Rumour: Nvidia's New Tegra X1+ Chip Could Make Switch Performance "Up To 25% Faster"

PS5 has met it's match!

Yes new chip we need, to nvidia you listen.....

In my opinion a 25% power increase would be a very disappointing upgrade. Hopefully this isn’t a theoretical Switch Pro.

Rumour has it that the "Switch pro" will feature a SD 8CX due to much higher performance at the same power consumption. This rumour was backed up by the fact that nintendo was hiring programmers to create a switch emulator, so you can keep playing switch games made on tegra basis on the SD8CX.

It wasn't specified if the X1+ is getting a 25% increase in GPU or CPU performance, with the first being a bit more important. Also the biggest bottleneck for performance is the bandwith and memory speed, which causes the lags spikes in links awakening (loading stuff, not graphics), which is not adressed in just a clock boost.

I think a 25% increase doesn't really warrant a Switch "Pro". At least 35-40% should be the minimum IMO. Knowing Nintendo we could see a Pro with just less than 20% increase in performance xD

A switch pro as powerful as a base ps4 will be more than enough.

25% is useless. Only very few games are polished to use 90% of the available performance, most are around 80% so no developer would even bother to optimize for another 25%. Only games I could see profit from that are Nintendo games and the few games that are obviously limited (Doom, Witcher).

@tomwinsagain I feel the same way. 25% increase in performance still markes it weaker than a base Xbox one, which imo is a very weak upgrade indeed. Nintendo needs to, at the very least make it on par with base xbox one

@Zyph I think the New 3ds and the Dsi were both at least twice as powerful as the base models so I'd hope for at least that much of an increase

It'd be nice it if Nintendo went with the Xavier (which would make it better than the Xbox one I think) or at least the Tegra X2.

@roboshort They weren't.

People people 25% is almost nothing. Why? Because I do remember an article about ps3 games running on ps4. They said to be able to emulate those old games the hardware needed to be 10x be stronger than the ps3 to be able to emulate those ps3 games correctly and which the ps4 is/were. 25% CPU upgrade is really nothing. If it's right about this.. this means ps4 is 10x= 400% cpu stronger than the ps3. See? 25% in this doesn't really a good boost at all. Nintendo is exactly doing the same thing with 3ds... first release it at worse edition... we know it ran decent, but it could be be better and eventually they upadet the cpu so you could have better performance. Nintendo does it again. They really can't be bothered to go much higher than 25%... which means also guys if it is for the next Switch don't expect 8gb.. they will go 6gb. WII U had 2gb... Switch 4gb.. and the next one since it's only 25% 6gb.

What I wrote is for if this is a Switch 2.. then it's bad. But if it's coming as a Switch Pro... then I don't have any issue. But Sony is planning release a next gen hardware nex year already. Nintendo will be wayyyy behind. It will become the true indie hardware (which already is) sometimes a few top A++. I'm just dissapointed as Nintendo fan... 25% is really small improvement if it would be for the Switch 2. For Switch Pro I guess it's fine

@tomwinsagain 25% speed increase and double the ram and it will be absolutely fine.

It will make the switch almost as strong as a base PS4

I want bigger upgrade pls

But what does this mean in terms of performance that we, as game players, could see?

Sahing it's 25% faster doesn't really suggest much. It runs it's computation faster, so what?

@roboshort No they were not. They had an extra 1 or 2GB of RAM or something.

I'm pretty sure the Switch is currently using this chip, and Nintendo is using that extra hardware strength to increase the battery life.

@DanTheSausage

Memory bandwidth could be adressed if the X1+ chip had wider buss and if Switch Pro supported LPDDR4X max clocks at 1866MHz. Switch V2 and Lite are allready rumored to have noticable better performance in some scenarios of data streaming games like BotW, due to lpddr4x chips have lower latency. Nintendo have downclocked them to 1600 MHz to match old Switch performance.

I can't see Nintendo fracturing the user base in any meaningful way. The New 3DS had a very small handful of games made to take advantage of it's upgraded internals, juuust enough games to make some people justify the purchase of another new device. That might happen here too, but I wouldn't expect every game coming out to take advantage of a mid generation hardware upgrade, thus alienating the huge install base they currently have from playing those games. My bet is a few games will able to dynamically scale up resolution or something on new hardware, but tuning all these different modes (og hardware docked and handheld / upgraded docked and handheld) is going to get complex from a development standpoint.

My bet is a "pro" version is more likely to have some other change, in the past they added cameras or a extra control button/stick or something...all things very underused as well.

Maybe they will put in a nicer screen and it won't scale res down when handheld or something, but that doesn't smell real Nintendo either.

Point being, I wouldn't expect Earth shattering changes.

Meanwhile all I want is folders.

@EasyDaRon Unless there going to change our switches for free..
whats the point of buying another current switch with the chance it might be 25% more powerful?

why not just make a proper Pro Switch?

I’m actually not a fan of these mid-gen hardware refresh consoles. The Switch Lite was justified since it actually improved the portability of the console and came in at a lower price point.

Half steps like 20% better performance for 50 or 100 more bucks, just won’t convince that many to jump on board. The PS4 Pro is twice as powerful as the base model, and even that is a hard sell if you don’t have a 4K TV.

“ stunning 4K with Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital Plus surround sound. Upscale HD video to 4K in real-time ”

I remember just turning the Telly on and enjoying The Young Ones.

All this tech and the content is often worse.

Bah! Get off my lawn!

Want a Switch with this chip?

It's in the Switch Lite and new improved battery life Switch models....

T210B01 = Tegra X1+

Talk about confusing. Beaten to it above but yeah, this is literally the chip in the Switch Lite and mk2 Switch, just running at full steam.

Also, still no VP9.2 support it seems. Ho hum.

“Is this the chip we've been waiting for?“
No chance. Come back to me when we’ve got a significant upgrade to talk about and 8gb of ram to play with. I’ll see you in at least 2 years.

@tomwinsagain,

I could be wrong but when the Wall Street Juournal mentioned a more poweful Nintendo Switch, nobody said how powerful, it's only the online rumour mills that are suggesting a massive boost in power, this seems far more likley imho, 25% and a better screen.

