I think it's also the case that a lot of people criticising it online as underpowered never had any interest in the system in the first place no matter how strong/weak it was and are just console warring.

Yeah Crimson Dessert has some really rough CPU moments but it does have a 60fps Series S mode. It shouldn't really exist based off how bad the image quality is in it, but that's exactly where Switch 2's features will come into play. The Series S performance mode with better image quality, some density reduction & a 30fps cap is a solid starting place for S2 ecpectations

People will never universally agree on anything. Complaints are inevitable, be they genuine, ignorant, or tribalistic. It's just something that we need to accept or ignore.

The Switch 2 was expected to launch earlier and cheaper, some even thought the base model could be cheaper than a Switch 1 OLED was at launch (because prices were expected to drop) and turn profit. That is the primary reason why many underestimated its capabilities. And then there was DLSS which many people didn't understand. Even those familiar with the tech weren't sure Switch 2 would be capable of the "full fat version" (comparable to DLSS2/3 at that time). Digital Foundry fed into these concerns. ML upscaling is a gamechanger.

I initially predicted that the Switch 2 would be weaker than a PS4 Pro in some metrics, but that advanced features like DLSS and RT acceleation would enable it to trade blows with the Series S. I slightly adjusted my expectations down following the "DLSS lite" rumours and the price hikes plaguing the industry.

I don't agree with that, the node for the Switch 1 at the time of launch was newer but that's about it. Switch 2 has a generous amount of graphics cores (1536) and Nvidia is much better at making mobile chips today then back then, even the node issue Nintendo optimized the chip, we can see from die x-ray shots that the graphics cores are smaller than the regular Tegra T239, which I think is letting them get much higher performance than a lot of doom sayers on boards like here were touting prior to release. 

Nintendo's hardware designers on the Switch 2 themselves stated they weren't happy with the performance of the Switch 1 hardware wise and Switch 2 is better in that respect. 

It is able to run PS5 games much more easily than the Switch 1 could handle PS4 games. 

Even the RAM amount 12GB for a portable is a fuck ton relative to home consoles it's more than the Series S and not far off from the PS5 itself. That's not bad at all. 12GB was always a smart choice because the Series S basically ensured almost every multiplat game this gen has to be able to run on 10GB. 

I think Nintendo wanted this specific performance (ability to run a lot of PS5 software) and they basically got it in a way where it was still reasonably affordable. 

The only main quirk I think that happened is the system was likely delayed at least a year. COVID hit in 2020/2021 primarily, that would have been right when software development should have been starting/kicking into high gear for the Switch 2, that almost definitely had an impact and probably set the system back a year if not more. 

Almost everything about the Switch 2 is perfect, but for me, the only major mistake was opting for a CPU with only 8 cores; they should have gone with a 12-core CPU.

Not really, 12 cores was never feasible, despite the 3rd party games performance gains. The SOC is pretty large for a hybrid at around 207mm2. Adding four more cores would decrease battery life and increase the cost by another ~$8, producing more heat too. 

Also, GPU cores can do some CPU tasks if developers spend time optimizing games for S2. The biggest issue with current hardware is low clock speed of both GPU and CPU, not the amount of cores. That's why Nintendo IMO should launch Switch 2 Pro that is overclocked by at least 1.7x times with faster RAM too. Another good solution is to not make GameChat integration mandatory, that would free up more RAM and 1 CPU core.

From what I observed exclusives sold Switch, not 3rd party games, that's why Nintendo architectured Switch 2 very well.

I'm currently playing Final Fantasy VII Remake on the console and I have to say it looks really great. I don't care if it's only 30fps or if some textures are lower res. What's important to me is the content and the Switch 2 can handle that game just fine.

That being said, making game chat (which I guess not many people are using) optional and thus freeing a CPU core and 1-1.5gb of RAM sounds like a great idea to me. 

Nintendo's PR statements are full of shit, as per usual. Bar top of the line Apple/Snapdragon silicon, they had no other choice but Tegra X1 for best performance in 2017, unless they've had spent crapload of money for some custom engineered solution, which Nintendo was obviously not ready to do. What they could've done is pay more attention to cooling/battery and letting that SoC in SW1 run at higher clocks, since people have shown on many occasions, after unlocking it, what it was capable of.

Unsurprisingly, they went...let's be polite and call it "conservative"...on cooling/battery in Switch 2 as well, so that Ampere is not running as high as it could have (which is at least 30% more).

While it would be nice to have more "next gen" looking first party titles, (so far, only Starfox really looks a gen above Switch 1's best) I do appreciate that Nintendo has used the additional power to expand on new gameplay possibilities, such as twice as many karts and an opening world setting in MKW, extensive destructibility in DK Bananza, and insane amounts of enemies and action on screen in Splatoon Raiders.

Makes me excited to see what they do with the eventual 3D Mario, 3D Zelda and such.

Crimson Desert's performance mode is only 40fps on Series S. 

But the game isn't really that CPU-intensive for an open-world title, anyway. Crimson Desert is less CPU intensive than Oblivion Remastered, for example. It runs fine on 4-core,8-thread Haswell i7 from 13 years ago, which is about +30% Switch 2's CPU performance overall. Without the Windows overhead, and with a 30fps target SW2's CPU probably should handle it fine.

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On the topic of Switch 2 predictions, I think mine held up pretty well.  

I posted this in 2023. 

https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9468358