The Nintendo Switch launched today and with it came the new Legend of Zelda adventure.
Digital Foundry released a video comparing how the game runs when the Switch is portable versus how it runs in the docked mode after installing the day one patch.
One big difference is the resolution of the game being 900p while docked and 720p while being handheld. The draw distance and shadow quality on both options remain largely the same which is impressive. The Switch’s screen runs in native 720p so it still looks great despite being a lower resolution.
The frames per second is what most players will be looking and very surprisingly, the game runs better portable versus docked. The framerate remains stable at 30 fps portable but the docked console can see drops to about 20 fps, It doesn’t seem to have any indication of happening and happens at random, whether there is action going on or not. The drops can be jarring but it shouldn’t ruin the experience for you but it’s still discouraging to see drops like this.
Digital Foundry concludes that handheld play is the optimal way to play right now.
