Latest news with #DigitalFoundry
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Switch 2 Is Shaping Up To Be The Port Machine The Original Never Was
I hope all of you are ready for a lot of PS4, PS5, and Xbox ports arriving on Switch 2 over the next few months, because that seems to be our future. For folks who primarily play on Switch and soon Switch 2, it will be a chance to play a lot of great games that were too much for the OG console to handle, or which arrived via less-than-stellar ports. For everyone else, well, that new Donkey Kong game looks cool... The $450 Nintendo Switch 2 is nearly here, though some people already have their hands on the console ahead of its June 5 launch. Its launch lineup isn't horrible, but it's nothing too impressive either. It mainly features a handful of new, exclusive games, like Mario Kart World, and some upgraded versions of OG Switch games. But the majority of the Switch 2's launch lineup is ports like Cyberpunk 2077. And that's because, unlike the old Switch, Nintendo's new machine is actually going to be able to run these games without compromising visuals and features. Looking at the launch lineup for June 5, of the 25 or so games arriving on day one, about 10 of them are ports of old games that didn't arrive on the original Switch. Stuff like the previously mentioned Cyberpunk 2077, Street Fighter 6, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, and Split Fiction. Then there are some Switch 2 ports that are replacing or upgrading older Switch ports, including Civilization 7, Fortnite, Hogwarts Legacy, and Hitman: World of Assassination, which was only available as a cloud-powered streaming game on the old machine. There are also ports that are coming after launch, like Star Wars Outlaws in September. It's not surprising that a big chunk of games announced for Switch 2 so far are ports of older titles. The original Switch got plenty of ports during its run, but most AAA games were chopped up and squished onto the aging hardware, resulting in some really ugly conversions. Sure, some of these games, like Doom (2016), ran mostly fine and looked okay on Nintendo's hybrid console, but there was always this feeling when playing these ports that the Switch hardware was being pushed to its limits. And then, when the PS5 and Xbox Series X arrived on the scene in 2020, games started targeting the more powerful hardware, and Switch ports became harder to pull off. As a result, we got some truly gnarly versions of great-looking games. Remember Mortal Kombat 1 on Switch? Yikes. In the last few years, fewer and fewer big games have been making the leap to Switch, primarily because the hardware is so old and outdated that they would be impossible to pull it off, or you'd have to compromise the visuals and performance so much that it wouldn't be worth it. So the Switch 2 is a big deal for a lot of publishers who have been unable to bring some of their recent games to Nintendo's audience, which is often cited as a group of people hungry for new content. And for players, it means they'll receive some fantastic-looking ports. As recently pointed out by Digital Foundry, Cyberpunk 2077 on Switch 2 looks as good (and sometimes better) than the open-world game running on an Xbox Series S or PS4. That's thanks in large part to DLSS, but also the guts of the Switch 2 are just significantly better than those of the Switch. There is more power inside this new console, and that's going to be good news for devs, publishers, and players. All of this does mean that the Switch 2 will likely end up being something of a port machine as publishers race to get their big games running on the new console. That might be annoying for people who buy Nintendo consoles for exclusives and unique experiences, but with Mario Kart World, Metroid Prime 4, and Donkey Kong Bananza on the way, we can feel pretty confident that we'll get plenty of those games, too. They'll just be the outliers among a ton of nice-looking PS5 and Xbox ports. . For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
The Verge
6 days ago
- The Verge
Nvidia's RTX 5060 review debacle should be a wake-up call for gamers and reviewers
Nvidia has gone too far. This week, the company reportedly attempted to delay, derail, and manipulate reviews of its $299 GeForce RTX 5060 graphics card, which would normally be its bestselling GPU of the generation. Nvidia has repeatedly and publicly said the budget 60-series cards are its most popular, and this year it reportedly tried to ensure that by withholding access and pressuring reviewers to paint the new 5060 in the best light possible. Nvidia might have wanted to prevent a repeat of 2022, when it launched this card's predecessor. Those reviews were harsh. The 4060 was called a 'slap in the face to gamers' and a 'wet fart of a GPU.' I had guessed the 5060 was headed for the same fate after seeing how reviewers handled the 5080, which similarly showcased how little Nvidia's hardware has improved year over year and relied on software to make up the