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[Fafalada]

A intel dual core basically performed like the the jaguar cpu and you are telling me that wasn't shit?

Power envelope of those Intel cores would have eaten up the entire console budget without even adding a GPU.
People forget that consoles have been capped around 200W total system power for 2 decades now.

LPDDR RAM isn’t great for a console. The whole thing is low power, not sure what you all are excited about.

This gets understated a lot - even the high end handhelds are about 1/4th of console bandwidth at best.
Or more concretely - on paper - modern 30W PC handhelds should be about on par with a Series S - but in general case they fall well short. They usually trade blows when CPU limited, or in cases where games are less memory reliant (unfortunately, that seems to be less common in modern/RT games that are quite low performing).
In same terms, you can output PS4 equivalent without much trouble (and doubling the FPS in CPU heavy scenarios) - but Pro output (with higher resolutions) is less of a given.

If Nintendo sticks to their 7-10W envelope - that will limit the compute as well (though perhaps, better matched with memory speeds).
I will say though that diminishing returns on handheld screens are also a thing - running Bioshock on Switch and Win handheld side by side - much as the latter is significantly higher res and features, the benefits are much less - clear than on the big screen. This is less of a problem for Nintendo and more to the rumored Sony/MS handhelds though.

 

[Bojji]

Woooow holy shit dude 2025 hardware in many ways more powerful than hardware released in 2016.

Nintendo fans be eating this year!!

Switch 2 GPU is 2020 architecture so almost 5 years old already when launching.

 

[Muddy]

So was the Wii U compared to the PS3/360 when it released 6-7 years later.

Architecturally superior doesn’t mean more powerful.

Does the RTX 4060 beat a 1080ti?

 

[Fabieter]

So was the Wii U compared to the PS3/360 when it released 6-7 years later.

Architecturally superior doesn’t mean more powerful.

Does the RTX 4060 beat a 1080ti?

In a modern game with rtx and dlss yes the 4060 s gonna have some advantages i suppose.

 

[kevboard]

Does the RTX 4060 beat a 1080ti?

try playing Indiana Jones on a 1080ti...

 

[Deerock71]

Next Nintendo system potentially as powerful as 9 year old hardware that is awesome I can't wait.

All you Tflops and gigawatts hos seem to forget how long into this SHITTY generation they were still releasing PS4 games (out of sheer necessity). Sorry your investment's not panning out so well for you. I'll take the hybrid for $399, Alex.

 

[Bojji]

try playing Indiana Jones on a 1080ti...

You will have hard time with that 8gb as well.

Indiana and metro are so far only games requiring hardware RT to function.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

The best part is neither knows shit

Hopefully

 

[kevboard]

Next Nintendo system potentially as powerful as 9 year old hardware that is awesome I can't wait.

the PS5 Pro is less powerful as 6 year old hardware... the PS6 will with 99% certainty be less powerful than 2022 hardware... so what's the point of doing nonsense comparisons like that here?

You will have hard time with that 8gb as well.

Indiana and metro are so far only games requiring hardware RT to function.

not really. the game runs perfectly fine on 8GB. but there are also other modern tech the GTX10 series will struggle with. Alan Wake 2's reliance on mesh shaders for example means that anything pre-RTX20 and pre-RDNA2 will have significant performance reductions, even after they significantly improved it with a patch after launch.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

the PS5 Pro is about as powerful as 6 year old hardware... the PS6 will with 99% certainty be less powerful than 2022 hardware... so what's the point of doing nonsense comparisons like that here?

Because comparisons are about VALUE.

PS5 Pro @ $699 is still way cheaper than anything on the PC market at comparable specs for an entire system.

Nintendo Switch 2 will likely be $399-499, and if you only play in docked mode (like me), you get ZERO utility from the handheld and end up paying a $399 for hardware that's nearly 10 years old. That's a terrible value for the hardware.

 

[kevboard]

Because comparisons are about VALUE.

