Nintendo Switch Successor Dev Kit Is Reportedly in the Hands of a Spanish Studio

erek

erek

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Pretty cool

"There's been some talk regarding the Nintendo Switch successor this past week, including some words from Nintendo's president Shuntaro Furukawa who revealed that the Nintendo Account system could help the transition to the next system, suggesting the console will be backward compatible with the current Switch. Also, the new console from the Japanese company is said to be close in power to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, which is not exactly surprising, as Nintendo hasn't been pushing for cutting-edge hardware for its consoles for decades.

The Nintendo Switch successor has yet to be revealed. We will keep you updated on the console as soon as more come in on it, so stay tuned for all the latest news."

Source: https://wccftech.com/nintendo-switch-successor-dev-kit/?dark=1
 
A Jetson Orin Nano would fall squarely into that category and have the DLSS capabilities they mentioned in the Sony leak.

It's a compatible CPU architecture, and compatible GPU as well so it would give the backward compatibility that Nintendo promised in the FTC hearing as well.

Yay. Heres hoping it launches for Xmas this year.
 
I’ve been waiting for Switch next. There was too many issues on first gen hardware for me.

I wanted a nicer, brighter display, longer battery life, and lighter. Preferably with some way to protect the joysticks easily during transport.

The irony is, I still don’t know if I would buy one. Right now I think I’m most likely to pickup a Mini PC from Minisforum as my gaming outlet. And even if I want to do something while mobile, I’m more likely to get an iPad and use a controller. Sure the iPad costs more, but it also has other utility.
 
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UnknownSouljer said:
I’ve been waiting for Switch next. There was too many issues on first gen hardware for me.

I wanted a nicer, brighter display, longer battery life, and lighter. Preferably with some way to protect the joysticks easily during transport.

The irony is, I still don’t know if I would buy one. Right now I think I’m most likely to pickup a Mini PC from Minisforum as my gaming outlet. And even if I want to do something while mobile, I’m more likely to get an iPad and use a controller. Sure the iPad costs more, but it also has other utility.
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QD-OLED or what?
 
erek said:
QD-OLED or what?
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Yeah. 1080p OLED. Preferably with variable refresh rate and able to at least 90Hz. Obviously accompanied by a faster GPU.

If they can 3x the GPU performance and bring battery up to 4 hours on demanding games, it will probably be perfect for most Nintendo gamers wants/needs. That’s probably about the sweet spot for me.
 
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Being Nintendo I'm not expecting much hardware wise. I suspect it won't be the 3x upgrade some people are expecting.

Nintendo doesn't really need much more horsepower really a 1.5x bump would be fine. Especially if that comes with a more efficient chip and more battery life.

I suspect the Nvidia chip is going to be clocked lower then some may expect... but Nvidia has had some really efficient stuff lately. I think that will work great for Nintendo. It will keep the cost down as they won't have to skim the fab for chips that can hit the right Freq. Clocked down the Nvidia chips will probably translate into great battery life, and still be a nice performance boost over switch 1. If Nintendo can combine just a little faster with a new fancy screen and much improved bat times they will sell a ton.
 
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UnknownSouljer said:
Yeah. 1080p OLED. Preferably with variable refresh rate and able to at least 90Hz. Obviously accompanied by a faster GPU.

If they can 3x the GPU performance and bring battery up to 4 hours on demanding games, it will probably be perfect for most Nintendo gamers wants/needs. That’s probably about the sweet spot for me.
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The current Jetson Orin is 6x the CPU and 8x the GPU while consuming the same amount of power the Jetson Nano used which the switch is based on.
So Nintendo could very well accomplish that task.
 
Lakados said:
The current Jetson Orin is 6x the CPU and 8x the GPU while consuming the same amount of power the Jetson Nano used which the switch is based on.
So Nintendo could very well accomplish that task.
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Price it at $350 and sold!

Caveats and addendums not withstanding.
 
