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[BootsLoader]

After watching videos and digging into it, the chip that powers the new iPhone Pro models is more powerful than Nintendo Switch right?

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean that Nintendo should be scared of Apple etc. Nintendo has strong history and software to support itself.

I am talking about hardware side only now. I think that the next switch console will be on par with the new iPhone pro chip, the catch is that a console cycle holds around 5-7 years at least but Apple is releasing a new phone with a new chip every year. Hardware wise it will be difficult for other companies to follow along (I really don’t understand how Apple is managing these improvements every year).

So, after the switch 2 is released, the next iPhone will be more powerful, it’s really extraordinary. Now if third party companies release a dock for iPhone with a cooling system which can also charge the iPhone, with a Bluetooth controller you have a console to play on your screen and on the go. Do you think that Apple will dive more into gaming in the future, will they disrupt the market?

I think that they will, they are testing the waters with Apple Arcade which is very profitable and they won’t stop there. Also, if their new Apple TVs will have pro chips they are literally consoles.

As I mentioned above, I talk about hardware specifically, I am not talking about software and I don’t mean that Nintendo should be scared of Apple. Steam deck, Rog Ally etc. should worry more than Nintendo as they lack the dedicated software.

 

[Skifi28]

IPhone has been more powerful than the switch for years. Probably most phones.

 

[old-parts]

iPhone hardware is far more powerful than the Switch but it is hampered by
* passive cooling which inhibits its performance
* a design focused on minimal energy usage
* a much heavier operating system expected to do a lot of things

Apple's ability to produce smaller/faster hardware depends a lot on advances in semi-conductor manufacturing and their are some big challenges in that field.

To truly compete with Switch/SteamDeck Apple would have to design new hardware with active cooling either internally or via a custom made dock, I don't think they are going to do it.

Instead the will likely continue on with their current strategy of "premium games" cut down to run on their hardware, then as the other products (TV or Vision) in Apples line up get updated with new hardware they can run those games.

But it wont be a true console system, it will still just be a novelty.

 

[Topher]

Apple will have to make a lot of changes to make iOS compete with consoles. I don't see it happening. They will be able to port some games to iPhone, but not enough to make a big difference. Most console games are not the types of games mobile gamers are interested in anyway.

As far as PC handhelds, we are talking about largely different libraries of games than Switch so not sure why there is any need for concern.

 

[diffusionx]

The Switch CPU is closer to the Phone 6-6s-7 range than the iPhone 15. I doubt the Switch 2 CPU, assuming that is what it will be, will be on par with the latest high-end Apple CPU, which is designed by a company with functionally unlimited money and resources and designed specifically for its own devices and in tandem with its own OS and API, and using the most advanced fabrication process. But it will be good enough, and it will play NINTENDO GAMES, which is what really matters, as you point out.

I really wouldn't put too much stock into what Apple showed recently with RE Village and AC Mirage. As always they will sit back and if devs want to do it, they are happy to give them the tools and then collect the 30% fee. I still think Apple ported those games themselves to show off their tools and maybe entice devs, but it's up to them. Apple is very laissez faire about it. It's up to the publishers to figure out the market, and the Apple gaming market just is not conducive to putting high end games on there and charging full price for it. If companies like Capcom and Ubi can figure out how to make money from porting their games to iOS, then they will keep porting them, and it will be a situation like Mac gaming. That's how Apple has operated for decades and I don't see that changing, at all. I don't think Apple will never start making games, although they will keep pushing Apple Arcade, what Apple Arcade reallly is, is a luxury apartment that rises above the swamp ghetto that is normal iOS gaming. It's not giving you high-end experiences, just good games without gacha shit.

