Topic: Is The Switch 2 Worth It???

You don't necessarily need a gaming PC. Even dirt cheap laptops were sometimes more powerful than Switch 1 and could play lots of games. That is less true for Switch 2 but you still don't necessarily need a gaming PC for some games to be comparable.

My laptop could play some games Switch 1 couldn't but I rarely used it that way just because I hate keyboard/mouse gaming and it was a nuisance to hook up to tv and controller.

Now that I have Switch 2, my gaming power is

Switch 2 > mobile phone > laptop and Switch 1

I do some gaming on mobile but the small screen and naturally bad control scemes makes it very limiting for many game genres. And, again, it's a nuisance to hook up to tv and controller.

@rallydefault
Most Switch 1 games nowadays, I can't stomach them on Switch 1 without outputting docked image to the handheld screen and overclocking the GPU from 307/384/460 MHz to 844 MHz, just to get 720p with a stable 30fps.

On Switch 2, it outputs the handheld image on the handheld screen but because dynamic resolution doesn't drop, and because most handheld images are 540p which scales perfectly to the 1080p screen, they look pretty decent, on top of which they all max their framerates to 30, sometimes even 60.

Ni No Kuni 2 runs at a locked 60 on Switch 2, yet fluctuated all over the place on Switch 1. Same for Monster Hunter Stories 2. Same for Bayonetta 3. Even Mario Rabbids Kingdom Battle runs at 60 on Switch 2, vs 30 on Switch 1.

Then there's games like Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter which run at 25-28 fps on Switch 1, at 480-540p in handheld, yet on Switch 2 has a 60 fps performance mode and looks sharper in handheld than the docked image on Switch 1.

Fantasy Life i is the same way. 480-540p sub-30 fps on Switch 1 handheld mode. Yet on Switch 2 it's locked 60 1080p. Can't tell if docked is 1440p or 4k but it looks crazy sharp. Probably 1440p I imagine.

It's just example after example after example of games which, unless you have a modchipped Switch to overclock with (and most don't), are virtually unplayable on the original Switch, yet are pristine experiences on the Switch 2.

Even if All NS2-exclusive releases were taken away, and all the system did was run games that were also on Switch 1 (or have a NS2 upgrade), the system would be worth it, imo.

I was using my Lite while traveling over the holidays; the worse frame rate of the few games I played didn't bother me too much but I had almost forgotten how insanely slow the load times could get every single time you load a new map.

Ughh... load times.

That's something I completely failed to mention and is deserving of its own discussion outright.

Booted up several games on my Switch Lite OLED last night and was agast at how long the loading took to boot into some of those titles. Bayonetta 3, Cruise n Blast, DKC Returns, Octopath Traveler 0, Tomb Raider reboot, Fantasy Life i, Zelda Link's Awakening... it was insufferable, as all those games on Switch 2 boot in half the time.

Excessively long load times are one of those things that can actually turn me off playing a game entirely. I gave up on Drive Club 2 and A Hat In Time on Switch because of excessive loading times. Felt I spent as much time in load screens as I did playing the actual game.

Not that Switch 2 has completely eliminated load times, but they're actually managable. They're within reason. They're noticeably faster than on Switch 1.

@FishyS
I don’t usually mind framerate if I’m playing an rpg or something, but for a 3D platformer… ugh, yea, it was very noticeable and very annoying.

Switching it to my S2 was like playing a new game, no exaggeration. Really nice upgrade with no patching or anything required.

The funniest thing about load times is those 'helpful hints' a lot of games put in loading screens while changing scenes. Switch 2 keeps loading too fast for me to read those and I kind of want to 😆

No kidding! I was just noticing that yesterday! What game was I playing... was it Trails In The Sky 1st Chapter? Pretty sure that was it. Tips kept showing up on screen during loading transitions and I'd read 4 words before the loading screen disappeared and I was back in the game.

Like, uh... this is kind of a double edge sword! But I'm here for it.

