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

Micro as is very slow though.
Still very accessible tho. Express really hasn't hit yet afaik. So atm, anything super small are relegated to MicroSDs imo.

I think the saving grace for "fast speeds" could be the part of the new Tegra chip designed solely for decompression. Depending on how fast it decompresses, that might be the thing that causes the fast speeds we hard about in that BOTW demo if it decompresses fast enough.
 
machine translation of tweet:



For the article itself if you click through, use your browser's translate to English feature if your browser has it.
I still think it'd be funny if Necro was one of the most successful trolls on the planet, but I also think it's funny that one of the most interesting sources of information for the Switch 2 is entirely ignored by either being too niche or due to people not being able to read Portuguese.

Anyway, good read nonetheless, even if it's basically just an update of what we already know. I do want to give a special mention to the docked GPU performance though. Those estimates rival the Xbox Series S (4.01 TFLOPs), so that's very fun.
 
I feel like the goal posts will always be moving. Or at least with third party publishers.

in every generation be developers are gonna want to push the system to their limits to look as good or big as possible (or some crazy physics), and a sacrifice for that would mean lower resolution and/or framerate. We're already getting sub 1080p 30fps games on current gen X series X and PS5.

For third party current gen ports, we should expect a lot of 600-720p native games on Switch 2, but with the help of DLSS, we could get it to 1080p in docked.

My post was about the video recording feature xD
 
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True! Yes, some downgrades. But being the 4GB system in an 8GB generation is one thing, being an 8GB system in a 16GB generation is another. And again, developers are already having headaches getting modern games to run on the 10GB Series S.

Can Nintendo make phenomenal games with only 8GB? I have no doubt. BotW was designed to run with only 2GB, after all. But less RAM will make it tougher for 3rd parties to port, and if they're already having a hard time with an Xbox, imagine how hard it'd be for them to develop for a Switch with even less RAM than that Xbox. I think Nintendo's gonna want to make things easier on devs, because they've had serious 3rd party droughts before and I imagine they do not wanna repeat those days.
well third parties could always outsource their ports to studios (like they've done to switch) so it's not really an issue
 
Still very accessible tho. Express really hasn't hit yet afaik. So atm, anything super small are relegated to MicroSDs imo.

I think the saving grace for "fast speeds" could be the part of the new Tegra chip designed solely for decompression. Depending on how fast it decompresses, that might be the thing that causes the fast speeds we hard about in that BOTW demo if it decompresses fast enough.
Yeah, so just put 256 or 512 in it and then storage speed won’t be a issue. Or just bite and bullet and use sd express and be the force in the market who will lower cost and make them main stream.
 

Translate:


-------------

SoC — NVIDIA Tegra 239 (Countryof Drake)
Lithography: 4N of TSMC
CPU — 8-core A78C ???? GHz to the size , GHz, GHz and , GHz and , GHz and , GHz and , GHz and , , , .
GPU — GA10F/12 SMs Ampere (Derived from NVIDIA RTX 3000 series)
Performance in the Dock: 3.5x4.5 TFLOPs
Portable Performance: 1.7x2 TFLOPs
RAM - 12x16 GB in LPDDR5/X
Performance In the Dock: Probable 102 GB/s
Portable Performance: Probable Reduction to 88 GB/s
Cache — SysLC presence unknown. Tegra GPUs, however, can access the CPU Cache to optimize themselves.
Screen — 8 inches 1080p on LCD (60 Hz)
Internal Storage — 256x512 GB, and UFS 3.X is likely to be a candidate as read/write technology.
Cartridges — Unknown, but 3D-NAND is an option for a significant increase in space in order to reduce costs compared to existing cartridges.
Expanded Storage — Unknown
Battery - Unknown

These above specifications if achieved, although there is no speed for the clock processing per hour, would already allow the system to surpass Valve’s Steam Deck, as well as ensure gaming performance beyond delivered by NVIDIA GeForce RT 3000 cards with DLSS, Reflex and Ray Reconstruction.

