Topic: Nintendo Switch 2

Actually looks impressive, NGL.

We now know where Switch 2 stacks up performance wise thanks to someone obtaining a legit Switch 2 motherboard with Nvidia chip intact.

In handheld mode it's more powerful than a PS4, and a smidgen under Steamdeck. But very, very close to Steamdeck. Close enough we can essentially view Switch 2 as a Steamdeck in handheld mode (of course, Switch 2 draws a max of 10W in portable mode while Steamdeck can draw close to 30W so it's actually really impressive).

In docked mode the Switch 2 most closely aligns with an Nvidia GTX 1050 ti. A smidgen under but close enough. These are estimates after all.

These two graphs show comparisons to other devices and GPUs. Keep in mind this is based on a GPU benchmark. Switch 2 CPU is far more modern than 8th gen hardware, and despite being lower than Steamdeck, as noted in the video CPU isn't likely to be the bottleneck for most games. It also has 50% more RAM than 8th gen hardware. I believe it actually has more RAM than Series S, in fact. 12GB for a hybrid handheld is quite a bit.

There's also DLSS, which is going to help the system punch above its weight. An advantage systems like Steamdeck don't have. So I wouldn't be surprised to see most games in handheld mode outperforming not just the PS4, but even the Steamdeck. Of course this will depend on the game, skill of the developer and many games will likely be superior in some respects while inferior in others.

Do note the Switch 2 is not in the same league as Series S. It's in between PS4 and Series S. PS4 Pro would probably be the best comparison. It's too bad they didn't include that in the graph.

The Switch 2’s launch in mainland China has been delayed for now, but what are the chances Nintendo chooses to just leave that market altogether instead?

@MrCarlos46
Unlikely. There's no reason to abandon the Chinese market. It's free sales, even if it's only a couple million... every million counts, after all.

The Switch 2 is also seeing a delayed release in some South American countries. I think the issue right now is supplying as much stock as possible to the US, and everything else has to supply PAL and JP regions. They probably just don't want to be spread too thin right now.

Slim to none.

Of all the combined revenue generated by video games (around 190 billion annually), China is second behind North America (Murica!).

@JaxonH @Magician The problem is with China’s strict regulations on video games (like that results in most games being banned or just not released there at all), not to mention consoles there are region locked, which is what makes people just import from Hong Kong or maybe Japan instead to enjoy everything.

Nintendo could still choose wait and release it in China in the next few years, but right now it seems like

The Switch 2 should really have an extra micro SD card slot for storing and playing our Switch library. I have easily over 700gb, if everything was downloaded. I've got a 512gb SanDisk Extreme card but I don't think I can even use that on Switch 2? So I'm going to need to spend 170 quid on an Express card that will be almost filled after the system transfer. An extra slot for standard Micro SD cards would have made such a difference. Instead, we're going to have to regularly 'clean the fridge' like in the Wii days , or have multiple SD cards. It's not good to be moving SD cards in and out too much though.

I would seriously consider going mostly physical this gen but then it seems like the majority of physical games will be Gamekeys.

Those who went mostly physical with Switch, made a wise choice it seems.

True, but almost 3/4th of that revenue is from mobile games and the majority of the rest is online PC games. Given that the Nintendo eShop is scheduled to close in China in 2026, it's unclear what will happen. China got Switch 2 almost 3 years after everyone else and only through the agreement between Nintendo and Tencent which is ending soon.

The articles we're discussing claim Switch 2 in China has been delayed indefinitely, pending an assessment of demand and challenges with government policies. That's basically what delayed Switch 1 until December 2019.

That would have been Wonderful — it would have made our Switch 1 cards which don't work in Switch 2 useful and swapping games between a 'backup' sd card and a in-use Express card would have been much less painful than redownloading games constantly. Alternately, they should have given us 512 GB internal storage since 256 basically only fits 4 fancy games...

Since the Switch 2 Direct:

• NBNCo announced availability of full fibre internet to my house
• I ordered said internet
• NBNCo had to come and do significant ground works at my house to install fibre
• The fibre service was activated
• Purchased new Ubiquiti network gear
• organised sparky to run Cat6 from study to TV

Not done in preparation for Switch 2 but the end result is certainly me being pretty well prepared for launch

Good to see the 12GB of LPDDR5 finally confirmed here @ 2:00. This was a really insightful video from a respected source that confirmed a lot of the rumoured hardware specs for me:

I did the math and 80 dollars for the games is the same is 60 back in 2017 when factoring in inflation

@NeonPizza
I'll be getting the camera. My daughter will love it for Mario Party and MK, even when it's just us playing in the same room. It'll be fun to see our faces over our karts or during those minigames.

@Jalex_64
Ya I shared that vid a few posts back along with the GPU benchmarks.

I'm actually really impressed with how Switch 2 stacks up performance wise. Handheld mode falls in between PS4 and Steamdeck (more powerful than PS4, slightly less than Steamdeck), while docked mode is nearly twice as powerful as PS4. Of course, there's also the fact the Switch 2 CPU is notably better than the PS4 CPU, it has 50% more RAM than PS4 and, it has that proprietary DLSS secret sauce.

So the prior estimates of "PS4 in handheld, PS4 Pro while docked" actually ended up being pretty accurate, give or take a bit.

