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StarTopic Future Nintendo Hardware & Technology Speculation & Discussion |ST| (Read the staff posts before commenting!)

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GigaUltraMoon said:
Would 32GB be a realistic target of the Switch 3 or would that be expected at around 24? Either's probably getting into gaming laptop territory but seems that's the trajectory to be on anyway
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Unless it gets cheaper and it advances faster than 24GB is more realistic, I don't even see the PS6/Xbox5 to have 32GB of ram, maybe 24GB and Switch 3 will have 20GB.
 
NateDrake said:
I do not talk RAM tomorrow.

As said, I've been told conflicting bits on that matter, and it wasn't a discussion point at Gamescom.
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yeah pretty much what I thought earlier

between this and the direct thread it feels like a fetish to doom here sometimes
 
GigaUltraMoon said:
Would 32GB be a realistic target of the Switch 3 or would that be expected at around 24? Either's probably getting into gaming laptop territory but seems that's the trajectory to be on anyway
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I wouldn't worry about it honestly, it's too far off to guess. In an educated guess though based on Morse Law, it's gonna be 128GB RAM at best. You can load an entire game into RAM and it will run like the good ole NES cart we used to have, no loading times, instant texture loading, but of course /s
 
I've remembered something I wanted to ask. Binning. If T239 is the full 8 core 12 SM die, aren't Dies typically over provisioned to account for small failures in order to reap a higher total usable Die count? Is it possible we get something like 11 or 10 SMs on retail to make up for manufacturing defects?

JoshuaJSlone said:
But why? DLSS on PC is already NVIDIA software on NVIDIA hardware, and I would have guessed that what's going on within the tensor cores would have a much bigger impact on computation time than the vagaries of whatever the rest of a PC build might be.

Imagine Switch, but now add on 22 Wiis and 22 DSs worth of RAM.
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Because they have a singular hardware package to account for with this "special" DLSS package, maybe it could be tuned specifically for the Switch2?
 
7hatDeadCat said:
I've remembered something I wanted to ask. Binning. If T239 is the full 8 core 12 SM die, aren't Dies typically over provisioned to account for small failures in order to reap a higher total usable Die count? Is it possible we get something like 11 or 10 SMs on retail to make up for manufacturing defects?



Because they have a singular hardware package to account for with this "special" DLSS package, maybe it could be tuned specifically for the Switch2?
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I think as the T239 SoC is expected to be a lot smaller than other dies (like desktop GPUs), the manufacturing success rate should be a lot higher. It’s also possible that Nvidia could take the binned components for a new Shield set too box
 
7hatDeadCat said:
I've remembered something I wanted to ask. Binning. If T239 is the full 8 core 12 SM die, aren't Dies typically over provisioned to account for small failures in order to reap a higher total usable Die count? Is it possible we get something like 11 or 10 SMs on retail to make up for manufacturing defects?
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12 is the number of SMs that are actually present and usable by software.

Of course, we don't know what the physical floorplan is, but that has to also be 12 SMs. There are 2 SMs per TPC, and 6 TPCs per GPC, in T239 (and in desktop Ampere in general). They can't bin down to 12 SMs without adding an entire extra TPC and not using it, which obviously isn't happening.
 
Lancelot said:
Did anyone take a look at this little clip from DF yesterday? They're pretty much glorifying this thing as the Series S killer already.

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Wow John going from paraphrasing "there's no way this matches the SD, look at the difference in power consumption" to "I am not to surprised, arm + Nvidia" in a couple of weeks is something.
 
LiC said:
12 is the number of SMs that are actually present and usable by software.

Of course, we don't know what the physical floorplan is, but that has to also be 12 SMs. There are 2 SMs per TPC, and 6 TPCs per GPC, in T239 (and in desktop Ampere in general). They can't bin down to 12 SMs without adding an entire extra TPC and not using it, which obviously isn't happening.
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🤔 and it's unlikely they would do some kind of different GPC? Is this because a GPC is uuuuh... maximally stable? dunno how to call it. They couldn't change that configuration without a lot of work? and 2SM 8TPC 1GPC isn't viable or something for binning? this would be too custom yeah?
 
Ah, well, in light of what Nate just said.
breaks out the Egonium
If Grace can have up to 512 GB on a 512-bit bus width, then the NG can have 128 GB on a 128-bit bus width. Costs be damned, I'll bend reality to my will.
 
7hatDeadCat said:
🤔 and it's unlikely they would do some kind of different GPC? Is this because a GPC is uuuuh... maximally stable? dunno how to call it. They couldn't change that configuration without a lot of work? and 2SM 8TPC 1GPC isn't viable or something for binning? this would be too custom yeah?
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I don't know if they couldn't, but they didn't. They followed the design of their gaming Ampere GPUs, which is what T239's GPU is, which presumably has some reasoning behind the design.
 
