Last week I was at the GDC, and I’m now just catching up on things. No, I amn’t in the game industry, but someone hooked me up with a pass. For professional reasons (don’t ask) I mainly went to product monetization talks and missed the fun sessions such as ray tracing and temporal upscaling.
Just skimming through the thread, there were quite some fireworks this past week. Ignoring the discourse around the false prophecy (Samsung 5LPP), I’d like to respond to
@Thraktor's excellent post regarding the OLED model and DisplayPort. A while back I went down the same rabbit hole, but emerged with a different—admittedly less exciting—conclusion:
The design of Switch OLED is less likely the remnant of a “Pro” model, but a pragmatic pandemic-era product that affords Nintendo the maximum level of adaptability. A hardware that can be enabled to support 4K on TV, HDR on OLED display and TV, and higher performance profiles if/when necessary.
Since I still have a lot to catch up on offline, I’m going to write my reasoning below rather haphazardly. Please pardon anything unclear or imprecise.
[Background]
According to Bloomberg, the mass production of the OLED model started in June 2021, and I’d guess that the product design concluded in 2H 2020 and production lines set up in 1H 2021. Note that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was only emergency-approved by the FDA in December 2020, and the world’s logistics was still in chaos during that time frame. → When the OLED was being finalized, the business risk and logistical uncertainty due to the pandemic was still at an elevated level, to put it lightly.
Thanks to
@oldpuck and a Korean leaker, we know that Nintendo tested an overclocked TX1, but it obviously didn’t work out. A Chinese uncle shared that in 2020 there was a Switch prototype that wasn’t the OLED, and a Japanese uncle stated that a Pro model was planned. As
@LiC pointed out, the “11 developers” report came out after the OLED announcement, therefore these disgruntled devs probably weren’t complaining about the SWOLED. → Assuming the rumors were credible, the cancellation of Pro doesn’t seem to be a last-minute decision.
[Considerations]
So if the SWOLED isn’t a repurposed “Pro” model, why is it 4K capable? (And possibly HDR ready too; I’ll explain it further down in the post.)
- Nintendo had enough time to remove those two pins to the PI3USB30532 crossbar, and could’ve kept the original DP-to-HDMI converter instead of upgrading to the RTD2172. Since every penny saved adds up to a hill of beans at Switch’s volume, this was certainly a deliberate design choice.
- At that moment the supply chain was still in chaos and the efficacy/availability of COVID vaccines was also in question, Nintendo probably couldn’t predict with high confidence when they’d be able to release the Switch successor.
- Hence, the company needed the OLED model to keep the platform’s momentum going for an undetermined amount of time—it could be years before the successor reaches the market. Even when it does, the quantity might be extremely limited (see: PS5 and XSX in 2021), necessitating a prolonged service of the SWOLED in that scenario.
- For these reasons, I believe that the OLED model was therefore spec’d with reserved hardware capabilities to cover all eventualities.
[Reserved capability: better performance]
We all know that the Mariko SoC is capable of better performance than currently allowed. It can be unlocked with higher performance profiles in exchange for a shorter battery life. Some might think that the additional profiles would be a hassle for the developers; if they are planning to build cross-gen titles, however, supporting an in-between performance tier may not need much investment.
[Reserved capability: 4K and HDR TV output]
To
@Thraktor's point, four data lanes are wired from SWOLED’s Mariko to the USB matrix. Since both the TX1 and PI3USB30532 support DisplayPort 1.2, the OLED model in theory can transmit 4K/60Hz/HDR10 video to the dock via DP Alt Mode. Note that at this data rate, HDR10 content doesn’t require chroma subsampling or Display Stream Compression (DSC, which wasn’t supported until DP 1.4 anyway).
On the OG dock, the STDP2550 DP-to-HDMI converter is only capable of HDMI 1.4b output, capping out at 4K/30Hz. (Technically HDMI 1.4b can transmit 4K/60Hz/HDR10 using chroma subsampling, but that isn’t an industry standard and thus not supported by STDP2550.) The OLED dock instead contains an RTD2172, which converts DP 1.4 to HDMI 2.0b, thus permitting 4K/60Hz/no HDR, or 4K/60Hz/HDR10 with chroma subsampling.
So here we have a 4K and HDR capable output chain from the source to the sink, just waiting to be activated. And lest we forget that the OLED dock inexplicably contains an updatable firmware.
