Switch 2 Speculation

[Karamazov]

the Wii U concept was just dumb.

 

[Seanspeed]

the Wii U concept was just dumb.

It's honestly not that wildly different from Switch.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

People like to place blame for Wii U's failure on the naming and marketing issues and all that, but I dont think that was quite as impactful as people think.

I don't think anyone blames WiiU's failure entirely on its naming, but it was one of a catalogue of errors that contributed. And I dare say part of the reason Switch 2 is called Switch 2 as Nintendo are being cautious about their messaging.

 

[Karamazov]

It's honestly not that wildly different from Switch.

It was more like a DS but you can't really stare at both screen comfortably. It was not practical at all.

 

[LiveGamer]

It was more like a DS but you can't really stare at both screen comfortably. It was not practical at all.

Yes but you could play console quality games on the Portable around the home.

 

[Wesker]

Yes but you could play console quality games on the Portable around the home.

No, you were limited to like 15-20 feet to the console, with no intrusive objects like walls in between.

It truly was a poorly thought out product. It was also absurdly slow.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

I disagree it was poorly thought out. Looking at the Switch it is obvious what they were trying to do with Wuu but the tech (at least within Nintendo's budget) probably wasn't ready for it yet.

 

[Pressure]

I still have mine (Wii U).

It's a shame the extra screen on the controller was wasted. It had such potential to declutter the main screen by removing maps etc. Or have puzzle interactions. Or many other interactions.

 

[Wesker]

I disagree it was poorly thought out. Looking at the Switch it is obvious what they were trying to do with Wuu but the tech (at least within Nintendo's budget) probably wasn't ready for it yet.

But that's part of a poorly thought out product. Sometimes your ambitions can be more than what you can design and engineer, and that leads to a terrible overall product.

I'm reminded of the third-generation iPad (first retina display but it had a woefully underpowered processor), first-generation Apple Watch, or the first-generation MacBook Air. Successive iterations were very successful, but those devices were just awful to use -- even though they made your jaw drop (with positive amazement) at times.

 

[Seanspeed]

But that's part of a poorly thought out product. Sometimes your ambitions can be more than what you can design and engineer, and that leads to a terrible overall product.

I'm reminded of the third-generation iPad (first retina display but it had a woefully underpowered processor), first-generation Apple Watch, or the first-generation MacBook Air. Successive iterations were very successful, but those devices were just awful to use -- even though they made your jaw drop (with positive amazement) at times.

Well the original post was about the concept of the Wii U being poor, not (just) the execution.

 

[Wesker]

Well the original post was about the concept of the Wii U being poor, not (just) the execution.

Touché haha

 

[Charlietus]

I guess that now the mainstream opinion is that switch 2 is going to be as powerful as a PS4 Pro.



Maybe in docked mode it could get close to that visual output thanks to DLSS and a better architecture, but in raw power? No.

It's 2020, FP32 flops not being understood. It's 2025, FP32 flops not being understood.

 

[LiveGamer]

I was looking at the Zorah Nvidia demo and Neural Materials caught my eye. It allows for more accurate textures with a 3rd of the memory foot print. Is this something a T239 could pull off?

 

[Charlietus]

I was looking at the Zorah Nvidia demo and Neural Materials caught my eye. It allows for more accurate textures with a 3rd of the memory foot print. Is this something a T239 could pull off?

There is no way. Something like that could materialize at acceptable framerates on high end rtx 4000 and 5000 series cards. Even just using DLSS on the switch 2 will be heavy (but worth it).

 

[Pressure]

I guess that now the mainstream opinion is that switch 2 is going to be as powerful as a PS4 Pro.



Maybe in docked mode it could get close to that visual output thanks to DLSS and a better architecture, but in raw power? No.

It's 2020, FP32 flops not being understood. It's 2025, FP32 flops not being understood.

The PS4 Pro is heavily bottlenecked by the slow CPU and I/O. The new Switch has CPU cores that are up to 3 times faster than those in the PS4 Pro.

I'm sure the Ampere architecture (from 2020) with only 1536 CUDA cores are going to be faster (in docked mode) than the Radeon RX 470 (equivalent of the PS4 Pro) from 2016. It's just a much more efficient and modern architecture.

Especially if they use DLSS from 540p to 720p / 1080p.

 

[Charlietus]

The PS4 Pro is heavily bottlenecked by the slow CPU and I/O. The new Switch has CPU cores that are up to 3 times faster than those in the PS4 Pro.

I'm sure the Ampere architecture (from 2020) with only 1536 CUDA cores are going to be faster (in docked mode) than the Radeon RX 470 (equivalent of the PS4 Pro) from 2016. It's just a much more efficient and modern architecture.

Especially if they use DLSS from 540p to 720p / 1080p.

CPU up to 3 times faster than PS4 pro? PS5 and series x have CPU's that are 3-4 times faster than a PS4, Switch 2 at 1ghz could maybe be twice as fast.

Also, even the highest end portables struggle to reach the PS4 in raw power. Not even the PS4 pro. The memory bandwidth just isn't there.

That doesn't mean that on the small screen and in docked mode with DLSS it couldn't reach similar visuals to a PS4 or a pro. But if we are talking about raw power, it's not close to a Pro.

 

[Pressure]

CPU up to 3 times faster than PS4 pro? PS5 and series x have CPU's that are 3-4 times faster than a PS4, Switch 2 at 1ghz could maybe be twice as fast.

Also, even the highest end portables struggle to reach the PS4 in raw power. Not even the PS4 pro. The memory bandwidth just isn't there.

That doesn't mean that on the small screen and in docked mode with DLSS it couldn't reach similar visuals to a PS4 or a pro. But if we are talking about raw power, it's not close to a Pro.

I don't think you really get how bad an AMD Jaguar core clocked at only 2.13GHz is

The Arm A78C core is faster with much larger cache.

Just consider the Apple M4 SoC in the iPad Pro is faster than the Playstation 4 Pro.

 

[Charlietus]

I don't think you really get how bad an AMD Jaguar core clocked at only 2.13GHz is

The Arm A78C core is faster with much larger cache.

Just consider the Apple M4 SoC in the iPad Pro is faster than the Playstation 4 Pro.

I know how shite the CPU's last gen were. But a mobile CPU at 1ghz is still very much slower than the current consoles at 3.5ghz. So we can say with a lot of confidence that the switch 2 having three times the CPU power of a PS4 pro will probably not happen.

If it can get to half the performance of a PS5 CPU it will be great. Let's do some expectation management.

 

[Pressure]

I know how shite the CPU's last gen were. But a mobile CPU at 1ghz is still very much slower than the current consoles at 3.5ghz. So we can say with a lot of confidence that the switch 2 having three times the CPU power of a PS4 pro will probably not happen.

If it can get to half the performance of a PS5 CPU it will be great. Let's do some expectation management.

Yeah, we are probably talking between 150-200% realistically compared to the PS4 Pro CPU.

I really think the listed CPU speed is base speed. Remember the original could boost up to 1.73GHz as well.