gaps. But Nvidia had other plans. Here are the tactics that Nvidia reportedly just used to throw us off the 5060's true scent, as individually described by GamersNexus, VideoCardz, Hardware Unboxed, Digital Foundry, and more: Nvidia decided to launch its RTX 5060 on May 19th, when most reviewers would be at Computex in Taipei, Taiwan, rather than at their test beds at home. Even if reviewers already had a GPU in hand before then, Nvidia cut off most reviewers' ability to test the RTX 5060 before May 19th by refusing to provide drivers until the card went on sale. (Gaming GPUs don't really work without them.) And yet Nvidia allowed specific, cherry-picked reviewers to have early drivers anyhow if they agreed to a borderline unethical deal: they could only test five specific games, at 1080p resolution, with fixed graphics settings, against two weaker GPUs (the 3060 and 2060 Super) where the new card would be sure to win. In some cases, Nvidia threatened to withhold future access unless reviewers published apples-to-oranges benchmark charts showing how the RTX 5060's 'fake frames' MFG tech can produce more frames than earlier GPUs without it. Some reviewers apparently took Nvidia up on that proposition, leading to early reviews where charts looked positively stacked in the 5060's favor: But the reality, according to reviews that have since hit the web, is that the RTX 5060 often fails to beat a four-year-old RTX 3060 Ti, frequently fails to beat a four-year-old 3070, and can sometimes get upstaged by Intel's cheaper $250 B580. And yet, the 5060's lackluster improvements are overshadowed by a juicier story: inexplicably, Nvidia decided to threaten GamersNexus' future access over its GPU coverage. Yes, the same GamersNexus that's developed a staunch reputation for defending consumers from predatory behavior, and just last month published a report on 'GPU shrinkflation' that accused Nvidia of misleading marketing. Bad move! In a 22-minute video, GN claims Nvidia threatened to cut off access to Nvidia's cooling and latency experts unless GN agreed to do the thing you see in the charts above — compare cards with fake frames to cards without. GN claims it has the recorded phone conversations to prove it, which are likely legal because Nvidia was recording them too. 'Just to be clear, Nvidia, I am prepared to release them,' GN editor-in-chief Steve Burke threatened. Recording every conversation isn't how companies and reviewers normally operate. There's been a serious breakdown in trust if we find ourselves here! Nvidia is within its rights to withhold access, of course. Nvidia doesn't have to send out graphics cards or grant interviews. It'll only do it if it's good for business. But the unspoken covenant of product reviews is that the press, as a whole, gets a chance to warn the public if a movie, video game, or GPU is not worth their money. It works both ways: the media also gets the chance to warn that a product is so good you might want to line up in advance. That unspoken rule is what Nvidia is trampling here. Nvidia is trampling an unspoken rule On Wednesday, May 14th, I asked Nvidia in a group press briefing: 'Are there not going to be reviews of the RTX 5060 before our readers are able to buy it?' Nvidia didn't deny it. 'Units will be available from May 19th,' was Nvidia GeForce PR boss Ben Berraondo's response, seemingly implying that a lack of early supplies of the GPU, not an underhanded campaign to influence early reviews, would be to blame for the gap. Earlier in the same briefing, Hardwareluxx 's Andreas Schilling wrote a similar question and got a similar answer: 'Could you share your thought on why Nvidia is going to release the driver for RTX 5060 with availability and not giving us the chance to do our reviews prior to this?' Berraondo answered, 'We are focused on delivering a great day-one experience for GeForce RTX 5060 gamers with our Game Ready Driver that will be available to everyone on May 19.' But as GamersNexus and other publications soon revealed, not 'everyone' had to wait until the 19th to start testing. Nvidia didn't respond to repeated requests for comment about the GamersNexus allegations. It wasn't Nvidia's only misleading statement about the card. During that same Wednesday briefing, rather than sharing Nvidia's benchmark charts, GeForce product management director Justin Walker claimed the new GPU would 'let you play your games maxed out at over 100 frames per second,' including demanding titles as Black Myth Wukong at 130fps, Cyberpunk 2077 at 148fps, and Half-Life 2 RTX at 130fps. I laughed when I read the fine print and saw what Nvidia meant by 'maxed out.' It meant a paltry 720p render resolution, DLSS-upscaled to 1080p, with up to three of every four frames imagined by AI — and even then, only when you paired Nvidia's budget $299 GPU with a decidedly not budget $599 AMD CPU, one of the best money can buy. One of Nvidia's other pieces of news from that same briefing was that DLSS 4 with Multi-Frame Generation is available in over 125 games and apps. 