Hogwarts Legacy was a game on the S1 where I reaaaaaaaaaaaally hated the load times. It was more annoying than the muddy graphics, honestly. Going in and out of shops in Hogsmeade, certain areas in the castle, fast traveling basically anywhere... it was awful. It made me stop playing.

@FishyS by “gaming PC” I mean “PC that they use for gaming”. Just because people have a PC doesn’t mean they want to use it for games. And again, many that do use their PC for the odd game (in my experience) are doing most of their gaming elsewhere, unless they’re an enthusiast.

Personally I just bought a new laptop that’s more capable than the Switch 2, yet I’ll choose a Switch 2 game over a PC one in a heartbeat. Switch 2 is just so much more frictionless.

@Buizel There are a couple big gaming reports which attempt to give stats every year. The different sources give different numbers since it's hard to figure out accurately, but they all pretty consistently have mobile > PC > console in terms of number of players.

This one claims 3 billion mobile gamers (seems reasonable), almost a billion PC gamers, and more than half a billion console gamers:

https://playercounter.com/gaming-industry-revenue-statistics/

Interestingly, it said consoles made more money ... but I think that counts console hardware but doesn't count non-specialized PC hardware so it is a bit misleading.

Note that the stats are drastically different in different parts of the world. China, for example, does almost entirely PC and mobile gaming.

@FishyS Yeah, that's pretty much it. Mobile gaming is the norm, PC gaming has more players than consoles, even if it's mostly very low-end, and console gamers are living in a bubble if they think otherwise.

That's all aside from my main point which was that, with console prices rising, people will be inclined to switch to those other platforms as cheaper alternatives. The people who can't afford to spend 700 dollarydoos on a new console, and then 110 on each new game for it, might just decide to see what they can play on the hardware that they've already got and be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Worth remembering that the kid who has Minecraft installed on the $300AU laptop they had to get for school counts as a "PC gamer". And the boomer who is still playing Pokemon Go counts as a mobile gamer. Fair to say these kinds of users aren't traditional console gamers

Also if we're doing anecdotes. Amongst my colleagues and people I went to UNI with PC gaming is the default. Everyone has a decent desktop PC, everyone has a dedicated modern GPU. Some of also have a Switch for the convenience but the default is PC. But amongst my family? Half of who have a Switch. I'm the only one with a full on desktop PC and most of them don't even have a laptop (they just use their phones). I only know one person IRL who has a PS5

That is to say, we all live in our little bubbles. None of us really have a decent view of the broader market

@skywake
Yea, I was gonna say, in these "big gaming reports," who/what qualifies as a "gamer"?

My wife has Bejeweled on her phone - is she a mobile gamer for purposes of these polls or whatever?

@rallydefault Some of them use active player counts and such to help estimate. So if your wife occasionally actually plays Bejeweled I assume she would be counted as a gamer.

@FishyS
Makes sense. Everyone has a phone. And then by the very nature of mobile games (quick to pick up for a few minutes throughout the day), I’m not at all shocked by those stats.

@JaxonH

I watched a video from Taki Udon about the original Switch being overclocked and even running 4K 120Hz games either through Linux or Android. The GPU was overclocked to about 1Ghz and the CPU to 2.5Ghz and it seemed amazing what it was doing but he wouldn't show normal Switch games O/C for fear of the video being taken down but stated it was possible. I don't have a modded Switch myself but did find the video very interesting. It definitely feels like if you have a modded Switch you are getting a mid-level experience between Switch 1 and Switch 2. Looking at the Switch CPU at 2.5Ghz that takes it up to about PS4 CPU performance except the Switch 1 uses 1 of its 4 CPU cores for the OS where as the PS4 uses only 1 of its 8 cores. The Switch 2 currently uses 2 of its 8 cores for the OS and Gamechat. Only Mariko based Switches have any chance of running at 2.5Ghz and its more likely to work on the OLED Switch as the dock has better cooling performance. I noticed the GPU was only overclocked to 1Ghz when I've heard of 1200-1300Mhz being possible so I guess when the CPU overclock is maxed out you have to dial back the GPU. What the modding scene has achieved is pretty impressive.