The 8-inch screen would allow a resolution increase in portable mode, now practiced in HD (720p) on the current console, for the 1080p (Full HD) in the new system.

The internal storage of 512 GB is a great output for the company to account for the releases of the current generation in the system, since there are several demanding games today with textures in quality much superior to those present in current Nintendo Switch games. It is worth the reminder, however, that this is the roof of the expected size, and the company can opt for an “entry” device with 256 GB.

The potential use of 3D NAND as technology in the new cartridges could allow tremendously larger sizes to be made available to publishers without a high cost sacrifice. Today, companies barely use cartridges with 32 GB of internal space due to the high price practiced by Nintendo – in the future, but these cartridges could reach sizes of up to 500 GB with almost no difficulty and a much lower price compared to the current ones practiced by the Kyoto company.

----------




This seems like a somewhat optimistic forecast to me.
 
Only 64GB of storage and 8GB of RAM for a $400 handheld released in 2024 would be horrendous.

For comparison, the $400 Steam Deck SKU currently has 256GB of internal storage and 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM.
it does sound weak at first glance, but considering how devs were handling switch hardware even during ps5/xsx era they'd be able to give us miraculous ports of current/cross gen games
 

Nintendo patented this VR setup in late 2022.
Yo, if I get the images correct (article sends a link to the whole list of patent documents), this ain't VR, this is AR/MR, since I see a table as a playing field, and the arrow thingie in the corner might be an AR card, and other people can use their smartphones to play along via an AR app.
 
Translate:


-------------

SoC — NVIDIA Tegra 239 (Countryof Drake)
Lithography: 4N of TSMC
CPU — 8-core A78C ???? GHz to the size , GHz, GHz and , GHz and , GHz and , GHz and , GHz and , , , .
GPU — GA10F/12 SMs Ampere (Derived from NVIDIA RTX 3000 series)
Performance in the Dock: 3.5x4.5 TFLOPs
Portable Performance: 1.7x2 TFLOPs
RAM - 12x16 GB in LPDDR5/X
Performance In the Dock: Probable 102 GB/s
Portable Performance: Probable Reduction to 88 GB/s
Cache — SysLC presence unknown. Tegra GPUs, however, can access the CPU Cache to optimize themselves.
Screen — 8 inches 1080p on LCD (60 Hz)
Internal Storage — 256x512 GB, and UFS 3.X is likely to be a candidate as read/write technology.
Cartridges — Unknown, but 3D-NAND is an option for a significant increase in space in order to reduce costs compared to existing cartridges.
Expanded Storage — Unknown
Battery - Unknown

These above specifications if achieved, although there is no speed for the clock processing per hour, would already allow the system to surpass Valve’s Steam Deck, as well as ensure gaming performance beyond delivered by NVIDIA GeForce RT 3000 cards with DLSS, Reflex and Ray Reconstruction.

The 8-inch screen would allow a resolution increase in portable mode, now practiced in HD (720p) on the current console, for the 1080p (Full HD) in the new system.

The internal storage of 512 GB is a great output for the company to account for the releases of the current generation in the system, since there are several demanding games today with textures in quality much superior to those present in current Nintendo Switch games. It is worth the reminder, however, that this is the roof of the expected size, and the company can opt for an “entry” device with 256 GB.

The potential use of 3D NAND as technology in the new cartridges could allow tremendously larger sizes to be made available to publishers without a high cost sacrifice. Today, companies barely use cartridges with 32 GB of internal space due to the high price practiced by Nintendo – in the future, but these cartridges could reach sizes of up to 500 GB with almost no difficulty and a much lower price compared to the current ones practiced by the Kyoto company.

----------




This seems like a somewhat optimistic forecast to me.
The fact that this could be derived from a 30 series card also makes me be a bit more cautious. All the talk up until now has been about power equal to a 2050, a jump to something like a 3050 would put it way closer the PS5 and Series X. This is SUPER optimistic, almost unrealistically so I think.
 
