Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Run AMAZING with an Overclocked Switch 

The pause in the beginning got me good 😂

Gotta go Fast(er)

I wouldn’t have even known that buffering in the beginning was fake if I wouldn’t have read the comments

it's not just the underpowered cpu and gpu, this game is constantly loading new textures from STORAGE, there are too many textures in this game to dump all the data needed into memory to run smoothly. Even on PC on yuzu where it behaves closer to a switch i see frame stuttering hard when running the game off an HDD then better on an SSD and best if i make a virtual drive on my RAM. Then on Ryujinx where it preloads the entire shader cache into memory at every start there is significant performance boosts but pokemon sv uses up 10gigs of ram thats more than the game itself uses up on my drive.

Given that BOTW was the first game to undergo development for the Switch, BOTW2 releasing with a reprised/new model Switch would not surprise me at all

Dev kits are usually significantly more powerful than release variants. It’s possible that the performance was much better in testing due to higher clock speeds and they didn’t expect retail consoles to be that bad.

For me, Area Zero had a very low framerate when I first entered. It wasn't until the recent firmware update that Area Zero started working normally. If they have DLC for these games I really hope they learn from this.

I do really hope the next switch model is significantly more powerful. I'd happily pay more.

I have a V1 switch and my game drops to 10 fps when I go through the tagtree thicket. I definitely do not think that they tested this game on older switches to check performance, because I refuse to believe they experienced the same lag I did and said "yup, this is acceptable". I would hope that it's the latter and that they're working on developing a newer switch/switch pro that has a better chip. But here's to hoping I guess!

The one thing I truly appreciate with you as someone who covers a lot of Nintendo games, is the fact that you pull no punches when it comes to mistakes they make. You don’t simply attack anyone but professionally critique the issues that a lot of apologists ignore.

I like to think that there is a nintendo game dev out there that will watch this and shed a tear at their struggles finally being understood.

I think your prediction about Nintendo waiting for the new Zelda game to come is correct. Makes total sense they would release the new and more powerful switch with one of their star child games.

Clever intro! Had me rewind a couple times just to admire the editing of it. 👍🏻

I have Switch Lites, so this answers why I have had fewer issues with the games than what others have complained about. Thanks, Austin!

I have to say. I really loved to listen to your monolog here! Nicely written script! On point and makes someone think about all that's happened. Great work :)

I think the most likely scenario is that Executives are constantly overpromising on release dates and game developers are working on a timeline that is not feasible to meet, therefore sacrifices have to be made in order to meet the deadline. Hopefully they continue to optimize the game and it keeps getting better.

Love the intro

I saw that intro and I appreciate what you’ve done with it.

It’s amazing to see what scarlet and violet could have looked like if things went right

I literally just upgraded to an OLED so I’m gonna be so bummed out if they announce a new switch in like 5 months

That's the best intro you've ever had lol!!!

Always love your videos man! Keep up the great work

It'd be interesting to see scarlet vs violet in comparison of performance. Speedrunners have abandoned violet as a version because it runs a lot slower over time thanks to Miraidons model and effects when you use boost or glide etc. It's nothing massive but it's an interesting difference.

This is awesome and very interesting indeed! Thank you for putting up time to investigate this.

Love how it still lags and still looks worse than BOTW. A game that was a release title for Switch. We have to melt our switch just to get pokemon looking half decent from a billiom dollar company. Ridiculous.

It’s so awesome how popular you’ve become because of these videos, 100% deserves. Amazing job and keep up the good work!

Always outstanding quality videos! I had that feeling earlier this year for the new Nintendo switch. Bought myself the new oled and planning to trade in my old one for the newer model.

THANK YOU for this video! The Switch performance details in your video led me to change the Switch’s TV Resolution setting to 720p in an attempt to improve docked performance. Eliminating the upscale required from native 720 to 1080 output had a substantial impact. It reduced lag and stabilized frame rate while sacrificing a little graphic fidelity. I imagine my gameplay in docked mode is now closer to how it was intended. Just a bandaid solution and I hope Game Freak can develop the miracle update that’s needed to run PKMN S&V at high resolution with minimal dropped frames on the underpowered Switch. I’m on Gen2 Switch (bigger battery, not OLED) and game software is saved to internal memory.

