hinch said: I can see the Switch 2 (in terms of power) ending in the way of how the Switch is positioned currently, and what porting situation is going to be like. Going by Nintendo's previous choices in SoC's. They'll choose an existing off the shelf product and work around that. And assuming that dev kits have been rolling out since last year and rumors are true.. the latest SoC I see Nintendo building upon for the next console is going to be based on Nvidia's Tegra - Xavier. Which is Volta based architecture. This architecture is two generation behind current gen and in a SoC similar envelope (10-15W) would most likely place this below a Steam Deck. Even if we consider Nintendo requesting the new custom silicon to be built using the latest node by TSMC/Samsung. So much closer to the last generation consoles than the newer ones in capability and raw compute. |
Unless Nintendo plans to release the Switch relatively soon, there is no way they are going to choose Xavier for their chip. Personally, it seems like Nintendo will be targeting a 2024 release date unless 2022 drops off a cliff. By 2024 Xavier would be four years old, and that's just too old at that point to put into a console.
Instead, they are likely going to use Orin which will come out this year, which would put it at two years old by the time Switch 2 comes out (same time difference from X1 to Switch). In addition, Orin can have a lower TDP (as low as 5W), greater ability for DLSS, and has headroom to be downclocked in order to preserve battery without sacrificing visual fidelity. If they use Xavier we won't be receiving graphics that hold up to Xbox One S standards due to them downclocking the GPU in order to reduce power draw. It just wouldn't be worth it.