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a switch dock which can upscale?

01011001

Banned
Why don't let it do more while docked then? There must be some reason.

they either can't be bothered testing for compatibility issues or they actively don't want to have a more powerful Switch to then have a bigger perceived jump once the actual Switch 2 releases

you have to also remember that the original Switch SoC was already severely underclocked, the Mariko SoC is rated for even high peak clocks than the already underclocked older chip

edit: for comparison of the clock speeds, Switch vs. rated clock speeds of the Mariko chip

Switch Revision 1/Lite/OLED with Tegra X1+ SOC max clocks:
-CPU: 1.02ghz
-GPU: 0.768ghz / 393 GFLOPs (max speed when docked)

Mariko Tegra X1+ max clocks:
-CPU: 1.90ghz
-GPU: 1.267ghz / 649 GFLOPs

so as you can see, the CPU clocks alone would be a ridiculous performance boost for many games, and the GPU clocks could actually improve the dynamic res for many games as well as reduce GPU related drops
 
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marquimvfs

Member
It's not even worth thinking about on the current hardware (you could do it, it would a waste of any GPU).

To have an eGPU work well you would need a new console and dock, as it's mainly the I/O that is nowhere near fast enough. And there are several issues with that:
  • It would require I/O with much higher bandwidth.
  • That's Thunderbolt or OCuLink.
  • The Tegra X1 does not support either.
  • Thunderbolt/USB 4 or OCuLink are too expensive for a Nintendo console.
Now, a lower end GPU would require less bandwidth, but even USB 3.1 (which the Switch uses, and the dock has HDMI 1.4b (10.2Gbps)) wouldn't be enough. A 3060 uses a 4x PCIe 3.0 slot; that's 2GB/s or 16Gbps. USB 3.2 would be able to handle that, but again that would require a new console as well as dock.

OCuLink could and Thunderbolt/USB 4 likely could provide enough bandwidth to fully use an eGPU, but as I said, the cost would be too much to implement them.

PS On a related but not relevant note: Even Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 can't use much more than half of a top end GPU's power. OCuLink is better, but it's still not got enough bandwidth to fully use a top end GPU.
Like I said, upscaling and external GPU are not the only possibilities to improve Switch
 

01011001

Banned
Every time a game is labelled a "x killer" by the community and (predictably) fails to live up to it, I will bag on it for years on end :)

R.b9db104edccc5d48606f867ba45007cd


Its Free Real Estate GIF



edit: also I can't believe this was real and not a fever dream
 
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Like I said, upscaling and external GPU are not the only possibilities to improve Switch
It's all been tried back when SEGA was still making consoles. Basically it was market suicide to separate your customer base into different setups by "upgrades" and having games to be altered to run them.

Nintendo made the Switch to begin with because they want to merge the console and handheld. You are asking Nintendo to undo that merger for your personal preferences, but unfortunately you don't have the pull to make such demands. Especial since Switch is doing better than ever right now.

You can either play Nintendo games on the Switch or not play them. Switch is the way it is to facilitate its Hybrid nature. Your demand for power is ignored because it is counter to Nintendo's plans.
 
Every time a game is labelled a "x killer" by the community and (predictably) fails to live up to it, I will bag on it for years on end :)
Hmm well conduit is actually pretty good and challenging. Like a cross between halo and perfect dark. Really I like it better than halo in some ways but some of that has to do with the controls. I would love to have seen a conduit 3 on Wii U that’s more like the first game but longer and more thought out.

I definitely never called it a halo killer or anything like that because that’s dumb, same with killzone 2 being a halo killer because they’re totally different games.

I guess there really was an obsession with being a halo killer huh?
 

01011001

Banned
It's all been tried back when SEGA was still making consoles. Basically it was market suicide to separate your customer base into different setups by "upgrades" and having games to be altered to run them.

Nintendo made the Switch to begin with because they want to merge the console and handheld. You are asking Nintendo to undo that merger for your personal preferences, but unfortunately you don't have the pull to make such demands. Especial since Switch is doing better than ever right now.

You can either play Nintendo games on the Switch or not play them. Switch is the way it is to facilitate its Hybrid nature. Your demand for power is ignored because it is counter to Nintendo's plans.

Nintendo and the devs wouldn't need to do shit. just running the Switch's Mariko SOC at it's actually rated clocks would improve the vast majority of the Switch's library without any developer needing to move their asses or do anything.

also mid gen refreshes are a thing and Nintendo did exactly what you described 3 times already. GameBoy Color, DSi and New 3DS all were hardware upgrades that had a varying amount of exclusive games and a varying amount of enhanced games for them.
 
Nintendo and the devs wouldn't need to do shit. just running the Switch's Mariko SOC at it's actually rated clocks would improve the vast majority of the Switch's library without any developer needing to move their asses or do anything.

also mid gen refreshes are a thing and Nintendo did exactly what you described 3 times already. GameBoy Color, DSi and New 3DS all were hardware upgrades that had a varying amount of exclusive games and a varying amount of enhanced games for them.
3DS gets a downgrade actually; it became 2DS.
Anyway, iI am always amused at console gamers making demands of things without regard for economic sense. Any changes a company makes to hardware would only be so they could sell more games. Nintendo is selling games just fine with the Switch. if you want more power, get a PC.
 

01011001

Banned
3DS gets a downgrade actually; it became 2DS.
Anyway, iI am always amused at console gamers making demands of things without regard for economic sense. Any changes a company makes to hardware would only be so they could sell more games. Nintendo is selling games just fine with the Switch. if you want more power, get a PC.

the point is, they don't need to change the hardware at all. they have a chip in there since the first hardware revision of the Switch, that can either run at higher clocks and the same battery life, or at lower clocks and longer battery life

Nintendo chose the latter, but by simply allowing the customer to use a "performance" hardware profile in the settings, you would be able to stabilize the framerate and resolution of a shitload of Switch titles

they wouldn't even need to go full blast since the original Switch already didn't run at the full potential of the old Tegra X1.
the X1+ has even higher clocks but they could strike a balance where they go higher than the og Switch but not to the max X1+ clocks, just high enough to where the SOC doesn't get too hot. simply run it at a clock speed where it has the same TDP as the original Switch model with the old X1 chip

the PSP got such an upgrade after launch actually. they gave developers a new higher clocked performance profile of 333mhz, where before the max clock speed was 266mhz
 
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marquimvfs

Member
It's all been tried back when SEGA was still making consoles. Basically it was market suicide to separate your customer base into different setups by "upgrades" and having games to be altered to run them.

Nintendo made the Switch to begin with because they want to merge the console and handheld. You are asking Nintendo to undo that merger for your personal preferences, but unfortunately you don't have the pull to make such demands. Especial since Switch is doing better than ever right now.

You can either play Nintendo games on the Switch or not play them. Switch is the way it is to facilitate its Hybrid nature. Your demand for power is ignored because it is counter to Nintendo's plans.
Easy now... We're just assuming things across the thread. I've even said, more than once, that it's a terrible idea. Just like every other presented here. We're here just trying to answer ot's question and making conjectures about what's possible and what's not, it's not an official marketing meeting.
 
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