Wall Street Journal Japan Reports A New Switch Model Will Release In The Second Half Of 2019

[JEMC]

Soundwave said:

JEMC said:

Why would Nintendo pay for the redesign of the X1 on a smaller node when they can get the same result, and cheaper, using a Tegra X2 runing at lower frequencies?

And why would Nintendo pay for a custom designed chip, specially given that they went for an off-the-shelf product for the Switch, when they can get the same or very similar results using a Tegra X2 at full capacity (1.5 TFlops FP16 at 15W)?

They could use the X2 for the slimmer Switch, but it doesn't look like it from the leaked Switch OS hack, there's something called a Tegra Mariko chip which has a model number T214 (Tegra X1 is T210), the Tegra X2 has a completely different model number. 

1.5 TFLOPS at FP16 is only half that at actual FP32, which is what most devs use, so 750 GFLOPS at 15 watts is alright, but Nvidia can likely do better than that for 2020. 15 watts may be a bit too hot as well, the current Switch runs at 11 watts docked. 

I don't think Nintendo necessarily wanted to go with an off the shelf part, it may have been a decision based on time/cost, but it's also had some headaches for them like hackers being able to easily exploit the X1. 

The new part number doesn't necessarily mean a die shrink or even a major chamge. It could be the old X1 chip with the needed hardware changes to improve its security and fight against the homebrew and emulators going around.

I see you catched my trick with the X2 flops, good job . In any case, an X2 should be more than enough to run current Switch games at 1080p@60fps without troubles. Forget about 1440 or 4K, just because the competence has done that, it doesn't mean that Nintendo should follow their path. And you wouldn't need to run the X2 at full speeds to achieve those results, saving power.

Another thing to consider is that using the X2 for both devices would be better for Nintendo as they could get a better deal for the chips due to the higher volume. The extra RAM will prevent users from buying the Lite model and "unlocking" it to the Pro one.

Remember that Nintendo has to eventually launch a Switch 2, and if they go full power on a Switch Pro, what they'll use for it?