| curl-6 said: Having played through most of it now, RE Requiem really feels like a landmark game for the system, much like Star Wars Outlaws did. For it to look as good as it does while running at/near 60fps most of the time on a hybrid device is really something. 540p sounds like a steep compromise on paper, but in practise the use of the "full fat" version of DLSS does a remarkable job of restoring image quality to a decent level, while the characters, environments and effects all look fantastic. It may not quite match the PS5 version, but it feels like its in the same ballpark, in a way that Switch 1 couldn't quite manage, commendable though many of its ports were. |
It feels to me development costs have reached a ridiculous level and commercially no one wants to push the envelope with regard minimum spec needed. PS5 has something like a 16,000 passmark cpu score and the latest PCs maybe 30,000-50,000 passmark CPU but not many games are upgrading their engines to make use of such high CPU performance. Yes you can get high frame rates and resolutions but it doesn't feel like the physics engine of games is improving that much. So you are left with games running across a wide range of platforms with just graphic fidelity and frame rates varying but no actual full barrier to running that game on low end hardware. I've been amazed with how many good games now run on Android, quite ambitious games like Red Dead Redemption, Subnautica etc. As Virtuos pointed out and easily seen in benchmarks the Switch 2 is only around a passmark score of 2000 and 2 of the cores are taken, one for the operating system and one for gamechat. That is low CPU resources compared to Steam Deck at 9000 and many other devices. Sometimes it seems like the only times the CPUs are maxed out is emulating other systems. I'm not as hopeful about Switch 2 into the future running later game engines that are more demanding but it does feel such games maybe fairly rare. Ramegeddon has slowed people buying PC hardware because its unaffordable now so PCs will stagnate to a degree while prices remain so high maybe making PC games less demanding too in the future I guess.
I've only had my Switch 2 a few weeks but general impressions are a fairly weak system but I haven't used mine docked at all to be honest purely as a portable so maybe I don't see the full picture yet but it feels a little laggy and motion on the panel is fairly poor. It doesn't feel as fluid or responsive as the Steam Deck. Yes of course I realise the Steam Deck only has a 800p panel so its a lot easier for that system to be responsive and fluid in graphics and has a far superior panel even in the LCD version for pixel response. Maybe with the panel out of the equation and docked I will think differently. It feels like a system struggling a little bit to provide responsive and fluid gameplay but still a good experience.
It's interesting that Cyberpunk 2077 is still considered a very demanding game and that came out over 5 years ago on PC. I remember a time when my PC kept getting outdated and I needed to upgrade to play the latest games but that doesn't seem to be such a thing now. However I guess that represents the pinnacle of Switch 2 performance so far. That doesn't feel like the full fat experience to me with fairly high input lag, cut down detail and a frame rate that will tank at times but still a very impressive port.
I personally think there is a limit on what the Switch 2 can achieve and pushed beyond that the experience will be reduced compared to PS5, Xbox Series S and later consoles. So far its a mixed bag of Switch 2 conversions with both good and bad ports. However its not just about the hardware its how the games sell on Switch 2 and how much time and money can be spent optimising games for weaker hardware and I guess many of those weak ports were because of a low budget in developing them. These patterns repeat though as when the Switch 1 came out it was seen as weak compared to PS4 and Xbox One but a great platform for polished ports of 360 and PS3 games and now with Switch 2 its a great platform for polished ports of PS4 and Xbox One games but not able to match PS5 and Xbox Series X or the most demanding PC games.