Translate:


-------------

SoC — NVIDIA Tegra 239 (Countryof Drake)
Lithography: 4N of TSMC
CPU — 8-core A78C ???? GHz to the size , GHz, GHz and , GHz and , GHz and , GHz and , GHz and , , , .
GPU — GA10F/12 SMs Ampere (Derived from NVIDIA RTX 3000 series)
Performance in the Dock: 3.5x4.5 TFLOPs
Portable Performance: 1.7x2 TFLOPs
RAM - 12x16 GB in LPDDR5/X
Performance In the Dock: Probable 102 GB/s
Portable Performance: Probable Reduction to 88 GB/s
Cache — SysLC presence unknown. Tegra GPUs, however, can access the CPU Cache to optimize themselves.
Screen — 8 inches 1080p on LCD (60 Hz)
Internal Storage — 256x512 GB, and UFS 3.X is likely to be a candidate as read/write technology.
Cartridges — Unknown, but 3D-NAND is an option for a significant increase in space in order to reduce costs compared to existing cartridges.
Expanded Storage — Unknown
Battery - Unknown

These above specifications if achieved, although there is no speed for the clock processing per hour, would already allow the system to surpass Valve’s Steam Deck, as well as ensure gaming performance beyond delivered by NVIDIA GeForce RT 3000 cards with DLSS, Reflex and Ray Reconstruction.

The 8-inch screen would allow a resolution increase in portable mode, now practiced in HD (720p) on the current console, for the 1080p (Full HD) in the new system.

The internal storage of 512 GB is a great output for the company to account for the releases of the current generation in the system, since there are several demanding games today with textures in quality much superior to those present in current Nintendo Switch games. It is worth the reminder, however, that this is the roof of the expected size, and the company can opt for an “entry” device with 256 GB.

The potential use of 3D NAND as technology in the new cartridges could allow tremendously larger sizes to be made available to publishers without a high cost sacrifice. Today, companies barely use cartridges with 32 GB of internal space due to the high price practiced by Nintendo – in the future, but these cartridges could reach sizes of up to 500 GB with almost no difficulty and a much lower price compared to the current ones practiced by the Kyoto company.

----------




This seems like a somewhat optimistic forecast to me.
that speculation from necro ?
 
I don't trust any speculation that has reasonable expectations.
It's either going to be as powerful as the Wii or stronger than the PS5.
 
The fact that this could be derived from a 30 series card also makes me be a bit more cautious. All the talk up until now has been about power equal to a 2050, a jump to something like a 3050 would put it way closer the PS5 and Series X. This is SUPER optimistic, almost unrealistically so I think.
The RTX 2050 comparison has been used because it also uses Nvidia's Amepre architecture just like the RTX 30 series. It is the most low powered consumer Ampere GPU so a laptop with an RTX 2050 was a good product Digital Foundry could use for testing purposes.
 
it does sound weak at first glance, but considering how devs were handling switch hardware even during ps5/xsx era they'd be able to give us miraculous ports of current/cross gen games
But it is weak at first glance, regardless of what the Switch is currently capable of. It would be weaker than the Steam Deck which is literally the same price point! Also, can you give some examples of PS5/Xbox Series exclusive games getting Switch ports? I can't think of any off the top of my head. Nintendo shouldn't need miracle ports for a $400 system they've developed alongside NVidia with a custom chip. For $400 and the right parts, we shouldn't need "miracle" ports for most if any current gen games. Your form of optimism is just expecting less and assuming some sort of magic down the line is going to get games working on a system which is much much weaker than the Series S - a system which devs find developing hard enough for they contemplate skipping Xbox all together.
 
it does sound weak at first glance, but considering how devs were handling switch hardware even during ps5/xsx era they'd be able to give us miraculous ports of current/cross gen games
They shouldn't be designing their console by crossing their fingers for developers shipping miracle ports. The demanding ports on Switch released years after their original multiplatform date, were heavily cut down, and often outsourced. And for every 'miracle port' that shipped, there are 3-4 ports that never made it because they were too demanding for the Switch.

