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There's only one Tegra chip Nintendo could be using for a Switch Pro, and here are the specs

What do you think?


  • Total voters
    40
  • Poll closed .

kiphalfton

Member
Why though, there is the other consoles and pc for power. Nintendo just needs to do what they are doing as there is no other portables or hybrids. They have the market to themselves
They can't compete at the high end and they would be stupid to try. I'd be ecstatic if they could port ps4 games to the new switch in 1080p. Also Nintendo doesn't do photo realism. Mario and link don't need 10teraflops. It's overkill.

I don't get why you or other people use "photorealism" as an argument whenever somebody says they wish nintendo would improve their hardware? I didn't say anything about expecting photo realism, teraflop expectations, etc., did I?

The irony is in the sentence that preceded that, you yourself mention you want PS4 ports at 1080P. How do you think nintendo would accomplish that without more powerful hardware?

Fact of the matter is better hardware results in better performance.
 
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ethomaz

Banned
Nintendo can open the wallet and ask nVidia to create a Tegra for Switch Pro but that will be way expensive than the deal they got with X1.
 

Fredrik

Member
I will be extremely disappointed if this is true. If it’s called Super then let it be super. Scrap the portability if needed, I bet Nvidia is hungry to make something awesome that could compete with, or beat, AMD’s console offerings.
 
So the latest rumors is the pro will just have the same X1+ chipset with a Mediatek 4K upscaler.

Any thoughts on this?
Breath of the Wild played at 900p/30 with a LOT of dips. If Breath of the Wild 2 on Switch+ plays at anything lower than 1080p/30 locked, I'm out. For a long long long time. I'd imagine I'm not alone.
 

Kerotan

Member
Breath of the Wild played at 900p/30 with a LOT of dips. If Breath of the Wild 2 on Switch+ plays at anything lower than 1080p/30 locked, I'm out. For a long long long time. I'd imagine I'm not alone.
You're in the minority. Most Nintendo fans casual or hard core don't give a shit about their weak ass hardware. And never will.
 

cireza

Banned
Nintendo will simply use the same chip as right now, make a small overclock, put slightly more RAM, some stuff that upscale to 4K and call it a day.

Next round of games (BOTW2, Metroid Prime 4, Bayo 3, new Mario Kart) will have marginal improvements on the new system, if any, and will of course work on all the current Switches. Unless they keep these games a couple more years to push a brand new hardware, which won't be the Switch.
 
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Tarin02543

Member
To be expected. Nintendo aren't dummies, they know people will jump for joy at buying their outdated and shitty hardware they've scrounged out of Nvidia's refuse pile so in return that's exactly what they sell. Why do more to earn less?

What's even funnier is that the Nvidia Tegra appears to have a design flaw where 4 out of the 8 cores are unusable. So Nintendo got even a further discount on malfunctioning chips.

Contrary to initial belief, Nvidia does not use the eight cores in ARM big.LITTLE configuration. Instead, devices utilizing the Tegra X1 always show themselves as having only four ARM Cortex-A57 cores available. The other four ARM Cortex-A53 cores cannot be accessed by the operating system, are unused in known devices, and have been removed by Nvidia from later versions of technical documentation, implying that a silicon erratum prevents their normal usage.
 

ethomaz

Banned
We are in early 2021 already and nVidia did not show any new Tegra that can be possible used in a Pro version.

Nintendo will simply use the same chip as right now, make a small overclock, put slightly more RAM, some stuff that upscale to 4K and call it a day.
Well there is no other option yet.

Unless Nintendo open the wallet to ask nVidia for a custom designed chip.
 
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yurinka

Member
Nintendo doesn't need to release a Switch Pro. They should just fix the joycons asap and then to release the Switch 2, a proper 'next gen' successor in 2022-2023 with whatever great and cheap mobile technology Nvidia may have then.

Right now there are LG 4K phones sold at 260€, so I think in 2023 Nvidia/ARM must have something great for the Switch price point.
 

Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
What's even funnier is that the Nvidia Tegra appears to have a design flaw where 4 out of the 8 cores are unusable. So Nintendo got even a further discount on malfunctioning chips.

The tegra x1 is bottom of the barrel garbage that nintendo turned around and made gold from.