PS5 Pro @ $699 is still way cheaper than anything on the PC market at comparable specs for an entire system.

Nintendo Switch 2 will likely be $399-499, and if you only play in docked mode (like me), you get ZERO utility from the handheld and end up paying a $399 for hardware that's nearly 10 years old. That's a terrible value for the hardware.

it's only terrible value if you purposefully compare it to an entirely different type of device. by the same logic nearly any smart phone is worth less than 50 bucks tops...

the fact is that in terms of a mobile gaming device it will provide on par or better gaming performance than similar devices that cost around $800 today. devices like the Rog Ally X and Aya Neo Whateverthefuck they name their handhelds these days.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

he fact is that in terms of a mobile gaming device it will provide on par or better gaming performance than similar devices that cost around $800 today. devices like the Rog Ally X and Aya Neo Whateverthefuck they name their handhelds these days.

That's very unlikely, as the Switch 2 will probably noticeably less powerful than the best handhelds currently on the market.

 

[kevboard]

That's very unlikely, as the Switch 2 will probably noticeably less powerful than the best handhelds currently on the market.

it wont unless you want to claim it will run on extremely unrealistically low clock speeds. but then again, if it was, it would still mean the value is on par with any other console out there and still a better value than the PS5 Pro by a huge margin

 

[Brucey]

it wont unless you want to claim it will run on extremely unrealistically low clock speeds. but then again, if it was, it would still mean the value is on par with any other console out there and still a better value than the PS5 Pro by a huge margin

Nintendo is going to take $800+ worth of hardware and sell it for $400?

They are more likely to take $200 of hardware and sell that for $400.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

it wont unless you want to claim it will run on extremely unrealistically low clock speeds. but then again, if it was, it would still mean the value is on par with any other console out there and still a better value than the PS5 Pro by a huge margin

How is the value equal to consoles that are far more performant with better libraries? If you value the handheld over graphics, maybe, if you don't it's not. Even then, you can get a PS5 and a Portal which will play much better visually and run you not much more in price.

 

[kevboard]

Nintendo is going to take $800+ worth of hardware and sell it for $400?

They are more likely to take $200 of hardware and sell that for $400.

they don't. the other companies sell hardware that is worth $400~$500 for $800~$900 because they do not get any recurring revenue past the initial hardware sale.
which means they have to recoup R&D, packaging, shipping, marketing and rerailer costs with the initial sale. also their products are low volume with only a couple of million systems max, while Nintendo probably targets 50+ million shipments.

Nintendo doesn't. Nintendo sells consoles to then also sell you games and collect licensing fees from third parties.

How is the value equal to consoles that are far more performant with better libraries? If you value the handheld over graphics, maybe, if you don't it's not. Even then, you can get a PS5 and a Portal which will play much better visually and run you not much more in price.

now we are back at PC vs Console then. in which case the PS5 Pro would again be a bad value as with only a small increase in cost you can get a PC that is more powerful and has a vastly larger library and functionality, not to mention no online MP subscription costs.

if you call the Switch 2 bad value, you also have to call modern consoles a bad value... it's pretty simple.
the PS Portal possibly being the worst value product in the history of Playstation.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Nintendo is going to take $800+ worth of hardware and sell it for $400?

They are more likely to take $200 of hardware and sell that for $400.

Exactly. This finctionalized scenario where Nintendo, after decades of using archaic hardware sold at a premium, does the opposite? Pure fantasy. And yes, I think it will be severely underclocked.

now we are back at PC vs Console then. in which case the PS5 Pro would again be a bad value as with only a small increase in cost you can get a PC that is more powerful and has a vastly larger library and functionality, not to mention no online MP subscription costs.

More than doubling the price is not a small increase in cost. It's huge. And the library PS5 has is enormous since it's BC with PS4

 

[kevboard]

More than doubling the price is not a small increase in cost. It's huge.

how many times do I need to post the PC Parts Picker listing of a $900 PC with a 4070 in it and a Zen3 CPU?
it's getting old

And the library PS5 has is enormous since it's BC with PS4

yeah... now put that vs 99% of all the games from that library + 30 years of windows compatibility and DOS games.

