What happened to the rumour that the new model is completely replacing the original Switch? Was that not a reliable source / has that been debunked?
The only thing proven to be false is that it was going to be announced before E3!!
Everything else (replace current model, LED screen, DLSS etc) is still speculation, with the confidence around some items such as the LED screen being higher than others due to comments from suppliers etc.
1. plans to begin assembly of its new Switch as soon as July
2. release the upgraded replacement for its four-year-old game console in September or October
3. likely to be priced higher than the $299 original
4. may be announced ahead of the E3 conference
5. It will be sold alongside the Switch Lite, with the standard Switch phased out over time
6. production is planned to ramp up to a peak in the October-December quarter
also earlier: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-23/nintendo-t...
1. will support Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling, or DLSS
4. set for an OLED display upgrade, 7-inch OLED screen from Samsung Display Co
3. (DLSS) will allow the console to reproduce game visuals at 4K quality when plugged into a TV
4. new chipset will also bring a better CPU and increased memory
Those stories are from March and May, nothing much has changed in terms of what is being reported. The only "change" is that when they said it "may be announced ahead of E3" this was clearly incorrect. But even then, they weren't particularly confident about it. Some of the hangers on and attention seekers certainly were and claimed they had inside knowledge confirming an announcement before E3, but that's another story.
But yeah, short answer to your question? The assumption from the start has been this Switch Pro would be part of a phasing out of the current Switch at retail. But that the Switch Lite would remain a SKU for the budget end of the market.
Based on the rumour that the revision would be replacing the original Switch, the idea of the revision being a "premium"/enthusiast option doesn't seem quite right to me. Although I guess it depends on how quickly they intend to phase out the original Switch...
It also makes me question how big of a gulf they can create in terms of power between the new version (once pretty well phased in) and the old-hardware Switch Lite. I guess Nintendo doesn't really mind if lots of games start requiring the Pro because the Lite was only ever viewed as a gateway model?
@rallydefault
We are talking about maybe a 2-3x boost in raw performance here which is a fair amount. On paper putting it about in line with the OG PS4/Xbox One which is a suggestion that freaks people out for some reason. But that's also about in line with the gap between the Xbox One and XBox One X or the gap between the One X and Series X.
Microsoft manage to largely treat the OG Xbox One and XBox Series X as being the same platform. I'm sure Nintendo will be able to manage a power jump that's more like a mid-gen cycle. Although, there is more to performance than floating operations per second. Whether or not the OG Switch will be able to handle something targeting Switch Pro will depend on where the bottlenecks are in future titles.
My gut feeling is that Switch Pro will behave in portable mode close to how the OG Switch behaves docked. So Nintendo will still have to target that level of performance. But it might mean we get some games that can't be played in portable mode on the OG Switch and aren't compatible with the Switch Lite. We might also see things like higher resolution textures being included for the Pro
@skywake
Yea, I think across all the consoles we're going to start seeing more and more graphics options/toggles due to the increasing diversity in hardware that are technically considered the same generation. Developing for the Switch already involves some differences between docked and portable power capabilities, so maybe it won't be so difficult to allow for a more powerful model and the OG model.
@skywake I wonder if, in 15 years time, there will be 4 or 5 different models of Switch and games have to stipulate which model upwards will run it. Much like my phone, some models are not available to buy but can still run lower end stuff hee hee.
I never drive faster than I can see. Besides, it's all in the reflexes.
@skywake Do you have any references, or links to rumours for that 2-3x performance boost? My own guess/hope was somewhere around the OG Xbox One level, but that's just a guess. AFAIK there's no published stats for Orin yet, and no Jetson dev kit for it generally available yet either.
@TSR3
No sources, just an educated guess. To be fair comparing performance across architectures isn't that reliable so even if we had numbers it might not tell us much. You'd have to see where the performance lies on a game to game basis. But there are some knowns and you can make educated guesses based on those knowns.
For example we know the XBOne X was around a "4.5X" boost and the PS4 Pro was around a "2.2X" boost. We know those revisions were after 3 years while the Switch is approaching 5 years. We also know that the 2019 Switch revision already gave us a 30% bump, a 50% bump above the 2019 revision would be all you'd need to reach "2X". So in that context guess of "2-3X" is pretty conservative.
