Maybe weird, but I hope we get performance boosts to existing Switch titles on this hardware. It’s what I really wanted a refreshed Switch for and it’s still big on my list. Some Switch games were basically unplayable for me. Thinking of things like Hyrule Warriors.
They should go with a past-gen console to really emphasize the gameplay instead of graphics.
“Nintendo’s next console” is a perennial rumor, and as always, I’ll believe it when Nintendo actually announces something, not yet another games “news” site posting effectively unsourced clickbait.
MORE INFO HRE!!!
The difference this time is multiple sources seem to be confirming this.
In this case “Eurogamer sources” expect a launch in later 2024. The rest of the article just repeats the VGC sources.
Yeah, if I were placing a bet, I’d wager this would happen in 2024:
- Nintendo does a cost-cutting round on the current switch to get its price down to $199.
- The Switch Lite drops to $149. Alternatively, they could just kill it.
- Nintendo introduces the Switch Ultra with a bigger/better screen, better processor and graphics chip at $349
The Switch is now at the point where third-party games really can’t run on the hardware. It’s hard to emphasize just how slow the Switch really is, but let me give it a shot-- cellphones are fast enough to run Switch games in emulation.
It’s easy to imagine what a 2024-era Switch 2 might look like. Same size screen, less bezels. Matte. Maybe mini-LED, if it gets cheap enough. 1080p resolution with variable refresh LTPO from 1-120Hz. Back paddles. Hall-effect joysticks and triggers. All that stuff is just current tech and easily to extrapolate.
Now imagine what DLSS2 and frame generation in conjunction with a variable refresh can do. The Switch 2 could run games internally at 540p, same as the Switch 1, upscale to 1080p and then double the framerate. 1080p at 60 frames, palm of your hand. If the game can’t quite hit 60fps or higher? No problem, VRR smooths it out.
There is no difference - whenever one site posts one of these articles, the rest rush to get their own version out to get clicks before the cycle ends. The fun thing about saying “our sources” is that you don’t have to prove that “our sources” are anything other than “I made it up.”
We have actual reputable sources for insider industry news who would leak Nintendo hardware news if they had it, and those people are always silent when the Switch Pro/Switch 2 rumor cycle starts up again.
Here’s an actual realistic prediction for the new hardware: it’ll be meaningfully more powerful than the current hardware - it would be difficult for it not to be at this point - but it’ll still be significantly underpowered compared to what anyone online is predicting, because Nintendo will still be aiming for that $300 price point and will still be making money on the hardware. (Also, they still aren’t going to build an Ethernet port into the dock. Dammit, Nintendo!)
DF has been speculating on DLSS whenever the Switch 2 talk comes up and it strikes me as a technology Nintendo would be dumb not to support strongly on their new device. Especially if it means the docked experience could scale to something that looks decent on 4k TV.
I think it’s highly likely Nintendo was in fact exploring a “New 3DS/DSi” style upgraded “Switch Pro” at the time, but tabled it because the pandemic made the manufacturing environment unfavorable. The theory is that’s how we got the OLED Switch instead.
But eventually Nintendo IS going to make a new generation of hardware. And next year makes a lot of sense.
I’m not convinced Nintendo actually sees value in having tensor cores taking up die space in their new SoC. They still ship games to this day with no antialiasing at all. But a lot depends on how custom or off the shelf the chip from nVidia will be.
Huh? They already did with the OLED dock.
DLSS is the best bang for your buck image quality technique that’s ever been created by humans, by a very large margin. Upscaling is revolutionary. I’m sure they’ll use it. In fact, Zelda TOTK uses FSR already. Unfortunately it uses FSR1 due to hardware limitations, but I can’t imagine any scenario where Switch 2 doesn’t natively support FSR2 or DLSS2.
Gotta keep it locked to the premium model!
They mentioned on the DF weekly show that there was a closed off Nintendo area with very beefy security. And they were clear that they were not invited or allowed into this area so didn’t go further on speculating as to what was in there. But yeah, seemed pretty clear that it could only really be one thing.