Switch was the "Pandora's Box" to Handheld Gaming PCs. How does Nintendo make Switch Pro not seem dated upon release?

Victor Omega

Victor Omega

Member
im actually both scared and optimistic when it comes to Switch Pro. Optimistic that Nintendo will definitely give us a better, upgraded Switch, and with impressive games, but scared that it won't be as future-proof to last until 10 gen.


What could we see from Nintendo with the Switch Pro, hardware-wise, so that it maintains its mobile gaming domniance
 
I'm personally not expecting Nintendo to push the limits all that hard. It would be completely out of character for them. But I wouldn't mind being pleasantly surprised.
 
It will be outdated at release, and it doesn't matter. They're not gonna try to compete with the PS5 and XSX, they're not even gonna get to base PS4 level, but if it's at least a noticeable improvement over the original it's gonna sell very well.
 
It doesnt need to be 10 years future proof. Just 4-5 years tops.
There next console will be a handheld / hybrid because Nintendo consoles don't do nearly as well as there handhelds apart from Wii
 
They'll bump it up enough to be tolerable and they'll let their games do the talking. They don't do "power" anymore, they do innovation. Love em' or hate em' gotta respect the game.
 
MegaZoneEX said:
im actually both scared and optimistic when it comes to Switch Pro. Optimistic that Nintendo will definitely give us a better, upgraded Switch, and with impressive games, but scared that it won't be as future-proof to last until 10 gen.


What could we see from Nintendo with the Switch Pro, hardware-wise, so that it maintains its mobile gaming domniance
Click to expand...
I have a feeling fans will have the new nintendo switch, the 5 games that take advantage of the extra 3 clock cycles and be in the queue for the next Nintendo console in 2 years time.

Considering their flagship game graphics have barely changed since gamecube, I don't think anyone is worried about their dominance being borked by low specs.
 
Last edited:
I think we're falling into a tempting trap of applying the tech-first approach of their competitors to Nintendo again..

It's repetitive sure but Nintendo think first about how they're gonna get all their cell shaded characters like Mario and Zelda to run on the system... That lowers their hardware bar considerably. Still, you say Switch is underpowered but they got Crysis Remastered to run on it and that is, if nothing else, an indication that it's powerful *enough*.

I still love Vita most <3
 
Last edited:
It won't be as powerful as handheld gaming PCs, but it also won't be nearly as expensive. It'll pretty much be like any console compared to a gaming pc in the same bracket.
 
if they get a 1.2TF gpu in there and have DLSS support, you can do a lot of stuff with that alone that will make games look really good.
(the current Switch docked at stock clocks is 0.393TF, with a potential for 0.649TF if clocked to max spec)

the question is if Nvidia has a chip that can do that

the Tegra X2 which is also 4 years old by now can reach 0.750TF at max clock... so it doesn't need much more to reach 1.2TF
 
Last edited:
it will be the most powerful handheld console, dont underestimate the power of DLSS!!!!!!!


Animated GIF
 
Last edited:
As technology keeps improving, is there any way Sony can make a handheld PS4, or create some easy pipeline to convert PS4 games to the hand held, with minimal work, if any at all. X86 portable seems to becoming more possible.

As for Switch Pro, whatever you expect, cut it by half, then cut it by half again and still be disappointed.
 
I'm hoping for lots, bit probably won't get much knowing how stingy Nintendo can be.
But I think dlss will 100% save the day.
 
Software, Nintendo stuff is always under powered but there games look and feel great. If Destiny 2 got a port I'd prob go switch only.
 
They don't have to. Nintendo owns the IP to Nintendo franchises. That's there million dollar idea and it's always gonna work unless they completely shit the bed.
 
I don't really think they need to. If the rumors are true that it's mainly about getting good 4k output via DLSS then their games are already going to look fantastic on 4k TVs.

I mean, we all agree that the Wii U was underpowered. But I'm pretty big into emulation and once you see those games running at 4k then you'll probably agree that they look amazing.
 
Does it really have to be future proof? It's not like games for the regular model ever looked all that great or ran all that well. In terms of the technology, the thing was outdated the second it launched. Nobody is buying Nintendo consoles for graphics or performance, they buy them to play Nintendo games, and those are gonna be on Switch no matter what.
 
It'll outsell the LTD of the combined sales of all handheld gaming PCs the first day it goes on sale. Not sure they need to worry about anything.
 
Last edited:
I dont think it matters for Nintendo fanbase. You dont buy a Nintendo device anymoe if you want high tech, or high end graphics.
 