It does feel like a modded Switch provides a great experience for Switch 1 games too given the performance possible. When loading the original Switch drops the GPU to very low speeds so it can temporarily up the CPU to process loading much quicker, to 1785mhz I believe. I assume the Switch 2 would do the same to optimise loading speeds. I assume this feature only works to load the game before playing rather than loading when the game is actually playing and still needs full GPU speed. The point is it is a significant loading advantage on the original Switch so 2.5Ghz at all times must surely provide a much better loading time on Switch 1 for in game loading? If the CPU is 2.5x as fast you would expect the load times to be significantly reduced, decrypting code etc.

@BonzoBanana
Ya! I love my chipped Switch OLED, and chipped custom Switch Lite OLED.

It's recommended to not push the CPU beyond 2.0 GHz, or GPU beyond 1.0 GHz, at least while in portable mode. I can go a bit higher but choose to limit myself to those values.

I also set the CPU loading boost to 2.0 GHz instead of 1.785 GHz like it normally is. It does help speed things up a bit. Not nearly as fast as NS2 but, better is better. Probably 10% faster loading on mine.

Best part is telling the software to output the docked image in handheld mode, with the overclock pre-set to increase GPU to 768 MHz when it's rendering the docked image. And you can increase from there as needed. Sometimes I push to 844 or 921, in rare cases 998. But never more than that due to balancing battery life.

RAM is permanently increased from 1331/1600 MHz stock clock speeds for handheld/docked to 2133 MHz. That helps alleviate a bottleneck for many games.

It's kinda the Switch Pro we never got. You're right, you really need the Mariko because of the efficiency. Essentially you're trading that double battery life for double the power instead. By rendering docked image in handheld, and 99% of all games being 720p or higher when docked, you essentially get native HD across the board portably, and by overclocking a bit from there to iron out framerate drops, you're also getting a stable 30/60, all while retaining 3-4 hours battery on the NS OLED, and 2-3 hours battery on the NS Lite OLED (or just Lite for everyone else).

Highly recommended. Don't get me wrong. Switch 2 is preferable for some NS1 games- all the ones that got upgrades or free updates, and games that hold a stable 60 like Ni No Kuni 2, Bayonetta 3, Monster Hunter Stories 2, etc. But for many others that would look rather poor in their 480-540p handheld image, it's much more preferable to play on an overclocked Switch outputting docked image portably while overclocking. Immortals Fenyx Rising looks INSANELY good in 720p handheld locked 30fps. DOOM Eternal looks VERY impressive in 720p handheld locked 30fps.

And, you can set a frame cap of 30 on any game you want, so if something can't hold 60 just cap it at 30 for a more consistent experience. Others the frame cap can be lifted. Persona 5, for example, I can play in 720p 60fps portably. But I typically choose 30 for battery life since it's an RPG anyways.

And if you have both a NS2 and a chipped NS OLED, you don't have to worry about the NS OLED doing an online check or swapping virtual game cards before playing, since you can install your purchased games in a walled garden where they just launch offline every time. So with NS2 as your primary, you can launch games from both at the same time without any license checks.

If you have a NS OLED, and the spare change to get it chipped, I can't recommend it enough. Cost me around $100, and from the day I shipped it out, it was on my doorstep ready to go within 2 weeks.

What people like or game or what consoles they use or like will never equal another gamer. People seem to think all Gamers aka Switch2 are monolith and couldn't be farther from the truth. What you spend your money on is up to you yourself. And how the Switch2 lives in your microcosm isn't the same for another. This is just a fruitless discussion as anyone can pick and change the starting points. End of the DAY you yourself decide that for yourself is it worth it as it's your MONEY your spending and if you have BuyersRemorse that beholden on you not anyone else Nintendo can advertise and sell Switch2 but you yourself in the end bought it. If you dislike it so much my advice Sell Switch2 and go buy Switch1 and EndofStory.

@larausjarod
Wise words indeed.

And I can't really disagree. If someone feels it isn't worth it, don't buy it then. If someone buys it and regrets it, sell it then. If someone feels it's worth it, buy it then. If someone buys it and appreciates their purchase, celebrate.