If you own a Nintendo Switch, odds are you have come across several frame-drops within the games that you are playing. I myself have only played the Switch in docked mode since I’ve owned it, and have came across numerous frame drops nonetheless, causing me to wonder what may exactly be the culprit of this issue.
While some games just may be very graphically intensive, ultimately resulting in occasional frame-drops, some of the drops may be due to one of the system main functions, which many have under-looked. Recently, a third-party developer spoke with Nintendo Life regarding the framerate-drop issue, and stated that the issue mainly derives from the systems WiFi functionality. When WiFi is enabled, the console is always searching for new networks in the area, even if you are already connected to one. This operation is in fact a bit CPU intensive, which ultimately leads to the console not being able to output sufficient strength to the game it’s currently running – which results to the system dropping frames.
Turning off the WiFi function, or at the very least, disabling the “auto connect” function, has apparently solved the issue for some,;while others are still reporting frame-drops taking place every now and then. The developer stated that Nintendo is currently readying-up a patch for the Nintendo Switch which will address this issue, so hopefully the frame-drop experience will be on the decline much more once that patch arrives.
