Topic: Is The Switch 2 Worth It???

@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.

I'd say that the Switch 2 is worth it... primarily for massive Nintendo fans. I've been loving my Switch 2 so far, and any complaints I have with it are pretty minor (whyyyyyyyyyy are the Joy-con 2s like that... i need whimsical colors... ): ) or are already being worked on. (Youtube. Why is this not a thing yet. Even if i'm rarely gonna use it why is it taking so long. It's YOUTUBE.)

But just because I love it doesn't mean I don't understand why some people don't. Maybe GameChat isn't their cup of tea, or the whole Game Key Card schtick, or there aren't enough first-party exclusives yet (4 pure (PHYSICAL) exclusives so far at the time of typing), or the pre-existing Switch 1 Games that have upgrade packs aren't enough to sell them on the newer hardware. All of these are valid reasons to not want to upgrade, and that's ok.

In general, I'd say it's worth it to a good chunk of pre-existing Switch owners, but if someone were to come up to me as say "erm actually it's NOT worth it and you're stupid" while I'd disagree (on the first part) I wouldn't get mad or annoyed at all. Unless their reasoning is nothing but pure misinformation. I don't ever want to hear the cursed combination of words "Mario Kart World costs $90 USD and you have to download it even if you bought it Physically!" in my life ever again.

@Dyna-Z Gods the misinformation is so real. I still remember at least one comment saying you have to redownload game key card everytime you put it in... like what the *****.

Like people having issues with GKC, okay, make sense. But don't spread misinfo, especially when it's already been said ((

@Dyna-Z
I’ve been trying to fight back the whole “but you still need to download” thing that even comes from educated people on this board.

No. No, you do not need to download any patches for 99.9% of physical games. Just click “start software” and make sure your auto updates are turned off.

The fact you can DQ7Revisit on the go with extremely good graphics says it all. I am still playing the Demo and what heat output it does and have fun at the same time.

There is still an association that every game on PS5 are just key cards. Like I don't own a PS5 anymore, but that was was never the case. Most games are on disc, with exception of certain publishers as well as multiplayer games. Aside from those, though there's ton of games you don't need internet for.

Key cards wouldn't even be a big deal if it wasn't nearly every game that releases. If it was only some games like Outlaws or FF7 Remake, I don't think people would care as much.

I'd think it might be just a case of wires getting crossed, as every PS5 game is a mandatory install, meaning that it'll use about as much SSD space regardless of whether you're buying it as disc or download. It's not like having physical media will save storage space, like it does with the Switch, so there's no advantage in that sense.

You can, in most cases, still install a game without connecting to the internet, and play it the initial released version. You just need to download patches, DLC, multiplayer, etc. via the internet if you want them, and I'd suspect that most people will.

@ShonenJump121
The difference is that a BluRay disc will always have storage so there's no real cost benefit to not having data on it. Whereas with a chip based system, like you have on the Switch and Switch 2, there's flexibility there. But fundamentally in all cases, what you're actually buying when you buy a physical game is the same thing. You're buying a physical licence in all cases, you're not buying the data. So where and how you get that game data is kinda beside the point

Case and point, every time a game ships and then gets free content updates later on. Or gets a patch that fixes something. Or maybe even makes the campaign something you have to download. This stuff isn't really that different from what a GKC is doing, fundamentally

Obviously having all the game data there and ready to go would be ideal and is clearly better. But I don't think it's THAT different to justify the pages that have been spent discussing it. It's a temporary lack of convenience and little else....

edit: and might I add in my case, my internet speed just happens to be about as fast as the rated speed of a 16x BluRay. And a PS5 has a 12x drive. So as far as I'm concerned installing it from a disc on PS5 is quite literally more inconvenient than a GKC

@skywake

All long as a game is playable from start to finish, that's all I need really. Blu-ray discs are decently spacious so that's why its still unfortunate we get games with like 30mb on the disc or something.

I know you have to set your console to some sort of setting, but at the time I kind of valued not needing internet to play my games since when I moved to a new place when I had my console we did not have internet initially.