'DLSS 4 is the fastest adopted gaming technology in our history,' Walker proclaimed. Does that mean GPU reviewers can no longer ding these graphics cards for marketing features only a handful of game developers bother to use? I thought to myself. But no: as of today, Nvidia's website lists just 29 games with full native support for DLSS Multi Frame-Generation. The only way Nvidia can get to 125 is by counting games where players have to force it through Nvidia's drivers, which doesn't give any indication of adoption by game developers. So now, I'm wondering: where else might Nvidia be trying to pull the wool over our eyes? I can't quite understand why Nvidia would risk fracturing trust the way it did this week. I mean, yes, Nvidia now has fuck-you money from AI, and gaming can feel like an afterthought. Nvidia's networking business is now bigger than gaming, which now represents less than 10 percent of Nvidia's total revenue. The company makes more pure profit from AI in a single quarter than total gaming sales in a year. It's no wonder the GPUs are in short supply at MSRP when their makers are richly rewarded for putting silicon capacity toward AI chips instead. But that feels like a good argument for Nvidia to stop caring whether its gaming GPUs sell, not why it might feel the need to meddle with reviews. If the desktop RTX 5060 doesn't hit sales goals, the company will be more than OK. Nvidia would be less OK if everyone started questioning its integrity. What might help explain this push, though, is Nvidia's seeming need to make its founder's new vision for gaming into a reality. At CES 2025, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang kicked off a huge debate about 'fake frames' among PC gamers when he suggested they were the future of graphics — effectively, that the idea your game should draw each and every scene 60, 120, or more times per second will seem antiquated. That AI not only can, but should fill in the gaps. It's not so far-fetched an idea: as my colleague Tom Warren noted in January, 'so much of modern gaming is already 'fake,' and it has been for years.' That might be why Nvidia has been so pushy about reviewers adding such comparisons to their reviews. (Nvidia has even bugged us to include MFG results in our AMD reviews, a request we've largely ignored.) But in the end, Huang's claim that the $549 RTX 5070 would deliver $1,599 RTX 4090 performance didn't ring true. The thing about Nvidia's MFG is it needs enough real frames to begin with, or it doesn't feel smooth, and if it already feels smooth, you may not need the extra frames. It's not a silver bullet that can make a 1440p card feel like a 4K card and, according to Dave James with PC Gamer, it isn't enough to make Nvidia's new 1080p card feel like a 1440p one, either. In one of the first real reviews of the RTX 5060, with video examples, James explains: You're not going to be able to use MFG to be able to up the resolution on your low-end RTX 5060 to match your 1440p monitor, even with DLSS running. And you're not going to be able to use MFG to enable you to run at the highest in-game settings, even sometimes at 1080p. The extra latency and low input frame rates either make it a latency spiking nightmare or the AI generated frames end up creating a ton of unpleasant artifacts as you run around whatever gameworld you're in. Meanwhile, HardwareUnboxed published a review that shows the new 5060 may not be that much faster than the old 4060, even at 1080p. They found it 20 percent faster on average across 18 games, and as low as 8 percent faster in Star Wars Outlaws, 9 percent faster in Stalker 2, and 10 percent faster in Black Ops 6. At 1440p, the $250 Intel Arc B580 offered better 1 percent lows and is the superior deal if you can find it at that price. We may never know how many PC gamers bought an RTX 5060 without seeing any such comparisons, because Nvidia kept proper reviews from arriving on time. But in many cases, it won't be too late to return those GPUs. Maybe Nvidia's bad behavior is enough to push us to buy AMD's new card or wait for Intel's next card instead, challenging Nvidia's 90-percent control of the market and, perhaps, bringing some much-needed competition.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Yahoo
Nintendo Switch 2 specs leak reveals one surprising compromise
