Topic: Nintendo Switch 2

@MarioVillager92 Awesome you’ll love it!! I got mine on Sunday

@FishyS @mike3 Thanks you two! It's still downloading as of now so I may have to wait until tomorrow to play it. This suspense is a little ridiculous, lol. I did make it so that MKW would download first.

I am very satisfied with the Switch 2 Pro Controller. Like the Switch 2 itself, it is a nice improvement from its predecessor. It just feels very nice to move the sticks around and to press the buttons. The rumble in Bananza is also good.

The A78c CPU cores can run A57 code directly and the graphics go through a API that now works with the Switch 2 graphic hardware rather than Swich 1. It was surely designed from the outset to have good compatibility and to be honest I'm amazed how good the compatibility is but they have had a long time to perfect this. However it still only needs 3 CPU cores and low performance levels from the GPU. I honestly don't see why it is that surprising that you get good battery life out of the Switch 2 when running Switch 1 games. If the Switch 2 had to emulate the wii u which is a completely different architecture without the ability to run code natively then I guess if it could do it we would be down to 2 hours approx as that would really push the system as its powerpc based with a completely different graphic architecture. On a PC emulating Switch 1 and wii u seems to need similar resources in performance to get full speed etc. I suspect the Switch 1 is easier to emulate but being slightly more powerful they work out the same overall.

There are good technical reasons why the Switch 2 can run Switch 1 games with decent battery runtime.

I'm curious how the Switch 2's battery holds up playing Gamecube games like Windwaker or F Zero as that is actually a proper emulation test. Yes the Gamecube isn't very demanding being only a 8 gflop GPU etc and even my crappy Celeron laptop can emulate Gamecube at full speed and run for 4-6 hours but it would be interesting to know what the runtime is for that on Switch 2 as it must be full software emulation so you could make a comparison with other devices running Gamecube emulators. As far as I know there is no hardware in Switch 2 that would help with regard Gamecube emulation.

@BonzoBanana
As far as the Switch 2's SoC is concerned Switch games are the same as Switch 2 games. There's no such thing here as a lower GPU clock or less CPU cores being used. These games only use less power because that's the amount of power a less demanding game consumes on Switch 2. If you altered a Switch game to target a 4K output, for example, I'd imagine the power consumption would be very Switch 2 like

The GameCube emulator is just an emulator. I don't see how it's particularly interesting how much power it uses for running those at all. Probably not a whole lot

Can't remember if I shared my final solution but here it is. I finally found a set of opposite polarity.Magnetic rings strong enough to hold the 150g Nitecore 38.5 Whr battery (it's imperative, you use this battery because it's the lightest in the world with its carbon fiber case- if you just search amazon for other similar batteries, the lightest you'll find is 165g I believe).

So, here's what you'll need:

Buy a 150 gram Nitecore 38.5 Whr battery, the lightest in the world ($60), a 200mm [7.8"] right angle USB-C to right angle USB-C cable ($8) and a set of opposite A/B polarity magnets resembling magsafe rings ($10) and for $78 you can make a magnetic battery attachment that only takes total weight up to 690g after accounting for cable and magnetic rings.

Battery life will then outstrip even Switch OLED by quite a bit. We're talking 5 hours MINIMUM (probably 5.5 - 6 but I'm accounting for some spillage here).

So... for about $75 you can TRIPLE the NSW2 battery life while keeping total weight UNDER 700g, making it conveniently magnetic in line with the joycon 2, while ensuring it doesn't interfere with docking... That's why I love Switch as a concept so much. In fact, the weight ends up right around where the original Steamdeck was out of the box (it was 670 grams, and our total weight here is 690 grams). I used this exact method (only with Deckmate attachment instead of magnetic rings but it was also 10g) with that launch unit Deck, adding 165 grams to the stock weight of 670g (150g battery + 10g Deckmate + 5g USB-C cable) ending up at 835 grams total. And that was right around the threshold of what I'd consider "too heavy". It was ok but I wouldn't go any heavier.