 

[Kataploom]

Nintendo is going to take $800+ worth of hardware and sell it for $400?

They are more likely to take $200 of hardware and sell that for $400.

There are some ignored facts here:

1. Nintendo benefits way more from economy of scales than those other companies, like it's not even a joke

2. Nintendo have way better contacts within the industry to make better deals... Hell they probably have access to contacts those other companies can only dream about

3. Nintendo can have small profit margins (even a small loss considering their Switch formula is proven to work wonders in the market so it's worth it this time around way more than after Wii U), and boost them with games sales, third parties cut, and online subs, which Asus or Lenovo can't do

4. Nintendo also have other revenue sources like controllers, accessories, licensed stuff, etc.

5. Nintendo used Nvidia, those others use AMD

I mean, it's not even 1:1 comparison, Nintendo business is just a whole different thing, the price of those other devices don't reflect what Nintendo can do with the price of Switch 2.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

how many times do I need to post the PC Parts Picker listing of a $900 PC with a 4070 in it and a Zen3 CPU?
it's getting old

the same number of times you'll ignore the cost of many components, like DS controller or 2TB drive. A 4070 PC is also not significantly better vs. console optimized titles.

yeah... now put that vs 99% of all the games from that library + 30 years of windows compatibility and DOS games.

yeah....and my library isn't on steam....so the steam library is worthless, I am not going to rebuy everything on there. And I don't play games that are extremely old either.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

3. Nintendo can have small profit margins

 

[Kataploom]

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Just says the new model didn’t increase the margins

Nintendo loves hardware margins

 

[SALMORE]

all I want is to play games that are not blurry & runs at 60fps !

 

[SweetTooth]

This thread is basically Gigabowser damage controlling Nintendo cheapness by quoting someone guessing

Sad

 

[hbello82]

People always seem to forget that even to this date we are still playing last gen enhanced games technically. Very few games have been made specifically for this generation to begin with and they are not leaps away from last gen other than a sharper coat and better frames.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Superior in “many” ways.

Limited cause its portable. So inferior in “one” way.

Many > one.

Switch 2 more powerful than ps4 pro confirmed.

 

[FreeY$L]

Barely more powerful than PS4 Pro but still cost 400$ for 2016 hardware in 2025? Lmao

 

[Kataploom]

Superior in “many” ways.

Limited cause its portable. So inferior in “one” way.

Many > one.

Switch 2 more powerful than ps4 pro confirmed.

Switch GPU raw power in portable is still inferior to PS360 iirc, yet it's clearly more powerful even in portable mode than those, that's probable the same thing he claims, but he's speculating as much as we are here and we even have industry insiders with actual development experience that can make better guesses anyway, don't take his words as a fact, he's not claiming he knows things, just guessing

 

[Three]

Superior in “many” ways.

Limited cause its portable. So inferior in “one” way.

Many > one.

Switch 2 more powerful than ps4 pro confirmed.

Now I know who was running the xbox twitter account on new years eve.

 

[pulicat]

Too many are fixated on specifications of the hardware instead of what developer is capable of realizing their vision on the said hardware.

 

[Boss Mog]

You would know.

 

[Haint]

Yes it supports now old advancements like mesh shaders, dual mode simultaneous FP16 and FP32 calculations, has some number of tensor cores, etc... Of course it is architecturally superior to a circa early 2012 GPU. None of those advancements though are going to make a 1536 ampere core SOC @ ~800Mhz even approach a 4.2 teraflop console, never mind outperform it. A Samsung 8nm Switch 2 will deliver around 1.5TF - 2TF's of raw rasterize compute in docked mode, which includes the 20-30% "fake teraflops" dual mode performance boost. Mobile SOC's as a general rule typically perform 30-50% worse than their theoretical teraflop figures suggest, especially one designed by miser Nintendo. We will be lucky to approximately match base PS4, with DLSS upscaling 720p - 1080p render resolutions (for first party games) to something closer to 1440p. Third party "impossible port" current gen games will render at like 360p-540p with a DLSS upscale to 720p or 1080p.