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. We're less than a month away from the Nintendo Switch 2's scheduled launch on June 5, 2025, and while we've had hands-on time with the Switch 2, questions regarding what's going on inside the portable console remained unanswered. Leaks about the long-awaited successor to the original Switch have been floating around since as early as 2018, but they've often focused on specific aspects of the console, and fans have always been advised to take them with a grain of salt. To top it off, Nintendo went notably light on the specifications when it posted the official Switch 2 specs on its website. That ends now, as Digital Foundry claims to have finally gotten its hands on what the $449 console packs under the hood. Unlike previous leaks (including what Digital Foundry had reported), they now claim to have 'rock solid confirmation on the Nintendo Switch 2 console specifications.' So, for the first time, we have a solid idea of whether the Switch 2 will be able to deliver the kind of performance fans have been (patiently) waiting for. Pre-order Pre-order the Nintendo Switch 2 for $449 at Best Buy starting Wednesday, April 9. My Best Buy Plus and Total members will receive a $20 certificate (up to 5) for every $150 spent on Nintendo games and accessories from now through August 3. That's up to $100 back into your pocket to spend on future Best Buy purchases. On June 5, select Best Buy stores in the U.S. will open at 12 a.m. ET for preorder pickup. I recommend using Best Buy's store locator to find the closest location near you. You may sign up here to get notifications from Best Buy about all things Nintendo Switch 2. Key specs: 7.9-inch 1080p LCD touch screen, HDR support, up to 120 fps, TV dock supports 4K, GameChat, 256GB of storage, expandable via microSD Express Deal In January 2025, before the Switch 2 became official, we reported on a Switch 2 photo leak from Reddit that revealed Nvidia as the console's chip manufacturer. Eurogamer claimed the gaming console would have a T239 processor based on an 'octa-core ARM A78C CPU cluster.' When Nintendo finally revealed the Switch 2, the official specs published on their site listed it as 'a custom processor made by Nvidia.' Thanks to Digital Foundry, we now have more clarity. As the rumors suggested, the Switch 2 will indeed run on a custom Nvidia T239 processor designed specifically for Nintendo and mobile gaming, using eight ARM Cortex A78 CPU cores. The Switch 2's variation of the ARM Cortex A78C features 64KB of L1 instruction cache and 64KB of L1 data cache. Additionally, each of the eight cores has 256KB of L2 cache, while all eight cores share 4MB of L3 cache. What does that all add up to? Smoother performance and shorter load times, which you can never go wrong with. Digital Foundry confirmed that even though the total number of CPU cores in Switch 2 has doubled, Nintendo still reserves the same proportion for system software. In the original Switch, there were four CPU cores, with one reserved for the operating system, meaning three were available for developers. The Switch 2 will have six cores available for developers, with two cores reserved for system software. Strangely enough, what's still a mystery is the Switch 2's CPU clock speeds. Nintendo is still reserving the same proportion for system software. Nintendo confirmed that the CPU has a max clock speed of 1700MHz, but Digital Foundry claims that according to the confirmed specs, the Switch 2's CPU will run substantially lower in practice — 1100MHz in handheld mode, dropping even further to 998MHz when docked. This marks a drop of roughly 35–40%. Digital Foundry speculates that memory bandwidth drops in handheld mode, which would likely impact CPU performance. However, that hit could be slightly offset by the handheld mode's slightly higher CPU clock. Coming to the GPU, Digital Foundry confirmed that the leaks that surfaced before the announcement of the Switch 2 were accurate. The console features a custom Nvidia GPU built on the Ampere architecture, as seen in the RTX series. Similar to the CPU, though Nintendo's official specs reveal a maximum clock speed of up to 1400MHz, it'll operate at 561MHz in handheld mode and 1007MHz in docked mode. While the Switch 2's Ampere-based GPU is similar to what's in an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050, you shouldn't expect full-on RTX 3050-level performance. It has 512 fewer CUDA cores and runs at much lower clock speeds. That said, while Nintendo's clearly aiming for efficiency over raw power, it's still a big jump over the original Switch. Thanks to the custom Nvidia processor, another feature coming to Switch 2 is Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), which uses AI and machine learning to boost game performance. Similarly, ray tracing capabilities are confirmed, with the Switch 2 rated for approximately 10 giga rays/second, doubling up to 20 giga rays/second in docked mode. As previous leaks suggested, the Switch 2 will include 12GB of LPDDR5X DRAM, delivered through two 6GB modules. What's surprising is that 3GB (or 25%) of that memory will be reserved for the system itself. For comparison, the original Switch shipped with 4GB of RAM, of which only 0.8GB (or 20%) was allocated for system processes. Given that it's a quarter of the total memory, seeing Nintendo allocate that much memory for purely non-gaming functions is frankly a bit disappointing on the surface. Digital Foundry also confirmed that the Switch 2's File Decompression Engine (FDE), built specifically for the console, will help make load times significantly faster and more power efficient. Since the FDE is responsible for file loading and decompression, instead of