More rumours of new Nintendo Switch hardware, apparently Nintendo will announce 2 new models at E3

[Stefan Payne]

6 hours ago, Commodus said:

This information also comes from the Wall Street Journal, though, and it's well-known for both having good sources as ell as double- and triple-checking those sources.

Except when it comes to some swedes, then they don't do the "tripplechecking" stuff or even double checking at all...

 

Doesn't mean anything, though its safe to assume that Nintendo will do something and rather sooner than later.

 

 

THe usual stuff they do is one Cheap version - ie something like the Nintendo 2DS for the 3DS Lineup and one larger version - like the new new 3DS XL I have.

 

But you don't need no sources for knowing that those things will come. Because that's how Nintendo has done it since the DS was released.

 

[Stefan Payne]

1 hour ago, Taf the Ghost said:

but they'll probably be doing some semi-custom system with Nvidia at least for a bit.

I doubt it.

Its likely that they go back to AMD.

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Not that they probably won't be forced to go to AMD for Switch 2 because Nvidia can't be bothered to do the work again.

Exactly!

If nVidia didn't change their behavior, wich I doubt, then they won't do anything.

 

It might even be possible that they even go with a Custom Chip for the new models.

Because they need a lower power version of the chip for the cheap version to save on cooling.

Because they might want a higher power version for the XL Version.

 

But I doubt that Nintendo will go x86, they will stick with ARM.

If I'm not mistaken they did that since the Game Boy Advanced.

The Original Game Boy was something else.

[Taf the Ghost]

@Stefan Payne They'll want to keep the Nvidia GPU, more than likely, but they need more standard ARM cores rather than the stuff Nvidia is doing with cars. AMD has both ARM licenses and several active designs right now, so it's not like they can't come to them for a product. But it should probably be noted that Nintendo doesn't need the Switch 2 to even run 4K. 1440p for upscaling will be the most they'd care about, but even that's going to be questionable.

[kaiju_wars]

If Nintendo does decide to do a Switch Pro before their next main console, I doubt it'll be something new besides the Tegra X1, and if it does, it'll probably just have more cores.  At most though, I see Nintendo maybe adding another 2GB of RAM, doubling the storage at least, and essentially just overclocking the Tegra X1.

 

For their next console, I could see Nintendo going AMD.

[Stefan Payne]

8 hours ago, Taf the Ghost said:

@Stefan Payne They'll want to keep the Nvidia GPU,

If they did their API the right way and manufacturer independant, then I don't really see the need for it.

 

 

It would be rather stupid for Nintendo to not define their APIs in a way that is not dependant on one manufacturer, especially since they should know that nVidia is not the best company to work with.

 

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AMD has both ARM licenses and several active designs right now, so it's not like they can't come to them for a product.

Exactly

And IIRC the TDP of the Tegra SOC inside the Switch is rather high as well, if I remember correctly.

So there is no reason to not look at other options.

Don't forget, its an off the shelves ARM Chip!

 

Its also possible for Nintendo to put a SAMSUNG Chip inside.

Or maybe even some weird shit like Samsung Exynos with a VEGA Core

(or maybe there is something special in the works, especially for Nintendo and AMD made a 2 Core 7nm Chip with 5-15 VEGA "Cores")

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But it should probably be noted that Nintendo doesn't need the Switch 2 to even run 4K. 1440p for upscaling will be the most they'd care about, but even that's going to be questionable.

Are they?

Also 1080p in mobile and 2160p in dock mode would be awesome.

 

The Screen right now is a bit over 6 Inches wide.

For the XL I expect 10" or even 12"...

 

The normal size is just too small for some Games...

[Taf the Ghost]

@Stefan Payne We'll just have to see what Nintendo decides to do. They'll want to bring some other sort of functionality to a "Switch 2", which means we'll just have to wait a few years. By then, AMD will be on their post-Navi architecture and 5nm designs. Nintendo could make a lot more potent handheld by then, but memory size could still be an issue. That's the one reason 4K that isn't done by heavy upscaling is unlikely, as you just need too much texture memory. DDR5 will be available by then, but it's not bringing that much of a shrink, especially when the console will probably need 12 GB to really handle that type of load. 

 

So, we can generally expect checkerboard rendering approaches for whatever come next.