Thermal Noise Analysis of the Nintendo Switch: A Closer Look

The Nintendo Switch has been a topic of discussion among gamers and tech enthusiasts alike, with many wondering how this portable console would hold up to heavy use. In our quest to provide an honest review, we decided to conduct a thermal noise analysis on the Switch, exploring its performance under various conditions.

Our test setup involved placing the Switch in a relatively small enclosure, which we used as a makeshift anechoic chamber to reduce external noise interference. We then connected the console to a power source and began our experiment. To provide a baseline for comparison, we started by observing the fan noise output of the device under normal conditions. The decel output increased as the load ramped up, with dips corresponding again with loading screens or menu popups.

Interestingly, the device was muted for this test, allowing us to focus on the sound output without any distractions. We observed that the fan RPM increased steadily as the temperature and memory temperature climbed, resulting in a DBA output of around 33-35 dB(A) when under heavier loads, including combat workloads. While this may seem loud, we found it to be completely bearable, especially assuming you're setting up the console at a TV where you're approximately 5 to 10 feet away and have likely got game audio playing.

However, the noise becomes more noticeable in handheld mode, particularly when the device is spitting out heat out of the back of the unit. This is also true for temperature, although depending on your head's position, you might not feel it as much. The type of noise produced by the Switch is of a high frequency nature, generally producing an annoying whine that falls within the 1400 Hz to 600 Hz range.

To better understand this behavior, we logged the tone output of the Switch fan with relative accuracy using our limited test equipment. We observed how the temperature and noise ramped up alongside each other as the fan RPM climbed steadily. This chart shows us that there's some sort of clock management going on based on thermals, which is further supported by observing gameplay and seeing clear stutters or frame dips in popular games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

We noticed that these poor performance periods often corresponded with the 59°C temperature threshold. This led us to believe that there's a clock reduction mechanism at play, possibly due to optimization issues or excessive polygon count on the scene at once. To validate this theory, we would need to improve cooling, but for now, it remains an option.

In our exploration of the Switch's thermal noise characteristics, we've learned that while it may approach or hit a throttle temperature under heavy loads, it's not a major concern when using it in normal conditions. Our testing showed that the device is relatively quiet compared to other gaming consoles, and with proper use, you shouldn't have any issues.