@DanTheSausage Snapdragon is made by Qualcomm, though. NVidia expects its partnership with Nintendo to last 20+ years.

https://wccftech.com/nintendo-switch-amaze-players-nvidia-ceo-relationship-decades/

@kepsux,

Exactly, Nintendo are not struggling to sell the Switch, any upgrade will be more down to the current Tegra's modding vunrability than anything else.

@roboshort not really, yes the cpu of the New 3DS went from a 266mhz dual core to a 804mhz quad core, and ram went from 128mb to 256mb, but the GPU was the same, the same speed and got a super small VRAM bump.

That won't solve anything for GPU bound games.

Tegra X2 is not and option and not really meant for gaming, the end.

Also Nintendo should bump the ram above 4gb and especially the bandwidth because in some games even overcloking doesn't give enough boost because of the too low memory bandwidth.

Switch is underpowered, when it can't run Zelda games properly. Both BOTW and Links Awakening have slowdown. I know nothing about tech but maybe adding 25% more power might help with these niggles and explain why Nintendo was ok with releasing games that need a little more to run well.

@kepsux I also doubt a pro will see significant performance leaps, in order to not fragment the market. From a performance perspective maybe we could get enough out of the system to allow a 1080p display with docked performance (or a modest 5-10% performance jump to smooth things out), but I doubt we’d get a lot more than that.

Could see enhancements being things like Bluetooth audio support (a must) and things like WiFi6 etc. More internal memory is an obvious easy option too. Perhaps a nicer display panel (OLED), using glass over plastic could round it out. Those sorts of things.

But yeah I think raw performance boost will be modest or if there is a jump it’ll be focused on getting handheld performance close to docked.

The switch is already using the hat chip on the new model and lite lol. They just preferred to use it for battery life... Also for people saying that 25% is not enough of a boost just remember that if the increase is of 100% that is not a pro but a new generation leap

I don't need a system which plays The Witcher in 1080p 60fps. But I do need a system which plays Link Awakening 1080P 60fps. Or bumps Luigi's Mansion up to 60fps. Or makes BOTW more stable. Or gets Splatoon 2 up to 1080P. Or gets Mario Odyssey up to 1080P. If 25% more power gets me there I would be ecstatic.

"25% faster" literally means nothing without a context. It's too unspecific. Cpu? Gpu? Memory? Storage? Internet? Bluetooth? Charging time?....

@kepsux I dunno, I can't see that logic applying anymore. Their 'midgen' upgrades were confined to handhelds, never meant to be viable cross-platform for 1st or 3rd party content. Trying to pull of a like severly compromised Xenoblade port was about as far as it went, at that a cross-gen 1st-party (Wii) port.

The issue is that 2020 will bring a host of new consoles, that will make a leap forward in raw power, but also in design (think like h/w raytracing, SSDs and such, to what extend remains to be seen). This will benefit titles a great deal.

Sure there will be a transitional period, where developers will target PS4(Pro) and X1(X) audience in conjunction, leaving the door potentially open for more Switch-bound-3rd-party-(non-indie^^)-content, but to what degree that will even hold ultimately true, remains to be seen, with the already existing gap in hardware and the willingness and ability of devs to push the current PS4 and Xbox hardware to the limit, a task not easily replicated on the Switch.

I don't see this happening for some period of time though. Eventually, and this bound to happen sooner rather than latter, the Switch will and will have to be phased out of consideration, which again puts Nintendo in tough spot.

Sure, they can focus on one device - there are no more "handhelds" in their line-up - and part of the more indie-leaning 3rd party support, is not gonna evaporate, but they'll still be cut off from major AA/AAA developers that sofar, have really help fill out their release schedule, pad their library and cover some genres Nintendo itself can't or won't cover.

If I had to place a bet here, I'd say mid 2021 to holidays 2021 at the latest, Nintendo will deliver either a "Pro" or Switch "2" or whatever. That gives the Switch like 4 to 4,5 years, which is plenty for a ~$300 system, and the Switch Lite will have had time to shine for like 2 years.

I can see it happening earlier, but not later. I doubt Nintendo will want to put the relationships they (re-)build with the Switch "on hold" for extended periods of time, telling devs ... hardware is coming ... sometime in the future.

Alot depends on next year though. We still have only a vague idea what the X/Ps5 will look like (with rumors of a base and premium modell at launch for instance) and as such, Nintendo might need to be quick on their foot to stay, let'S say, within earshot range of these devices.

The unique position from which Nintendo is currently competing, seems to favor its strengths a fair bit, but that is not something that is suddenly set in stone, as forever unchanging.
I also feel like this is in everyone's best interest. The Switch proved that hardware does matter, yes, even to Nintendo. BotW was ambitious for the WiiU to say the least, and to me it is obviously still severly stifled by even the Switch, when we look at a key aspect of BotW, which is world-interactivity. They pushed Zelda and their own design quite far, but truly, one can only imagine what they could have done, if they wouldn't have had to worry about their h/w crashing and burning under them.

It was also easily to see how they managed to set itself apart from the rest this way. Interactivity was a big part transitioning from PS3/360, but it somewhat got lost in translation, with the focusing shifting to other sales-driver arguments in the process.

Also goes to show that "moar powah" does not have to translate purely to a pixe-count, FPS and such battle. More can be done, certainly by Nintendo!

Well 25% doesn't sound like much but since I don't own a switch yet this "Pro" version is the one I will be getting nonetheless

@Ralek85 Ray-tracing is great, it is the first really relevant technology in games for a long while. You know, lights and shadows and reflections that start looking realistic and are finally not all "fake."

On the other hand, ray-tracing is currently very power hungry, so I don't see it appearing in a handheld / hybrid (i.e. Switch Pro or Switch successor) for years and years. I'm even skeptical about the kind of ray-tracing we will get in PS5. It currently needs a high-end desktop GPU on PC.

Me, I can't see myself buying probaby any multiplat 3rd party AAA games for Switch (or Pro, or Switch 2). Sure, playing an AAA game on the toilet might sound enticing, but the compromise in graphics is too much for me. And most multiplat AAAs I don't find exciting anyway. Maybe-maybe ray-tracing can change this in the future, Control looks sexy on PC. I mean on a PC that is worth as much as several of my internal organs.

The Switch will stay relevant for me as long as there are games like BOTW 2, and new quality indies like Celeste or Hollow Knight or Stardew Valley or INSIDE, etc.

