Nintendo Switch's Lowest Resolution Games - 480p, 360p and Lower - Could Switch 2 Back Compat Help?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ส.ค. 2022
- We're nearing the end of the Nintendo Switch's lifecycle and a successor is hotly anticipated to arrive in 2023 - but the catalogue of games on the existing system is impressive. However, getting top-tier games to work on an older mobile chipset is challenging - and resolution is often the biggest cut. So what are the lowest resolution Switch games? And could Switch 2/Super Switch back-compat improve the existing catalogue of games in terms of image quality and pixel counts? Oliver Mackenzie reports.
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I always thought the next Switch would be backwards compatible. There are so many games with dynamic resolution built in. It would instantly transform the library I think.
True. Nintendo doubled down on making Switch the portable and the home console this go round. So hopefully at least there will be a Switch card slot I the next console.
Unless Nintendo decides to, uhm, "switch" to completely different platform (x86, for example), it would be a strong possibility Switch 2 would work in this manner. We have seen such results with Xbox One games running on Series S/X with no other work needed.
Those stubborn Traditional Japanese Businessmen need to drop Nvidia and get on board with the forward thinking AMD APU's with Zen and Navi architecture's. Smart Shift tech, high core count at fast speeds and Navi GPU cores, with access to FreeSync tech, ALLM etc.
I find that unlikely to be honest. Nintendo loves selling "remasters" at a full $60 price point.
Get ready to buy Zelda: Breath Of The Wild again for Switch 2 for $60. This time at 1080p 30fps
@@petrlazar5240 the reason why BC on Xbox Series works is simple - a good backwards compatible AMD hardware and care and patience from Xbox developers to build a system which can run and even enchance old games thanks to DirectX tools. Switch does not have anything like this, so we will probably see a next-gen upgrades for games instead of any sort of backwards compatibility if Switch 2 will ever come out.
I once heard a rumor that it was Capcom's idea for the Nintendo Switch to have 4GB of RAM. Apparently, the Switch was going to ship with only 2GB of retail RAM, but Capcom told them that would make porting games to Switch difficult.
Thats no big deal, it was third party companies that preasured Sony to give the PS5 SSD instead of HDD.
Same happend with ps4, when someone at gearbox said to Mark Cerny: "if you don't go with 8 gigs - you are done".
That happens a lot with devs, Epic apparently convinced Microsoft to double the Xbox 360's RAM from 256 to 512MB by showing them what Gears of War would look like with that much memory.
@@MatthewdangeR it's a big deal because even with a HDD the PS5 would run any games if it's library (also I would like to know the source of this information please) but the switch wouldn't with only 2GB of RAM...
Why would they even consider such low memory.
Why they havent put 6gb or 8gb of ram there makes me wonder and they wanted to go even lower
“Near the expiration date” is what Nintendo calls a second wind.
''near the expiration date'' means ''that's good for 5 years'' in Japanese 😂
Switch is about to pass PS4 in lifetime sales... probably not very close to its end. I bet it has 2-3 years left.
@@brandogg lmaoo ps4 still outsold switch
@@johanbire3296 PS4 came out 5 years before Switch.
@@johanbire3296 by next year it should overtake PS4 lifetime sales and that's only in around 6 YEARS compared to the almost 9 year run it had is nuts
Man, I put 130 hours into The Witcher 3 on Switch even after finishing it on PS4. There was something so magical about playing a game like that ton a handheld. I didn't mind the resolution and minor framerate issues.
I then got a Steam Deck and now I'm playing it for the 3rd time. Holy moly what a difference LOL.
Considering the X1 was already 2 years old when the Switch launched, people need to marvel at how flexible this chipset is.
We saw Warframe, Doom Eternal which is a modern cross gen title and now Persona 5 Royal. Persona 5 Royal was not a simple copy and paste. The hoops Atlus had to jump through goes to show how underrated and under appreciated the X1 has been.
It’s little wonder why Nintendo is delaying next gen and a more powerful model.
@@cbgg1585 "It’s little wonder why Nintendo is delaying next gen and a more powerful model." - no, it's not. And it's quite simple - as long as the current Switch is selling good (and you bet it is, it already surpassed 111 mil) why bother with a new generation?