[Reserved capability: HDR on OLED display]
The model number of the OLED panel in SWOLED is AMS699VC01. “AMS” denotes a rigid AMOLED, and “V” a panel in Samsung’s V series. Other devices that I could identify using a V series rigid AMOLED include:
- Realme X50 Pro, 90Hz, DCI-P3, HDR10+, 1,000+ nits (peak)
- Meizu 17 and 17 Pro, 90Hz, DCI-P3, 700 nits (typical), 1100 nits (peak)
- Vivo S9, 90Hz, 98% NTSC, HDR10+
- Vivo V20 Pro and S7, 98.5% NTSC, HDR10
- OnePlus Nord, 90Hz, DCI-P3
- Honor Play5, HDR10
- Google Pixel 4a, HDR
These are the advertised specs on the manufacturer sites, and could be exaggerated marketing numbers. Nonetheless it shows the V series’ performance range, of which the SWOLED’s panel should be capable. I know what you’re going to ask: How come there are reports claiming the OLED model is only somewhere around 350-370 cd/m2 max?
To maintain efficiency and prevent burn-in, most OLED panels feature an Auto Brightness Limiter (ABL) that dials down all individual pixels’ luminance as the video content as a whole becomes brighter. You can see the
ABL in action here (pay attention to the brightness of the blue Windows background). The Alienware AS3423DW, for instance, is rated at 1013 cd/m2 when 1% of the screen is white (1% APL), but drops to 258 cd/m2 when 100% of the screen is white (100% APL):
To no one’s surprise, there’s no industry standard regarding how “peak brightness” is measured. Alienware advertises the aforementioned monitor’s peak brightness at 1% APL. RTINGS.com, on the other hand, only tests peak brightness down to 2% APL. Likewise, “typical brightness” can be measured at 100% APL or another condition that only the manufacturer knows.
Further muddying the water is the Auto Static Brightness Limiter (ASBL) feature. It automatically dims the whole display if the video content is mostly static. For example, If one plays a visual novel such as the Great Ace Attorney on an OLED panel with ASBL, after a few minutes the brightness will decrease because the video is mostly static. You can see the
ASBL in action here.
AFAIK, there’s no ABL or ASBL on the SWOLED. Better yet, the YouTube videos that I’ve seen testing the OLED model’s brightness were all done with a 100% white screen. Under these conditions, a panel exhibiting 350-370 cd/m2 luminance is actually pretty respectable. If AMS699VC01 is similarly spec’d as the other V series panels listed above, Nintendo may be able to activate the ABL to allow for a much higher peak brightness, and in turn HDR.
The
VESA DisplayHDR “True Black 600” standard seems to support my hypothesis. The “True Black” tiers are specifically for OLED displays, taking into account their superior contrast ratio and differing peak/typical brightness levels. As the table below demonstrates, an OLED panel capable of sustaining 350 cd/m2 at 100% APL (for which the SWOLED already qualifies) and reaching 600 cd/m2 at 10% APL (for which the SWOLED should be able to qualify after enabling ABL) can be considered—among other requirements—HDR capable.
Note that the True Black 600 is currently the highest tier of DisplayHDR for OLED, and “provides up to 50X greater dynamic range and 4X improvement in rise time compared to DisplayHDR 1000”. The output would be gorgeous if Nintendo can enable it. Even if they drop it down to True Black 400/500 to conserve battery, the result can still be enough to satisfy most gamers.
[So you're telling me there's a chance]
Eh, I don’t want to give anyone false hopes, but can see three potential paths forward.
The Drake Switch is released on time at a reasonable price, and a Drake-based Lite follows shortly: This would be the best case for Nintendo. The OLED model would likely be phased out quickly, therefore no need to activate any of these reserved capabilities.
The Drake Switch is released timely but at a higher price point; the OLED and Lite remain in the market: Some major Nintendo franchises are family friendly/oriented. I’m not sure if the Mario, Pokemon, AC, Kirby, and Yoshi series would ever release a Drake exclusive until Nintendo is able to create a Drake-based Lite. To maintain the marketability of SWOLED (maybe even Lite) and prolong its service life, the higher performance profiles for Mariko could be unleashed. For product segmentation reasons, the 4K output probably won’t be turned on. The HDR capability might go either way.
In the doomsday scenario of Drake being canceled or severely delayed, or the global supply chain going to s*** yet again: Although Nintendo certainly don’t want this to happen, IMHO they made plans for this during the height of the pandemic. The OLED model would be hard-pressed to expand its product scope, by enabling all its reserved capabilities, to ride out the storm.
P.S.: This is also a long and roundabout way of saying that if the Switch successor reuses the same OLED panel, it probably can support HDR.