Lakados said:
It's the same cost in bulk as the Nano.
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We shall see... if I remember correctly Nvidia took a bit of a bath (in their eyes) on the switch chips. What they cost in bulk and what Nintendo paid are two different things. I think the chances of the switch 2 not going up significantly in price is low. If I remember correctly Nvidias embedded revenue last year (which includes automotive) was something like 900m. If I remember correctly the revenue from the first year of the switch for Nvidia was somewhere around the same. (after you removed automotive) Which makes sense to me if Nvidia has been lowering their fab costs. Sales might be down but the margin is probably up. Out of the gate though that 900m figure put their embedded unit at the lowest margin number of all Nvidia depts. I'm not sure now that they have a trillion $ valuation they can really afford to give Nintendo another sweat heart deal that sees their embedded division eating another single digit profit margin.

Unless Nvidia just really doesn't want to loose another console... I can't imagine $350 being realistic at all. I'm thinking more like $399 for some base model with a lesser screen or something... and a $450-500 proper switch 2.
 
A 1080p screen and 1440p dlss'd up to 4k is fine with me. I'm really hoping they can pull it off.
 
ChadD said:
I'm thinking more like $399 for some base model with a lesser screen or something... and a $450-500 proper switch 2.
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No Nintendo console has ever cost anything like $450-500. I can't see them going for a 50%+ increase over the cost of the Switch.
 
ChadD said:
We shall see... if I remember correctly Nvidia took a bit of a bath (in their eyes) on the switch chips. What they cost in bulk and what Nintendo paid are two different things. I think the chances of the switch 2 not going up significantly in price is low. If I remember correctly Nvidias embedded revenue last year (which includes automotive) was something like 900m. If I remember correctly the revenue from the first year of the switch for Nvidia was somewhere around the same. (after you removed automotive) Which makes sense to me if Nvidia has been lowering their fab costs. Sales might be down but the margin is probably up. Out of the gate though that 900m figure put their embedded unit at the lowest margin number of all Nvidia depts. I'm not sure now that they have a trillion $ valuation they can really afford to give Nintendo another sweat heart deal that sees their embedded division eating another single digit profit margin.

Unless Nvidia just really doesn't want to loose another console... I can't imagine $350 being realistic at all. I'm thinking more like $399 for some base model with a lesser screen or something... and a $450-500 proper switch 2.
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The problem with that is $500 is what a PS5 costs. It’s hard to justify a light-weight much lesser processor and comparing it to PS5 level cost.

If it’s going to have PS5 level cost then it better have PS5 level performance. Even $400 is pushing it in light of other options like the PS5 discless edition and even PS4 Pro.

If Nintendo decides to compete directly performance wise and also make it a handheld, I’m all for it. I just don’t think people will buy a Nintendo console for that price instead of a SteamDeck.
 
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UnknownSouljer said:
The problem with that is $500 is what a PS5 costs. It’s hard to justify a light-weight much lesser processor and comparing it to PS5 level cost.

If it’s going to have PS5 level cost then it better have PS5 level performance. Even $400 is pushing it light of other options like the PS5 discless edition and even PS4 Pro.

If Nintendo decide to compete directly performance wise and also make it a handheld, I’m all for it. I just don’t think people will buy a Nintendo console for that price instead of a SteamDeck.
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I agree it would be too expensive for most of us.
I'm not sure Nintendos market really has cross over.
We'll have to see what they do. I suspect they will do a two tiered launch... with a base modal and full on version that might have a hefty jump in price.

We'll have to wait and see. I hope I'm wrong and they launch it at least close to the first switches launch price. I can't imagine them getting it down to even $350... but it is Nintendo. Its possibly they lined up a low end enough Nvidia chip and got the pricing down on the screens and bats to make it possible.
 
Lakados said:
The PS5 and current XBox struggle to do that on a hell of a lot more than 15w
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They also try to do that with cutting edge UE5 visuals. Nintendo is probably happy to let the games look 1 generation older if it means they perform well.