Also worth noting, Apple has a "console", it's called an AppleTV, it plays iOS games, it has Apple Arcade, you can pair a controller with it, a lot of people do it. If they feel there is a real market for a high-end Apple TV for gaming purposes (and "real market" by Apple terms is on a totally different level from what, say, Valve thinks of one), they will make one with a recent A chip. But that's the most they're going to do.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

lol Switch was not even as powerful as the iPhone available back when it launched in 2017. And Switch 2 will be nowhere near as powerful as iPhone 15 Pro

 

[acm2000]

it costs 3 times as much and came out 6 years later, i should bloody hope its more powerful.

 

[Wooxsvan]

it costs 3 times as much and came out 6 years later, i should bloody hope its more powerful.

exactly. you cant really make a comparison.

 

[sankt-Antonio]

If there was a dock for my IPhone 15 pro, with cooling and HDMI ports + charging that would be cool - but ALL THE GAMES FUCKING SUCK on iOS.

If Nintendo could release their games on iOS - that would be so fucking great. Otherwise, with a PS5 in the house, the iPhone is dead to me as far as gaming goes.

 

[Roxkis_ii]

I don't think it really matters how powerful the iPhone hardware will get. I don't think gaming on a touch screen is ideal.

 

[Minsc]

I've been seeing a lot of news in my feed about iPhone 15s overheating lately, I wouldn't bank on it just yet.

 

[Fbh]

Nintendo hasn't depended on hardware power for a long time.
The fact a game that looks like this:

Has already sold 18+ million copies this year and easily outsold all the much nicer looking games on Ps5/SX/PC/Deck should be a good indication of that

 

[Ozriel]

. And Switch 2 will be nowhere near as powerful as iPhone 15 Pro

I wouldn’t bet on this. At all.

 

[PendekarRajawali]

I wouldn’t play games on my phone even if the spec was a monster.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Nobody cares about chips, if you didn’t notice Switch is third most popular console of all time. Steam is down so PC MC are busy making threads?

 

[Spukc]

The steam deck can run resident evil the village
And the switch can’t only some weird cloud shit

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

quoting what I said in another recent thread:

A horrible experience for families, first of all.

What do you propose doing... buy your kids each a current-generation iPhone to play games, then have them takes turns hooking it up to a TV, and upgrade it every 2 years with another pointless forced obsolescence? Give each kid an iPhone and gaming will be least of your concerns, also the last thing the kid will do after melting his/her brain on TikTok and other trash.

Or would you put your own parental phone on a stand to let the kids play, and lose access to it for a while plus have notifications possibly pop up? Apple's account management for shared devices has always been trash. How many families have had an iPad for gaming use and run into this with the awful single-user expectation on every part of its OS?

On top of that you have the worst, most ad-saturated App Store imaginable, where you're lucky to find a non-spam / non-trash game within the first 1000 search results for anything.

It's a non-starter for a family gaming device.

I don't think iOS/Apple has any shot at the family gaming world, which is where Nintendo continues to have extremely strong roots keeping the rest of their offerings afloat.

 

[bigdad2007]

The issue will always be the majority of iPhone users will not pay premium prices for games.

Nintendo put Mario on the App Store and people didn’t even want to play $10. The only thing I could see working is a premium version of Apple Arcade, however much like Disney plus I question how many are paying subscribers vs who gets it bundled with a data plan through their phone carrier.

 

[Black_Stride]

iPhones have been more powerful than the Switch for a very very long time.

Isnt Fantasian still an Apple exclusive?
I bet 99% of Gaffers with Apple devices havent even heard about the game let alone actually played it, and we are a gaming forum.

Just cuz the chip is powerful doesnt mean the people will come.
Apple would have to shift their gaming push quite hard to attract people to using their iOS devices as primary gaming devices.

iPhones also arent exactly cheap.

 

[DanielG165]

It’s a monstrous chip for sure, but yeah, iPhone chips have been more powerful than the Switch for a long time; the A15 Bionic in my 13 PM is more powerful than the Switch lol (I still love my Lite though). What’s exciting for me is how Apple will utilize the 3nm inside of the new iPads, and especially the new Macs and MacBooks where there is more room, and active cooling for the latter devices to REALLY take advantage of the A17/M3.