We also know that the slowest Xavier SoCs (remembering the newer Orin is rumoured) were on par with the 2019 Switch revision. Except they doubled the memory bandwidth and managed that performance with a lower power draw and a 40% slower clockspeed. Which is coincidentally how much Nintendo underclocks the Switch SoC when in portable mode. Making docked performance in portable mode on the Switch Pro seem like a fairly conservative guestimate.
Of course that's all it is, an educated guess. And for what it's worth it would need to be closer to 3.5X to be faster than the OG XBOne. Although again, that's on paper. In some areas it may overtake the original XBOne spec even if it doesn't in others. For example memory bandwidth, the XBOne was 68GB/s while the Tegra SoCs in question range from 50-200GB/s. Also the original XBOne didn't have DLSS so a Switch Pro could be perceived as "faster".
As far as the old model, they most likely got the chipset to build them but the plans going forward will have more of the newer chipsets. They will keep making the older units til the hardware is gone and then phase in the newer chipset Switch and people probably won't even know that they did it as it will be only display difference and performance when Docked for 4K DLSS gameplay that will only be noticed by those 4K screen gamers. So that's is more or less I think Nintendo will do it. Keep making older units and use up the older Chipset and bring in the CashCow and then phase in the Uber Switch without telling anyone til the Cow gets out of the Barn.
@skywake Your educated guess has more grounding than my own mis-educated guess. Like you I'd seen the lowest power Xavier was on a par with the Tegra X1. So I've taken the leap to assume a powered down Orin will be on par with a Xavier running hot. Which put it's in the same ball park as an OG XBone TFLOPS wise. The only reason I'm still cautious about an Orin based Switch Pro is it seems too good to be true - it would actually class as worthy of the 'Pro' moniker!
@SwitchForce
The problem with the idea of a quiet release is that even a conservative guestimate of the spec is going to be quite a bump. We're talking an OLED panel that's about 1" bigger and DLSS at the very least. Almost surely at least a 50% raw performance bump on the 2019 Switch revision which means about 2x over the OG Switch. Most probably a good 2X increase in memory bandwidth and probably 2X RAM. Also flash, there's no reason why they'd have to jump from 32GB of what is basically a soldered SD card. But they could easily jump to 128GB without pushing much at all.
If it was just that? Some people are going to be disappointed because people are expecting something above the original XBOne. Something like the above would fall just as tad short. But even that would be too big of a jump to say nothing and just change the colour of the box. At the very, very least they'd want to be calling out the larger OLED panel.
@sixrings
I think you've got the wrong end of my point. I'm not talking about expectations or sales here at all. I'm saying that even the low range of what they're likely to do couldn't be quietly released like the 2019 revision was. That low range would be a similar bump in raw spec to what the 2019 revision was but with DLSS and an OLED panel.
Super conservative end of the range of possible upgrade:
2X memory bandwidth
2X RAM
~50% raw GPU bump on the 2019 revision, 2X over OG Switch
2-4X storage
7" OLED screen up from a 6" LCD
DLSS allowing a perceived jump in resolution (i.e. 1080p runs like it was 720p)
And while some would probably call that "disappointing" in the context of Switch Pro speculation it's still a pretty significant upgrade. That still puts it within the ballpark of the XBOne and PS4 rather than living in the "360 Pro" space. I don't think they could quietly release that like they did with the 2019 revision.
I am not sure a Switch Pro is coming anytime soon but I would think if they did finally do one I would think at somepoint they would upgrade the Lite as well or discontinue it completely.
Atomic77
Nintendo Switch OLED Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Edition Gamer
@skywake but there’s been nothing quiet about this theoretical pro. I do think big news sites don’t fact check like they used to because they’re scared to be late to the news party. On the other hand news sites often admit when they got facts wrong. There’s been too many people talking about this and no one backing down from their predictions. I guess my only question if it comes five years into the party is it really a revision, a pro or a new console. And I totally get that these consoles are more fluid. But it does seem really late to release a pro.
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