@@vanivan5202 🔼 the only guy who think here
@@ramonandrajo6348 This! I'm done giving Nintendo my money
@@ramonandrajo6348 I see you really hate nintendo
I'd love if the next one is called the
Super Nintendo Switch
They should just name it Switch 2. Otherwise they would make the same mistake as with Wii an Wii U
@@T_C_M_O SwiiU? 😁
@@T_C_M_O I mean when the NES was done they called the next system the Super NES and no one had an issue
@@WigWoo1 it will be an issue since the form factor will be similar to the switch 1… that why people thought wiiU was an accessory for the wii… they look pretty similar in both names and form factor
@@tomianz-1242 I mean the Xbox One X and the Xbox series X are two entirely different consoles that belong to two different generations yet they pretty much look identical and they're named almost exactly the same yet people still know the difference there
The fact that devs made many games work with that CPU is nuts. Its basically a Snapdragon 810, a rather badly regarded 2015 Smartphone Chip.
ARM chips are pretty efficient. And when optimized they work really really well. Just look at how big of a jump the M1 MacBooks were from Intel.
Gimped games running bad on a terrible handheld.
@@MrChanw11 The SD 810 was infamous because of how hot it got
@@youtubeaccount7544 such a misguided, uninformed, and unintelligent statement.
@@MrChanw11 ARM isn't the reason why the M1/2 are great it's because of 5nm, the AMD 6800U matches the M2 in performance per watt in pretty much every way and it doesn't use ARM and is in the way worse 6nm.
I really hope Nintendo finds a way to make their next console retro compatible with the Nintendo Switch, and make the games run better on it. The Switch has an amazing library, but it's capabilities were a big problem from the beginning.
I don't think they will Nintendo likes to charge people over and over for the same games.
It most likely will. Think Nintendo ds -> 3ds, wii -> wii u
Gameboy and DS were the rare ones for backwards compatability as Nintendo loves to radically change their hardware design. I'd love to see a Switch 2 that than just run Switch games without issues but I wouldn't put it past them to do something completely different.
Back compat would be great... however I doubt it will get implemented.
At launch in house Switch games looked no worse than that current gen, just not every softco is as good as Nintendo I guess 😉
@@TheKayliedGamerChannel-TH-cam no. Switch never looked as good as PS4 or Xbox One.
The most interesting part of this list for me was the games that intentionally used lower resolutions for other reasons than performance
There’s never a reason besides performance when devs aren’t stretching the truth
@@pistachiodisguisey911 did you not watch the video?
Dusk even says "Duskboy Color" and "Grandpa's old 386" lol
@@pistachiodisguisey911 A Short Hike does it for aestethic purposes genius
For reasons other than performance *
To put in perspective, the Switch is only about twice as powerful as an Xbox 360, the fact they got even the few AAA titles to work on it boggles the mind.
WoooW that the switch is already more powerful then the xbox 360 just blows my mind,let slone 2 times more powerful, yeah i know the xbox 360 is already 17 years old and yes technology is keeping progressing each time BUT rember the overheating problems of the xbox 360 with the red ring of dead?
It’s not 2x more powerful. If I recall correctly it is only slightly more powerful at 1.2x the Xbox360 but is using much newer rendering technology.
whoa the switch could run fh2 (forza horizon 2) jeez
So the switch could run GTA IV and GTA V (the old one obviously)
People just say anything lol
I hope the new switch will be backward compatible
That hope is the only reason why I haven't bought a Switch yet, because I am waiting for a Switch 2 which will hopefully have better performance and/or battery life when playing BC games.
No it totally won't, Nintendo totally won't make the Switch 2 backwards compatible with their best selling home console whatsoever.
If it isn't I won't be buying it. I am not starting all over again.
How Nintendo does stuff I doubt it
It's a must
it's a shame that switch doesn't have analogue outputs. these low res ports would look nice on some SD CRTs :D
That's why I'm still rocking a 2006 original Wii ( with GameCube ports ) and use it to play 16/8 Bits systems emulators on a 32" CRT TV. 240P is the sh!t 😜
Especially for those shooter compilations from Toaplan Cave etc. A 240p would be nice in Tate ✌️
That would add expense for everyone to satisfy a tiny minority of the market.
you can always pick up a hdmi to av adapter lol
I had a Samsung TV that was like CRT but had a HDMI, i don’t remember the model and i don’t have it anymore. But it exists, so i leave that information to you
there is a setting in a short hike to bump up the resolution to 480p docked, although this is limited to 360p in handheld. but this is only to make sure that the game has no weirdly scaled pixels, as 480p does not fit into the 720p screen. little touches like this help the game keep its sharpness and visual integrity, i love it!