I.E, running CS:GO at 4K is a LOT easier than running Cyberpunk at 4K. My old maxwell Titan could run CS:GO at 4K at hundreds of frames per second.

"4K" is not hard to do.

Cutting edge engines and visuals at 4K is different.
 
Earlier this month, Eurogamer reported that trusted developers got an early look at the Nintendo Switch 2 during Gamescom in August, including some tech demos of how games run on the unannounced system. There was reportedly a demo of an improved version of Zelda: Breath of the Wild that’s designed to run on the more advanced hardware inside the Nintendo Switch 2.

VGC then corroborated the claims and added that Nintendo also showcased Epic Games’ The Matrix Awakens Unreal Engine 5 tech demo running on the hardware Nintendo is targeting for its next-generation Switch. The demo reportedly used Nvidia’s DLSS upscaling technology with ray tracing enabled, suggesting the chip inside the next Switch could be capable of delivering the latest AAA games.


Marees said:

Activision was briefed on Nintendo’s Switch 2 last year​


Activision executives met with Nintendo in December to discuss plans for a next-generation Switch, which is described as closer to PS4 / Xbox One performance.​



https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/18/23878412/nintendo-switch-2-activision-briefing-next-gen-switch


Activision executives, including CEO Bobby Kotick, met with Nintendo executives in December 2022 to discuss a next-generation Switch. In an internal email chain, Chris Schnakenberg, head of Activision’s platform strategy and partner relations, prepared a summary of the “Switch NG” (Switch next-generation) inside a document labeled “NG Switch Draft.pdf.”
The document is heavily redacted, but it does reveal that performance of the next-generation Switch will be close to that of the PS4 and Xbox One:
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Eurogamer speculation on Switch 2

Marees said:
Text version: (eurogamer simulate potential switch 2 GPU using a cut down 3050 aka 2050 4gb)

Way back in June 2021, noted technology leaker kopite7kimi posted a detailed picture of Nvidia's T234 processor, revealing for the first time that Nintendo would be receiving a customised variant, dubbed T239. In the two years that followed, a wealth of overwhelming evidence has essentially confirmed that they were right. The T239 is an advanced mobile processor, based on an octo-core ARM A78C CPU cluster, paired with a custom graphics unit based on Nvidia's RTX 30-series Ampere architecture, combined with some backported media elements from the latest Ada Lovelace GPUs - and with an all-new file decompression engine for fast engine. It also supports Nvidia's console-specific graphics API, all but confirming that it's destined for the next generation Switch.

https://www.eurogamer.net/digitalfo...dware-for-nintendo-what-is-the-t239-processor

Nvidia's T239 - its next-generation gaming processor​

with a mixture of common sense reasoning, leaks, a big Nvidia Hack and inappropriate LinkedIn posts from Nvidia and ex-Nvidia staff, we have a good picture of what form T239 will take. Also crucial is that Nvidia maintains its own Linux distribution and while much of it is private, there are enough references to T239 in there to get a handle on the make-up of the processor.

  • Nvidia's Linux distribution suggests that T239 has eight CPU cores in a single cluster, strongly suggesting ARM's A78C will be used.
  • Nvidia's Linux update suggests a 128-bit memory interface, almost certainly paired with LPDDR5 memory.
  • There's a full media encode/decode block on T239 and although the chip uses RTX 30-series Ampere architecture, the media block is backported from the latest Ada Lovelace chips, so it should be faster with support for more formats, including AV1.
  • Improved clock-gating - a way of improving efficiency from dormant silicon - is another Ada feature that has somehow found its way into T239.
  • Nvidia's Linux distro also confirms that T239 has an optical flow accelerator - a core component of DLSS 3 frame generation. The problem here is that it's the last generation Ampere rendition, not the Ada Lovelace rendition that Nvidia deemed good enough to make frame-gen happen.
  • There's one more component of T239 worthy of comment - the FDE. It's an entirely new hardware block not found in the T234. FDE stands for File Decompression Engine. Similar to the decompression block found in PlayStation 5, this basically allows for ultra-fast decompression of assets from storage and into memory.
  • A Nvidia hack describes an NVN2 graphics API. It suggests that several pieces of Nvidia hardware can be used with NVN2 but there are several sections of code where it's explicit that it's emulating T239 behaviour on that other hardware.