This was a great video and unlike other youtubers, you took your time to collect information and test the game using the full potential of its chip to list multiple reasons why you believe we will receive a new hardware system next year along side the release of Zelda tears of the kingdom. Keep it up Austin!

I think the levincia thing was this games "big city". Your celadon, goldenrod, jubilife, especially castellia. Every game has always had that one big city. Black and white did a good job making every city look different, yet have large cities.

The thing about a recent big nintendo release is that I'm now singing along to the end song of these videos. Love your work Austin.

Imagine bricking your switch so that the worst Pokémon game ever released runs normally.

Austin, thank you for explaining this so well. I love the game but this definitely helped me understand how the hardware itself affects the experience.

THE LAG IN THE INTRO GOT ME SO MAD XDDDD

Bro the stutter at the beginning got me hahaha. good one.

That intro!!! Austin John Plays... Sir you on another level!

Oh wow, here literally seconds after uploading??? What are the chances?! :D hahah thanks for all your videos dude. They’re amazing, you’re amazing, thank you so much man!

That pause... nice one. I still say that S&V needed AT LEAST another 6 months of development, but I'm just a gamer, what would I know?

You got me in the beginning; I thought my internet was acting up 😅

The fake buffering in the intro made me burst out laughing! Love your subtle nudges even in the editing lol

I know nothing about programming and coding but when I play this open world it feels different than other open worlds, like it FEELS like its trying to render the entire map at once and process every detail not even close to you, instead of like rendering what in your visible vicinity if that makes sense

That intro was too smooth lol

This has been literally the best insight into the whole performance fisco while also tying it together with the mysterious switch 2/pro

When you've played Scarlet and Violet so much that the intro didn't feel that weird

Glad to see that you have facts and educated guesses with backup information for your theories instead of just using excuses like "They are just money hungry. They give us an unfinished product because they will make money."

Apparently, removing Ed Sheeran's song and removing a single line of code that limits FPS can also bring the same effect. That's why a lot of SV mods for optimisation have those features included.

One of your best videos man! Really interesting, it shows that in part it is greatly frustrating that timelines are in part effective. We have a good game that runs on an old system so why stop now.

That pause in the intro got me lol

It's WILD to see scarlet/violet run so smooth. I'm shooketh

I recently went back to playing SwSh and am appreciating/enjoying it so much more after playing SV. You take the little things for granted like be able to physically walk into a store and Pokémon center.

Thanks for all these SV videos!

Love your sweater, it's pretty funny. The lake is so bad for me that I cant even look at it without my frames slowing to a crawl.

All games can have different settings applied. They can silently enable new settings for the oled/V2 and less for the V1 if they wanted. But if that would have damaged the internal components, consume the thermal paste faster and damage the battery (or consume it faster), i'm totally with their decision to leave it as it is, except they could have worked on it way better, considering that there are other open world games on Switch with more content and way better textures with solid 30/60 fps too.

Curious about the large scarlet/violet box in the background 👀

Very interesting presentation, thank you very much for this video and your work overall !!

super interesting video. crazy too, how much difference a solid 30 fps would have made. no doubt there would still be complaints. but seeing it run with a consistent framerate almost felt like i was looking at another game.

I really hope that more powerful sequel to the Switch discussed in this video is coming that runs SV the way it’s intended to play, because I feel like most people playing agree, this is one of if not the best Gen in every other aspect of the games, it is just held back by the performance. Having it go at full speed and getting to see the “true potential” of the games would be great to have a better sense of what quality they can have on the whole. I hope that if they do that, they’ll have an update that addresses the things that are there by design like the low poly models for distant Mons, etc. Guess it’s a waiting game for now. Edit - Just to clarify, because I see some comments assuming I think otherwise: I don’t think SV are perfect games, and I do think GameFreak made their share of mistakes in how they were handled, especially on polishing them before they came out. I just also find that they are a lot of fun and have several great qualities in spite of those issues, a sentiment a lot of others seem to have as well. I also reckon the answer to why those issues exist is more nuanced than “nobody at GameFreak cares.” Perhaps some of them, especially on an executive level, rushed things and didn’t care about the impact that would have on the quality, but that isn’t a reflection on the work of the artists, writers, region designers and so on that clearly put a lot of effort in. Overgeneralizing to say “therefore, NOBODY at GameFreak cares because somebody there doesn’t about this one aspect” just doesn’t strike me as having an accurate bead on the reality of the situation. Nobody should have to upgrade if it was promised to run fine on the current hardware, I agree. I’m simply curious about the impression it does stand to make if it ran better, as issues with challenge or story are more subjective but the performance aspect is an objective problem that holds back how favorable I think we are able to look at the good aspects as a result.