There is zero evidence 480p can't be scale well to 720p.
@@xXRenaxChanXx it’s logical, can you divide 720p by 480p? No, so therefore it looks worse (I really don’t know the why, but you can search it up, which is the proof you want.) And this isn’t supposed to be bashing your precious switch, this has been a problem with stuff like 720p on a 1080p screen or 1080p on a 1440p screen etc iirc
@@xXRenaxChanXx what are you talking about
for an example of weird scaling, look at DS games on a 3DS screen. pixel art looks much blurrier than intended, especially notable on single pixel thick outlines, as the DS resolution of 192p does not mathematically scale into the 3DS resolution of 240p. a short hike takes the switch's 720p screen into consideration to keep a sharp pixel filter. also i like 240p being described as big and crunchy it makes me want to taste resolutions
@@xXRenaxChanXx It's called integer scaling, and yes there is plenty of evidence displaying the difference and issues behind improper scaling. It's why emulators typically always scale by 2x,3x,4x, etc and not 1.75x. You can't turn one pixel into 1.75 pixels. The higher resolution your monitor, the less likely you are to notice it, but on a 720p screen like the one the switch has, this is a benefit. It's literally the biggest argument for CRTs.
@@xXRenaxChanXx There is a gargantuan mountain of objective proof.
Switch might possibly be my favourite handheld ever, and is definitely in my top five consoles. And I'm still impressed by some of the better "impossible ports" like Witcher 3. But yeah, the handheld market has definitely changed a lot in the last couple years. The Deck is already offering Xbox One performance, and those Chinese models from companies like Aya are getting dangerously close to the Series S in their boost modes. Of course battery life is a lot worse, so that's your tradeoff. I suspect if they stick with Nvidia, they'll use the Tegra Orin NX in 10w mode. Which has an Ampere GPU with up to 2.0 TFLOPS FP32 performance. You can probably realistically cut that in half. But that would still make it substantially more powerful than the Switch. Plus it'll support DLSS due to having the required Tensor cores. Then again, this is Nintendo we're talking about. Their next console could be a stand up arcade cabinet that projects video on the ceiling, and uses RISC-V, for all we know.
The thing that most worries me is that DLSS is such a _blindingly obvious_ feature that would solve so, so many problems for Nintendo, that just by virtue of that I'm halfway convinced they won't use it. They'll license the Tegra Orin NX design from Nvidia and leave out the tensor cores from their version, or something like that. They have a history of breathtakingly boneheaded decisions like that.
@@vlc-cosplayer Daily reminder that the Wii U exists and it barely sold anything
No way in hell does Nintendo not jump on the AI upscaling train. With Nvidia making the SOC, being able to use the Switch as the perfect showcase for thei DLSS tech in the mass market, additionally to FSR being open and making big improvements, this would enable Nintendo to save massively on expensive hardware power and cut the price in this sector significantly while being able to offer competitive levels of visuals and perfomance. Funnily enough, I'd say the SoC as well as storage are not the problem but Nintendo spending enough on RAM... they were already cheaping out with the Switch before Capcom stepped in and made them double the RAM. Let's hope Nvidia is making them a good deal so Nintendo can spend more on RAM, next time.
That would require the console to be always-online, which is shit. Nintendo needs to stop using outdated, crap hardware.
@@ventisette. Why should it require the system to be always online?
The new NAVI/ZEN Apu's can still do so much more and a much more advanced chip. But those Nintendo Suites are so stuck in their ways and also like to do things as cheap as possible.
The Nvidia leak suggests the next switch will utilise DLSS
Some Switch games are starting to use FSR 1.0 actually! Like Switch Sports and Splatoon 3 for example.
This was cool, would love to see a similar video on the highest resolution games!
Problem is I think a bunch of games run at full true 4K and I don't think any console games exceed that to my knowledge, so it won't be as interesting of a video at first glance.
@@FireStarJutsu I think he means highest resolution on only the Switch, or those that keep 1080p consistently - probably plenty though so a “best-looking Switch games” video might be it
@@arbaran01 Ah ok, yeah that would make sense 👍
Oof this was a hard watch - especially since there are plenty of Switch games with low resolutions that look better. The recently released Xenoblade Chronicles 3, for example, renders down to 360p at times in portable play, but uses temporal upscale to produce an apparent 720p image. It at least shows that "360p" does not mean the same thing everywhere.
