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EricHiggin on 15 September 2024
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Pemalite said:
EricHiggin said:

If PS5, Pro, and Series X, only have 16GB of RAM, its unlikely that a hybrid like Switch 2 would have that much. RAM is expensive, and in general the more RAM you have the more power you're going to use as well, which then also means less battery life, or a battery with a higher capacity which will cost more, plus added weight.

Keep in mind the types of Ram these platforms are using. The faster your Ram, the more expensive it generally is.
GDDR6 is going to be more expensive than LPDDR5X.

As for battery life... It's actually more expensive on battery if a developer needs to stream data from disk to overcome Ram limits as you need to fire up the disk controllers, the NAND and traverse across the entire systems silicon -while- keeping the Ram powered. - Even the CPU gets involved on a few of those steps.

It's more energy efficient to be able to cache everything into Ram.

Faster RAM may be more expensive, but RAM is RAM at the end of the day when it comes to being expensive. Slower cheaper RAM would on one hand suggest Switch 2 could possibly have 16GB or more, but it depends on what the launch price is going to be. PS5 and SX are still at $499, and I think it's safe to say that Nin probably wants to shoot for $399 give or take. We all know Nin likes to make a profit on the hardware as well, so 16GB would very likely be pushing that budget to its limits.

Well yes, for a handheld type battery device like Switch or Switch 2, too little RAM isn't good for power efficiency, but neither is way too much. Whether all that 'extra' RAM was or wasn't being used, it wouldn't be great for power efficiency. What you really want, like you mentioned, is balance. You want to be in the ballpark of just enough RAM, which in general is easier said than done. You'll have some games that won't need a lot, and some that want a ton, but with Nin being whose developing the hardware with Nvidia, for their own games, partners, and third parties, Switch 2 should be about as balanced as one could hope for.

And yes, I know, I did suggest "too much RAM". Like how could anyone ever download too much RAM? I mean common...