 

[KINGMOKU]

The discourse surrounding the switch, and switch 2 is really bizarre. It seems everyone forgets its a hybrid, has to come in at a reasonable price, appeal to a mass audience, and there is nothing Nintendo is going to do, to risk losing their spot on top of the home console market.

Do people who laugh about "8 year old hardware" expect Nintendo to release a 6, 7, or even 800$ device?

I just don't understand it.

Unless of course I am completely out of the loop, and Nintendo could have made a monster, and brought it in around 400$.

Please, correct me if I'm wrong, or if you honestly believe Nintendo could sell 150 million 600$ Switch 2's.

All of what I've heard so far, sounds like a very capable device, at its rumored price point.

 

[Shmunter]

Sure, latest feature set limited by size and power. Basic logic.

 

[onQ123]

You would know.

If you get your head out your butt you would understand that was the point of the joke

 

[DavidGzz]

Way better than expected.

 

[Robb]

Too many are fixated on specifications of the hardware instead of what developer is capable of realizing their vision on the said hardware.

A port of this to Switch 2 brought up to, or close to, 4K would be fantastic.

 

[elbourreau]

Too many are fixated on specifications of the hardware instead of what developer is capable of realizing their vision on the said hardware.

Is this Metroid ? On switch ? Bloody hell !

 

[Lucifers Beard]

John pointing out what seems to be obvious.. clearly not obvious though when dealing with these 'insiders'.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Soooooo, as powerful as a PS4 Pro. But only on paper.

It's going to be so powerful you will rebut all the indie re-releases for full price again.

 

[Robb]

Is this Metroid ? On switch ? Bloody hell !

Retro Studios black magic

Their Metroid Prime Remaster is the best looking title I’ve played on the system. Hoping they treat Prime 2 and 3 with the same amount of love.

 

[GymWolf]

It's a fucking tablet, of course it is gonna be limited by all the shape\size factors.

 

[apple_of_enlightenment]

So you're paraphrasing rather than quoting things as actually said and also doing this from someone who is clearly just guessing rather than hinting any kind of inside knowledge. Why are you like this? Why not just, be better?

Superior doesn't only mean more powerful, requiring less wattage for equivalent result (in game x, which doesn't mean it can also necessarily scale up to game y or z in the same way) is one such way it can be very superior

He literally quoted the text in the OP. Quoting in a heading is not necessarily standard or easy to do. He actually covered it well, and... he's known for his predictions.

 

[cireza]

You would hope that a 2025 hardware has some recent features on it. But it is still a mobile architecture running on a battery, that will be running games on 2025+ resources wasting engines.

Good luck making prettier games than the PS4.

 

[nkarafo]

It won't have the raw power of the PS4 pro. But the more modern architecture and features will probably make up for it in some ways. But i expect slightly worse looking ports that will have to fully utilize DLSS to get similar performance to the PS4 pro.

 

[Mister Wolf]

I wonder what the power draw will be in docked mode.

 

[Astray]

I wonder what the power draw will be in docked mode.

Won't be higher than 30-50W imo.

You still have heat and noise considerations in docked mode.

 

[apple_of_enlightenment]

The original Switch was hitting PS3 quality-ish or better, released 11 years after PS3.

It's reasonable that Switch2 will be in the ballpark of PS4/Pro, which is 12-9 year old hardware now.

 

[winjer]

I wonder what the power draw will be in docked mode.

It will probably have a power envelope similar to the Switch.
There isn't much room in a tablet like console to have a big heatsink or power delivery system.
Unless Nintendo wants to make a stand that has more in it, like a fan and a power supply.

Still, with newer process nodes and GPU tech, it will be a significant jump over the original Switch.