Good old Gunpei Yokoi still guiding Ninty from beyond the grave.
 

tkscz

Member
I was taking a look at all the Tegra chips made and I think there aren't many options Nintendo could be using for a Switch Pro.

Some stuff makes me think the only option for a Switch revision would be a Tegra Xavier chip:

*Nintendo used an off the shelf Tegra X1 on Switch

*Rumors about Switch using DLSS: https://wccftech.com/nintendo-switch-dlss-2-0/

*Bloomberg recently saying Nintendo is telling developers to make games 4K ready: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bl...said-to-boost-switch-production-by-another-20

Switch Pro is probably going to use DLSS to upscale to 4K, and the only Tegra chip available with deep learning capabilities is the Tegra Xavier. Forget about Orin, it's not coming anytime soon, and Tegra X2 doesn't have any machine learning hardware. Considering Nintendo didn't make a custom chip for Switch they're probably going to use another off the shelf solution, so we probably already have the specs for the chip Nintendo will be using.

Is seems there are 3 variants of the Tegra Xavier. Including a 15w one. That variant would be the perfect fit for a Switch upgrade (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tegra)

This is probably the chip Switch Pro will be using:

Model: NX (15w)

Processor: Options with 2, 4 or 6 custom Nvidia ARM based cores. It will probably have 4 or 6 cores.

Processor speed: up to 1.4 GHz (Hexa and Quad Core). The chip will probably be underclocked just like Switch.

GPU architecture: Volta

GPU specs: 384 CUDA cores (up from 256 from original Switch) at up to 1100Mhz.

GPU Gflops: up to 845Gflops FP32 and 1690Gflops FP16, most likely less than that as it will probably be underclocked to keep thermals in check.

RAM : LPDDR4X - up to 8GBs. 128 bit bus reaching 51.2GB/s (Switch uses 4GBs of standard LPDDR4). I think they'll definitely increase the amount of RAM.

Neural Processing: 20 TOPS DL and 160 SPECint at 20 W (I really don't know what this all means). I don't think it would run at 20W, so we can assume it would have less performance than that.

-------------------

Do you guys agree this is most likely the chip Nintendo will be using in an upcoming Switch revision? If not, why? What are the other options?

For a pro console? I can see them using stock NX, but why not just go full stock Xavier in that case? Only difference being amount of CUDA cores really (512 vs 384). Doesn't even need to use more voltage so still good on battery.

Honestly I'd rather speculate on a successor than a revamp. At this point it would be better to custom make a board based on Orin (which uses Ampere) than beef up the switch a bit. Or hell, why not wait on a Lovelace board? The smaller you can shrink a die the better it is for a handheld.
 

TAS

Member
If Nintendo is going the minimal route with this 'Pro" model, they should just release an Nvidia Shield tv form factor (maybe change the light from green to red :messenger_winking_tongue:) with unlocked clocks, more RAM, and the 4k upscaling chip. Iwata did mention a 'family' of devices similar to Apple. Maybe this is it? :pie_thinking:
 

Animagic

Banned
I’m adding in my 2 cents. If they remove the hybrid nature of the platform, as many of you are suggesting, I’ll just stick with what I have. I never want to go back to only being able to play my games on a tv.

The flexibility of the hybrid model is unreal. Business flight: take the game you’re actually currently playing with you. It’s extremely convenient and comfy and I am fine with less performance because of it.

judging by Switch sales, looks like I’m not the only one.


They have to release a home console already.
They did. It’s called the Nintendo Switch.
 
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Meesh

Member
The cartridges are the biggest problem that will hold back the Switch "Pro". Especially if it's 4K.

More and more games needing extra downloads already.
Nintendo might have have to "invent" some kinda portable disk... lol
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
Why can't they have both? Nintendo has never been huge on graphics, a $199 home console about as powerfull as the series s woukd sell well for them. Every game would come out on switch, and the home enhanced version.

Then in a few years, when mobile chipsets advance more, bring out switch 2.
 

TriSuit666

Banned
If Nintendo is going the minimal route with this 'Pro" model, they should just release an Nvidia Shield tv form factor (maybe change the light from green to red :messenger_winking_tongue:) with unlocked clocks, more RAM, and the 4k upscaling chip. Iwata did mention a 'family' of devices similar to Apple. Maybe this is it? :pie_thinking:
I've always wondered if the Shield Pro could be modified to run Horizon.
 
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