Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (Broadcom BCM2837B0) vs Nintendo Switch

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (Broadcom BCM2837B0) CPU1 vs CPU2 Nintendo Switch
Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (Broadcom BCM2837B0) Nintendo Switch

CPU comparison

In this CPU comparison, we compare the Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (Broadcom BCM2837B0) and the Nintendo Switch and use benchmarks to check which processor is faster.

We compare the Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (Broadcom BCM2837B0) 4 core processor released in 02/2016 with the Nintendo Switch which has 8 CPU cores and was introduced in Q1/2017.
Broadcom BCM (3) Family NVIDIA Tegra (2)
Broadcom BCM2837B0 (1) CPU group NVIDIA Tegra X1 (2)
3 Generation 2
Cortex-A15 Architecture Cortex-A57/-A53
Desktop / Server Segment Mobile
-- Predecessor --
Raspberry Pi 4 B (Broadcom BCM2711) Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (Broadcom BCM2837B0) is a 4 core processor with a clock frequency of 1.40 GHz. The processor can compute 4 threads at the same time. The Nintendo Switch clocks with 1.00 GHz (1.75 GHz), has 8 CPU cores and can calculate 8 threads in parallel.

Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (Broadcom BCM2837B0) Characteristic Nintendo Switch
4 Cores 8
4 Threads 8
normal Core architecture hybrid (big.LITTLE)
No Hyperthreading No
Yes Overclocking ? No
1.40 GHz
4x Cortex-A53
A-Core 1.00 GHz (1.75 GHz)
4x Cortex-A57
-- B-Core 1.00 GHz (1.75 GHz)
4x Cortex-A53

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Processors with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors. Algorithms for ML improve their performance the more data they have collected via software. ML tasks can be processed up to 10,000 times faster than with a classic processor.

Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (Broadcom BCM2837B0) Characteristic Nintendo Switch
-- AI hardware --
-- AI specifications --

Internal Graphics

Graphics (iGPU) integrated into the processor not only enable image output without having to rely on a dedicated graphics solution, but can also efficiently accelerate video playback.

Broadcom VideoCore 5 GPU NVIDIA Tegra X1 (Maxwell)
0.40 GHz GPU frequency 0.30 GHz
-- GPU (Turbo) 0.77 GHz
5 GPU Generation 1
40 nm Technology 20 nm
2 Max. displays 1
2 Compute units 2
24 Shader 256
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
1 GB Max. GPU Memory 2 GB
-- DirectX Version 12

Hardware codec support

A photo or video codec that is accelerated in hardware can greatly accelerate the working speed of a processor and extend the battery life of notebooks or smartphones when playing videos.

Broadcom VideoCore 5 GPU NVIDIA Tegra X1 (Maxwell)
No Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) Decode
No Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) Decode
Decode / Encode Codec h264 Decode / Encode
No Codec VP9 Decode
Decode Codec VP8 Decode
No Codec AV1 No
Decode Codec AVC Decode
Decode Codec VC-1 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

Up to 1 GB of memory in a maximum of 1 memory channels is supported by the Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (Broadcom BCM2837B0), while the Nintendo Switch supports a maximum of 4 GB of memory with a maximum memory bandwidth of 25.6 GB/s enabled.

Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (Broadcom BCM2837B0) Characteristic Nintendo Switch
Memory LPDDR4-3200
1 GB Max. Memory 4 GB
1 (Single Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
3.6 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 25.6 GB/s
No ECC No
0.50 MB L2 Cache 2.50 MB
-- L3 Cache --
-- PCIe version --
-- PCIe lanes --
-- PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (Broadcom BCM2837B0) has a TDP of 7 W. The TDP of the Nintendo Switch is 5 W. System integrators use the TDP of the processor as a guide when dimensioning the cooling solution.

Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (Broadcom BCM2837B0) Characteristic Nintendo Switch
7 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 5 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
4 W TDP down 5 W
-- Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (Broadcom BCM2837B0) has 0.50 MB cache and is manufactured in 40 nm. The cache of Nintendo Switch is at 2.50 MB. The processor is manufactured in 20 nm.

Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (Broadcom BCM2837B0) Characteristic Nintendo Switch
40 nm Technology 20 nm
Monolithic Chip design Chiplet
Armv8-A (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) Armv8-A (64 bit)
-- ISA extensions --
-- Socket --
None Virtualization None
No AES-NI No
Linux Operating systems
02/2016 Release date Q1/2017
35 $ Release price --
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iGPU - FP32 Performance (Single-precision GFLOPS)

The theoretical computing performance of the internal graphics unit of the processor with simple accuracy (32 bit) in GFLOPS. GFLOPS indicates how many billion floating point operations the iGPU can perform per second.
Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (Broadcom BCM2837B0) Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (Broadcom BCM2837B0)
Broadcom VideoCore 5 @ 0.40 GHz
20 (5%)
Nintendo Switch Nintendo Switch
NVIDIA Tegra X1 (Maxwell) @ 0.77 GHz
393 (100%)

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The single-core benchmark only evaluates the performance of the fastest CPU core, the number of CPU cores in a processor is irrelevant here.
Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (Broadcom BCM2837B0) Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (Broadcom BCM2837B0)
4C 4T @ 1.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Nintendo Switch Nintendo Switch
8C 8T @ 1.75 GHz
270 (100%)

Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The multi-core benchmark evaluates the performance of all of the processor's CPU cores. Virtual thread improvements such as AMD SMT or Intel's Hyper-Threading have a positive impact on the benchmark result.
Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (Broadcom BCM2837B0) Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (Broadcom BCM2837B0)
4C 4T @ 1.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Nintendo Switch Nintendo Switch
8C 8T @ 1.00 GHz
702 (100%)

Devices using this processor

Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (Broadcom BCM2837B0) Nintendo Switch
Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Nintendo Switch

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