Nintendo would have fielded feedback from developers a long time ago regarding Switch 2 specs. They should be making it as easy as possible, not stringently sticking to lower numbers and hoping devs can work around it. If their philosophy is that devs should work miracles, then they wouldn't have asked them for feedback during the Switch's development and ended up with 4 GB back in 2015. They would have left it at to 2 GB cause that was totally fine for the Wii U, right?

The whole "Nintendo magic" point is overstated when Nintendo themselves have run into limitations resulting in compromises like Mario Odyssey being interlaced in handheld, Bowser's Fury being 30 FPS in handheld, Link's Awakening's Vsync issues, Zelda's Ultrahand frame drops, etc. Having more overhead hurts no one and 12 GB would not significantly drive up the cost of the device.

With all that we know about T239 it doesn't make sense for RAM to be the one thing they skimp on, would be a complete lack of future proofing.
 
But it is weak at first glance, regardless of what the Switch is currently capable of. It would be weaker than the Steam Deck which is literally the same price point! Also, can you give some examples of PS5/Xbox Series exclusive games getting Switch ports? I can't think of any off the top of my head. Nintendo shouldn't need miracle ports for a $400 system they've developed alongside NVidia with a custom chip. For $400 and the right parts, we shouldn't need "miracle" ports for most if any current gen games. Your form of optimism is just expecting less and assuming some sort of magic down the line is going to get games working on a system which is much much weaker than the Series S - a system which devs find developing hard enough for they contemplate skipping Xbox all together.
i mean nintendo was never really about third parties or strong consoles, so they shouldn't be too worried about that department
not saying they should ignore 3rd parties but it should still be fine enough to develop on which with 64gb storage & 8gb of ram does indeed sound servicable enough for me especially for indies & their in-house devs
 
They shouldn't be designing their console by crossing their fingers for developers shipping miracle ports. The demanding ports on Switch released years after their original multiplatform date, were heavily cut down, and often outsourced. And for every 'miracle port' that shipped, there are 3-4 ports that never made it because they were too demanding for the Switch.

Nintendo would have fielded feedback from developers a long time ago regarding Switch 2 specs. They should be making it as easy as possible, not stringently sticking to lower numbers and hoping devs can work around it. If their philosophy is that devs should work miracles, then they wouldn't have asked them for feedback during the Switch's development and ended up with 4 GB back in 2015. They would have left it at to 2 GB cause that was totally fine for the Wii U, right?

The whole "Nintendo magic" point is overstated when Nintendo themselves have run into limitations resulting in compromises like Mario Odyssey being interlaced in handheld, Bowser's Fury being 30 FPS in handheld, Link's Awakening's Vsync issues, Zelda's Ultrahand frame drops, etc. Having more overhead hurts no one and 12 GB would not significantly drive up the cost of the device.

With all that we know about T239 it doesn't make sense for RAM to be the one thing they skimp on, would be a complete lack of future proofing.
we don't fully know about T239 yeah? so it's still possible it could work on a 8gb ram console
 
I still think it'd be funny if Necro was one of the most successful trolls on the planet, but I also think it's funny that one of the most interesting sources of information for the Switch 2 is entirely ignored by either being too niche or due to people not being able to read Portuguese.

Anyway, good read nonetheless, even if it's basically just an update of what we already know. I do want to give a special mention to the docked GPU performance though. Those estimates rival the Xbox Series S (4.01 TFLOPs), so that's very fun.
FOUR?!

This changes the calculus!
 
we don't fully know about T239 yeah? so it's still possible it could work on a 8gb ram console
Being able to work does not mean it's the most optimal configuration they could deliver at the price point.
According to the Gigaleak Nintendo planned 16 GB of storage for the Switch in 2015 which eventually changed to 32 GB. Phew.
There are obviously 'minimum viable' specs but the question is why stick to those when you can make everyone's lives easier and crank them up a little.
 