Honestly, I like the graphics of all of the above titles more than most AAAs. Graphics is as much about artwork and aesthetics and style as "image quality" and tech. 4k is totally stupid for a home console for most, you (most, normal people) just don't have a TV that is big and close enough for 4K to make any sense at all vs full HD. Personally I'd be okay with 720p even, my TV is a little bit far away.

Ray-tracing could make or break PS5 for me: if it is good enough, I might get interested. Otherwise, I'll be a late adopter, just like I was with the PS4, and will only go for a PS5 when there will be lots of great games already, for great prices.

25% is not enough for me to buy another Switch, assuming that’s the route they take. Apple already mastered incremental updates, and it’s annoying af. Let’s hope Nintendo really pushes it and gives a substantial upgrade.

RELAX! This just the new chipset used in switch lite and the ne normal version - nintendo used the 25% for longer batery life and not for more power... but this is 99% not a Switch Pro processor

[Sigh]

The masses are ignorant and buy into whatever gets fed to them, thanks to their desire to believe it.

There is no "Switch Pro". Never was. People just want to will it into existence. Nintendo doesnt do "pro" models. That's Sony and MS's thing. They might make a revision, and that revision may have a little extra oomph. But thats about it.

I'm glad for this article. At least it's a reality check for those who think Nintendo's gonna release some uber powerful Switch Pro that's equal to a PS4... which is nonsense. We'll be lucky to even see that kind of leap next generation, much less for a measly "pro model", which even then they dont do pro models, they do revisions that may have a smidge more power but that's about it.

Rather wait for Switch 2 with a chip based off of the 7nm architecture. By the time the PS5 and Scarlet hit the market, the Switch will be nearly 4 yrs old. By the time the other consoles start hitting there stride, would be a great time for a next gen switch.

The Switch has still got at a minimum a couple more years in the tank. It's going to last well into the 9th generation after PS5 and Scarlett launch.

I don't know if the "Pro" route is now in the system's future, but if this chip could get a similar bump to what the "New" 3DS line did, then I could see another revision coming yet still. Maybe give the flagship system at a minimum the ability to render media and upscale games to 4K when docked even if it won't be native 4K.

Max out clock speeds, get a better battery, and utilize the 25% performance for resolution/FPS bumps. Maybe throw in an OLED screen. Sounds like a good deal to me. As long as it’s not outrageously priced and still a handheld.

@Balta666 Don't forget that the 25% increase is on a chip almost 5 years old.
Tegra X1 launched early year 2015. The chip is 2 years older than Switch.

25% in almost 5 years is a weak upgrade for anything.

Cell phones GPU's increased 200% since then...
The GPU in my Huawei P30 Pro phone have more power than Tegra X1.

No, it's not. What we are waiting for is a Switch Pro using a Xavier chip manufactured in at least 10 nm, if not 7 nm. The PS5 and next Xbox launches soon, and if it can't run next gen games on lower settings, the Switch won't be competitive.

I'm certainly not buying a PS5, and if the Switch Pro can't run GTA 6, then I see no reason to buy that either.

They need more then 25% jump to be able to handle 4k/1080 portable or HMDI output. Also need RAM upgrade 256gb at least before trying to make a Pro model. If this can't be done at 25% GPU I doubt this will be the GPU that will be used. More like a Tegra X2 would be the best scenario for a Pro model. But if you don't upgrade the Internal RAM storage and Display portable and Output the GPU will do nothing.

@Agriculture if that all your waiting for then you obviously missed the train. Maybe you should look harder even PC trying to run 4K have issues. So let's stop with the obvious tropes here shall we.

@SwitchForce When the PS5 and next Xbox releases, it is likely that GTA 6 will either be a launch game, or release shortly after launch. On the PS5, it might run at 4k 60fps with various effects turned on. Now, if the Switch is to remain relevant, then a Switch Pro needs to be able to run this game at lower settings. Maybe 900p60fps with some effects turned off.

If it just straight up not have GTA6, then it probably won't have the next of any of the biggest AAA releases, and that would make the console not sell as good as it needs to.

@Ralek85 That all makes a lot of sense. I sorta lean towards a "shortish life cycle" for the switch and a switch 2 launch in 2021 or so more than a mid-gen upgrade of any substantial level. It'll be interesting to see how they play it, my bet is they will be excited to get everyone to a new platform so they can stew up a new absurd way to get us all to beg for NES games again, as is their fetish.

25%?! NOW we're playing with power!

This was totes worth 3 years of listening to people about Switch Pro using the next Tegra.....

@Agriculture I mean, let's be honest. Switch 2 doesn't need PS5/XBS games, it just needs to be strong enough to get a wave of all the PS4/XB1 games ported over the way we're getting PS3/XB360 games right now.

@NEStalgia The next Tegra is the X2, already out and far more powerful than this one. This is a revision to the X1, not a new chip.

Like a few others have stated, I suspect the X1+ is already in the Switch Lite and the refreshed regular Switch. If they did a die shrink, a 25 percent power increase without thermal constraints sounds reasonable. With thermal constraints, such as in the Switch, it would use less battery power at the same performance level, which is the case in the new models.

As for Tegra X2, I know it was said to be targeted at automotive use. The CPU cores in that don't look to be designed for mobile use with thermal limits. I am not expecting the X2 would be used in something like a future Switch or other tablet. But I also think Nvidia has been working on a proper follow up to continue a long-term relationship with Nintendo. Until the deal, they haven't had much reason to quickly update the X1.

@NEStalgia This isn't nearly as fun though as 2 years of half the comments being "Nintneod would never make a Switch were the Jocyon don't come off b/c then it wouldn't be a Switch" and the other half saying "Nitnedo wouldn't make a Switch w/o TV out b/c then it wouldn't be a Switch" and then Nintnedo made a Switch Lite and you're the only name I recognize on here b/c I think half the people changed their name and the other half left. 😂

@link3710 I think you're wrong. Nobody would accept not getting the latest games that everyone is looking forward to.

@gergelyv I'm curious to see what PS5/Xbox can do in terms of ray tracing. I'm not expecting much though, esp. in the beginning, limited applications like improved shadows and such seem very doable, but as for Control, like rivaling a full high-end PC setup ... obviously not gonna happen.