the Switch 2's CPU handling it, the FDE will offload that workload entirely. This means the CPU can focus on other tasks, potentially leading to smoother performance and less power consumption during gameplay. Nearly everything else Digital Foundry covered is mentioned in Nintendo's official specs. Ironically, a lot of what we're seeing now closely mirrors what earlier 'Switch Pro' leaks suggested back in 2021 — a beefier GPU, DLSS support, and more RAM. While that console never materialized, it's clear those reports weren't too far off base. It just took until 2025 to become a the Switch 2 is set to launch on June 5th for $449, and from what we've seen, it's shaping up to be an excellent successor to the original Switch that debuted in 2017. I went hands-on with the Nintendo Switch 2. It's phenomenal in every way — with one quirk. The Nintendo Switch 2 has an Xbox-shaped problem, and we just got our first look at it The Nintendo Switch 2 looks great, but there's a reason I won't go back to console gaming
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Yahoo
Rumors Suggest You Might Want to Keep Your Switch 2 Docked
We've learned a lot about the Switch 2 since Nintendo announced it in back in January. We know how basic specs compare on paper to the original Switch; we know that many physical game carts won't actually have the games on them; and we know what games to expect this year. While there's still more to learn about the console before it officially launches next month, some new leaks have provided fresh insights into how the Switch 2 actually performs. Digital Foundry reports that it can definitively confirm leaks surrounding the Switch 2's hardware, answering many of the remaining questions that Nintendo and Nvidia have left a mystery thus far. The outlet highlights the key hardware upgrades for the company's new console, and explains how there are some major performance boosts—especially in docked mode. Switch 2 is more powerful, especially when docked Digital Foundry highlights that Nintendo calls the SoC (system on a chip) in both the Switch 2 and OG Switch "custom," but notes that the original Switch's SoC was really a "vanilla" chip. The Switch 2's hardware, on the other hand, really is made solely with Nintendo's console in mind. That means it should be better optimized for the company's unique situation of needing to offer console-quality game play that can adapt to handheld mode. The new custom Nvidia T239 has an eight-core ARM Cortext A87C CPU, compared to the four-core ARM Cortext A57 in the Switch 1. Digital Foundry reports that the original Switch reserved one CPU core for operating system features and left the other three open to developers, while the Switch 2 reserves six of its cores for developers, and uses two for OS tasks. CPU specs are still unclear: The original Switch had a fixed CPU clock speed (the processing rate of the CPU) of 1020MHz whether it was docked or in handheld mode. The new Switch runs at 1101MHz in handheld, but 998MHz when docked. Digital Foundry isn't sure why this is the case, though it does speculate it has something to do with memory bandwidth drops that would have an impact on CPU performance. The maximum theoretical clock speed here is 1.7GHz, compared to 1.785GHz on the Switch. GPU specs make more sense at this time. The new Ampere GPU has a typical clock speed of 1007MHz when docked, and 561MHz in handheld mode, with a maximum clock speed of 1.4GHz. The original Switch's Maxwell GPU ran at 768MHz when docked and up to 460MHz in handheld mode, with a maximum of 921MHz. An important metric to note here is TFLOPS, which measures the rate of performance for a GPU. When docked, the Switch 2's GPU is rated for 3.072 TFLOPs, but drops to 1.71 TFLOPs in handheld mode. Digital Foundry makes the point that you can't necessarily evaluate a GPU's potential from TFLOPs alone, and that it'll be up to developers to show us how well games can perform. We already knew that the Switch 2 offers 12GB of RAM (102GBps when docked and 68GBps in handheld). Digital Foundry now says it can confirm how Nintendo is allocating that memory: The OS uses 3GB of RAM, which leaves 9GB for running games. It's a stark comparison with the Switch 1, which only shipped with 4GB of RAM, with 3.2GB of that allocated to developers. That means the Switch 2 nearly triples the amount of memory game makers can use. GameChat takes up a lot of resources GameChat is one on Nintendo's "big" new features for the Switch 2. Coming to market a mere 22 years after Xbox Live popularized online console chat, the feature offers in-game communication features like audio and video chat and screen sharing. However, it appears that innovation comes at cost to performance. Digital Foundry says GameChat affects system resources to such a degree that Nintendo is offering developers a "Game Chat testing tool." This tool replicates the resources Game Chat takes up while running, so developers can understand how that might impact their games, without actually needing to run Game Chat