If you're interested in learning more about our findings and exploring this topic further, be sure to check out our upcoming case reviews on the website. We'll also be posting a review of the 1700X soon, which will give you an idea of how it compares to the Switch's performance under heavier loads.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enit works the Nintendo switch that we tore down and the joycon which was really the nightmare to put back together and the dock are all functional so with that we were able to go forth and do some thermal benchmarking and noise level benchmarking on the switch which uses about a 25 mm fan 24 to 25 so we've got some thermal and noise analysis on this it's a bit of a fun side project no frame rate stuff as of yet maybe in the future at some point but before getting to the switch this content is brought to you by EVGA and their 1080ti ftw3 icx card that's coming out soon evga's 1080ti ftw3 uses therer is placed all over the board to provide a reading on vrm and vram performance useful for lowering overall noise output of the GPU fan learn more in the link in the description below the Nintendo Shield uses a modified Maxwell s so from Nvidia it has some modifications in theory from Nintendo we don't know exactly what those are but it is a Maxwell s so because it's a Maxwell s so and because we're running on a super lock down OS thank you Nintendo we have no real way of monitoring anything that's going on in the system that means for any measurement of temperature of frequency frame rate anything like that we need external tools software Hardware otherwise so for the thermal measurements on this we're using thermocouples I've explained these several times before in videos on the channel but you can check the link in the description below for the article version of this video where we explain testing methodology in addition to the those thermal couples for the temperature readings we're using a uh noise meter just a DB meter to measure the noise output of the fan as it ramps into a heavier workload so we're able to plot temperature versus time and versus noise which is interesting because we can see how the fan handles those heavier workloads considering we have no other way to read the fan Tac we have no to way to read the GPU clock rate or anything like that for today's testing we decided to look at thermal performance versus fan speed and match that against her istics for frame rate and by that basically mean observation because again there are no frame rate monitoring tools that are public without making our own for thermals we're using those thermal couples attached to the top center of the S so die and to the top center of the memory module closest to the USB port in the switch the USB type-c port those thermal couples only give us the case temperature of the die or the memory module casing so we don't have a proper Junction temperature as of now which is really the interesting one but we can look at the case temperature and still figure out if there's a throttle Point based on the numbers it outputs and the sort of observation of frame rate within the game in this case that would be Legend of Zelda we do know that the Tegra X1 this is the X1 not the Nintendo modified one will operate at higher clock speeds when under a juncture temperature of 70c and it drops about 6% when under or between 70 and 90c and then reaches TJ Maxx somewhere around 105c depending on which specific implement a you have we're not sure how comparable the switch asoc is in regard to these temperatures but it's probably not all that different still we're working with what is effectively a t case measurement not a t Junction measurement so do keep that in mind now again for full testing methodology check the link in the description below that'll talk about how the thermal couples are set up and the position of the noise meter and things like that the frequency spectrum analysis is not something we do a whole lot of so it's not as scientifically defined as the other processes in this testing like the thermal measurements but hopefully it will give a baseline as to what type of frequency is emitted from the fan it is kind of shrill uh so that's the best we've got for you if you have suggestions on improving frequency spectrum analysis in the future post them below because this is something that I've been looking into getting more involved with in the future for PC components let's start with just the temperatures then look at noise and then plot them against one another this chart shows the switch from initial boot through gameplay in breath of the Wild and the big dip around the 12200 second Mark is when we were forced into the inventory menu by a prompt which immediately drives temperature down about 9 Celsius in some cases the menu and tutorial interrupts help the switch recover its temperature to some extent and this can be seen when observing fan noise versus onscreen action as well for the temperature chart red represents the memory temperature and that is again the module located closest to the type-c port and orange represents the S so temperature there is one other memory package on the switch but we're only measuring that one Clos to the USB type-c slot at boot temperatures are expectedly close to our ambient temperature of roughly 28 C throughout this test as we launch and load the game temperatures rise until they hit about 57 cels on both measured devices and then drop with each menu or prompt or interrupt it's not until around the 1600 second Mark in this chart that the switch starts dithering around where we assume its maximum temperature spec is which is triggered most consistently by engaging in combat with multip enemies concurrently the S so drives up to around 59 C and each time we hit that 59 to 60 C effective case temperature we were observing a frame rate reduction or stutter in gameplay and combat it seems that the switch is oscillating its clock between maximum boost and some lower value when attempting to impose thermal constraints though we don't know precisely what temperature in terms of Junction this constraint would start existing because again we don't have a junction measurement and we have no access to official white papers given that this is just a package reading 59c is actually pretty high Junction temperature would be a good bit higher than this if not significantly higher and let's look now at DBA output Standalone over a shorter period of time for a baseline of the fan noise here we're seeing the decel output increase as load ramps with dips corresponding again with loading screens or menu popups and just for the record the device was muted for this towards seconds 400 to 500 were near multiple other actors in game who are driving up the fan RPM DBA output Peaks at around 33 to 35 DBA when under heavier loads including those combat workloads and this is about the noise output of our case testbench PC when in the fractal defin C that we're currently testing and soon reviewing so in terms of comparing it to your PC it's really not that loud in terms of raw DBA output this is completely bearable especially assuming you're setting up the console at a TV where you're probably 5 to 10 ft away and youve likely got game audio playing these things will completely offis the noise in handheld mode though the noise becomes a bit more noticeable but that's mostly