Get rid of this evil regime and their evil tariffs. Lower prices so people can actually afford it. Wages aren't going up but they need to. Bring back actual sales. Then you'll see video games and consoles sell like hotcakes.
@FishyS it's the tariffs. Why is it so hard for you guys to admit the truth?
Because it's literally not (mainly) the tariffs ... have you seen RAM prices? RAM is 4 times the price that it used to be. Because the AI boom is causing demand to go crazy. This is why all electronic prices are going up, even ones that have nothing to do with the US or tariffs.
Tariffs were definitely a big concern when Switch 2 came out because they kept jumping up and down unpredictably and they still have an effect, but it's nothing compared to the effect of AI right now. A lot has changed in the last year.
Nintendo didn't put the price of the Switch 2 up in response to tariffs, just peripherals and models of the Switch 1. They could also win that money back in an upcoming lawsuit. They're never getting back the extra money that they've got to spend on RAM, however, and that upcoming rise may not be the last.
That said, the Switch uses less of it than competing consoles and it's also LPDDR5X rather than GDDR6, which is cheaper to make, and that'll leave them less exposed to the price squeeze. As such, it's hard to see them losing ground to either Sony or Microsoft as a result of this.
There are wider implications in the rest of the tech industry, as we've been getting used to devices like phones and PCs having a lot of memory, and that's likely going to be cut back, especially in budget models, in order to not have major price spikes.
@FishyS it's the tariffs. why is it so hard for you guys to admit the truth?
The tariffs will have an effect mainly in the US but prices are going up worldwide even for countries without excessive import tariffs so its clear its the pricing of RAM and storage chips mainly. Lots of countries have tariffs it's how they control the level of imports and balance their economy. If you have a economy with a large trade deficit then tariffs make sense especially if you have high labour costs and can't compete with other countries in manufacturing costs. Tariffs might mean you have local assembly of products rather than fully imported products. Tariffs are a good thing for many economies. Consumers just want cheap products they will destroy their own economies by exporting most of their wages. They don't think about the consequences of their actions. US is close to $40 Trillion of debt and I've seen some estimates higher than this. It's a staggering level of debt that probably can never be paid back which means sometime in the future the US will default on its debt payments and the world economy will go into full meltdown.
The money taken in tariffs from the US population needs to be re-invested in manufacturing and agriculture in the US but Trump doesn't seem to have worked out that bit. The people that import the foreign goods and services pay these tariffs so the people that damage the economy are directly paying for the infrastructure improvement in the US. Surely the fairest system.
That said, the Switch uses less of it than competing consoles and it's also LPDDR5X rather than GDDR6, which is cheaper to make, and that'll leave them less exposed to the price squeeze. As such, it's hard to see them losing ground to either Sony or Microsoft as a result of this.
GDDR6 memory is based on DDR4 memory so its older technology the GDDR7 chips are based on the more advanced DDR5 I think so Switch 2 memory is more advanced than GDDR6. Graphics chips are arranged in parallel for parallel access at very high bandwidth so 16GB of memory could be 8 x 2GB chips each with 32GB/s bandwidth to give something like 256GB/s bandwidth (x8). Don't ask me why they have such confusing naming of such chips though. GDDR5 is based on DDR3 I think. It's very confusing. In my head I think of GDDR5 as quite advanced graphics memory but in reality it's DDR3 with parallel memory access. How long has DDR3 been out?, since 2007.
GDDR6 memory is based on DDR4 memory so its older technology the GDDR7 chips are based on the more advanced DDR5 I think so Switch 2 memory is more advanced than GDDR6. Graphics chips are arranged in parallel for parallel access at very high bandwidth so 16GB of memory could be 8 x 2GB chips each with 32GB/s bandwidth to give something like 256GB/s bandwidth (x8). Don't ask me why they have such confusing naming of such chips though. GDDR5 is based on DDR3 I think. It's very confusing. In my head I think of GDDR5 as quite advanced graphics memory but in reality it's DDR3 with parallel memory access. How long has DDR3 been out?, since 2007.
Not really. Despite having similar naming conventions, DDR, GDDR and LPDDR are all very different technologies and you'd need to go back around a quarter century before you'd find a common ancestor. They're in no way interchangeable and, while you can improve the bandwidth of DDR and LPDDR RAM by operating it on multiple channels, it won't come close to matching the sequential speeds of GDDR, which make it particularly in demandfor GPU and AI applications.
It's true that GDDR6 is a sightly older standard, but it's still very much in demand for server applications, with GDDR7 being very new and not having had much of a chance for production to ramp up before demand spiked.
Conversely, LPDDR5X looked for a while like it was going to be spared the worst of the RAMpocalypse because it's designed for mobile and laptop use, and didn't have many server applications. However, Nvidia decided that we can't have nice things and they designed new server modules to use it. Even so, it's merely doubled in price rather than tripled.