Last edited:
You are not going to find another portable like the switch pro for $350-$400. Even the ones trying with those AMD apus are too expensive and the performance is not worth it. you can also buy a phone or a tablet with "better" specs that you're not going to enjoy, for what? angry birds or minecraft android edition? Nintendo is in an unique position right now and even if the Switch pro doesn't have the best specs ever, will have the best specs for the price/value/content. Shit, I prefer a Switch Lite than a $1000 samsung even if the phone was $200.
 
The trick is not giving a shit about being dated and just releasing great software. Handhelds are always going to be fractionally as powerful as full size consoles, and nobody expects otherwise.
 
Thanks to a friend I got an Atari VCS.

It supports 4K, Netflix, Amazon Video, Disney Plus, Discord, Plex, Chrome or Twitch, a game streaming platform and allows me to connect a USB HDD with another OS so I can put Linux with emulators. It would be nice to see Switch feature this.

And to fix the joycons (both the drift, the tiny button size plus shitty analogs quality).
 
Last edited:
Can someone tell me if dlss requires an internet connection or is it a matter of the devs training the ai and then all data needed is stored on the cart? Would there be updates required?
 
6502 said:
Can someone tell me if dlss requires an internet connection or is it a matter of the devs training the ai and then all data needed is stored on the cart? Would there be updates required?
Click to expand...
DLSS won't require an internet connection beyond updates to the system. On PC it's supported on a per game basis atm. On a console one would assume it would be a system level feature that devs would program for when making the game.
 
Ozzie666 said:
As technology keeps improving, is there any way Sony can make a handheld PS4, or create some easy pipeline to convert PS4 games to the hand held, with minimal work, if any at all. X86 portable seems to becoming more possible.

As for Switch Pro, whatever you expect, cut it by half, then cut it by half again and still be disappointed.
Click to expand...

The weakness of x86 is always going to be power consumption. There are a couple of reasons for this - one is that it's fundamentally a processor with a register/memory architecture and hence it hits the memory pretty hard and needs both short access times and low latency. In practice (especially with the large working set of modern software) this means you need a very fancy cache system, and that takes significant power. On top of this, if you look at the internal architecture of modern x86 chips they basically consist of an instruction decode section that decomposes the x86 instructions into simpler operations and feeds them to a set of execution units that look very similar to the ones in a RISC CPU simply because to retire instructions at the rate needed you have to keep things simple. The problem is that to make all this work you need long pipelines and very complex logic for keeping track of what's currently in progress, especially when you get into things like speculative execution, since if you end up needing to revoke an instruction you have to unwind all of it's effects, which hence need to be kept track of. All this also adds to the power consumption.

The reason that mobile devices have overwhelmingly chosen ARM is the flip side of this - ARM is a load/store architecture where memory is only accessed when the programmer (or compiler) explicitly requests it. It has a large register file and an highly orthogonal instruction set, so you almost never have to move stuff around to get it where you need it to work on it. The downside is that the instructions have lower semantic content and hence on average you need to process more of them in order to carry out a given function - this obviously increases the load on the memory, but in practice this is more than offset by the reduction in memory accesses that aren't really needed but just imposed by the architecture. Another consideration is that you no longer need to decompose instructions on the chip in real time - the corresponding operations are carried out once by the compiler where they don't impact the power consumption at runtime - and the compiler can usually do a better job anyway since it doesn't have to run in real-time and can analyze the code to a much deeper level than a runtime translator can. The pipelines are shorter and hence the penalties for mispredicted branches are smaller and because most of the instructions operate purely on registers you can handle speculative execution using register renaming and scoreboarding, which is much easier to unwind.

Basically, trying to make a low-power consumption system using an x86 is a bit like repeatedly punching yourself in the balls and then wondering why it's hurting.

Note that I'm certainly not trying to suggest that x86 is a terrible architecture (well, not since the i386 anyway...) just that it's not a good choice for low power systems - especially with a closed system like a console that doesn't require binary compatibility.
 
Switch didn't suddendly get outdated in 4 years(i mean 'outdated' as it even stopped selling) so Switch Pro will be fine. stop worrying, for better or for worse Nintendo Switch is the best place to play console quality gaming on the go. No smartphone or tablet comes close to it.