But as developers become accustomed to the hardware, we'll really get see what is possible. I mean, we saw cool things springing out of the PS4/X hardware limitations at the time, for instance some really clever and at times very well implemented reconstruction techniques/ checkerboarding. Often scuffed as "fake 4K", but still an impressive technical achievement.

But yeah, most consumers aren't (at least) not yet able to take advantage of developments like that. I didn't feel 4K as such was much of a jump, but as soon as said "4K" (rarely native anyways as things go) came bundled with a proper HDR implementation, the jump was obvious. Given the 'thirst' for light-output, HDR brings with it, it's only fair, that there is genereally no such thing as "1080p-HDR".

That I think a major fact Nintendo is currently missing out on, esp. since their games tend to have very specific and HDR-friendly asthetics, meaning bright and colorful as well as rich in contrast. There are few brown-in-gray-during-heavy-fog scenarios in most Nintendo games. It's basically tailor made for HDR and HDR comes at virtually no real-time processing cost.

I'm totally on-board with focusing on Nintendo's own quality output, but I do think loosing access to major party content - which still tends to dominate global sales charts - is a real economic issue. Nintendo as the platform holders makes good revenue of these titles, with little to no financial risk of their own.

Loosing that as porting becomes more and more of an impossibility, giving rise to the need to basically develop a seperate version (as it was in the Wii years), could prove quite damaging to their bottom line. It's not about Nintedoooomed ^^ but about their current success and how to keep moving in that direction.

Maybe Nintendo will one more split it's product line with a more traditional homeconsole and a Switch'esque system, but I dunno ... I cannot quite see it. That would bundle a whole host of serious risks with no clear benefit, given the last two decades of steady decline, basically just interrupted for moment there by way of the Wii.

If I were Nintendo, I would to continue on the current road, invest in my 1st-party content, build strong 2nd-party ties, establish new IPs (or revive old ones) and thus prepare myself for all kinds of eventualities, be it streaming taking over, the often-summoned death of consoles, a significant power jump in mobile devices truly making dedicated devices meaningless or whatever really.

Nintendo has a history of making cash on hardware much sooner than other platform holders. If they are smart, they'll try to stay, like I sad, in ear-shot range of the competition, while having a focus on software, software software. Not just quality though, I think BotW was really unto something with it's whole free-form-world-interactivity approach. That is something that Nintendo should further purpuse. There is joy in playfully manipulating one's surroundings. Kids like to do, and so do adults. It's like an instinctual part of our nature, I feel. I look at something like Minecraft and feel Nintendo could have done one better here in terms of a proper adventure mode, with likeable characters and such from the get-go. Same goes, to a degree, for Fortnite btw.

I don't there key is going to be ray-tracing or such, but using the newly found ressources as smartly as possible to push forward new or just-fresh-enough play experiences, within established confines (again, like BotW, which was smartly a Zelda game NOT an entirely new IP). Few have the franchises to facilitate this like Nintendo, hell, nobody outside of Disney does, and they tried and failed by and large "at gaming"

@kepsux Oh god, I hope not. If there is one thing about their current approach, I feel has merits, is that there is no excuse left not to transition the existing "VC" library between systems/"generations" without fail. I really, really hope they will start betraying their own legacy of sorts here. The way they handled "VC" is not a good legacy to have after all

On the plus side, a more beefy system should have zero trouble running 3D content, N64 to Wii, with high-rez rendering. Meaning they could easily offer a broader type of experience, not with exhaustive single-system library, but rather by types of play and best-in-class experiences.

Given their past, this seems like a pipedream, but on the other hand, so did the Switch as a concept not so long ago. The nature of history is after all ... success makes right! ^^

@rjejr LOL, no, the sane people just know to avoid these threads. That leaves the two of us....

And why are my email notifications still not working @nintendolife ?

@JaxonH Even MS doesn't actually want to do the "Pro" thing again and said they wouldn't do that with Scarlett. It was a mess for everyone except hardcore fans that love buying the same thing twice because the first one sucks.

@Agriculture I do. All the time? I just got a PS4, and I got a 360 at the very end of it's life cycle. Besides, the Switch doesn't get all the latest and greatest either and tons of people are buying it.

The 25% doesn't seem all that impressive...until you realize that its per chip, and the new SUPER SWITCH with have SIXTEEN CHIPS! Coupled with a SECOND SCREEN and powered by your latent psychic energy, the SUPER SWITCH will blow you away, cause now it has THREE HUNDRED SEVENTEEN POINT THIRTY-FOUR SURROUND SOUND! Granting you the ability to be so immersed in your games that you summon the characters as avatars into the REAL WORLD! All while jumping 173 Double-Decker buses in your ULTRA TRUCK, powered by your SUPER SWITCH! WHICH IS POWERED BY YOU!!!!!

@link3710 I want the next Switch to be able to sell as much as the PS5 and next Xbox. Microsoft will not screw up their launch as badly as they screwed up the Xbox One, and Sony is also bringing their A-game. If the next Xbox and the PS5 end up selling 50 million units each, and the Switch Pro sells 20 million, it will affect Nintendos position in the console market.

@Agriculture ...You do realize that even if a 'Switch Pro' exists, selling 20 million would be amazing, right? I'm pretty sure that's more than the PS4 Pro sold. The Switch by itself is about to outsell the Xbox One, and it will easily make it past 50 million with or without a pro version released. I'd wager that we'll see it's passed around 40 million already when numbers are released this month, and that's before the holiday season.

And if you're talking about the Switch 2, then this chip isn't for that. People here are talking about a new 3ds style revision, not a chip like this powering a new console.

@Moistnado,

I think the issue with Zelda is that it was created with the Wii U in mind, if it had been made for the Switch from the ground up it would have been much better, certain areas that have frame rate dips seem to run fine when you alter the camera view, this looks like poor optimization rather than power related.

@link3710 I'm talking about the console Nintendo will launch simultaneously with the PS5 and next Xbox, that will de facto compete with those consoles.

If they don't launch it at the same time, they're boned. If it can't run GTA6, they're boned. It needs to be able to sell as much as the competitors.