It's unbelievable how much more performance these "smartphone chips" have gained in recent years.
as already mentioned, the cpu performance is on the level of a snapdragon 810.
The current top model Snapdragon 8 + gen1 is about 5-6x faster in "cpu performance" than the 810 (or the switch)
unbelievable
I have a smartphone with sd845 and I installed win11 on it. Despite it's age and running non-native x86 code it managed to run crysis 3 at 18-25 fps and older titles such as TES Oblivion at 40-60 fps on mixed settings. Mobile chips are really impressive and I disrespect both qualcomm/ smartphone vendors for not sharing recent drivers for new chips and not supporting windows on arm64
For the authentic Switch experience….all Nintendo Directs will now be available on VHS 📼
That would be nice
I'm not convinced Nintendo wouldn't choose Betamax instead of VHS, they do love to choose odd formats. Look at Game Cube discs! hahahaha
@@Secret_Takodachi haha…you’re right!
Be kind, rewind!
@@halahmilksheikh yes! Haha
I imagine Nintendo is crying at the idea of making all current Nintendo Switch games backwards compatible for their next system instead of selling them once more to customers. If its not backwards compatible however then I can't see myself buying it.
Especially with Steam Deck out there. By the time a Switch 2 comes out, they'll probably be a Steam Deck 2 already kicking its ass.
@@alexatkin different markets someone that wants zelda or a kid that eants to play the next pokemon game wilp buy a switch 2 i mean your average person doesnt even know thst steam deck exists
@@katakouzinos There is other hardware out there more accessible than the steam deck though and Nintendo's charm and reputation has been really dying. With their underpowered hardware, anti consume practices, anti community viewpoint and the giga leak revealing how scummy they are, I seriously wonder who the fuck will be a "diehard Nintendo fan" next gen. Hell most of their secondary franchises have already been jumping ship to other platforms.
At least it's all based on the same technology, with Nvidia and Arm, so it would be pretty easy for them to do it, let's hope for the best, the Switch 2 might be my first Nintendo console since the Game Cube.
@@elsienova4269 L
Just for fun, DF should try the Crash Team Racing 60fps & blur removal mods on the Switch that the community has made. It's my preferred way to play that game.
Think a backward compatible Switch system with upscaling capabilities would be an instant hit.
If the next gen switch ends up having DLSS, it's gonna be a game changer. 480p games might visually look like they're 1080p. And 1080p games have the potential to appear like 4k. Could potentially save on battery life too since games could opt for a lower resolution and utilize DLSS to upscale them without much or any image quality loss.
In handheld mode, DLSS will make a difference when its about 720p upscaled. But not on a bigass screen. They need modern hardware power more than anything else!
BOTW looks hideous to say the least. There is so much visual noise because of the garbage low resolution it hurts to look at for longer period of time. The textures are puke, and the terrain itself transform directly infront of the player. Always reminds me of the good old PS1 days, where the environment morphs. Of course not as bad, but its noticable.
@@daktaklakpak5059 I didn't notice anything like that in the Wii U version, personally. It's running in native 720p there, pretty decent for 7th gen hardware.
@@daktaklakpak5059 I've done testing on games that use custom DLSS resolutions like control. And going from 720p to a 1440p image on my 4k TV actually looks pretty good. The 1080p to 4k looks nice and crisp but it does muddle up some details. However it looks waaaay better than just standard upscaling to 4k. That's a blurry jaggy mess.
At least DLSS makes the aliasing look nice and at a minimal.
Also I tried relaying the images to my tablet of a 360p to 720p upscale and the information is very limited, but on that small screen, it actually looks pretty comparable to standard 720p. Sharper detail even, without looking overly sharpened. Caught me off-guard.
So I think DLSS can do it.
@@daktaklakpak5059 DLSS looks _better_ on big screens compared to handheld. When DLSS 2.0 upscales 1440p to 4K (that's Quality mode) it looks _better than native res_ in many games such as Cyberpunk. It's because of the very advanced AI-assisted antialiasing that's being done simultaneously with the upscaling. Also, upscaling from 1080p to 4K (that's Performance mode) looks _almost_ as good as a native render in most games. And of course modern DLSS supports dynamic resolution, so it will consistently upscale to 4K in a way that's completely imperceptible to the naked eye.
DLSS doesn't work very well in resolutions bellow 1080p.