Although, the latest software update for IOS has all but alleviated the “overheating” issues in the 15 Pros, as an aside.

 

[AGRacing]

I wouldn’t bet on this. At all.

I agree. If we truly are dealing with current nvidia architecture + active cooling... I don't even think it will be close.

 

[Gojiira]

After watching videos and digging into it, the chip that powers the new iPhone Pro models is more powerful than Nintendo Switch right?

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean that Nintendo should be scared of Apple etc. Nintendo has strong history and software to support itself.

I am talking about hardware side only now. I think that the next switch console will be on par with the new iPhone pro chip, the catch is that a console cycle holds around 5-7 years at least but Apple is releasing a new phone with a new chip every year. Hardware wise it will be difficult for other companies to follow along (I really don’t understand how Apple is managing these improvements every year).

So, after the switch 2 is released, the next iPhone will be more powerful, it’s really extraordinary. Now if third party companies release a dock for iPhone with a cooling system which can also charge the iPhone, with a Bluetooth controller you have a console to play on your screen and on the go. Do you think that Apple will dive more into gaming in the future, will they disrupt the market?

I think that they will, they are testing the waters with Apple Arcade which is very profitable and they won’t stop there. Also, if their new Apple TVs will have pro chips they are literally consoles.

As I mentioned above, I talk about hardware specifically, I am not talking about software and I don’t mean that Nintendo should be scared of Apple. Steam deck, Rog Ally etc. should worry more than Nintendo as they lack the dedicated software.

Yeah I think they’re gearing up for a new Apple Tv with the new chip. They’re in a pretty good position tbh, their upcoming headset looks incredible, sinking that up to play RE4 or something like that will be really cool, all running off a mobile chip which Im guessing will end up in a newer Apple Tv released as a de facto console.
Guess we’ll see.

 

[Solidus_T]

Flagship phones were more powerful than the Switch even on the year it released, but of course they would be; they are more expensive. Additionally, they don't have the same cooling capacity, so we rarely get to see them used to their potential in gaming.

 

[Bernkastel]

You forgot that the Switch has to cost below 500 USD.

 

[FireFly]

lol Switch was not even as powerful as the iPhone available back when it launched in 2017. And Switch 2 will be nowhere near as powerful as iPhone 15 Pro

The SoC may be more powerful, but it doesn't matter if it's stuck in a fanless design that can only deliver a few watts of sustained power. You can't beat physics.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

iPhones have been more powerful than the Switch for a very very long time.

Isnt Fantasian still an Apple exclusive?
I bet 99% of Gaffers with Apple devices havent even heard about the game let alone actually played it, and we are a gaming forum.

Indeed, this is the first that I’ve ever heard of it, and I’m even an RPG enthusiast with an iPhone in my pocket everywhere I go.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

The SoC may be more powerful, but it doesn't matter if it's stuck in a fanless design that can only deliver a few watts of sustained power. You can't beat physics.

I’m not trying to argue which one is a better gaming device. I’m just amused that OP begins by asking about iPhone 15 Pro being more powerful than Switch, considering Switch was outdated on day 1 almost 7 years ago. It’s based on the Tegra X1 from the 2015 Nvidia Shield Android TV box. In all likelihood Switch 2 will be similarly behind the cutting edge whenever it releases.

 

[Tarin02543]

Would be cool if Rapidus Japan would make 2nm Switch 2 chips in 2026

 

[mhirano]

Apple put out a first gen Arm processor built by themselves that beat the crap out of Intel and AMD (Apple M1).
A couple of months later they put out the same M1 processor on an iPad Air.

 

[Minsc]

Indeed, this is the first that I’ve ever heard of it, and I’m even an RPG enthusiast an iPhone in my pocket everywhere I go.

I've heard about it for what seems like 5 years now, though probably just a few... supposed to have an incredible soundtrack and a cool fight feature that you can group your random battles together than do one mega battle when you fill up, to save time and make it more rewarding. Sounds neat, read a little bit of a grind/challenge at the end, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, as you tend to have the opposite problem in most games and are just super OP at the end.

