Summary
A new rumor may shed some light on the much-speculatedNintendo Switchsuccessor’s technical specifications. The original Switch console has been active for nearly seven years, and there is talk ofNintendo moving on to a new systemas early as 2024. While Nintendo itself has yet to make any kind of official announcement regarding this hypothetical Switch follow-up, there are enough rumors and leaks for many fans to consider it an inevitability at this point.
One of the topics most frequently brought up in these rumors and discussions is the potential graphical horsepower of this future Nintendo console, as the Switch has traditionally been a step behind its contemporaries in terms of technical capabilities despite beingone of the highest-selling systemsof all time. A small group of developers reportedly got to demo a prototype version of the so-called Switch 2 during Gamescom 2023 earlier this year, and they claimed that the system demonstrated graphics on par with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X through the power of NVIDIA’s DLSS upscaling technology.
This claim is now being partially supported by a new Nintendo Switch 2 rumor from Nate the Hate, a reliable YouTube leaker who has covered Nintendo news in the past. In his latest video, Nate the Hate claimed that the new Switch system will supportNVIDIA DLSS 3.5 AI-powered Ray Reconstructionfor improved ray tracing on the level of the PS5 and Xbox Series X hardware. While the level of detail allowed by this technology will vary by game, Ray Reconstruction can be updated through online patches, ensuring that the Switch 2’s ray tracing will improve further over time.
However, Nate the Hate says that the next Nintendo console won’t support NVIDIA DLSS’s Frame Generation, which can be used to boost framerates by creating artificial frames between two existing ones at the cost of image quality. Nonetheless, the insider claims thatNintendois devoted to future-proofing its newest console with the help of NVIDIA and its Ray Reconstruction technology, which was recently used inCyberpunk 2077’sPhantom LibertyDLCto great effect.
Of course, Nate the Hate’s claims surrounding the next Switch system are just rumors and speculation at this point, and should be taken with a grain of salt until more concrete evidence from Nintendo itself surfaces. The rumor that the newNintendohardware will use NVIDIA DLSS 3.5 AI-powered Ray Reconstruction does line up with the reports of the Gamescom prototype runningtheMatrix AwakensUnreal Engine 5 tech demo, so the still-unannounced Switch successor could utilize some of NVIDIA’s latest chipsets to deliver a graphical experience on par with the current console generation if this is indeed true.
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