Great video. It's always a fun topic to be looking at.
A Short Hike on PC has a great settings menu for that pixelated look. It's a hard choice between playing it at super sharp 4k or at a more stylised lower resolution.
I legitimately chose to play it at the default low res because it felt really stylistically perfect.
Regardless, it's an awesome game!
the game being as short as it is makes it so nice to just try a different resolution each time i replay it and its great
I would have been interested in Snowrunner. Also a game with a highly dynamic resolution that can drop fairly low at times. But it supports AMD FidelityFX which helps a bit. It's often overlooked although it's arguably another miracle port by Saber.
I love when modern games dip below the resolution of games on the Sega Mega Drive.
what mega drive games run at 360p? i thought it was pretty much all 240
Great video. Thanks for the analysis. I believe that a Switch 2 will benefit a lot from super-sampling solutions, since its launch - specially seeing that some games on the original Switch are already presenting par solutions.
Should be rating each of these on a scale from 0 to 1080 Ps
0 to 216 Ps for this one 😉
more like 0 to 720
Switch is an amazing console but it definitely needs a hardware update.
DEFINITELY!!!
May have it in a few years, but we don't know how BIG that power upgrade is.
It will arrive with the next new Mario... not the Oddysee Sequel
@@TheKayliedGamerChannel-TH-cam A Odyssey sequel its tecnically a "NEW" Mario game xd
I would say more optimization… but yeah, now with next gen games switch hardware is not enough
YES! I'm a Nintendo fan and I agree with that.
but try talking about this with the fanboys...
Switch is great and I still have a lot of hours to play on it, but in terms of power the hardware is old af already
I appreciate that your take on some of these titles was fairly opposite what the DF coverage was back when the titles came out. I'm looking at you Witcher and doom games... The coverage back then was mostly "holy crap this was possible" and kind of critical darlings vs a pragmatic "yeah they did it but... is it really that good?" . cheer's mate. still loving your video's on this channel.
Ys9 was boarder line unplayable between frame rate and resolution too. Fun video, thanks Olie!
IMO ever since the Switch as launched, what happened in the software side is definitely going more rapidly in the hardware side. Basically we've been dealing with a roadblock that there's no longer enough hardware performance to spare on brute-forcing pixels onto the display, and thus better upscaling algorithm and more optimized shading algorithm is definitely needed to reach the goal in a sensible way.
And like, Switch being an ancient platform by this point really isn't that much of an issue. While gaming phone/tablets would definitely perform much better, they usually would have a tighter thermal budget, and likely would be expected to have a longer battery life (since it's much bigger of a deal to keep a phone alive than a game console -- you can live without being able to play your games but can't miss any message). And then on the more capable side there's also VR and 4K display, especially VR, that basically is a nightmare to run on literally all platforms, for you usually would have to do what's effectively 4K90 on mobile device and 6K90 on PC.
I'm going to make a bold prediction and say that the next Nintendo console doesn't come out until 2027. That's right: the Switch will be a ten year console.
I believe you on that. Big N likes to be cheap and keep around old hardware.
I may make an even bolder prediction and say that the next Nintendo console doesn't come out until the 2030s, or ever.
I predict the current supply chain issues to compound and worsen over time, not improve. Need ANYTHING with semi-conductors? I think you're going to have to wait until the downfall of civilization and loot them from the hellscape to fashion your own hobo consoles. If anyone hasn't noticed, our entire world is going down the toilet. Food and water security will probably be dominating all our thought a decade from now. Enjoy the "normal" while it's here. I REALLY hope I'm dead wrong. And not just dead.
I don't think that's bold. We'll probably see a new steam deck before switch 2 lol
I don't think so simply because of constraints that developers need to get through to put a game on switch. Consider something like UE5, couple years down the line, all of the developers and publishers will completely phase out old toolkits and constraints that came with it, to focus on more developer friendly engines and new paradigms.
It will be hard to imagine good and consistent 3rd party support for an outdated SOC like Tegra X1.
Early 2025 at the latest, my bet is that new switch is guaranteed to come.
@Garrus Vakarian We'll have to wait and see if Nintendo will do one more revision next year as they always do every two years for the Switch to extend its life cycle (and maybe get that best selling console of all time title as its still selling like hot cakes) or just go straight to next gen console. My bet is it's going to be a new revision again and we'll have 2025 at the soonest for the actual next gen console. But maybe they'll use those tech and soc you mentioned for the next revision and tag it as Switch Pro or Super Switch. Who knows..
