ones, it aims to preserve battery life. However, in the id Tech 6 engine used in ports developed by Panic Button, the GPU oscillates across the full range of available frequencies: 307.2 MHz, 384 MHz and also 460 MHz. Recently, fixes have been released that improve the performance of older Tech Portage IDs, and we are wondering if they are related to this factor.
The system monitor overlay also gives us detailed information about the internal temperatures of the switch. In docked mode, Doom and Wolfenstein are usually titles that focus on hardware by forcing the fan to run at full speed. In an air-conditioned office at 22 ° C, these two titles generated a lot of heat in the console bringing the SoC to 60 ° C and 55 ° C respectively. And all this with a fan running at 47%. Obviously higher speeds can be achieved, but in our experience these two titles were the ones that put the hardware stress the most, with Luigi’s Mansion 3 strangely bringing the fan to 100%. Considering these are technically complex titles, and all of them carry the CPU at 90%, that makes sense. And at the same time, it indicates that we have a lot of room for overclocking: since the TJmax of the SoC is 100 ° C, 60 ° C is very safe. The biggest problem with overclocking is definitely fan noise, which gets very annoying above 60 ° C.
But maybe the increase in clock rates is somehow in future plans from Nintendo. We know Nintendo has a developer mode that sets the processor to 1220 MHz, which is a 19.6% increase in frequency of actions. Our tests show that thanks to the OC homebrew sysclck tool, this frequency has no impact on the battery and helps a lot in solving the performance issues that plague many titles.
The system monitor overlay shows that titles like Smash Bros Ultimate, Doom, Wolfenstein, and Luigi’s Mansion 3 use over 90% CPU and more power would definitely help improve performance. A quick test at Wolfenstein Youngblood shows big improvements in fluency in the initial part of the first level, for example. Nintendo has shown that it wants to change the performance profiles of Switch as we encountered dynamic frequencies for the GPU, a boost mode for downloads, and a GPU set to 460 MHz in portable mode. There is therefore a good chance that the company will continue on this path.
Whatever the reason, whether for monitoring, overclocking, or gaming mods (as we saw recently with The Witcher 3), the low-level access to the SoC allowed us to fully understand the how the Nintendo Hybrid Console works and how the company continues to improve its performance. The detail, the system monitor overlay illustrates the machine’s versatility and the areas of hardware that can be pushed further by balancing temperature, fan speed, GPU load, and performance. This is the most general analysis we’ve done so far on the behavior of a current generation console, and it will be interesting to see what Nintendo’s next move will be.
Source : Reddit
