How Will be Switch 2 Performance Wise?

[bonzobanana]

sc94597 said:

bonzobanana said:

It might come as single channel with just a single 8GB on the motherboard but they normally have a spare sodimm socket to go to dual channel and a single 8GB sodimm would be cheap, sometimes these laptops have dual sodimm sockets which I assume this has if it can be upgraded to 32GB i.e dual 16GB sodimms. I would say the RTX 2050 was more powerful than you have stated and Vulcan provides good optimisation. Windows like Enterprise LTSC Iot is very light on resources compared to regular Windows and also we do know the Switch 2 is using a lot of resources for its operating system and gamechat etc. There is a lot more memory bandwidth all around on the laptop. Yes 4GB dedicated video memory is not amazing but for the 1080p visuals you would expect from this laptop for intensive games it should be fine and for upscaled 1440p and 4K graphics should be fine too. I'll admit not so great for native 1440p and 4K though but the same issue with the Switch 2. I think build quality definitely varies by laptop brand but fan noise is something that can be bad on some models when gaming for longer periods. Battery life may not be amazing either but it should comfortably outperform the Switch 2 which only has 2 hours minimum runtime for this first generation model. The TDP of the RTX 2050 mobile varies from 30-45W although Mhz doesn't vary that much and its on exactly the same fabrication process as Switch 2 and that is given a TDP for its complete circuitry including the SOC of 4-6W.

It only has a 20Wh battery so 10Wh for each hour and the screen will take about half of that. So it has 4-6W where as this laptop has 30-45W. Again these are peak figures I'm sure just like the Switch 2 figures from that analysis. Realistic figures for both will be lower but a lot, lot lower for Switch 2 as it has so little battery power to play with. A gaming laptop battery is typically 50-90Wh. However obviously the bigger screen needs more power of a laptop but it remains the same in ratio to the size so maybe 8-12W for a larger laptop screen.

Sure, if you open up the laptop and add another $25 stick (not hard, but also not something an entry-level buyer might know they even should do), if you have the right Windows installation, if you make sure you bought a laptop with the right RTX 2050 configuration (remember not all RTX 2050 laptops hit the max TGP and the lowest TGP is 83% the performance of the highest) it would outclass the Switch 2 pretty healthily, but by that point you're in the budget range for a much better gaming laptop, about $100-$150 more expensive than the Switch 2 and you had to do work to achieve it. 

Personally if I were a low budget gamer looking for an entry level gaming laptop I would look into a 4050 laptop for $60-$120 more than the 2050 laptops. At least then you get frame generation and 6GB of VRAM. During sale events entry-level 4050 models can be found for $550-$700.There are open box ones on ebay for $570 and new ones for $650-$700.

That gives you about 2.5 to 3 times the Switch 2's performance for 1.3 to 1.5 times the price. 

After the 4050, the 6GB RTX 3050 laptops probably are the best models in that price range. Anything 4GB won't last for even upscaled 1080p imo, unless you want to run on the lowest settings.

Edit: You're also not considering the CPU consumption in your battery life estimates. These laptops typically run total power profiles of 50-70W when including CPU + GPU + ancillary power consumption. With a 50WH battery that would mean less than an hour battery life, and with a 90WH battery a little bit more than an hour to almost two.  

Laptops definitely have longer runtime than that but then like most mobile devices they don't deliver the performance and clock rates they claim, they give peak figures in the spec but try to conserve power when possible. However it's really down to the laptop design. The RTX 3050 mobile is on the same dated fabrication process as the RTX 2050 mobile and Switch 2 but the RTX 4050 mobile has an improved 5Nm fabrication process by TSMC rather than Samsung's much inferior fabrication process. My point is the RTX 3050 mobile would be even more power inefficient with the added performance. I don't have a gaming laptop myself except I do use a basic Celeron laptop for portable use and do game on it but older titles of course. I get up to 18 hours runtime on it, on eco power settings and reduced brightness. HP claim up to 16 hours but I debloated the operating system and use Enterprise LTSC so less processes going on. However on full performance and high brightness gaming I get about 4-6 hours on a tiny battery. 

However I'm not sure I want to argue against your laptop battery runtime estimates because if anything they reinforce my view that the Switch 2 either will have far lower performance than stated in portable mode or much shorter battery runtime. If the RTX 2050 mobile only gets lets say 90 minutes battery runtime out of 70Wh then using the same fabrication process how low does the Switch 2 have to go to get 2 hours minimum out of 20Wh? I remember when modders/hackers claimed in a forum that the Switch was dropping to 90-140 Gflops based on its reduced power consumption when portable compared to peak power. That gives an average of about 115 Gflops when the maximum potential performance of the Switch when portable is 236 Gflops so roughly twice as fast as reality. Surely the Switch 2 will be doing the same with a sub 1 Teraflop gflops figure, probably 600-800 Gflops in reality in portable mode. Switch 2 has a maximum 6.5hours runtime so with reduced brightness that still only leaves 1-2 watts per hour. 20W shared by 6.5 is only 3W and at that point the screen is probably needing more power than the SOC. I really can't see how the figures given for portable performance of the Switch 2 stack up. Where is it getting all the additional power to deliver such performance. I think we will see a huge difference this time around between portable and docked performance maybe 3-4x the power.

It's a low cost, low power chipset from 2020/2021 using a fabrication process from that time and yet we are currently comparing it to PS5 and Xbox Series X in performance. My Doogee T30 Pro tablet has a 32Wh battery and a 6Nm fabrication process. It only has a GPU of about 280 Gflops but with a really intensive android game or something like emulation I can exhaust the battery in about 2-2.5hrs. However for general light use I can get over 10hrs or more. It's an 11" 1440p screen with good brightness though. It's powerful enough to emulate some lighter Switch games at full speed not that I've ever done that myself but have seen the videos on youtube showing the same chipset doing it. I've seen more ambitious Switch games emulated but just below normal frame rates. It's on a far superior fabrication process with a far weaker GPU. 

https://www.gsmarena.com/doogee_t30_pro-12370.php

I just can't see where the Switch is getting the power to deliver the quoted portable performance levels.

It will be interesting to see how the final product compares to the footage we have seen from development units.