because it's spitting it into your face out of the back of the unit and this is also true for temperature though depending on where your head is you might not actually feel that the type of noise produced by the switch is of a high frequency nature generally producing an annoying wine that's particularly heavy in the 1400 HZ sometimes 400 600 HZ range depending on just how fast the Fan's going this isn't a perfect test environment as stated we're not using an anaco chamber or anything like that but we're still able to log the tone output by the switch fan with relative accuracy here's a sample of what that fan sounds like let's look at the temperatures versus the noise plotted against one another this chart shows how the temperature and noise ramp up alongside the other fan noise and therefore fan RPM climb steadily as s so and memory temperature increase this chart is cropped in to an earlier part of the test so we're only maxing out at around 57c instead of the 59c max temperature reading that we had and we're able to see that the DBA output remains pretty much in a bearable range of 33 to 35 DBA and again considering you'll have volume and probably distance that's really nothing to get mad about what is annoying is the higher pitched frequency if you're close enough to hear it or if you're particularly sens sensitive to those frequencies what this mostly shows is that there seems to be some sort of clock management going on based on thermals and that's again without a hard measurement for frame rate but we can observe gameplay and see very clear stutters or frame dips as many other people will tell you in plain breath of the Wild on the switch particularly we can observe those frame anomalies or poor performance periods and plot that versus the temperature and generally with our Thermo couple hitting 59c which really who knows what the Junction temperature is at that effective case temperature but with our thermal couple hitting and maintaining at that temperature output it would seem that's about when the clock starts to either throttle or there's something going on within the frequency and boosting functionality to prohibit a runaway thermal scenario or start triggering other thermal trip points in the case of the switch seeing those lower dips in frame rate correspond with the 59c temperature would lead us to believe that in theory there's some sort of clock reduction that's not necessarily the only reason you would have those poor performance periods but it could just be poor optimization it could be too many polyes and too much geometry on the scene at once but generally it is during those heavy combat periods one way to validate this Theory would be to improve cooling so that's an option uh but for now in the immediate future we have a few new case reviews coming up this week there will be a 1700x review on the website only no video for that so you have to go to the website today for that review it will be posted around the same time as this video give or take a few hours overall though the switch for noise output not so bad DBA is okay temperature is a bit warm uh definitely approaching either some kind of throttle temperature or if not that just the game is way too much for the so to handle in those heavy load combat scenarios particularly with the more uh geometrically complex mobs but overall that's what we've got for you for the switch for thermal noise analysis I wish we could do more but based on the limited tools available that is to say strictly Hardware Solutions no software Solutions that's the best that we can do today so thank you for watching help us out on patreon.com Gamers Nexus if you like this type of reporting it is definitely a bit unique for this one was a fun project Gamers nexus.net for the full article or for the r7700 X review if you prefer that subscribe for more I'll see you all next timeit works the Nintendo switch that we tore down and the joycon which was really the nightmare to put back together and the dock are all functional so with that we were able to go forth and do some thermal benchmarking and noise level benchmarking on the switch which uses about a 25 mm fan 24 to 25 so we've got some thermal and noise analysis on this it's a bit of a fun side project no frame rate stuff as of yet maybe in the future at some point but before getting to the switch this content is brought to you by EVGA and their 1080ti ftw3 icx card that's coming out soon evga's 1080ti ftw3 uses therer is placed all over the board to provide a reading on vrm and vram performance useful for lowering overall noise output of the GPU fan learn more in the link in the description below the Nintendo Shield uses a modified Maxwell s so from Nvidia it has some modifications in theory from Nintendo we don't know exactly what those are but it is a Maxwell s so because it's a Maxwell s so and because we're running on a super lock down OS thank you Nintendo we have no real way of monitoring anything that's going on in the system that means for any measurement of temperature of frequency frame rate anything like that we need external tools software Hardware otherwise so for the thermal measurements on this we're using thermocouples I've explained these several times before in videos on the channel but you can check the link in the description below for the article version of this video where we explain testing methodology in addition to the those thermal couples for the temperature readings we're using a uh noise meter just a DB meter to measure the noise output of the fan as it ramps into a heavier workload so we're able to plot temperature versus time and versus noise which is interesting because we can see how the fan handles those heavier workloads considering we have no other way to read the fan Tac we have no to way to read the GPU clock rate or anything like that for today's testing we decided to look at thermal performance versus fan speed and match that against her istics for frame rate and by that basically mean observation because again there are no frame rate monitoring tools that are public without making our own for thermals we're using those thermal couples attached to the top center of the S so die and to the top center of the memory module closest to the USB port in the switch the USB type-c port those thermal couples only give us the case temperature of the die or the memory module casing so we don't have a proper Junction temperature as of now which is really the interesting one but we can look at the case temperature and still figure out if there's a throttle Point based on the numbers it outputs and the sort of observation of frame rate within the game in this case that would be Legend of Zelda we do know that the Tegra X1 this is the X1 not the Nintendo modified one will operate at higher clock speeds when under a juncture temperature of 70c and it drops about 6% when under or between 70 and 90c and then reaches TJ Maxx somewhere around 105c depending on which specific implement a you have we're not sure how comparable the switch asoc is in regard to these temperatures but it's probably not all that different still we're working with what is effectively a t case measurement not a t Junction measurement so do keep that in mind now again for full testing methodology check the link in the description below that'll talk about how the thermal couples are set up and the position of