itself during development. This should be no surprise to anyone who watched Nintendo's Switch 2 demos. Game Chat looks choppy, especially when sharing your screen or making video calls. (Is that 5 fps?) I suppose it's refreshing to see Nintendo so transparent about how laggy these features are, but the fact that it looks this bad in the official advertisement doesn't bode well for Game Chat's real-world performance. We'll need to wait for the games to judge the Switch 2's true capabilities Taken purely on paper, the Switch 2 has a big performance advantage when plugged into its dock. We already knew that the Switch 2 is capable of 4K 60 fps and 1440p 120 fps output in docked mode, compared to 1080p 120 fps output in handheld. It makes sense, then, for the Switch 2 to have an active cooling fan built into the dock to maintain that higher performance. (The Switch 1 does not have a fan in its dock, even though it is able to output a higher resolution in docked mode than handheld.) However, we'll have to see how the performance translates into real-world use. As with any piece of hardware, on-paper specs can only tell you so much. The true test is in how developers can optimize and push that hardware with their software. If devs can take advantage of the more advanced Switch 2 hardware to pull off more impressive graphics and performance, we'll naturally see that for ourselves in the gameplay. For now, it's a waiting game.
Tom's Guide
15-05-2025
- Tom's Guide
Switch 2 hardware leaks detail more console specs — and finally reveal what happened to Switch Pro
Remember a few years ago, there were countless rumors of a Nintendo Switch Pro that never came to fruition? Well now that the Switch 2 is on the way, and some of the hardware has leaked out ahead of release, it sounds like there's a reason why that console never materialized. According to Digital Foundry, it seems like the Switch Pro was always supposed to be the Switch 2. We just started hearing about the hardware super early. Nintendo has revealed the official specs for the Switch 2, but there are some details that are a little vague. On top of that, there's only so much you can get from hardware specs on their own. But as Digital Foundry notes, alleged Switch 2 motherboards have arrived on various Chinese retail sites — allowing for some testing to take place. YouTubers Geekerman and Kurnal have actually released hands-on videos with those alleged motherboards. In them, they dive into what the motherboard has to offer and start to test its overall capabilities. If you want in-depth technical details about the Switch 2 hardware, check out both the aforementioned videos for a deep dive. But here are the basics of what to expect. Much of the analysis seems to corroborate previous Switch 2 rumors, including the fact it has a custom Nvidia T239 processor, with eight ARM A78-class CPU cores and a custom RTX 30-series Ampere GPU. Six of those CPU cores are available to developers, while the final two are reserved for system software. It's noted that despite concerns that the 8nm chips employed in the Switch 2 would require too much power for handheld use, that doesn't seem to be an issue. Which makes sense for a console that is literally named after its hybrid nature. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Other points of note include 12GB of LPDDR5X DRAM, split between a pair of 6GB modules, though apparently only 9GB is available to developers. Where that other 3GB of memory goes is unclear. The analysis on the motherboard does show one bizarre piece of information, though. Both Geekerman and Kurnal found that the chip was "taped out", or had its design finalized, all the way back in 2021. Which is likely where all those rumors about the Nintendo Switch Pro came from. Stuff will have leaked out much earlier in the production process, and may have got muddled up with the impending launch of the Switch OLED. Because, if you remember all the way back to the early part of the decade, there had been rumors suggesting the Switch Pro could come with a 7-inch OLED screen. Though in the end the Switch OLED came out offering a display upgrade and little else of substance. That certainly tempered the rumors for a little while. As Digital Foundry notes, chips are typically finalized the year before a big release — meaning the Switch 2 could technically have been released three years ago. As to why Nintendo would wait, all we can do is speculate. Presumably the ongoing popularity of the original Switch played a part, because why ditch your existing system if it's still selling in great numbers? No doubt the surge in popularity during the pandemic helped prolong the console's lifespan too. As to why Nintendo can use 4-year old hardware in a console that will likely last the better part of the next decade, Digital Foundry says the "fundamental features are still impressive and clearly do the job." Which is more than most of us can really ask for. It wasn't like the Switch 2 would ever offer PS5 Pro-levels of performance anyway.