I see a “Pro Model“ happening, like NEVER happening. The system (Lite or not) already has 15 million units in NA alone in the last 2 years, and devs are still putting high quality stuff on it regardless of how “underpowered” it is. Why just suddenly introduce a “roided-out” model that soon for the sake of a few select games? The New 3DS was just that, and how many exclusives for that showed up? In the end; if it were to happen; it would be a BAD business move.

Much like the Switch Lite was a Handheld-only variant: We will at best see a TV-only model that is marketed by size, and the games available, no power enhancements, just to be sold to further increase the size of the install base. (Yes, I watched that video on Spawn Wave)

@Agriculture ...why? There's 0 business sensee in launching at the same time as two competitors. Instead, wait two years or so, and release it when people have money to purchase new hardware. The Switch 2 can coexist just fine without being a direct competitor. It'd make far more sense to launch a Switch 2 in early 2022 with an enhanced Tegra X2 or a custom Nvidia chip (an X2.5 basically), 8GB of (faster) RAM, and 128 GB internal storage.

And while agree it needs to be strong enough to handle major third party titles in a reduced fashion, GTA is one of the most intensive choices, and thus least likely. Plus, quite frankly, I'm pretty sure 2K will only put games on Nintendo hardware if they're paid to do so. GTA VI is probably never going to be on a Nintendo console, and that's okay. As long as the keep support from Bethesda/Squeenix/Sega/Capcom/Ubisoft they'll be fine, even if Activision-Blizzard,EA, and 2K don't play ball.

Tegra X2 or don't even bother. but as another revision to the existing switch to boost battery life if possible? why not...

@johnvboy maybe you are right but Wii U is less powerful and Links Awakening also has performance problems. I don't know if it slows down on Wii U. I think a boost in ram would help more than a different processor. Hope these games run better on switch pro.

@link3710 The PS5 and next Xbox will probably be way more expensive, since they can't be less powerful than the Xbox One X, which will cost a lot. It will probably be even rarer to own multiple consoles. It's also ridiculous that you still, after all this time, parrot the whole "Nintendo isn't really competing with Sony and Microsoft".

They are very much in competition, and if they delay the Switch Pro/Switch 2 to 2021, they'll be in as much trouble as Sony was with the PS3.

New?
That chip has been around for quite a while.

@Agriculture They will be $400-$500, not much different than today. I and many like me will own at least two if not three current consoles.

@StevenG Yeah, but you're an adult. Kids from 12-17 who plays Fortnite either has a PS4, an Xbox One, a Switch, or a gaming PC.

Nintendo is also a very rich company that owns some of the most profitable media franchises in the world, so they can afford to take some of the costs to make the next iteration of the Switch better. It is entirely possible for Nintendo to outsell the PS5, because now they have the mobile edge over Sony.

When kids and adults who has less money, are trying to decide which console to get next gen, they could pick the Switch 2/Pro because of it's portability, but only if it actually get the big AAA releases.

@Agriculture ...you do realize that prices continue to fall on chips, right? Of course there's competition, but for literally the last 30 years the market has supported people who own both a console and a handheld, from the NES and Gameboy. Sure the Switch is a hybrid, but as it is literally the only portable dedicated gaming system on the market, it's got that niche, along with the ability to play on the TV as a selling point. And keep in mind, the new consoles will probably launch pretty close to the previous two generations in price when inflation is taken into account. I'd be surprised to see the PS5 launch over $400. And even if they launch them at a super high price, that'll only drive more people into the Nintendo ecosystem who can't justify spending $600 + on a gaming system.

Combine that with Nintendo's exhaustive collection of IPs (and a semi-decent release schedule now that they're focused on one system), a significant following from the gaming population (something they haven't had on all their hardware at once since the SNES/GBC), and the fact that the system will almost certainly be able to handle 8th gen ports and it'll be more than fine.

And quite frankly, I think you overestimate how many people care about getting all the AAA releases. Most people buy a console that has enough releases they want, rather than which one lets them play everything (which, spoiler, is none of them tbh).

Nintendo's had it's ups and downs, but if the Switch can be a success without GTA V (or any of the many multiplats it's missing), the Switch 2 can be a success without GTA VI.

@link3710 All I hear from you is excuses. GTA6 will be a massively big deal, and if Nintendo doesn't have it, a significant amount of people, young and old, will chose a console that does have it.

It also isn't about having every game on your console, it's about giving the general impression that you're not missing out on big releases if you go with a certain console.

@Agriculture And I'm saying GTA VI really doesn't matter. I agree that they need a major multiplat for their branding to do what Skyrim and Doom did for the Switch, but I don't think GTA VI is going to be the one. 2K hates Nintendo and that's not going to change, so trying to base a marketing strategy on one of their games makes no sense.

@Agriculture if one is just relying on one game to support the company sales then that a sad reality for that company.

@sixrings Splatoon 2 is 1080p.

The current Switch needs some help...

Hopefully, Nintendo gets busy upgrading.

We need upgrades on the screen, battery, and this new Tetra set too.

I say bring it on, but I'm not upgrading unless it's a full overhaul.

Anything that makes a potential Switch XL possible is a win in my book

@tomwinsagain Nah, a 25% increase is what the switch iteration needs. Anymore and any potential switch games may have an issue running on both the old switch and a switch pro or whatever they call it. If it's situation where a lot of games won't work on the old switch, the switch pro is essentially a switch 2 and not an iterative device.

Plus a 25% increase sounds like it might the enough to push games like Witcher and xbc2 to hd on handheld, which is great and what needs like me want. It also might justify a higher resolution screen. Considering a random googled article from 2016 said undocked runs 40% "slower" whatever that means, maybe a 900p screen with less crazy borders and a 720p target for all games. Which is what I always wanted from this thing

But, what this means really is better handheld play. For docked, honestly, in my head it just means that games would be at 1080 or 900p more often and more stable. Which is also good. On the other hand, I mean, I don't know if that would sell me on upgrading really. It's about the difference between the 3ds and new 3ds, which is fine, but compared to something like the xbone and one X, it sounds pretty unnecessary. I'm still getting one, though. The switch is just on the side of being almost good that 25% boost is all I thought it ever needed

@link3710 Eh, this is why the switch lite is brilliant. The switch had always made much more sense as a handheld, the first and second party games are even designed with handheld play in mind, but at 200 bucks, it's a no brainer second console given you get basically a bit better than PS3 level games on a handheld in HD. It's a better Vita in a world whwre Sony actually supported the thing. So I agree AAA titles aren't at all needed in that context.