the noise meter and things like that the frequency spectrum analysis is not something we do a whole lot of so it's not as scientifically defined as the other processes in this testing like the thermal measurements but hopefully it will give a baseline as to what type of frequency is emitted from the fan it is kind of shrill uh so that's the best we've got for you if you have suggestions on improving frequency spectrum analysis in the future post them below because this is something that I've been looking into getting more involved with in the future for PC components let's start with just the temperatures then look at noise and then plot them against one another this chart shows the switch from initial boot through gameplay in breath of the Wild and the big dip around the 12200 second Mark is when we were forced into the inventory menu by a prompt which immediately drives temperature down about 9 Celsius in some cases the menu and tutorial interrupts help the switch recover its temperature to some extent and this can be seen when observing fan noise versus onscreen action as well for the temperature chart red represents the memory temperature and that is again the module located closest to the type-c port and orange represents the S so temperature there is one other memory package on the switch but we're only measuring that one Clos to the USB type-c slot at boot temperatures are expectedly close to our ambient temperature of roughly 28 C throughout this test as we launch and load the game temperatures rise until they hit about 57 cels on both measured devices and then drop with each menu or prompt or interrupt it's not until around the 1600 second Mark in this chart that the switch starts dithering around where we assume its maximum temperature spec is which is triggered most consistently by engaging in combat with multip enemies concurrently the S so drives up to around 59 C and each time we hit that 59 to 60 C effective case temperature we were observing a frame rate reduction or stutter in gameplay and combat it seems that the switch is oscillating its clock between maximum boost and some lower value when attempting to impose thermal constraints though we don't know precisely what temperature in terms of Junction this constraint would start existing because again we don't have a junction measurement and we have no access to official white papers given that this is just a package reading 59c is actually pretty high Junction temperature would be a good bit higher than this if not significantly higher and let's look now at DBA output Standalone over a shorter period of time for a baseline of the fan noise here we're seeing the decel output increase as load ramps with dips corresponding again with loading screens or menu popups and just for the record the device was muted for this towards seconds 400 to 500 were near multiple other actors in game who are driving up the fan RPM DBA output Peaks at around 33 to 35 DBA when under heavier loads including those combat workloads and this is about the noise output of our case testbench PC when in the fractal defin C that we're currently testing and soon reviewing so in terms of comparing it to your PC it's really not that loud in terms of raw DBA output this is completely bearable especially assuming you're setting up the console at a TV where you're probably 5 to 10 ft away and youve likely got game audio playing these things will completely offis the noise in handheld mode though the noise becomes a bit more noticeable but that's mostly because it's spitting it into your face out of the back of the unit and this is also true for temperature though depending on where your head is you might not actually feel that the type of noise produced by the switch is of a high frequency nature generally producing an annoying wine that's particularly heavy in the 1400 HZ sometimes 400 600 HZ range depending on just how fast the Fan's going this isn't a perfect test environment as stated we're not using an anaco chamber or anything like that but we're still able to log the tone output by the switch fan with relative accuracy here's a sample of what that fan sounds like let's look at the temperatures versus the noise plotted against one another this chart shows how the temperature and noise ramp up alongside the other fan noise and therefore fan RPM climb steadily as s so and memory temperature increase this chart is cropped in to an earlier part of the test so we're only maxing out at around 57c instead of the 59c max temperature reading that we had and we're able to see that the DBA output remains pretty much in a bearable range of 33 to 35 DBA and again considering you'll have volume and probably distance that's really nothing to get mad about what is annoying is the higher pitched frequency if you're close enough to hear it or if you're particularly sens sensitive to those frequencies what this mostly shows is that there seems to be some sort of clock management going on based on thermals and that's again without a hard measurement for frame rate but we can observe gameplay and see very clear stutters or frame dips as many other people will tell you in plain breath of the Wild on the switch particularly we can observe those frame anomalies or poor performance periods and plot that versus the temperature and generally with our Thermo couple hitting 59c which really who knows what the Junction temperature is at that effective case temperature but with our thermal couple hitting and maintaining at that temperature output it would seem that's about when the clock starts to either throttle or there's something going on within the frequency and boosting functionality to prohibit a runaway thermal scenario or start triggering other thermal trip points in the case of the switch seeing those lower dips in frame rate correspond with the 59c temperature would lead us to believe that in theory there's some sort of clock reduction that's not necessarily the only reason you would have those poor performance periods but it could just be poor optimization it could be too many polyes and too much geometry on the scene at once but generally it is during those heavy combat periods one way to validate this Theory would be to improve cooling so that's an option uh but for now in the immediate future we have a few new case reviews coming up this week there will be a 1700x review on the website only no video for that so you have to go to the website today for that review it will be posted around the same time as this video give or take a few hours overall though the switch for noise output not so bad DBA is okay temperature is a bit warm uh definitely approaching either some kind of throttle temperature or if not that just the game is way too much for the so to handle in those heavy load combat scenarios particularly with the more uh geometrically complex mobs but overall that's what we've got for you for the switch for thermal noise analysis I wish we could do more but based on the limited tools available that is to say strictly Hardware Solutions no software Solutions that's the best that we can do today so thank you for watching help us out on patreon.com Gamers Nexus if you like this type of reporting it is definitely a bit unique for this one was a fun project Gamers nexus.net for the full article or for the r7700 X review if you prefer that subscribe for more I'll see you all next time\n"