Serif said:
We know Nintendo games will look stunning here, and we are in a better place than the Switch impossible ports thanks to DLSS.
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"Impossible ports" are of course great for marketing, but personally I'm more interested in possible ports that don't make it over (well) because tailoring specifically for Switch is expensive and hard for smaller devs.

As an example, Switch recently got the Quake 2 Remaster. It's not much of a technical tour de force, but still: it's crisp and runs at a largely steady 60FPS. Night Dive had the resources to make that happen (and chose to make Switch optimisations during development). Dusk and Neon White are other great examples of ports that took great effort and delivered sharp and fluid results (within their signature low poly aesthetics).

However, other games in the genre like Warhammer: Boltgun and Prodeus have subpar ports because they didn't have the funds or the expertise to make a great port happen. Switch 2 lowers that barrier significantly, allowing for indies/smaller devs to create ports that are on-par again (like it often was during the early days of Switch).
 
RAM is one of the console's aspect that could change the latest, alongside clocks. No need to be hang up on it now.

Still, looks like 12GB is probably the floor for it which is reassuring.
 
Me playing Switch 2 for the first time.

spider-man-doctor-octopus.gif
 
Ok, i tried to get .... ahold ... of the Direct thread since i last checked it on friday ... with little to no success.

So would anyone here be a kind soul and get me up to date of the hardware stuff in here? Thanks with sugar in advance.
 
Bonejack said:
Ok, i tried to get .... ahold ... of the Direct thread since i last checked it on friday ... with little to no success.

So would anyone here be a kind soul and get me up to date of the hardware stuff in here? Thanks with sugar in advance.
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Nate should share new tidbits in his podcast later today
DF will talk about the rumors but it doesn't seem they'll bring anything new to the table.
Usual mix between "I'm worried because of things I heard", "this thing will be more powerful than PS5 Omg" and "temper your expectations"
RAM discussions but we still don't know
 
Herb Alpert said:
Nate should share new tidbits in his podcast later today
DF will talk about the rumors but it doesn't seem they'll bring anything new to the table.
Usual mix between "I'm worried because of things I heard", "this thing will be more powerful than PS5 Omg" and "temper your expectations"
RAM discussions but we still don't know
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Thanks, kind soul.
 
Since we have signs pointing at the fact that both Nanite and Lumen are supported (and I pray God this is true in handheld mode too), I suppose we can now make more elaborate takes on the hardware that is in the T239 chip.

That is exciting, especially since we will be able to give a lower bound to the number of tensor cores in it very soon.
 
Kenka said:
Since we have signs pointing at the fact that both Nanite and Lumen are supported (and I pray God this is true in handheld mode too),...
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If Nanite and/or Lumen are supported, it wouldn't make sense for it to work only docked.
Devs would have to implement distinct strategies for both modes, possibly having to implement big chunks of the game twice.
If a game is built on specific techs from the ground up, if those are not available in handheld, the game is simply not coming to NX2.
 
0
ertaboy356b said:
Hot take but what if Nintendo went with ADA Lovelace for battery life. Sure it's powerful but it's also damn efficient.
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I would love this but we already know the chip (Drake/T239), and it's Ampere. These custom chips take a long time to design, like 4 years. If Drake was being replaced by a new chip for a 2024 release, that chip would have been in the stolen NVIDIA data. At this point, the best we can hope for is that Drake is a kind of "Ampere Plus" that has some Lovelace stuff built in, which is possible.
 
fwd-bwd said:
Eh, so how did the whole spiral get started?


Never forget

/s
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Was mentioned that there's conflicting information on the RAM situation from respective sources, that was taken to mean 8GB is back on the table, when it more likely means Nintendo want to stick with 12GB but are possibly being persuaded by other studios to take the leap of faith and go for 16
 
GigaUltraMoon said:
Was mentioned that there's conflicting information on the RAM situation from respective sources, that was taken to mean 8GB is back on the table, when it more likely means Nintendo want to stick with 12GB but are possibly being persuaded by other studios to take the leap of faith and go for 16
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Wow.
 
0
GigaUltraMoon said:
Was mentioned that there's conflicting information on the RAM situation from respective sources, that was taken to mean 8GB is back on the table, when it more likely means Nintendo want to stick with 12GB but are possibly being persuaded by other studios to take the leap of faith and go for 16
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Nintendo adding in the extra RAM

thanos-avengers-infinity-war.gif
 
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