In the context of the switch as a home console? It's always been painfully alright. I don't think if they use this chipset that'll put it in the realm of competition for the ps5 and scarlet, basically it could just do what it already does more stable, buuuut if they use this and somehow magically integrate a graphics solution into the dock that at least boost things up to ps4/xbone quality, that keeps it relevant as a one generation behind hybrid console. Dunno if Nintendo will do that. They'd only do it if they can sell it at a profit so it'll either not happen or be like 500 bucks. Im a sucker. I'd buy that. 4k botw? Yeah, sold.

@Zacattack99 The issue is Time marches on. Hardware limitations limit interest for 3rdnparty development no matter the market share. See: the Wii. The switch is around as powerful as a PS3. Thats dope in an era of 2017-2019 where 1080p is standard and the old PS4 and xbone cant even hit that in their AAA titles using 2011 junk.

2021 in the ps5 scarlet era 4k is the standard and the capabilities of that hardware are exponentially superior than what the switch can do. Not a high exponent, but like ^3. That's why it's necessary. The switch couldn't keep up with contemporary games in 2017, two years from now when the next gen is a thing, it's in the dust.

@electrolite77 It's way behind the PS4

@SwitchForce It's not about that one game, it's about how that one game is indicative of if a console gets Assassins Creed, Call of Duty, Far Cry, etc.

@link3710 That's the thing though, you the create this imagine of people who disagrees with you as irrational. 2K hates the Switch you say, as if they held some sort of irrational hatred that made them act in a way that would lose them money. You've never run a company the size of 2K, so the opinion you hold of them could be entirely wrong.

I think it is. I think they approached the Switch with great caution because it didn't have enough storage or performance, and because, while it did have great sales, it wasn't yet something that is in everyone's home.

The ideal Switch Pro/2 won't happen, because it would be ridiculously expensive, but Nintendo certainly are going to have to get closer to it. For example, storage, an ideal Switch would have 1 tb of storage, but that won't happen since it will make it too expensive. It is however entirely possible to put 256 gb in it, which would make it way more viable.

Nintendo is unlikely to do a Swtich Pro or Switch 2 or anything like that until Nvidia has a significantly more powerful processor. They're certainly not going to release games that need the new hardware for a long time either.

What'll probably happen is that they plan to stick with the Switch brand for minimum 10 years from launch day especially since it's selling well, and a lot of indie games don't even tax the hardware too much. (We're really at the point where increased graphics hardware really mostly benefits developers like EA who are bad at making efficient games and focus more on spectacle.)

Next year the PS5 and Xbox whatever will come out, and Nintendo will release some great games but no new hardware. They will probably do price drops to the Lite and the Switch since hardware costs will have come down. The year after that, they'll probably wait again.

By this point they'll either have Nvidia making a new processor with the same sort of focus on GPU performance as the X1 had, or generic Qualcomm ARM chips will have enough improved performance that Nintendo will be able to boast about playing old Switch games at 4K or doing ray tracing or whatever.

Nintendo is in the unfortunate position of relying on Nvidia for chips, And unfortunately the future where people cared about the GPU in their smartphones never materialized. Nvidia has made newer Tegra branded chips, but none of them are a proper successor for the X1 in the Switch.

The nice part is that since the processors are ARM chips Nintendo could theoretically buy chips from Qualcomm, Samsung or MediaTek however unless I've missed the news, none of those are rocking especially great GPUs integrated into the SOC, and that's what the Switch needs far more than a general purpose CPU.

We could see them move to a different ARM chip supplier if Nvidia is a pain to deal with (which I could see them being... they are the company that did such a bad job of getting along with Apple that Apple won't work with them anymore.)

The bad part is that while the CPU instruction set on another ARM processor will be compatible, the GPU is 100% Nvidia on the Tegra, so if they swap to a processor that uses Mali, Adreno or PowerVR, for graphics, but they'd have to do a ton of work tweaking the graphics APIs to make sure they perform the same.

This could make backwards compatibility difficult. Unlike the GameCube > Wii > Wii U, where it was always just moving to a new IBM made PPC chip and a new ATI/AMD GPU, it could be more difficult. Though in fairness, Apple switch from PowerVR to their own GPU in their chips and didn't skip a beat, so it's not impossible. I suspect that Nintendo hopefully will know if Nvidia is going to shaft them and will be able to prepare their software stack so that old code will run fine on whatever new chip they use.

It's a real shame that they can't just buy Apple's ARM chips to use.

@electrolite77 Everyone will buy the PS5 or next Xbox, get GTA 6 or whatever AAA game they launch with, then 1 year later no one will be able to afford yet another console.

@electrolite77 No, it hasn't been disproven. The PS4 has sold almost 3 times as many units as the Switch. Now, you can keep bringing up excuses for this all day long, but those are hard numbers that you can't get away from. It doesn't matter if the Switch launched much later, or if it outsold the PS4 in this or that month. What matters is how many consoles are in people's homes.

And you can keep pretending that it doesn't matter if a poster for a new AAA game looks like this: https://www.yugatech.com/news/red-dead-redemption-2-now-available-for-pre-order-at-datablitz/#sthash.uYfyHTBE.dpbs#3XDw70e3cRJL54j9.97

It does matter, and it does make people stay away from the Switch. The next iteration of the Switch needs to sell the idea that you're not missing out on other games by picking it.

I really don't care one bit about power since I mainly play old arcade ROMs on my Switch.

@Agriculture Getting GTA VI would mean absolutely nothing. The Wii U started off with Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed, and Batman Arkham, and we know how that went. And the Switch has gotten tons of third party love with EA and 2K not on board.

The success of the Switch 2 does not depend on GTA VI, or any 2K game. Or any one third party company for that matter.

@link3710 It does. If it becomes the norm that Switch Pro/2 owners don't get the latest big AAA releases, then lots of people will just choose PS5 or the next Xbox.

I'm more interested in that new shield tv model especially as it has been mentioned.... I wouldn't mind having a second shield tv for another room.