So NSW2 at 690g total, with battery life which triples the stock battery life out of the box, all for under $80 and incorporates it with a magnetic snap-on attachment in-line with the system's design such as with joycon 2, doesn't interfere with docking or kickstand swinging over it, and isn't so wide your fingers touch it when holding it in handheld play... that's the move.

Key is you GOTTA use Nitecore battery which uses carbon fiber casing to keep weight minimal. Any heavier than 150g and the magnets might not hold strongly enough. You could just use velcro strips for any battery, but if you wanna keep the weight minimal as possible while still adding substantial battery life (those 5,000 mAh batteries aren't worth using) and incorporate it in the slickest, low barrier, easy-to-attach/remove method as possible by going with a magnetic snap-on design similar to the joycon... here's the battery, cable and opposite polarity magnetic rings.

• AAOTOKK 90 Degree USB 3.1 Type C Male to Male Gen 2 (10Gbps) Connector Extension Cable

PZOZ A/B Dual-Sided (1 Set) Magnetic Ring Stickers

Nitecore NB10000 Gen 2 Ultra-Slim Power Bank

• note: Gen 3 only costs $5 more and it swaps the USB-A port for a 2nd USB-C port- not necessary for our purposes but for $5 you may want to future proof it)

200mm right angle USB-C cable

PICTURES

For the record, i disabled the setting which limits your battery charging to 90%. For one, this is like the launch model of the first NSW1 and needs every last drop of juice it can get when there are AAA games pushing it into the 2-3 hr range. For two, by the time any actual degradation to the battery occurs, there will be a new revision releasing anyways, which of course I'll upgrade to.

However.

With this new battery setup I can easily afford to re-enable the battery saver which caps charge to 90%. Even so, I like the idea of getting 6 hours in Cyberpunk 2077 as opposed to 5 hrs 25 min. I'm just really greedy when it comes to battery life 😀. But I'm also very sensitive to weight, and spent countless hours of research finding the best way to increase battery life by a substantial amount while keeping the total weight of the system as low as possible.

I did this for Steamdeck which, at 670g out of the box for the launch model, obviously every gram mattered. So thankfully, a lot of the knowledge I gained from research at that time translated over to the NSW2 battery issue. The only difference now is, there's no Deckmate released for NSW2 yet. You can use a pair of individual attachments with M3 adhesive, but that really destroys the finish of your system when you decide to remove it, and for NSW2, I'm pretty sure it would interfere with docking as well. So a better solution needed to be found. This set of A/B polarity magnets are the answer- they're strong enough to hold the battery firmly even if shaking the system and the adhesive doesnt destroy the finish of the plastic if you ever remove them.

And given that magnetism is kinda the new mechanism around which the entire NSW2 is designed, it seems only fitting to utlize it for the external battery also. Plus it really does make it convenient snapping it on the back.

If you wanna be cheap about it though, just buy 2 velcro strips and that will hold basically any battery. So if you have a 165g Anker and dont wanna spend $60 on the Nitecore, velcro is your solution. But you also then have an extra 15g of weight (I'm estimating 4 velcro strips- 1 on each side of battery and 1 on each side of system to align with them, to weigh about the same as these 2 magnetic rings). This wasn't just about a slick solution for me, it was about a slick solution minimizing weight as low as it can possibly go. All depends on your priorities.

EDIT
That's the JSAUX case BTW. I think it was originally designed for Steamdeck but its perfect for NSW2 especially with that compartment to store the official charger and cable, the Nitecore battery, USB-C right angle cable and a mouse attachment for the right joycon (cut that stupid cord off asap > it's so much less annoying without it).