@Rainz i’ve got no problem with it, it’ll just be another (mostly) PC generation for me like it already is with the PS5 😂 im sure you think that sony is now copying nintendo or whatever though, since nintendo is only allowed to do handheld, huh
GDDR6 memory is based on DDR4 memory so its older technology the GDDR7 chips are based on the more advanced DDR5 I think so Switch 2 memory is more advanced than GDDR6. Graphics chips are arranged in parallel for parallel access at very high bandwidth so 16GB of memory could be 8 x 2GB chips each with 32GB/s bandwidth to give something like 256GB/s bandwidth (x8). Don't ask me why they have such confusing naming of such chips though. GDDR5 is based on DDR3 I think. It's very confusing. In my head I think of GDDR5 as quite advanced graphics memory but in reality it's DDR3 with parallel memory access. How long has DDR3 been out?, since 2007.
Not really. Despite having similar naming conventions, DDR, GDDR and LPDDR are all very different technologies and you'd need to go back around a quarter century before you'd find a common ancestor. They're in no way interchangeable and, while you can improve the bandwidth of DDR and LPDDR RAM by operating it on multiple channels, it won't come close to matching the sequential speeds of GDDR, which make it particularly in demandfor GPU and AI applications.
It's true that GDDR6 is a sightly older standard, but it's still very much in demand for server applications, with GDDR7 being very new and not having had much of a chance for production to ramp up before demand spiked.
Conversely, LPDDR5X looked for a while like it was going to be spared the worst of the RAMpocalypse because it's designed for mobile and laptop use, and didn't have many server applications. However, Nvidia decided that we can't have nice things and they designed new server modules to use it. Even so, it's merely doubled in price rather than tripled.
You stated this in your previous comment "That said, the Switch uses less of it than competing consoles and it's also LPDDR5X rather than GDDR6, which is cheaper to make, and that'll leave them less exposed to the price squeeze. As such, it's hard to see them losing ground to either Sony or Microsoft as a result of this."
However that isn't true at all DDR5 memory is more expensive than GDDR6 which is really DDR4 as I previously stated. DDR4 and GDDR6 are linked in manufacturing technologies and DDR5 and GDDR7 are linked. GDDR5 is linked to DDR3 all as previously stated so Switch 2 uses more expensive DDR5 memory which is more expensive than GDDR6. Switch 2 has decent technology for its 12GB of DDR5 and decent fast nand storage too. As well as the increase for Autumn/September it is expected again for the Switch 2 to increase in price in 2027 just like other hardware. We have just seen Xbox increase prices again. It's a nightmare for gaming hardware prices and Switch 2 is also highly exposed to these price increases. 12GB is less than 16GB but its not a huge difference, 256GB is less than 512GB but again its not a huge difference and Switch 2 is a more complicated hybrid design with a display panel, lithium-ion battery and other portable bits. We have seen the increase of the Switch 2 Japanese version from 50,000 Yen to 60,000 Yen maybe in 2027 it will be 70,000 yen. It's bad news for everyone including Nintendo customers. I do enjoy AI kung fu cat videos but I don't want to be in a situation where I have to pay £1000s per year for remote computing with AI on a subscription basis with no ability to have powerful hardware in my own home unless I pay ridiculous sums. It's just not the way I want the industry to develop and personally I will resist going down that road.
@BonzoBanana Where you're going wrong is that DDR5 is not the same as LPDDR5X. Don't be confused by the similar names. They are different technologies that were introduced at different times, for different uses and they sell at different prices.
Also, GDDR6 really has got nothing to do with DDR4. They were broadly contemporaneous technologies, but they're not that related. The latter is close to end of life now, with only a few new enthusiast CPUs using it, but the former is still highly in demand.
Practically none of this has to do with how much RAM costs to make either. We'd all be paying $2-3 per GB for any kind of it, if the manufacturers were just looking to cover costs. Rather, the pricing is demand driven and the main driver of late has been the server market because people want to build AI data centers.
DDR5 has shot up in price because practically all modern server CPUs use it. That was catastrophic for the Steam Machine, or anyone hoping to build a PC on a budget.
GDDR6 is still used by all of AMD's modern GPUs, and all but the most modern Nvidia ones. They're also in huge demand for the server market, because AI number crunching is pretty similar to graphics rendering; you're basically multiplying matrices in both cases. GDDR7 might have replaced it by now in a more normal world, but demand vastly outstrips supply and Nvidia effectively control the market, because the only way you'll get your hands on any is as a part of a GPU kit. They're both getting very expensive and, consoles aside, this is affecting graphics card prices.
LPDDR5X is mobile/laptop RAM. Like I said, it looked like it was going to escape the worst of this but Nvidia came up with server modules that used it, and the price started rising.
Ultimately, 12GB of LPDDR5X costs about $50 more than it did last year, and that's why the Switch 2 is getting a price rise accordingly. 16GB of GDDR6, however, has risen by a whopping $200 since late 2024, which is why the PS5 has gone up by that much.
There are other factors involved, and the price of storage is certainly one of them, but it really is mostly RAM.
Why is Nintendo only allowed to do handheld? Is this fact or you just spewing random nonsense? I’ll bet on the latter. It certainly sounds like Sony is heading towards a hybrid future of some sort, I guess we will have to wait and see just how much of a copy and paste effort it will be. If it is a hybrid and Sony has to take a hit on power for PS6…how will Sony sell less power to its install base?
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Topic: The Best Value in Gaming: Nintendo Switch 2
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