There are some who believe that the T239 was intended for a scrapped 'Switch 4K' or 'Switch Pro' and that the actual next generation Switch will offer something different. I don't agree with this: the level of investment required to make T239 and the size of the GPU along with its custom blocks represents a proper, next generation leap over the Tegra X1.

Some believe that T239 isn't on the 8nm Samsung process node at all, and it's likely that only a teardown of the retail machine will confirm this one way or another.

From my perspective, the bottom line is that by a process of elimination, T239 is the best candidate for the processor at the heart of the new Nintendo machine. Nvidia's Jensen Huang is on the record as saying that Nvidia's partnership with Nintendo will likely last two decades. And with a mooted 2024 release date, there have been no convincing leaks whatsoever for any other processor that could find its way into the new Switch.

while questions remain around using Samsung 8nm silicon, there is a silver lining for Nintendo in delivering a revised model further down the line. It could embrace 6nm, 5nm or 4nm technologies for improved thermals and battery life, just as it did with the revised Switch, the OLED model and Switch Lite. In the short term, the question is how large T239 will be and if its characteristics mean we need a larger handheld - something I don't think Nintendo would want.
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UnknownSouljer said:
I’ve been waiting for Switch next. There was too many issues on first gen hardware for me.

I wanted a nicer, brighter display, longer battery life, and lighter. Preferably with some way to protect the joysticks easily during transport.

The irony is, I still don’t know if I would buy one. Right now I think I’m most likely to pickup a Mini PC from Minisforum as my gaming outlet. And even if I want to do something while mobile, I’m more likely to get an iPad and use a controller. Sure the iPad costs more, but it also has other utility.
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What issues? My son's switch has an 85" top of the line QLED display and plays Tears of the Kingdom just fine. And His switch even has its own Dolby Atmos Sonos Surround Sound system.

Ok I'm jesting a little. It's the main media TV but the switch seems to work fine when hooked to a big TV and our Sonos surround system. However I have never been thrilled with LCD on the switch. We do not have the oled version. I think my biggest gripes is the joycons aren't that durable. We've had to replace them twice.
 
tangoseal said:
What issues? My son's switch has an 85" top of the line QLED display and plays Tears of the Kingdom just fine. And His switch even has its own Dolby Atmos Sonos Surround Sound system.
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I gave a sentence with commas listing a bunch of stuff out.

But to add to that list I've also been waiting for something with a bit more processing power and able to do 1080p on the go; along with better battery life.

There is criticism here earlier in the thread talking about that the processing power "still won't be enough". But it's not about absolute performance, it's all relative here. And for what Nintendo wants to do, PS4 Pro level power in a mobile device is plenty. Theoretically with DLSS, that means every game that renders to 1080p 60 while on the go, could be up-scaled to 4k/60 while on TVs. Which again I would be much happier with.
tangoseal said:
Ok I'm jesting a little. It's the main media TV but the switch seems to work fine when hooked to a big TV and our Sonos surround system. However I have never been thrilled with LCD on the switch. We do not have the oled version. I think my biggest gripes is the joycons aren't that durable. We've had to replace them twice.
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I mentioned that too.
 
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Verge said:
8nm, come on nintendo. It better not be.
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The Jetson Orin platform is overall around 80x faster than the Nano platform that the original Switch was based on.

Benchmark wise it’s around the same performance capabilities as a PS4 Pro.

But with ray and path tracing capabilities along with DLSS upscaling.

