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Biggerboat1 on 16 April 2025
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sc94597 said:
Biggerboat1 said:

You seem to be talking about docked. When sighting S2 being slightly weaker than Steam Deck I was talking about undocked, which if true would be a bit disappointing as the Deck is over 3 years old now... It's true that it launched for a bit more than S2 (at 256GB) though Nintendo will have vastly more bargaining power so should get a lot more bang for their buck due to volume (think the Deck is around 4 million sold, so under 1.5m per year).

Thankfully due to S2 assumed large install base, games will be optimized more than on the Deck, but it would have been nice to have both - Optimization + undocked performance that handily beat a 3yo Deck. Also, for CP specifically, this has been Nvidias showpiece for various technologies so it should run better than vs AMD hardware at a similar performance.

Maybe you have an insight into how much more a node step up would have cost? They'd have saved money from not having to change node mid-gen (if they followed S1 strategy) and they'd also presumably have gotten another year or 2 out of the hardware as it would have delayed the point at which the visuals would be seen as obsolete.

I'm just going from what DF is saying, so if that proves inaccurate then I'll obvs change my position.

In terms of raw raster the Switch 2 is about 55% as powerful in handheld mode as in docked mode. That roughly aligns with the difference between the Steam Deck's and Switch 2's targeted modes.

The Switch 2 is targeting 2 times the output resolution at the same frame rate and settings docked as the Steam Deck. I am not going to talk about internal resolution because I don't think the Switch 2 is going to get to 1080p without DLSS in the game and we don't know what sort of DLSS solution they'll use. 

So there is no reason that if they hit the 1080p 30fps target docked they can't hit a 720p 40fps or slightly higher resolution 30fps target in handheld with similar settings to the Steam Deck/PS4/Switch 2 (Docked.) 

When it comes to projections (rather than analysis of existing products) I don't find Digital Foundry to be very reliable. Remember, they originally thought the docked Switch 2 would be less performant than the Steam Deck. That is obviously far from the case. They're questioning a highly capable team's ability to achieve perfectly doable frame-rate and resolution targets given what we know of the system. If CDPR thinks it is feasible to have a 1080p 30fps mode and a 40fps at some lower resolution, then I think it is more likely than not to happen. And if that is the case, then the handheld mode will almost certainly be more or less match to match to what the Steam Deck outputs. 

I guess time will tell. You're obvs much more knowledgeable about the underlying tech.

I don't think DF have an axe to grind though, they seem to be calling it how they see it.

They also seem pretty sure it's 8nm, going by the reported dimensions of the board.

CDPR are obviously very talented but they made a bit of a dog's dinner of the PS4 & Xbox One port so who knows, again let's hope for the best & see.

You mentioned in your post to numberwang that Nintendo could have gone with Lovelace over Ampere.

If DF are correct and we've ended up with an 8nm Ampere when we could have got a 5nm Lovelace setup you can maybe understand my slight deflation as that would have been a serious step up.

I can't help but think that if it was MS or Sony's project they would have made that level of hardware happen whereas Nintendo always seem to go a bit mid...

A big part of Nintendo's audience have grown up & are likely more tech savy than generations past & I think more ambitious hardware would have gone down well & increased the longevity of the system. I know I've tailed off on using my OG Switch as I preferred to wait & play games like TOTK & even Link's awakening on hardware that could comfortably handle it.

I'm not sure how much they'd have had to charge but personally I'd have been happier to pony up an extra 25 to 50 bucks if it meant cutting edge vs what we've seemingly ended up with, which just seems 'fine'.