Fun fact: Nintendo allows developers to use three different frequencies for handheld-mode: 307, 384 or 460MHz
The higher the better but also the battery will drain faster
Anyway for some weird reason Monolith Soft decided to only use 307MHz for Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition even though they could have used 460MHz. If you overclock the Switch to 460MHz XC:DE looks so much better in handheld-mode than is does officially
That's nice to know
@Chip Wiseman Yeah I think that's the reason
But tbh since the resolution tends to get so low in XC:DE I don't play it in handheld-mode at all. I would have prefered better resolution with shorter batterly life all day
@@nicerhabara Yeah, I remember playing that game on handheld for the first time. I was playing the game docked the whole time before. At first, I was all "eh not as bad as people say." But then the cut scenes happened and holy good gravy. I decided to play the game docked as much as possible afterwards. Lol
Would be nice if Nintendo allowed the user to change the frequency on a per game basis so that the user can pick a smoother gameplay experience or go for longer battery life. I know Nintendo likes to keep things simple but no reason they couldn't do it. Call it performance, balanced and battery saver if they want to keep the UI simple.
Good to hear! Handheld XC1 was unplayable for me. Thinking maybe PC.
I just don't understand, when we have Smash Ultimate 720p60, and I think same with Odyssey.
A Short Hike is beautiful with its visible pixels. When you first boot it up, it looks like it is 2d, but if you go around a corner, you get the 3d surprise. It is one of my favorite indie games on any platform. It is a joy to play.
Good overview. It was totally fine when Switch released, and can still look all right, but with movies games streaming often 4K these days, after being away for a while coming back to Switch can feel quite aged
Ever since the Wii, third party games typically had a massive downgrade in terms of graphics and/or performance compared to being played on another console. However Nintendo's first party line up of games has always been their best showcases for their own hardware and are quite honestly some of the best looking games on their systems. The Switch is no different. So while I prefer playing most third party games on a more powerful console or PC, Nintendo seems to continue to impress with their own understanding and optimization of their own hardware
I think the switch is better seen as a portable console that has the perk of being able to play on TV. However, I think it's hurt by being able to achieve "console quality to some extent". Generally portable systems are a haven for old school design that often trumps triple A titles that try too hard to push pixels and expansive open worlds and don't focus on things like solid fundamental game design and music.
In all fairness, its just impossible to produce high performance gaming on portable gaming without a bulky handheld, with a big battery
4k streaming movies don't even look that good tho lol they look worse than HD bluray by a lot because of the ultra low bit rate streaming sites use for movies. Only benefit is HDR otherwise even old blurays are better, and ultra HD blurays blow streaming out of the water
@@ramonandrajo6348 Nintendo is pretty shitty however there's no denying that their first party software tends to best make use of their hardware
For the record, you can increase the internal resolution for "A Short Hike" so it doesn't look that pixelated, although I rather play it at 240p as the game tries to resemble the Nintendo DS era of 3D games, as you stated!
A future switch just upgrading the performance of the existing library would be incredible on its own merits, let alone to think of what it could bring to new titles and ports. I kinda hate that I have to consider which consoles I buy which titles on based on hardware demands - actually, I probably wouldn’t have bought a PS5 at all if Switch got the same 3rd party games and had something even resembling performance parity.
It's still quite astounding to consider that right now other up-and-coming handheld solutions with Steam support typically giving either a catalogue AMD APU for everything, or a customized one. NVIDIA's new comparable chips seem to all be tuned for cars and getting near self-driving status. What's gonna happen on the next generation of Big Red N?
If Nintendo makes the Switch follow up its previous handheld system lineup, I would expect to see backwards compat support. However, I feel that they won't ever go into efforts of making older games run better in the way that Micrsoft and Sony have allowed the system to just brute force. Note, I'm not talking about patches from the devs themselves, and refer to the various modes on PS5 like PS4/PS4 Pro mode or how Xbox will brute force or use the Microsoft patches to fix up older games.