The chance of that being an issue is very tiny; usually, but it was nice I could play the games I already had with me. I take good internet speeds for granted these days, since there was many a time I did not have very good internet.

Very much area dependent.

@ShonenJump121
Yeah, 100% on good internet being hugely variable depending on where you live. From memory I first got ADSL around 2006 or something which gave me ~8Mbps DL. But I was stuck on that until around 2018 when they rolled out VDSL which gave me a theoretical (but unstable) ~70Mbps (I got the 50Mbps plan)

I only got fiber mid last year which in theory allowed me to buy upto 1Gbps. I ordered 100Mbps, knowing they were planning to adjust pricing. And it was only late last year when they made 2Gbps available and adjusted pricing when I was bumped up to 500Mbps

So yeah, "internet being faster than a disc" is very, very new for me. I expect most people have less speed than I do. But for me, as wrong as it feels to say, downloading would be faster than installing from disc. Which technically makes a GKC more convenient than a PS5 game install from disc

The confusion between keycards and things like PS5 disks is the result of people refusing to acknowledging that "install" and "download" are two very different things. And then out of ignorance or malice pretending that they are. Which is to say, the problem with Keycards is not that they need to be installed to your system memory. The problem with keycards is that they are dongles with no content on them, despite being sold as if they are physical copies of a game. If they contained the game data on them, but for speed reasons required that this data be installed to your system memory? Nobody would be complaining about them in the first place. Instead, they are a more baroque version of a slip of paper with a download code on it, and only exist because consumers for some reason weren't enthusiastic about embracing such when the publishers tried to cut the game out of physical games.

@metaphysician
I don't refuse to acknowledge that difference. My argument is more that it's a psychological difference not a practical one. Practically the end result is the same copying the game from an optical disc as it is copying it from a server. And the fact that one requires an internet connection doesn't measurably change the experience when you are connected to the internet and your connection is sufficiently fast

The only real argument is the preservation one. Which, maybe controversially, is one I don't subscribe to. Because my argument here has always been that ultimately preservation requires breaking the DRM and breaking free of the physical platform. And the route to that isn't going to be a legitimate physical purchase anyways

So far as the preservation argument goes, I generally don't comment on current generation hardware, but I guess you can look at the 3DS and Wii U emulation communities. In both cases, whether you bought your games as physical media or downloads doesn't really matter when the process for dumping either involves modifying your console and backing up to the SD card.

One form of backing up will give you the patches and DLC though, while the other won't.

I just installed both Trails of Cold Steel 1 and Trails of Cold Steel 2 on my Switch OLED and Switch Lite OLED, with full English patches and full English dubs taken from the PS4 western release and integrated. Overclocking and getting 60 fps in both.

I now own every Legend of Heroes game on Switch 1/2 in English.

By the time Switch 3 rolls around they'll have cracked open the Switch 2 where you can pay to have it hardmodded, and you can back up all the .nsp (Nintendo Submission Package) files from digital purchases and .xci files (eXact Cartridge Image) from on-cartridge purchases to store in perpetuity like I did for all my Switch games. Not only preserving your purchases but even games never released in your language/region.

This has held true for Wii, DS, Wii U, 3DS, Switch and it'll eventually be the case for Switch 2.

@Matt_Barber
Yeah, not going to go into detail on any of that stuff. But fair to say you don't need to have the game data on physical media for preservation if the digital store itself is cracked. Which needs to happen anyway if you want to preserve digital only games, updates and DLC. Data being on physical media for post-online-era gaming isn't really that valuable from a game preservation standpoint

Here's the problem your in the minority of Switch2 buyers. Sales so far hasn't slowed down as Switch2 comes in they get buyers. So whether or not your buy isn't what the sales of Switch2 are saying the other way. So this comes down to a "Opinion" not rooted in numbers sales overall that shows it's not slowing down anytime soon. I just love how people always go for the low hanging fruit of a dip in sales is a indication of Switch2 failing.....when quiet the opposite is going on.