Samsung 8nm is fine for this and 1/3’rd the price of the 5 and 4 nm options.

My question is are they basing this one off the Nano or the NX platform?

The nano is a 7-15w device which matches the original switch, but the NX is a 10-20w and gets a little extra oomph in the memory and clock speed department. 10w handheld 20w docked would be feasible and battery wise could land around the same playtime as the Switch if they make it slightly thicker.
 
My switch lite's power charging port has a bent pin and the system is dead as a result. Was going to get it repaired but it sounds like I may not if this new system will be out soonish.
 
Verge said:
8nm, come on nintendo. It better not be.
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A78 core were made on Samsung 5nm LPE and tsmc 5nm before, Ampere was made on TSMC 7nm before (A100), is there any indication on the node in that article ? They say they suspect it is too
 
LukeTbk said:
A78 core were made on Samsung 5nm LPE and tsmc 5nm before, Ampere was made on TSMC 7nm before (A100), is there any indication on the node in that article ? They say they suspect it is too
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Well they talk about the previous leaked details of the Tegra 239 chip from 2019 which was believed to be a “Switch Pro” that never materialized.

The more recent leaks are about the Orin platform and those were refreshed earlier this year and are also Samsung 8nm.

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/jetson-orin-nano-8-gb.c4082
 
Just slap a 7900 xtx in the new switch and call it a day!

Can play Mario Odyssey 2 at 4k 974 FPS

But seriously, Nin needs to seriously get off of 1080 and move up to 4k. I dont care if its 4k@ 30fps just get on 4k, though 60 fps would be a nice bump!
 
tangoseal said:
Just slap a 7900 xtx in the new switch and call it a day!

Can play Mario Odyssey 2 at 4k 974 FPS

But seriously, Nin needs to seriously get off of 1080 and move up to 4k. I dont care if its 4k@ 30fps just get on 4k, though 60 fps would be a nice bump!
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No other console is doing 4k either. Why would you expect a new handheld to, or need to?
 
tangoseal said:
Just slap a 7900 xtx in the new switch and call it a day!

Can play Mario Odyssey 2 at 4k 974 FPS

But seriously, Nin needs to seriously get off of 1080 and move up to 4k. I dont care if its 4k@ 30fps just get on 4k, though 60 fps would be a nice bump!
Click to expand...
720p upscaled to 4K would be doable.
Only so much you can do on 15-20w.
 
GoldenTiger said:
No other console is doing 4k either. Why would you expect a new handheld to, or need to?
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Your one of those people who are ok with accepting minimum wage as your fate eh?

Who cares what anyone else is doing. Why can't we desire that Nintendo be different and stop being meager and boring like everyone else.
 
tangoseal said:
Your one of those people who are ok with accepting minimum wage as your fate eh?

Who cares what anyone else is doing. Why can't we desire that Nintendo be different and stop being meager and boring like everyone else.
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That's... That's Nintendo's whole philosophy...

They don't care what others are doing or what they have. They focus on their goals, and they are killing it! I don't think they need native 4K, and honestly like said above, very few games on modern consoles aren't using some kind of up scaling.
 
tangoseal said:
Your one of those people who are ok with accepting minimum wage as your fate eh?

Who cares what anyone else is doing. Why can't we desire that Nintendo be different and stop being meager and boring like everyone else.
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Sony and MS are not doing a portable. Nintendo is not only different, they effectively own an entire market segment (which Sony already failed twice to succeed in, with way more powerful hardware for their respective periods of relevance). And Switch seamlessly transitions from TV to handheld. Its in the name. And its awesome.

Switch is the second most successful console ever. It is so successful, because its a very effective execution on its design goals, has excellent first party support, And its also quite affordable. Affordability is key.

You can dream about all the specs you want. But that stuff is at minimum, going to require custom hardware. But we also have to understand what's even really possible right now.