So I think we'll see those unlocked and dynamic resolution games take advantage of the extra horsepower just fine, but not see Nintendo go and patch up their old games or even more recent ones to run in better resolutions. I do hope they take AI upscaling as a feature at least, and that could help solve a number of games. Either way, I don't think we're seeing a Switch 2 for a few more years, and I don't think we'll see another Switch iteration until after the Switch 2 releases (think Gameboy Micro/2DS situation, a cheap variant with gutted internals to make it something like $150)
Oh I thought they would cover Xenoblade 2, Xenoblade 1 DE in some capacity due to how infamous those were
As of now Witcher 3 and x1 kinda hurt my eyes on portable play but thanks for this video i actually turned everything off on witcher 3 and its more bearable now
The biggest issue with the switch is the image quality/pop in really limits the games on the system. I also have the steam deck which of course blows the switch out of the water. Especially in terms of power, image quality customizability, etc. Not only does frame rate get sacrificed plus the pop in just makes the gaming experience so much worse. Especially for a game such as botw which already had frame rate issues. Now imagine how much more constraints their are for botw 2. want to play as Zelda you can’t too much data, want to travel from locations seamlessly no can do. I understand sticking to 720p 30fps for handheld mode mainly to save power, but I expect at least 1080p and 60fps when docked. Which the switch definitely is unable to do with most games.
Get a grip, and enjoy the games
Honestly, 40fps lock on a 40hz or 80hz display would be a fine compromise for a portable. On my Deck I use 40hz for everything even on external power. This way I never have to go above 12w tdp on the APU and in most cases 10w. This is keep in mind on a 7nm chip. Same chip on 5nm would be soo much better. Likely 50% higher power efficiency too.
@@AZBCDE ah yes , thats probably what switch defenders tell themselves to sleep every night
At least *the Switch 2's hybrid Ampere-based Tegra Orin APU part will offer hardware DLSS 2~ support and full back compat with the Switch 1's Maxwell Tegra part* so a bit of 'last gen' upscaling and frame-rate unlocking (if patched) should be feasible on Switch 2's SoC config -- along with decent quality DLSS 2~ settings to help it output to 4K displays when docked and higher watts profile for the GPU frequency and Tensor cores.
They can put "Dynamic 4K support!" in the Switch 2 marketing lingo.
The CPU part of the Switch 2's custom SoC will likely be a big improvement, too -- a Hexa core config with improved clocks and on-chip bandwidth/efficiency per watt.
Personally, I'm no longer a Switch owner, and only vaguely still a big Nintendo fan, but I love the idea that Nvidia hardware is there in one of the 'Big 3' game consoles -- since AMD has been quasi-monopolizing the space across eight (8) different consoles through the last decade.
Another fantastic video, thanks to you all at Digital Foundry!!!!
I understand Nintendo’s $300 price point & 1st party library that focus on fun instead of raw tech specs but I wish they’d stop cheaping out on SoCs. I mean Damn the series S is a $300 box with an impressive SoC for its price point. They were phones more powerful than the switch when it came out 🤦🏽♂️ but I also get how u can’t take a steam deck approach where u give your users all the options to run at different power modes because Nintendo’s customer base isn’t that technicality inclined and includes a lot of kids too. Either way some better compromise is desperately needed
What phones had a better GPU than Switch in March 2017?
Switch still full price 6 years later, still the best selling console, can't see a new console any time soon as why would Nintendo cannibalize their own market leading sales? They won't until after price drops and Switch stops selling. SO a new console is YEARS away IMHO.
The problem with the original switch was Nintendo used an already 2 years old chip and heavily cut down ( 20nm ) now that switch was a huge success a more custom soc from nvidia like tegra orin made at 8nm can have huge upgrades over the original
@@hepwo91222 no it wont Nintendo can simple launch a successor with botw2 come spring 2023 and bring the next switch to a good start developers have problems developing or the original some years now they wont drag it anylonger
@@katakouzinos
Tegra X1 has always been 20nm... It wasn't cut down...
It’s called switch because you switch it off when you realize it’s a children’s toy and turn on a gaming PC.
very nice video, but please check your camera's focus while showing off screen gameplay, some scenes are so off that you can't read any UI in the left side of the screen.
Nice review, thank you :)
Glad they added the no AA later on to The Witcher 3. It was that blurry the first time I just stopped playing. Got back in bussiness with the addition of sharpening and no AA. Wish all low res games let us pick between blurry and jagged edges.
I actually really, REALLY like how a short hike looks with that simplistic, pseudo cell shaded look and 240p aliased resolution. It's clearly a stylistic choice, and therefore makes the game have a strong chunky charm.
Honestly that's what I set Dusk to look like on my 2080, I think it gives it a nice chunky throwback look.