So if it unloads the map behind you, do Pokémon only actually spawn on screen then? That would reduce a lot of panic shiny hunting and trying not to miss one

Thank you for talking about this. It makes me understand more about the aspects of Scarlet & Violet. Sometimes while I'm journeying through the game, it'll pause me in mid-step or mid-air; now I know it's the game trying to catch up. Is it possible for Nintendo to create a patch that ups the frame-rate of the game without overclocking the Switch? I honestly don't mind pixelated scenes from far away, but the frame-rate is getting to me. Sometimes it's so bad, it makes me feel like my game might crash & I'm saving constantly (I prefer autosave off).

The part that really kills me is the fact that we will never know. Whether thats GF/TPC's fear of biting the hand that feeds or Nintendo being Nintendo, it kills to think that zero communication is coming out from any of this outside of "Yeah yeah we heard ya. Here's a patch now shush."

Regardless, I wish they would at least implement different profiles for the OLED and mini. Buying that new hardware should come with *some* perks however miniscule. Doesn't stop the game from working on old hardware with a different profile. Excellent discussion and video!

The funny thing about scarlet and violet is when I first play the game the sky was completely blacked out and inverted for the first few hours of gameplay. I did not expect this comment to get this much attention.

Bro tht smooth biking with miraidon was so mesmerizing I want someone to make a vid of them going through the whole region on miraidon with 30-60 fps

Ok you got me with that intro man. 😂😂😂

Ah yes, Lagtree Thicket and Casseslowdown Lake are huge avoid areas for me. I was shiny hunting Slowpoke in the lake last night and amount of Pokémon spawned in dropped the frame rate to like a brutal 5 per second. I ended up spawning a shiny Veluza instead in the water and it took me nearly 5 mins to throw 3 balls, I thought it was gonna crash it was chugging so hard.

If they released a more powerful new switch that would be super cool, but I'd also feel super scammed for getting the new decal oled switch this fall.

the glitching at the beginning was great

such an attentive content creator. Love the vids brother

1 year later still waiting on a Switch 2...

I would love an Austin John Podcast. listening to the end of this video was SO entertaining. You make some awesome content!

Expounding on the Cassaroya Lake issue, I have found that at some points I am entirely unable to open the menus... Ah well...

That intro was the perfect touch

I love this video. This provides something that I value alot more than alot of things...say it with me guys... "CONTEXT". As always thank you Austin

thank you so much for this video i have been subscribed since 20118 and have always thought your content was great i especially enjoyed the ultralocke series and would love to see more content like that in the future!

Good analysis at the end. Not bad thoughts.

The intro got me like "ugh not again, gotta repair my PC again"

A new switch could probably make this run alot better, like the overclocking, but I think this game just isn't the best optimized in the first place, big games like Xenoblade, Breath of the wild managed to run at 30fps very consistently without it. I do hope they will continue patching this game, and if there is a new switch I hope they can make this game as good as the overclocking.

I think you might be on to something about Tears of the Kingdom and in imo they switched releases because they knew Pokemon is a way stronger ip that could have record sales even with the worst running version of a Pokemon game in history lol

Very interesting video I could see any of those options being the case of why the game run the way it do.

Austin John coming with the hard hitting journalism! Lol definitely interesting points you made!

It kind if makes sense that it was originally going to be on a better system because it is strange that we got 3 pokemon games in such a short amount of time. A later release would have made more sense.