Either way, all this time has past, I could have played it for free at any point on my iPad, but I haven't, despite thinking I'd enjoy it a lot. It comes out on Steam like rumored? I'll buy it right away and move it way up in my backlist/queue.

 

[GoldenEye98]

Apple is always on the bleeding edge in terms of using the latest chip fabrication processes for iPhones.

iPhone 15 Pro is using 3nm chips. Switch 2 could be on 8nm....

 

[VN1X]

After watching videos and digging into it, the chip that powers the new iPhone Pro models is more powerful than Nintendo Switch right?

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean that Nintendo should be scared of Apple etc. Nintendo has strong history and software to support itself.

I am talking about hardware side only now. I think that the next switch console will be on par with the new iPhone pro chip, the catch is that a console cycle holds around 5-7 years at least but Apple is releasing a new phone with a new chip every year. Hardware wise it will be difficult for other companies to follow along (I really don’t understand how Apple is managing these improvements every year).

So, after the switch 2 is released, the next iPhone will be more powerful, it’s really extraordinary. Now if third party companies release a dock for iPhone with a cooling system which can also charge the iPhone, with a Bluetooth controller you have a console to play on your screen and on the go. Do you think that Apple will dive more into gaming in the future, will they disrupt the market?

I think that they will, they are testing the waters with Apple Arcade which is very profitable and they won’t stop there. Also, if their new Apple TVs will have pro chips they are literally consoles.

As I mentioned above, I talk about hardware specifically, I am not talking about software and I don’t mean that Nintendo should be scared of Apple. Steam deck, Rog Ally etc. should worry more than Nintendo as they lack the dedicated software.

Why are you comparing a 1200eu machine to a 300-350eu one?

 

[Trogdor1123]

IPhone 15 (pro) i

Why are you comparing a 1200eu machine to a 300-350eu one?

I think the major discussion is about the chip alone. Not the price or form factor

 

[BootsLoader]

IPhone 15 (pro) i

Why are you comparing a 1200eu machine to a 300-350eu one?

As said in above comment, I talk about the chip and how fast Apple is upgrading in comparison. On the other hand, if you think about it an iPhone is a phone, is a very good music player with decent software, a very very capable camera and more. On top of that, it became a very capable “gaming handheld”, so you can’t compare pricing because iPhone has other capabilities beyond gaming. Think it like PC vs Console where a good gaming PC is most of the time, double the price of a console, but PC can do other things also.

 

[BootsLoader]

IPhone has been more powerful than the switch for years. Probably most phones.

For years? I don’t think iPhone 14 pro can run Zelda Totk.

 

[BootsLoader]

To truly compete with Switch/SteamDeck Apple would have to design new hardware with active cooling either internally or via a custom made dock, I don't think they are going to do it.

Instead the will likely continue on with their current strategy of "premium games" cut down to run on their hardware, then as the other products (TV or Vision) in Apples line up get updated with new hardware they can run those games.

I also don’t think that they will ever convert their phone into a gaming phone, it will hurt their image and iPhone sales. Maybe third party companies will do that.

On the flip side, from the moment I saw the new pro chips I was thinking about Apple TV but their vision product never crossed my mind, it will be interesting to see if they will utilize it as a “gaming platform”.

 

[BootsLoader]

I don't think it really matters how powerful the iPhone hardware will get. I don't think gaming on a touch screen is ideal.

I never considered nor I will consider gaming on touchscreen. it is obvious that when we talk gaming, we talk controller.

 

[BootsLoader]

Nobody cares about chips, if you didn’t notice Switch is third most popular console of all time. Steam is down so PC MC are busy making threads?

As I said, Nintendo has string software support.

