About Nintendo and the generation after their next console on terms of SoC/Processor

[DZero]

Hi guys,

I know that might not belong on this subforum, but I realized... the current generation of Nintendo is about to end with their Switch.

But then we saw that the specs of said console was:

CPU	ARM 4 Cortex-A57 cores @ 1.02 GHz (boost of 1.785 GHz)
Memory	4 GB LPDDR4 @ 1,331/1,600 MHz

GPU wise

256 Maxwell-based CUDA cores

• Undocked: 307 MHz, 236 GFLOPS
• Docked: 768 MHz, 393 GFLOPS

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Switch#Hardware

CPU wise only uses 4 A57 cores and GPU wise has the performance of the GPU of the iPhone 8.

I know that the next generation according to the leaks is about to use:

CPU: Tegra T239 (8x A78AE unknown clock speed, possibly 1.8 Ghz)
GPU: RTX 2050 4GB GDDR6
Memory: 12 GB LPDDR5

Source: Notebookcheck

Now I was thinking... what might be the SoC used for the next gen after that? I know that for now it will be unknown, but I am thinking... since the platform is ARM, the piracy on the Switch and potentially the succesor are pretty much easier than expecting. And to make it "better" the newest processors (D9300 and SD 8 Elite onwards) are likely to be an 8 core out of order cores with the CPU performance better than the current ones we have.

And even more GPU wise both Adreno and Mali are starting to be more and more competitive. If we see the Adreno 8 Elite is near the brute performance of the Radeon 880M! And is likely that with some optimizations will start to catch NIntendo's GPU up in 2 or 3 generations making the emulation possible.

So, what Nintendo might do this time? Closing webpages and discord groups is not an easy task and also the Deep Web might play a protagonism there.

What leads to this thread and an idea I came on my head. Considering the advancement of RISC-V in which on an unoptimized processor starts to run some actual games with the choppyness we know:

What might happen with a pretty much optimized SoC (octa core) with a nVIDIA GPU (maybe on tier of RTX 4600 or better by that time), Nintendo starts to make their own iteration of RISC-V CPU? of course is personalized to be hard to be pirated and emulated and easy to code and port. Maybe it will take at least 5 years to get some news, but it could be an interesting move from NIntendo to be a completely closed console ala Apple with their own ARM cpu iteration?

What could be their advantages or potential risks? I ask this on this thread since I want the opinions of the experts here since I want to see how viable that idea might be.

Thanks for the wall of text and greetings

 

[jpiniero]

The Switch 2 GPU specs are likely lower than the 2050 mobile.

 

[Ghostsonplanets]

The specs are
Nvidia Tegra T239 Drake | Gimle motherboard | Switch 2 codename Ounce :

8x Cortex A78C (Single Cluster) ??? GHz

1GPC/6TPCs/12SMs/1536 CUDA Cores/12 RT Cores/48 Tensor Cores integrated Nvidia Ampere GPU IP ??? MHz/GHz

Custom hardware for File Decompression Storage for LZ4 format

Orin T234 OFA and Media Block (AV1 Decode and Encode support)

128-bit LPDDR5X memory controller with 12GB of 7500 MT/s RAM

eUFS 3.1 256GB Storage

---

1536 CUDA Cores@1GHz = 3 TFLOPs FP32

 

[NTMBK]

Leaving ARM would mean giving up a whole ecosystem of high quality tools. Nintendo/Nvidia can benefit from all the work done on ARM compilers, profilers, debuggers, etc over the years, and the RISC-V ecosystem is nowhere close. Poor tools/ecosystem was one of the biggest problems for developers on the Wii U, with its outdated PowerPC CPU.

The only way I see this happening is if Nvidia makes a massive investment in RISC-V over the next 5 years. I can see them not wanting to share big AI profits with ARM for much longer, and switching to a custom CPU architecture would let them cut ARM out. But Nintendo alone aren't big enough to make it happen.

 

[jpiniero]

With the reports of Samsung cutting production on it's newer nodes, I almost have to think that makes it even more likely that the Switch 2 will indeed use SS8.

 

[Eug]

Just release the damn Switch 2 already, Nintendo!

 

[static shock]

Is the good and cheap!

Hardware is decent for a portable, it just don't use newgen hardware because is aimed at a popular price!

 

[jpiniero]

https://videocardz.com/newz/nintendo-switch-2-motherboard-with-nvidia-soc-leaks-out

Switch 2 board leaks. The chip package looks far too big to be anything other than Samsung 8 nm.

 

[soresu]

I can see them not wanting to share big AI profits with ARM for much longer

Most of their AI profits are in those discrete modules with the mezzanine connectors that sit on the base/motherboard more like a CPU, usually with HBM stacks instead of GDDR.

 

[DZero]

https://videocardz.com/newz/nintendo-switch-2-motherboard-with-nvidia-soc-leaks-out

Switch 2 board leaks. The chip package looks far too big to be anything other than Samsung 8 nm.

OH BOY! And maybe the Snapdragon 8 Elite might emulate the Switch 2 in most games?

 

[poke01]

OH BOY! And maybe the Snapdragon 8 Elite might emulate the Switch 2 in most games?

nope, weak and less featured GPU.

 

[gdansk]

nope, weak and less featured GPU.

It isn't that weak. Probably 50% more compute, for example. I wouldn't be surprised if shader recomp and HLE worked reasonably well. Of course, Nintendo has bogus legal interference to prevent this from developing.

 

[Panino Manino]

SoC doesn't matter.
The most important piece of hardware is game cartridges.