I'm wondering if, due to the success of the Switch, Nintendo would plan a Switch 2 with full backwards compatibility with Switch titles (and maybe accessories). Both the WiiU and the 3DS had full backwards compatibility with their much more successful predecessors, and to my knowledge no hardware revisions ever removed that, unlike the Wii with GameCube. If a Switch 2 was to release I think it could have the ability to performance boost certain supported titles like the XBSX|S and PS5 in addition to full hardware emulation like 3DS->DS and WiiU->Wii. I don't own any other consoles as I just play Nintendo and PC so I'm not sure if you can just stick any disc in or download any last gen game from the store but from a software development perspective I can't see an issue with a full sequel system running older Switch games. I've also noticed a lot of games that have come out after 2020ish just not support touch screen in handheld mode at all (or barely at all) vs. older titles that did. Like... I think the most jarring for me was Animal Crossing. So many menus look so touch friendly but then just don't work. My sample size is pretty small though- I'm the type to put a lot of time into a few games rather than own a large library of games. Makes me wonder if Nintendo would consider a non-hybrid successor. People like me who enjoy playing handheld 99% of the time would be left out but I know a lot of core fans play docked almost exclusively and the Wii did amazing even without portability. The GameCube with its form factor and handle and WiiU with the touch pad were kind of dabbling in what makes the Switch special, but both systems did worse than the Wii and Switch. Another thing I could think Nintendo could do is that instead of a Switch Pro, release a Pro Dock with an external, more powerful GPU inside. External GPUs have been around for a while so the technology minus the GPU itself isn't too expensive. Also, it takes out a major heat source of the Switch, meaning using that boost mode using the CPU + external GPU instead of the internal would be less taxing on the main machine. The dock would have to have active cooling (fans, heat sink etc) itself to support something like that, which would be integral especially with the newest OLED models because OLED displays can be damaged and discolored with prologed heat exposure. I would definitely prefer this over a Switch 2 or a Switch Pro. Would probably be a $150 to $200 accessory versus a $400-450 upgrade.

Switch: I want to be notice NOW! *starts spinning loudly*

Thank you for giving me another point to help defend how good the game is. They really are trying! And isn’t this basically the first time they are updating Pokémon games after release (that isn’t about patching exploit glitches)? I love s/v and seeing it only improving makes me so happy!

Honestly the only improvements I've seen with the new update was the pokemons eyes finally closing when I put them to sleep. Even then ill occasionally still see their eyes open. My characters face doesn't do facial expressions anymore when I make a sandwiches so it seems like they did 1 step forward and 2 steps back again.

Austin, they have been talking about a Switch Pro unit since the day switch came out. It's all hope and based on nothing substantial.

Absolutely love that opening funniest thing ive seen in a while

I was saying since day one, i don't belive it was tested on the normal switch until the very end of development, or it wouldn't came out looking like that. You gave me a convincing explanation as to why.

Amazing!!

Can't wait for that Switch Pro, my thought process is that this was meant to come out when the OLED did, but because of chip shortages they released the OLED with just a display upgrade and no new chip despite them planning for it.

I was waiting for you to announce a new console

I’m glad y’all game looking good finally Sent from my Modded Switch

The last section of this video really hit different. It’s crazy to think about and I could definitely see Nintendo doing something like you explained. I almost would’ve rather waited out for a better switch and a better performing pokemon game with more attention to detail. But I still love Scarlet/Violet for what they are. Here’s to hoping for that switch pro asap

We are definitely overdue now for a more powerful switch, but I think if it was coming in may they would have announced it by now. I think there is a better chance of zelda getting delayed again and releasing with the more powerful switch next holiday.

The intro was hilarious 🤣🤣

OMG I love that fake out on the Intro

I always wondered why Xenoblade 3 ran so well, while Pokemon SV has these issues. The 'planned for a new Nintendo Switch that was delayed due to chip-shortages'-theory seems very plausible. Especially when you compare the size of the game with the size of Pokemon SS. I've been playing Pokemon since Red&Blue without skipping a single game and I've never seen a new generation raise the bar by this much. This game may not perform as intended, but it does make me really hopeful and confident that Generation X will blow us away.

Here's my take. Pokemon always seems to push the right up to and even past its limits with each passing system. Black and White pushed the sprite system as far as it possibly could go, even edging onto 3D graphics. That led to them going full 3D on the new 3DS system. Sun and Moon saw them making basically a sword and shield esque style world, but crammed onto the tiny 3DS screens. If you watch gameplay from SM/USUM projected to a TV it's beautiful and looks a lot like sword and shield. Two gens on the DS. Two gens on the 3DS. Now two gens on the Switch. And clearly SV has pushed the Switch up to and past its very limits. So, I think you're right that a new system is around the corner. One that we're all gonna have to buy to continue playing new games. This is completely in line with their way of doing things.

Intro got me good 🔥

You have some very good theories.