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| Biggerboat1 said: 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. 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'. |
Yeah I don't think DF is intentionally making bad predictions. I think they genuinely believe in the predictions they're making, but they have a habit of leaning on the conservative side of what is possible, and we're seeing with Switch 2 that the console is matching upper-bound expectations not lower-bound ones.
I think Nintendo originally intended to release the Switch 2 earlier. At the time (let's say sometime in 2024), Lovelace chips wouldn't have been available at a decent price so it made sense to not go that route. If they knew Q2 2025 was their target though, then a Lovelace Switch 2 probably would've been achievable without much difference in cost (assuming they designed the rest of the hardware around it.)
Personally I find a handheld Switch 2 with Steam Deck/PS4 level performance, and a docked experience a half tier above PS4 and a half tier below Series S to be fine, especially given what we've seen so far isn't even using features like DLSS.
Last edited by sc94597 - on 17 April 2025