@JaxonH
Not quite the same but I have a 22Wh battery I always carry in my bag. So 2.5 hours of battery life on Switch 2 in a demanding game, goes to 5 hours comfortably with that battery pack. My Deck OLED is about 3 hours in demanding games, probably goes to something around 4.5 hours with that battery pack

I think people don't quite realise the significant difference in power draw here and how it impacts actual use. Doesn't take much at all to get the Switch 2 into "that's plenty of battery" territory

@skywake
Ya, I just like it being attached to the back of the system when I play so I don't have to have cables running out and somewhere to set the battery... I like to keep it clean, simple and slick. Your battery sounds small enough these rings should be able to hold the weight. They're only $10 and the perfect length cable is only $8 (assuming you have USB-C out). You could just stick one on your battery and magnetically adhere the second ring to it without peeling off the paper to adhere it to the system yet. Get that cable for $8, plug it in and move it around on the back until you find the ideal spot centered between the hinges of the kickstand, and as low as possible while still allowing the bottom of the kickstand to swing over it with clearance. Then peel off and stick it on. $18 and you'll transform your battery into a slick, joycon-like snap-on solution.

@BonzoBanana
I’m surprised because I’m talking about Switch 1 games that received some nice resolution and/or fps upgrades getting such good battery life.

Ive got a question on the game key cards. so u transfer games from the switch to switch 2 got it. but what if hypothetically something happens to my switch? r all those digital games lost and Id have to repurchase them? I think redownloading from the eshop would make more sense. Id like to keep most of my collection on switch to save space on switch 2 but this concerns me.

@rallydefault
Yeah, I would say @BonzoBanana doesn't really understand what they're talking about here. Switch games almost by definition are going to be less complex workloads than the most taxing Switch 2 games. Because they had to exist and run on Switch

The free updates can force a higher resolution output, maybe do some asset swaps, set different performance targets etc. Which will increase the workload. But the gap in performance available to Switch 2 vs Switch is so vast that you're unlikely to move the needle much

Effectively, max power draw happens when you are missing your performance targets. If you're maxing out the GPU you are either missing your framerate target, don't have one set or are scaling your resolution down. If you're not doing these things and are getting a locked framerate? You're using less power

And it's hard to find any Switch game on Switch 2 that isn't comfortably hitting it's targets. Even amongst the free updates

@BASEDSAKRI as long as you have the cartridge, you can just redownload the game once more by sticking the cartridge in.

https://www.nintendo.com/au/hardware/nintendo-switch-2/game-k...

the site explains it in pretty succint way imo

@darkfenrir my question is mainly pertaining to digital games tho. if something happens to my switch and I didnt transfer digital games to switch 2 will I lose them?

@BASEDSAKRI Then that's not game key cards, but anyway, you can just redownload them after logging into your nintendo account, but you'll have to like, deregister your account from the past switch first. (This is what I do so I don't have to link my old Switch since I don't want to update the old one for a certain reason)

https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Support/Nintendo-Switch/FAQ/Ho... (how to deregister it)

https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Support/Nintendo-Switch/How-to... (then how to change primary console)

I wish nintendo will just make it easy to do this kind of thing from account overview... :/

@darkfenrir ah gotcha. thanks for the help.

I found this thing that is concerning. This will probably become a big conversation topic on the internet over the next few days.

https://www.gamesradar.com/games/super-mario/this-is-another-...

@ShieldHero We knew about this since the launch of the system. Backwards compatibility doesn't really work on this console unless the console is connected to the internet and updates for the first time. It's because when the Switch 2 launched, not all games were done with testing for compatibility until after it hit shelves.

you know one of my only disappointments about the switch 2 controllers is theres still no way to turn on the console with the controller like playstation 5 ones. sometimes you just wanna relax and play for a but on your tv yknow?

@VoidofLight, I already knew about the Switch 2 needing a system update for Switch 1 games, and that was already bad enough. This new situation is about the game itself needing an update as well, when the update was optional before. It's just slightly concerning, that's all.

@OctolingKing13 Why not just always be in sleep mode? That's what I do. The controllers turn it on fine then. I'm pretty sure that's what Nintendo intended.