Steamdeck is the most serious new attempt at a handheld. It uses more generalized hardware, rather than something custom. And in trying to reach some sort of minimum parity for PC but as a handheld----it costs more than a PS5. And at the rate which AMD is moving on appropriate new hardware-----Steamdeck is probably 2 generations away from really getting to where we really want it, while still using general hardware. And it will still be too expensive, when it does get there.

If we ignored pricing, custom hardware could probably be made right about now, for a handheld to more comfortably kinda do everything in a way which everyone might be happy with. But, Nintendo has to nail a level of affordability. Custom hardware which does THAT, right now, would be very expensive. So, that similarly probably means another 2 generations for something custom to also be affordable enough. I mean, their next handheld is going to be incredible. But, I still don't think its going to meet this sort of pipe dream stuff where a handheld somehow does everything well, and costs $300 or less.
 
tangoseal said:
Your one of those people who are ok with accepting minimum wage as your fate eh?

Who cares what anyone else is doing. Why can't we desire that Nintendo be different and stop being meager and boring like everyone else.
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Lol! It’s just a video game dude.

Would it be nice if they were doing 4K? Sure! 1080p is fine. If the only problem I have with Nintendo is that they’re not pumping out AAA graphics but I love everything else about them then I think we’re fine.
 
jbltecnicspro said:
Lol! It’s just a video game dude.

Would it be nice if they were doing 4K? Sure! 1080p is fine. If the only problem I have with Nintendo is that they’re not pumping out AAA graphics but I love everything else about them then I think we’re fine.
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I don't particularly care about AAA graphics, I just want good gameplay and solid stories in a great single-player game.
AAA graphics and Multi-player I have a PC for that, exclusives I have the PS, between them that covers the whole AAA title and multi-player spectrum.
Nintendo is for those lazy Sundays when I don't want to deal with my pile of shame and I just want to lounge in the living room recliner and play something that borders on a guilty pleasure.
 
tangoseal said:
Your one of those people who are ok with accepting minimum wage as your fate eh?

Who cares what anyone else is doing. Why can't we desire that Nintendo be different and stop being meager and boring like everyone else.
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I think chameleoneel 's post covers everything pretty well in response to this. But I'd like to add, what precisely do you think we're capable of doing?
Our options are to buy or to not buy. As noted the Switch is the second best selling console of all time. 90% of the people on Hardforum probably don't even own a Nintendo console (hardcore PC gamers). But let's say we all did. You think <1000 people boycotting Nintendo's next console would even matter?

Accept it, don't accept it; that's up to you, but you have zero power to change what's happening here. More to the point though, I think it's absurd to put things in such terms when you precisely have zero ability to change the situation. Unlike your analogy, there are no other options for a Nintendo console. So working hard and applying to 100 different places doesn't get me access to a quote, unquote "better Nintendo console".
 
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chameleoneel said:
Sony and MS are not doing a portable. Nintendo is not only different, they effectively own an entire market segment (which Sony already failed twice to succeed in, with way more powerful hardware for their respective periods of relevance).
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Agreed although I don't think the PSP failed. It had a number of high profile games and sales were fairly good even if the DS outsold it. The PSP was also used a lot as a multi media device and 3rd party programs. PS Vita was an absolute failure though.

chameleoneel said:
Steamdeck is the most serious new attempt at a handheld. It uses more generalized hardware, rather than something custom. And in trying to reach some sort of minimum parity for PC but as a handheld----it costs more than a PS5. And at the rate which AMD is moving on appropriate new hardware-----Steamdeck is probably 2 generations away from really getting to where we really want it, while still using general hardware. And it will still be too expensive, when it does get there.
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Steamdeck is certainly nice for what it is. But it will never reach mainstream success. It is too expensive for a mobile gaming platform, and the price it costs you may as well get a traditional gaming laptop for a bit more which will run PC games better. I'm not just talking about performance, but things like UI design. Steamdeck will have its niche of course and Valve has a strong enough fan base to keep it alive.
 
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