Getting clues about the future Nintendo console is difficult, the most we have been able to get is to use the hacker attack on NVIDIA to get some information and the recent leak of the British regulatory committee in full regulation of the purchase from Activision-Blizzard where they have confirmed that the Switch Online service will continue as is on the new console. The latest information? It is located in the firmware of the console and is about the RAM of the Nintendo Switch 2.
Even without announcing it, we can say that the next Nintendo console will be backwards compatible with the product they currently have on the market, which means that the games will work without problems on the next console. Let’s not forget that today video game consoles are not like before and not only depend on the fact that there is specific hardware underneath, but also an operating system that has to be inherited from one system to another.
The Nintendo Switch 2 will have 8 GB of RAM or more
The latest leak about Nintendo Switch 2 would have come unintentionally from Nintendo itself, especially from the documentation of the latest firmware update for the console, which was 16.0.0. Specifically, in one part of it there is a reference to memory configurations of 8 GB, 16 GB and even 32 GB. Let’s not forget that the current console has a capacity of 4 GB.
Although this can address up to 39 bits memory addresses for RAM, what it means to reach 512 GB of RAM. In the current Switch we find that any capacity above 4 GB is treated as memory of its reading by the memory controller integrated into the console chip. Let’s not forget that the specifications of a console are one hundred percent closed and, therefore, Nintendo is not going to add or create a console with more memory, it is a variant of the current switch. That is why it is easily deduced that it refers to the Switch 2 RAM.
Is it too much or too little RAM for switch 2?
In any case, 8 GB or more makes sense since the console will seek to have conversions of games from PS 4 and Xbox One, consoles with which it will be compared technically, even without having the advantage of NVIDIA’s DLS, which we know by leaks that will be implemented in the console.
On the other hand, we must start from the fact that mobile memory chips have high storage capacity, and, therefore, we should not be surprised to see a configuration of 16 GB of RAM in a Nintendo Switch 2, although it would go further. Beyond what is necessary, it must be taken into account that the capacity of LPDDR5 RAM is very high due to the needs of smartphones today.
The most critical point of the new system
It is no secret that the largest consumer of energy in a portable device today is RAM memory, even surpassing that of the processor. This limits the use of faster RAM for such devices. Since the GPU depends on the bandwidth of the video memory. If we take into account that LPDDR5 is twice as much as its predecessor in that regard, then we find ourselves with a significant bottleneck today and even more so if we talk about what many people expect Switch 2 to have a Full HD screen.
This is where DLSS capability becomes important to alleviate the effects of limited bandwidth on system configuration. In order to be able to acquire much higher resolutions for games. In any case, it must be taken into account that this technique requires certain levels of quality and that, depending on the resolutions, due to how low they are, it does not give a good result.
2.4 TFLOPS for the GPU?
The other information that has appeared is the least reliable of all and has reference to the computing power of the on-chip GPU. Since the source, unlike the issue of RAM in the Nintendo Switch 2, comes from simple speculation, but it is within the possible.
Therefore, the power would be above SONY’s PS4, but we must bear in mind that the console would have the advantage of implementing Tensor cores for DLSS, which in practical terms would allow it to generate frames at a lower resolution and mitigate with it the limitation of the bandwidth of the memory.
If we add this to the leak from a few months ago about the GPU specifications, we can deduce the clock speed, although we do not know if it refers to desktop mode, portable mode or both at the same time. Taking into account that there are 12 cores with GeForce Ampere architecture, the same as the RTX 30, then we would be getting a speed of 781 MHz, although whoever writes this thinks it will be 748 MHz, what is the speed of the switch to act in mode dock due to timing issues of certain algorithms and functions the system sings to go synchronized
There is still a little to know officially
Be that as it may, time will put things in their place, although we are very clear that Nintendo will have to increase the number of memory chips and with me that of the bus, of course it has no other choice. In addition, we have micro that the console will be more expensive than the current one, seeing the price of Tears of the Kingdom, the new installment of The Legend of Zelda, which is higher than usual. Also, do not rule out a better subscription system than the current one in order to finance the console hardware and be able to sell your future console at a logical price for your target market.