@electrolite77 So we're seriously going to go back to the whole "the Switch is a portable and doesn't compete with home consoles"? The portability of the Switch is a selling argument, a pretty good once, but still just a selling argument.

@electrolite77 I never said it needed to be as powerful. I'm saying that it needs to run the same games as the PS5, but at 900p and some effects turned off.

@Agriculture; we have third party engines like UE4, and Unity that when smartly optimized and scaled can make it possible, and with that; we can have developers smartly design games that will still look nice without pushing hardware and hardware manufacturers to constantly make said hardware obsolete. With all the indie games we had seen, that is the case worth making.

To @Xansies; remember the SEGA 32X, Atari Jaguar, and 3DO? There is a reason why you never hear about them, thanks in large part to a little game called ”Donkey Kong Country” for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, a fun game with an impressive art-style using an impressive developer trick.

To both: It doesn't matter how the game looks or at times how the game runs, it matters as long as it’s fun, as long you can take it anywhere by itself, and then put it on a TV on a whim for a cheap price combined with an impressive library, that is what I feel like what Nintendo is going for instead of power and why they have the 9th Generation already in the bag. (I see the Switch as a 9th Gen system, no matter how old or how powerful it is)

@Rika_Yoshitake It will still be under 1 teraflop of performance. PS5 will be 12.

N64 was more powerful than Game Boy. We still bought them both.

@Agriculture honestly every friend who's kid has a Switch already has a PS4. Nintendo has been a supplementry console since the GameCube.

@Agriculture Hell, a new switch revision and not necessarily sequel needs to be able to run the same games as a PS4 to be relevant as a home console. Right now it's comparable to a PS3 and that's been a little meh all around.

It's a great handheld and the switch lite to me still makes so much more sense to me than the switch just because it's just shy from being technologically relevant. Like every switch game by necessity is a wonderfully designed game limited a lot by the hardware. I'd really like to see what the devs can do without their hands tied a bit.

Honestly, and this is a weird thing that bothers me, I'd like some switch devs not feel locked to a really colorful artstyle to hide the jaggies. It's a visual trick that works, but it makes every switch game feel kind of samey. It's the polar opposite of back in the 360 days when everything was brown for the same reason. It's just like, show me something else the thing can do

@electrolite77 I dunno. It's more like switch lite is. That's my issue with the systems hardware. The switch is overtime growing into a worse and worse home console (which is partly what it is sold as) it's started in a place that was adequate, but not great as a home console while being by far the best portable console ever, but then the switch lite came out and the OG switch isn't even as good at that as a handheld. Having got both, the switch lite is ergonomically much more pleasant to play just because of the form factor and the smaller screen actually makes the games look noticably better.

I guess my point is, I don't think the OG switch is a good homeconsole or portable now. If they do a revision, since the lite exists, I'd really hope the switch pro would be more powerful in handheld mode with a better display and battery, as well as have a graphics solution in the dock that makes it capable of 4k upscaled gaming and AAA ports even if they are pro docked only to make it relevant as a home console. With just this chip, you just get a more stable resolution and frame rate for what the device can already do. Which is nice and I want that, but not if it cost more than 300 bucks

@Xansies Yes, or they can at least vary the style of simpler art. Nintendo does this well, because Odyssey looks nothing like BotW, but both games stay clear of the demanding semi-photo-realistic style used by most AAA-games.

I know it's completely unreasonable, but one thing I would love to see return is the same game being different games on Sony and Nintendo consoles. Back during the N64 and PS1 era, a game could come to both consoles, but essentially only the broad strokes was carried over, and each game looked and played way different.

Square has sort of done this with FF15 by having a mobile version. Imagine if Rockstar released a GTA or Red Dead game on the Switch, but with an alternate art style. It would never happen because it would cost too much, but just imagine it.

@Agriculture I can. Spider Man friend or foe. The pared down versions were basically always vastly worse than the full fat versions. The Wii had probably 100 of the thing you're talking about. And it was one of the reasons the Wii didn't have that many good games. The compromise wasn't always worth the time. That's basically my argument in this article: The switch probably will stay the best portable console til it dies, but homeconsole wise if tech keeps going to without it, then homeconsole it's just another Wii, except again, the saving grace of being the best thing in a different market.

This was absolutely marketing brilliance on Nintendo's part, but I think even without the features the lite is the switch worth getting precisely because the additional features the full fat switch has are just shy of being irrelevant. It's really not a great home console. But, the switch is conceptually a good idea. The problem is the mobile hardware isn't at a place where it can stand to update every 8 years. A smaller generation is needed since tech moves faster

@electrolite77 the only problem with what you're saying is that in this case the portable costs as much as a home console and the games cost as much as the regular console games as well. At some point many people have to decide because they won't be able to afford both.

New nVidia Shield TV = day one buy for me 👍
I sold my old one a couple months ago in anticipation for the new version.

@electrolite77 Nah, the one in the revisions is still the X1, it's just got better power consumption and fixed the exploit that allowed the switch to be backed pretty quickly. A 25% increase is basically on paper almost (but still not really) having the undocked mode play closer to the current docked mode. So, everything except the witcher and overwatch should hit 720p stably. That's nice. Docked, I guess more things would be at 1080p, which is also nice. Dunno if that would be worth paying more than 300 bucks or calling it a pro. It's basically the difference between a 3ds and new 3ds. Unless they do a graphics solution in the dock. Which they should do, but would mean that some games would only work at all docked in the pro, which yeah, only appeals to the opposite niche of the switch lite

Speaking of, I think my point was that the switch was the most powerful and probably best handheld dedicated gaming thing ever at launch, but post-lite, I feel like it could have launched without a lot of the features and been more squarely in the camp of a handheld that also can easily connect to a tv instead of a heavy tablet that can't do any tablet stuff that can also connect to a tv and do that kinda okay for 2011. Even as someone who played docked mostly, after getting a lite, I mostly play handheld now because the play anywhere thing makes a lot more sense when you're not lugging around this kinda big, heavy, thing that isn't very comfortable to hold.

Like if they did do a in-dock graphics thing, you'd have 3 options of handheld only, the lite but with joycons and it docks, and something that presumably would be handheld, but primarily you'd get the most use docked. I'll be honest, this isn't a bad idea making all the money-wise and I hope that's what they're doing. I mean, I know I'd have both options 1 and 3 and other nerds would too. Nintendo would be selling the same thing to people twice or thrice just because of form factor. Evil

@electrolite77 Well, I mean the lite, but it docks. I'm still not sold that the joycons are super dope. I never use the things.