It's odd that you expect them to go with cheap options and work around limitations but still anticipate a 120hz screen, which is not cheap, kills battery, and few games would run at that full refresh.

The poster you're replying to is deeply wrong on many levels, but this also isn't true. Higher-hz screens don't "kill battery" just by existing, and while most games wouldn't run at 120fps (stuff like Hollow Knight would, which would be sick), running games on a higher-hz screen reduces input lag. Read this DF article for more details. If anything, such a screen could actually reduce battery life by letting games run at lower framerates without the heavy cost to input lag.
 
As for that article, I'll note that the information we seem to have indicates about 7.91", not exactly 8" but pretty close. Also, if I'm not mistaken, Nvidia Reflex is specifically a PC technology not because consoles don't want it, but because as contained, defined systems they do not require it.

The performance metrics listed I also question- 2TF handheld mode, 4TF TV mode? While 4TF is generous by our understanding of T239, 2TF or below seems a little low, though only a little, I expect 2.2TF in handheld mode and 3.45TF in TV mode at present. A 2TF 4TF divide would be odd in my eyes.
 
Yo, if I get the images correct (article sends a link to the whole list of patent documents), this ain't VR, this is AR/MR, since I see a table as a playing field, and the arrow thingie in the corner might be an AR card, and other people can use their smartphones to play along via an AR app.

Yeah, the interesting thing about the patent is that it's an asymmetrical multiplayer, multi-device concept for shared space AR gameplay. Their example includes a scenario with 2 users wearing headsets, users playing along with smartphones and a user observing/playing along on a TV.

Also, standard statement about "patent almost never = product" aside, the VR/AR headsets as explained are independent devices with their own left/right eye displays, camera arrays and some sort of communication modules that allows them to network with the "Information Processing Apparatus" (obvs a console) connected to the TV that beams the gameplay images out to the devices. So, there's nothing in there that remotely points to a Labo-like solution where you drop a Switch into a headset which is a solution I do not want to see them revisit as a VR enjoyer who very much wants Nintendo to give it a real shot at some point.
 
i mean nintendo was never really about third parties or strong consoles, so they shouldn't be too worried about that department
not saying they should ignore 3rd parties but it should still be fine enough to develop on which with 64gb storage & 8gb of ram does indeed sound servicable enough for me especially for indies & their in-house devs
3rd party games are literally a huge precent of switch games sold. They super care about 3rd party games.
 
As for that article, I'll note that the information we seem to have indicates about 7.91", not exactly 8" but pretty close. Also, if I'm not mistaken, Nvidia Reflex is specifically a PC technology not because consoles don't want it, but because as contained, defined systems they do not require it.
Bingo Brongo. Nvidia Reflex is namely to help with latency for "Hardcore" gamers. The thing is that it's not really needed for consoles because everyone is using a proprietary device that is unchanged between players. Noone has additional frames, so what's the point?
 
Being able to work does not mean it's the most optimal configuration they could deliver at the price point.
According to the Gigaleak Nintendo planned 16 GB of storage for the Switch in 2015 which eventually changed to 32 GB. Phew.
There are obviously 'minimum viable' specs but the question is why stick to those when you can make everyone's lives easier and crank them up a little.
i guess it all boils to saving money, since nintendo doesn't really aim to making a strong console as well as making sure to price in the "cheapest" way possible
 
0
Bingo Brongo. Nvidia Reflex is namely to help with latency for "Hardcore" gamers. The thing is that it's not really needed for consoles because everyone is using a proprietary device that is unchanged between players. Noone has additional frames, so what's the point?
I appreciate that we're getting more and more reports about the new device, but that won't stop me being critical when something seems out of place.
 
Yeah, the interesting thing about the patent is that it's an asymmetrical multiplayer, multi-device concept for shared space AR gameplay. Their example includes a scenario with 2 users wearing headsets, users playing along with smartphones and a user observing/playing along on a TV.