We just learned Hogwarts Legacy is also leveraging NSW2 DLSS, alongside Street Fighter 6 and Cyberpunk 2077. I think its fair to say most games will utilize it. A comparison was done using the newest, cutting edge DLSS 4.0 Quality Mode for a 540p image upscaled 1080p, quadrupling the pixels count, and the results seemed about on par with the proprietary NSW2 DLSS being used. That's insane. Turns out DLSS really is going to be that X factor that helps give Switch 2 that extra oomph needed to run many modern games without severe compromises. If anything I underestimated its importance.

I agree about the RAM. That was the number 1 bottleneck on Switch 1, which only had 3GB usable RAM after accounting for the 1GB devoted to the OS, and clocked at 1.6 GHz. The Switch 2 has 12 GB RAM clocked around 4.3 Ghz handheld and 6.4 GHz docked. That's a massive leap forward. As for memory bandwidth, it isn't as much as power consoles, obviously, but it's still 2.5x higher in handheld and 4x higher docked vs the original Switch, on top of having 3x the RAM and 3-4x the clock speed.

Switch 2 won't be able to run every game (well- any game could run given enough bespoke optimization, but I mean in terms of reasonable levels of optimization), but it should be able to run 80% of them. Which for a 10W portable is incredibly impressive.

With Switch 2 now over 152m units sold- only 2m behind the DS and 8m behind the newly revised PS2 total, Switch 2 is going to be impossible to ignore for developers. I'm expecting an absolute truckload of 3rd party releases. Maybe not day and date, but they're coming.

@TOUGHDUDE94
This is the inconvenient truth many gamers refuse to acknowledge. We all saw it coming when the government was dropping helicopter cash during C19. We knew inflation was being set up to skyrocket. And it has. 23% just since the launch of PS5/XS. That means a console launching for $499.99 should now cost $615. And that's before accounting for tariffs.

Nobody likes paying more and I'm definitely not happy about it. But it's imperative we acknowledge the reality of the current situation we find ourselves in.

I think my plan will be like this: I'm gonna buy Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma when I buy it on my birthday. it'll be the Switch 2 version since I can play it on my OLED Switch. Then when I do buy the Switch 2 next year...I'll have a game already for it. Cause I wanna make the switch 2 my last console for good as I'm planning on retiring from gaming... i had enough.

@MarioVillager92 There were not numerous, indeed, with some exceptions like Mario vs. Donkey Kong Tipping Stars. Too bad Nintendo did not get used to that consumer-friendly approach. Between Wii and Wii U there were small upgrade fees for purchasing Virtual Console that were, basically, a huge discount, which was also very nice but, like you are suggesting, Nintendo didn't go further that way but rather backward. It was very cool, though, along Nintendo Selects and Player's Choice.

@NeonPizza I'm a huge Resident Evil fan, but VIII is my least favourite entry. The first remake and the Umbrella and Darkside Chronicles games would be amazing in Virtual Reality. You make it sound like an incredible experience. I'll keep an eye on how the technology evolves for PC! About Metroid Prime 4, I'm not sure if I'll play it on Switch or wait until I get Switch 2/revision in the future.

@OorWullie Right. Wii U allows two HDDs to be connected and that is super handy. Switch has proper physical editions and it's compatible with regular SD cards. Switch 2 doesn't look great for managing big collections, even less when you consider the unpopular game key cards and that there is only one slot for Express cards.

@NeonPizza Yeah, I beat 8 on Series X. It's the only one I haven't replayed several times in harder difficulty. I have played the others many times! I really hope that Code Veronica is remade, because it has one of the most fascinating stories in the series. They can't leave that one out, right? Right? 😁 I also hope that 9 is more like the classics/remakes and less like 7 and 8.

@JaxonH That it's roughly equivalent to a 1050 Ti is interesting to me, because that's precisely what I've been running in my living room PC for a while now.

Although a fairly old card, it's one that I've put off upgrading because, honestly, there isn't really that much you can't run on it, at least if you aren't a stickler about high resolutions and frame rates. Even some of this year's biggest hits - like Clair Obscur and Oblivion: Remastered - work well enough on it.

If the Switch 2 is truly in that league, I'd expect that most of the AAA hits of recent years could find their way to it eventually. It's only when we're into the realms of Hellblade 2 level visual effects and mandatory ray tracing that it's lacking.

Obviously there's still quite a gap between it and the Series S, especially when handheld, but there aren't a huge number of games falling into that bracket, even now.

When does everyone expect Nintendo to hold another Switch 2 Direct? It’s now under a month until release so I am assuming they are gonna want to do another showcase to reveal more games which weren’t in the April one. Probably do more promoting of Mario Kart World & some of the other first party games, though I’m not sure there’ll be anything new to be announced from Nintendo themselves this year. But there must be a bunch of third party games still to be revealed?

@FragRed I don't imagine we'll have anything before the release itself. Everything about June 5th seems laid bare at this point - people have pre-ordered, launch titles are named and on the eShop, etc. I'd be surprised if any third parties jumped in last minute to announce something for the launch window. I wouldn't be surprised at all if we got something later in June though - something to tide people over between the big summer releases (Mario Kart and Donkey Kong).

That said, who knows. Nintendo have continually surprised me with their direct/announcement timings - this year especially.