Digital Foundry shares more insight on Switch successor rumors, new details surface
Things are getting JUICY
We’ve heard all sorts of rumors about the Switch’s successor recently, and some of it has certainly seemed legitimate. All of this rumored info is coming from Gamescom 2023, where Nintendo supposedly showed off their next-gen hardware to select developers and publishers behind the scenes.
While we don’t know if any of the information is legit so far, we do have some more analysis and details to share. First up, the gang at Digital Foundry has dug a bit deeper into the Gamescom report and shared some interesting tidbits.
- Nintendo’s “target hardware” may not represent what Nintendo/Nvidia actually achieve
- for example, the retail PS3 only ended up being half as powerful as the target hardware
- the T239 Nvidia SoC rumors appear to be true
- the Breath of the Wild demo was running at 4K/60fps using DLSS
- The Matrix demo has the benefit of Nvidia having much better ray tracing hardware than AMD
- DLSS 3.5 (minus frame generation) is what they probably were using to run the demo
- Digital Foundry think it’s reasonable to expect T239 to be able to handle DLSS 3.5 features
- Unreal Engine was 5 developed quite a lot in the past 2 years and is more scalable now
- it’s in Nvidia and Epic Games’ best interests to have Unreal Engine 5 be scalable for Switch 2
- Nvidia would like to see Switch’s successor be a showcase of their DLSS/ray tracing capabilities
- Epic Games wouldn’t want to make Unreal Engine 5 difficult for what could potentially be a successful platform
Following that, we also have some more rumors pertaining to the Switch’s successor in general, and these come from the Nate the Hate podcast.
- the Breath of the Wild demo had instant loading times
- DLSS 3.5 on Switch’s successor may not have all the features the PC version does
- The Matrix demo looked exactly the same as the next-gen consoles release
- The Maxtrix demo appeared to have better ray tracing, but this might be due to a PC being used, rather than native hardware
- March 2024 was mentioned, but it’s unclear if that was a release or reveal date
- still no clarity on backwards compatibility
Again, please remember all of this is 100% rumor and speculation and will likely remain so until Nintendo pulls back the curtain. In all honesty, tech specs will probably be unclear until the system actually makes its way into consumers’ hands.
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enthropy
8M agoThey wont be releasing new hardware this fiscal year so launch in March is out of the question. Unless they want to piss off investors, and they don't!
But damn am I excited to see what they have in store this time around!
lionk
8M agoI can't wait for the quite believable but not certain to be true images of Nintendos next game console ^-^
socar
8M agoYou mean the same folks who said that there were plans to for a powerful switch but Nintendo scrapped it? Lol.
People will fall for anything these days.
dark weres
8M ago"Nintendo’s “target hardware” may not represent what Nintendo/Nvidia actually achieve
for example, the retail PS3..."
Notorious for being made by Nintendo, as we all know
"... only ended up being half as powerful as the target hardware"
vinlauria
8M agoThe first ripples of Gen10...
tendonin
8M agoLovely if true, but I have a bad feeling about this. It seems like the kind of situation where claims get exaggerated through the rumor mill and the real thing gets labeled a disappointment for not living up to a wishful fantasy. We don’t need another dumb backlash like with Switch OLED, especially for a new platform.
bakfug
8M agoI think breaking down the DF segment into bullet points from bullet points on another site is bastardizing the discussion they have in their video.
First, all they are doing is discussing their thoughts on the Eurogamer and VGC reports and not sharing any "interesting tidbits". Second, Richard is so knowledgeable and articulate that it's doing a disservice to him to not listen to the very short amount of discussion they have.
They aren't confirming or sharing any new info here. They are just giving their thoughts on the reports while answering some questions from their Discord. Only main takeaway is that secondhand subjective opinions from a tech demo are not reliable indicators of anything power and performance. They definitely agree with the rumored SoC and the console having modern hardware architecture and software tools, but think to temper expectations some have of it being more powerful than the Series S
Tempering expectations is reasonable, but doing so to the point of doom is just as silly, but in the opposite direction. The new SoC will absolutely have modern architecture and support DLSS 3 and that alone will make the console significantly more capable than the current Switch regardless of clock speeds, power draw, etc.
The only thing you really need to temper here is where exactly it will fall before all that. The thing is not going to be comparable to PS5/Series X hardware wise. Even the Series S would be unbelievable due to the nature of mobile SoCs. But software tools and optimization will absolutely make it feel like it punches above its weight class.
As long as you enjoy the idea of the original switch and want something significantly more capable, you shouldn't be worried about being disappointed.
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