@Agriculture its really hard to argue the point of the Switch being a competitor to the PS4... maybe in the sense that some games are shared but they fit into entirely different sections of the gaming market.

One is a portable console with upgraded TV out capabilities, the other is a dedicated home console that cannot be taken away from a TV.

Maybe once upon a time you could argue a point but we're passed that point now.

@Prizm I still have mine but I could do with another one for a second room, it's a beast with what it can do 😉

@Razer Like others have said, it's a matter of price on the console and the games. In most countries, kids has to settle with either a Switch or a PS4, not both.

@AG_Awesome OLED screens aren’t really good for gaming. I have an LG OLED 4K that I used for mostly gaming, and the screen started messing up after about 6 months.

@HardcoreDaBoss I have a 65” oled I game on as well as the VITA and a zune HD and the iPhone XS Max. I swear by OLED, but everyone is different. I love gaming on it though.

@AG_Awesome I feel ya. QLED type screen may be better because of screen burn in on OLED. Plus Qled produces similar results with no screen burn in.

Nvidia Xavier SOC: CPU: Nvidia custom Carmel ARMv8.2-A (64-bit), 8 cores 10-wide superscalar and GPU: Volta-based, 512 CUDA cores with 1.4 TFLOPS.

@Agriculture I read all the comments here and I really don't understand you. If you're interested in games like GTA6, FarCry, CoD and Assassins Creed... Why would you buy a Switch in the first place?

I decided to move from the blue to the red team, because Sony is going to block out Japanese games at some point in the future. There are various reports about that Sony, or rather the PlayStation HQ in California, has set up a strict set of rules that are only in effect when the game is from Japanese developers. And when you actually think about what you can do in eg GTA, AC, DA and CP77 (about violence and... uhm... with female beings)... Well it's pretty obvious that these set of rules only apply to Japanese games. I'm not going into details, because I assume that we've minors on this website as well... But I also read that Japanese developers need to send a preview to PlayStation California and need to wait for their okay. And that they're struggling and don't know how they can change their games to be accepted by Sony. Some devs said they're thinking about dropping PlayStation. I guess that's the reason why the Switch got so many ports of Japanese games lately. Half of Japan is simply mad at Sony's decisions. And that's also why I sold my PS4 Pro and are with Nintendo now. Because these are the games I care about. Japanese RPGs, Visual Novels, whatever other genres they could partially use and, of course, Nintendo games. In the future I only need one console. The Nintendo one. I'm not going to buy a PS5. F you, Sony. I'm in my 30s and female, and uhm... I dunno, maybe Japanese games aren't about what most western people think they're about when someone mentions Japans...? I've no idea how this weird western worldview got established anyway...

However, despite all the rumors about the Switch Pro you can see that meanwhile, Feb2021, Nintendo is still doing fine. In the PS5 release week 13.000 PS5 and 280.000 Switch got sold alone in Japan. 28 out 30 topselling games in Japan are Switch games. And that's just ONE WEEK and only from Japan. And with all the support Japanese devs are getting from around the world... And with all the Nintendo fans around the world... Trust me, Nintendo will do fine without your mainstream games. How many people do even own Assassins Creed on Switch? How many GTAs are there even on Nintendo? Only GTA Advance and GTA Chinatown Wars, both for Gameboy Advance, are coming to my mind. You're the first person I ever saw in my life that is upset about not having GTA on Nintendo. Maybe... it's just not the console for you? And if you care about multiplats that much why would you go with the weakest platform, that isn't even the target group of these games or people who play these games?

@Altina wow, that was one long post. What I'm interested in is not having to have too many consoles. The Switch has become some sort of secondary console for many people, I would prefer if I could get by with just a Switch.

@Agriculture I apologize for that. I'm aware I have a... strange way with words and that I can't keep myself short.

Well, sometimes we need to sacrifice things. If every platform had everything, people would just go by raw power. That wouldn't only be kinda boring, but also leads to stagnation. Look at Intel and AMD for example. For years AMD was unable to compete and basically Intel sold for yeaaars more or less the same processors, with only very slight changes. Until AMD brought the Ryzen you still have been fine with an i7-2600K. And suddenly Intel is so far behind, they even have problems with going smaller. And since Ryzen Intel suddenly put more cores into their CPUs. Imagine we would still have quadcores in 2021... (And yet PC gamers blamed consoles for the stagnation. ). Apple was so annoyed by Intel that they even started doing CPUs by themselves.

Or look at phones. We would still use Nokia bricks or Motorola Razr if Apple didn't bring the iPhone. At first everyone laughed at it. But, well, look where we're now. Everyone wants a smartphone these days.

So, in terms of games for everyone... I don't think it would be nice if everyone had an XBox. It would evolve slower, because there's no competition. Games would become worse, because there wouldn't be any reason anymore to "show off". And if everyone would use GamePass, well, who is going to pay the developers? I hesitated at first going Nintendo, because games here are kinda expensive. On PlayStation I'm used to getting my games for 20€ or less. But... hmm... 40-50€ for a game isn't that bad. More reasonable than GamePass Ultimate for 13€/month. Sure, I would save a lot of money (if XBox had games I care about), but, I dunno, sometimes you need to think about other people and they also need to live from something, right?

@Altina I only read the first few words of your posts. Anyways, I'm not saying the next Switch needs EVERY third party game, but it wouldn't be good if it lacked the power to run any AAA meant for the PS5/Series X at lower settings.

@Agriculture I really don't understand how people can be so rude and narcissistic when someone says more than two sentences. Feels like: "Another person than me is talking? Pah! Nobody ain't got time for that!". But... It's okay. Good luck with that attitude in your life.

@Altina In my opinion it's the person who types too much that is inconsiderate. I try my best to write short posts.

@Agriculture Yes, I AM a bad person because I keep trying to communicate.with these so called "social beings" that seem to only care about themselves these day... Of course. Who else, if not me? As if it would be my fault that you apparently only care about yourself but also have nothing to say... Hmm...

@Altina I guess we just have to agree to disagree. Have a nice day!