 

[Trilobit]

Gaming on Apple devices like iPhones and iPads is abysmal at best compared to any Nintendo handheld. I really tried a while back, but it's just not enjoyable. It doesn't matter how powerful iPhones get, they won't for the foreseeable future be able to compete with high quality games against Nintendo. Then on the other hand Apple gets a lot of revenue from mobile games, but that's another question.

 

[diffusionx]

For years? I don’t think iPhone 14 pro can run Zelda Totk.

it would need to be ported to Apple's development environment and APIs, but it is ARM, it is way faster, it has a way better CPU and GPU, of course it could. Why don't you think so?

 

[AetherZX]

The SoC may be more powerful, but it doesn't matter if it's stuck in a fanless design that can only deliver a few watts of sustained power. You can't beat physics.

It's still significantly more powerful even after throttling lmao.

Should ask yourself why Genshin Impact was announced for it 3 years ago, yet still hasn't made its way on the Switch yet. The same Genshin runs like ass on PS4, but otherwise holds much better framerates on later iPhones.

Pretty cut and dry.

 

[BootsLoader]

it would need to be ported to Apple's development environment and APIs, but it is ARM, it is way faster, it has a way better CPU and GPU, of course it could. Why don't you think so?

I think that it has far more physics that iPhone could handle + plus open world + it will heat the device too much.

 

[BootsLoader]

Also I have played Fantasien (was subscribed to Apple Arcade). It is a decent game, did not finish it though.

 

[diffusionx]

I think that it has far more physics that iPhone could handle + plus open world + it will heat the device too much.

Apple chips are far, far, FAR more capable than the Tegra X1 (look it up), they do far more calculations, and support more new features graphically with Apple's APIs.

The amount of processing that modern smartphones do is insane, like when you take a picture it runs these massive computations to adjust the picture, all the AI going, it's crazy. The iPhone 14 could run TOTK extremely well, far better than Switch.

 

[BootsLoader]

Apple chips are far, far, FAR more capable than the Tegra X1 (look it up), they do far more calculations, and support more new features graphically with Apple's APIs.

The amount of processing that modern smartphones do is insane, like when you take a picture it runs these massive computations to adjust the picture, all the AI going, it's crazy. The iPhone 14 could run TOTK extremely well, far better than Switch.

lol I’m really surprised by that, I thought that dedicated consoles do better, due to customization. Thanks for the information.

 

[diffusionx]

lol I’m really surprised by that, I thought that dedicated consoles do better, due to customization. Thanks for the information.

Well, I think Switch would run a Switch game better on similar hardware than one runnning a fat OS like Android or iOS without active cooling, but at some point, the chips just became way more capable and efficient even at low power and with the overhead. There are Switch emulators on Android, they run like poop but sooner or later they'll likely be running Switch games better than Switch and that's even with all the overhead.

 

[BootsLoader]

There are Switch emulators on Android, they run like poop but sooner or later they'll likely be running Switch games better than Switch and that's even with all the overhead.

Damn, you’re right . I totally forgot that there is a switch emulator on Android.

 

[Dream-Knife]

ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

 

[FireFly]

It's still significantly more powerful even after throttling lmao.

Should ask yourself why Genshin Impact was announced for it 3 years ago, yet still hasn't made its way on the Switch yet. The same Genshin runs like ass on PS4, but otherwise holds much better framerates on later iPhones.

Pretty cut and dry.

I was talking about the Switch 2 vs iPhone 15 Pro.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Apple chips are far, far, FAR more capable than the Tegra X1 (look it up), they do far more calculations, and support more new features graphically with Apple's APIs.

The amount of processing that modern smartphones do is insane, like when you take a picture it runs these massive computations to adjust the picture, all the AI going, it's crazy. The iPhone 14 could run TOTK extremely well, far better than Switch.

Doesn’t matter. Nintendo has incredible IPs, behemoths of the genre. They nailed perfectly the loop for young kids - games with interesting mechanics, funny, with cartoon violence.
When I think Nintendo I think family friendly.
When I think iPhone I think online predators wanting to message my kids.