Also, standard statement about "patent almost never = product" aside, the VR/AR headsets as explained are independent devices with their own left/right eye displays, camera arrays and some sort of communication modules that allows them to network with the "Information Processing Apparatus" (obvs a console) connected to the TV that beams the gameplay images out to the devices. So, there's nothing in there that remotely points to a Labo-like solution where you drop a Switch into a headset which is a solution I do not want to see them revisit as a VR enjoyer who very much wants Nintendo to give it a real shot at some point.
I could see Nintendo bring out a WiFi 6E headset device for a reasonable price, but there's concerns with that like if NG Switch even supports WiFi 6E, and would it have to drop its internet connection to connect to the headset.
 
it does sound weak at first glance, but considering how devs were handling switch hardware even during ps5/xsx era they'd be able to give us miraculous ports of current/cross gen games
AAA Developers are currently complaining about how much Series S being limited in RAM (10GB Total, ~8GB available for games) is making current gen development more of a pain. They will end up even more pissed if the Switch 2 ends up with even less RAM than that. And that's before getting into how the lack of sizable internal storage would also be a nightmare for devs.

Would Devs be able to to pull off some miracle ports? Sure they will be able to, but the better question at that point would be "would developers WANT to try porting to the Switch 2", and at that point the answer would be "only if enough people have already bought a switch 2 and are willing to buy switch 2 versions of games". Switch had the advantage for years of being the most straightforward way of playing games on the go at a relatively cheap price. That meant you had lots of people not just buying a switch but also buying lots of games on the switch, including 3rd party games. If Switch 2 came out and was the same price as the Steam Deck's 256GB model but with far less storage and RAM, people will just start buying the Steam Deck instead especially as developers are already getting used developing steam deck compatible versions of PC games.
 
So something that won’t work in a lot of American house homes, and many other countries have a similar issue.
I tried free RE5 cloud play on Switch. With ethernet connectivity.

After multiple "giving it one more try, maybe it'll be better" attempts, noped out of it. Don't think I will try cloud gaming again for a long time.

I have had similar experience with Stadia as well. Stopped using Stadia when I realized cloud gaming is not yet where I'd like it to be today.
 
It’s not that, internet is very bad in many parts of America, and very slow in some countries. So it just wouldn’t work, also no one is going to pay full price for a shitty cloud version of a game.
Depends. If the population centers have good internet, they may be willing to sacrifice the boonies for their feeling of control.
 
The poster you're replying to is deeply wrong on many levels, but this also isn't true. Higher-hz screens don't "kill battery" just by existing, and while most games wouldn't run at 120fps (stuff like Hollow Knight would, which would be sick), running games on a higher-hz screen reduces input lag. Read this DF article for more details. If anything, such a screen could actually reduce battery life by letting games run at lower framerates without the heavy cost to input lag.
I'm aware of the input lag benefits, I own the Deck OLED. But from my experiences both with it, mobile phones, and laptops, higher refresh rates (especially 120Hz) have a notable impact to battery life. Obviously not by 'existing', but during actual usage. The last estimates I read for phones were a 25-33% reduction. On my Deck the projected battery life drops. If you object to my 'kill battery' phrasing, that's fine, I was just being strong with that poster.

My point is not "higher refresh rate has no benefit", but that it contrasts with that user's point of Nintendo cheaping out on components (the minimum possible RAM and storage but the maximum possible Hz?). When Valve delivered the 90 Hz screen they also packed in a more efficient processor and larger battery. I would personally like to see a higher refresh or VRR screen on the next Switch.
 
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well third parties could always outsource their ports to studios (like they've done to switch) so it's not really an issue
Okay wait, lemme see if I'm following this. You're saying that if third parties are having a hard time getting their games to run on Switch 2 with only 8GB, a difficulty they're already facing with Xbox, those third party studios could simply outsource development to other third party studios and it would cease to be a problem?

I'm not sure I follow how that works. How does simply handing the project over from one third party to another fix the issue of the game not being able to run with the allotted RAM?
 
Please read this staff post before posting.

Furthermore, according to this follow-up post, all off-topic chat will be moderated.
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