When next gen Switch 2 gets announced everybody will be shitting their pants for that hybrid Nintendo goodness

And to answer your question Nintendo already teamed up with Nvidia, they have a good partner to help them up with tools and tech in the future 👍 im not concerned at all
 
Last edited:
Think the OP was referring to handheld gaming pc, the problem I see is that the OEM that are going to make handheld pc are going to suck at
- battery life
- ux

Nintendo isn't the best at the latter but they are functional
 
Have you seen the prices on handheld gaming PCs? A GPD Win3 is $1000+. The $200 Lite simply has no competition at that price point and I doubt it ever will for this gen.
 
They better beat Apple rumored hybrid console which should be targeting Switch market of handheld gaming
 
DLSS for docked mode and OLED is enough for switch to have 3-4 more years of life, max, before the next Nintendo console will come.
 
Some people still don't get it.

Most people don't buy something because of the gpu or cpu or how "up to date" the hardware is.

It's actually "Hey we can play the new mario kart on this!"

Or Pokémon. Or Zelda.

The idea that people buy for specs is so, so wrong.
 
Last edited:
Dr Bass said:
Some people still don't get it.

Most people don't buy something because of the gpu or cpu or how "up to date" the hardware is.

It's actually "Hey we can play the new mario kart on this!"

Or Pokémon. Or Zelda.

The idea that people buy for specs is so, so wrong.
Click to expand...

That depends if this is a Switch Pro or a small Switch upgrade that will replace the current one.
 
It all boils down to battery technology. With a substantial battery increase, with a decrease in size and weight, Nintendo could do so much more (within reasonable pricing of course). If they can get the same or better battery life with a much better spec'd APU, I don't see why they wouldn't. But it would need to be very power efficient as well as having good thermals, otherwise you'll only get like 3 or so hours of life out of it.
 
There is not much Nintendo can do regarding power, specially since you can already have a Switch Pro right now if you want. Even a budget gaming laptop with a 1650 can play Breath of the Wild at 1080p60. They should focus on making a slick device, with a good battery, that is not very expensive.

 
MegaZoneEX said:
im actually both scared and optimistic when it comes to Switch Pro. Optimistic that Nintendo will definitely give us a better, upgraded Switch, and with impressive games, but scared that it won't be as future-proof to last until 10 gen.


What could we see from Nintendo with the Switch Pro, hardware-wise, so that it maintains its mobile gaming domniance
Click to expand...
*read OP title and argument*
*compare handled pc sales to switch ones*
tenor.gif
 
Last edited:
P
Kokoloko85 said:
It doesnt need to be 10 years future proof. Just 4-5 years tops.
There next console will be a handheld / hybrid because Nintendo consoles don't do nearly as well as there handhelds apart from Wii
Click to expand...
And the NES and SNES...the issue is more differentiation and technical innovation. Nintendo stopped targeting cutting edge console hardware after the gamecube and have been focusing on differentiation. Hybridness is a differentiation that has worked...but for how long?
 
Marvel14 said:
P
And the NES and SNES...the issue is more differentiation and technical innovation. Nintendo stopped targeting cutting edge console hardware after the gamecube and have been focusing on differentiation. Hybridness is a differentiation that has worked...but for how long?
Click to expand...

True Nes and Snes done well. After that not soo good on consoles apart from Wii.
Ive owned every major Nintendo console and handheld loved them all except the Wii lol.

I think going forward its gonna be handheld/console hyrbid, improving it.
And then adding differentiation like you said, which they done with Wii ( motion ) Wii U ( tablet )
Probably stuff like VR, AR, things out the box. Like the AR remote control Mario Kart. The Lab thing, more motion.

And probably brain control gaming VR haha
 
Dr Bass said:
Some people still don't get it.

Most people don't buy something because of the gpu or cpu or how "up to date" the hardware is.

It's actually "Hey we can play the new mario kart on this!"

Or Pokémon. Or Zelda.

The idea that people buy for specs is so, so wrong.
Click to expand...
This, Nintendo fans are like apple fans they just buy what's given to the them to keeping doing what they've always been enjoying, playing Nintendo games. Then they don't touch it for a while because that's all they can play.

Pandora's box was the vita, psnow streaming there. Nintendo saves costs by cutting corners and they know thier backwards ass approach to tech won't matter, thier fans will buy it anyway
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

How to Transfer Nintendo Switch System Data to Nintendo Switch 2
Platform 
17
2K
Mozza replied
Nintendo Switch Pro Controller Alternative
5
628
ulao replied
  • Locked
Nintendo: Switch 2 Does Not Cure AIDS
2
83
3K
_Ex_ replied
Was the rumoured Switch Pro actually Switch 2 all along?
34
565
Deerock71 replied
Dear me, I was... (Nintendo switch 2)
11
206
daclynk replied
Top Bottom