A Steam Deck comparison for these games would be great. Could also show the possibilities for a Switch 2 (for these who aren't interested in PC handhelds).
There has been news of Denuvo DRM being available on Switch with anti-emulation features. I wonder if back-compat on Switch 2 could trip said feature. This kind of security always leans on undocumented behavior. And if Nintendo puts workaround patches in place for new Switch firmware, it'd allow people to crack it anyway by finding differences between updates.
To be fair Denuvo would probably update their SDK and then developers would release patches. So unpatched carts might be an issue but that’s the risk the publisher takes imposing DRM.
It might be a completely different system but honestly- GET A STEAM DECK if you can. Its basically the "Switch Pro" that Nintendo refuses to make.
good, no one needs to play switch games that have denuvo anyway
Without game titles exclusivity, this thing is straight garbage in 2022
„BuT iT's PoRtAbLe“
Steam Deck: „Am I a joke to u?“
It's a 2022 device vs 2017 device...
@@MrMorotep actually the switch has 2012 hardware it was very underpowered even at launch
I'm really liking these broader videos.
Instead of single games we get larger ideas explored and we look at consoles as a whole.
8 year old chip. That's all people need to realize. The Tegra X1 wasn't even top tier when it launched. If you have a mid-range phone from 2018/2019 you can game better and with more portability and battery than the Switch. In 2022 there are low-end phones a lot more capable.
2:56 recently I've been playing with my 3DS, PS2 and GameCube, and I've noticed that a lot of the games on those systems have seemingly aged better than a lot of the current Switch titles. watching the Witcher 3 comparison in this video made me realise that its likely because of the anti aliasing present in most Switch games. in the comparison, I genuinely think the image without AA looks better, being more pixelated but also sharper, than the image with all the post processing turned on, which just looks like a blurry smeared mess.
its a shame that so many games go down this route to try and salvage image quality when, at least in my opinion, they largely look better and clearer without it.
It's mostly because the level of detail on a GC or PS2 is nowhere near comparable to switch games. I do agree that these modern forms of AA look like ass though.
@@toonpik7 the lower detail looks more stylized imo. These modern games have high detail, at low resolution and with bad anti aliasing which just multiplies the problem
I think Gamecube and original Xbox games often had anti aliasing or flicker filters, which would have softened their look noticeably (and Gamecube also processed colors internally at 4:2:2 chroma, so edges wouldnt be the best defined either).
In progressive scan they would probably look a lot cleaner, since I assume that would disable the flicker filter, so if you use one of those HDMI adapter thingys on Gamecube, that should help by quite a bit.
PS2 didn't have much of AA or flicker filters in its games, not even close to the near universal rate that GC and XB games had flicker filters, so PS2 games would either way look more rough. Few games like Ratchet and Clank had flicker filters, which I think gives them a softer look, but it's not outright blurry, and flicker filter is a bit gentler with blur than some AA types.
I agree. I have always, even in modern games, turned off AA if at all possible in the options (along with the dreaded motion blur). I prefer the chunky 'jaggy' look over the game looking blurry to try and cover up it's flaws. I always have ever since the N64 days.
It’s mainly because of the low/low dynamic resolution switch games use which are then scaled up to the 1080p+ native resolution of common displays.
Ark Survival Evolved is getting a graphical update in September. Hope to see a comparison video between the original and the new update!
Loved the video!
Honestly, I'm not bothered with the switch getting an upgrade just yet, I don't think it will anyway, as Nintendo won't be able to release one at a cheap price point, won't happen with current issues every other console manufacturer is having. But, I play the switch for nintendo games, I have a PC for any other game that catches my eye. Besides, any first party nintendo games on switch are built around the switches weak hardware, but still work and run really well, and yeah, having it run newer gen games would be ideal, but that's not why I buy a Nintendo console. I'm not bothered, but if they do wind up releasing one sooner rather than later, I will buy it, no doubt.
Kind of the same. If i wanna play very demanding games, i have a PC and a Series X. I do love Nintendo though and that's why i have a Switch. Nintendo games (Mario Kart, Zelda, Mario Odyssey, Kirby etc...), some indies and games i like to have on the go (Final Fantasy 7/8/9/10, Doom Classic I/II/64 etc...). I would love to see a more powerful Switch though, but for now i'm happy with what we have.
"that's not why I buy a Nintendo console" is exactly what I think.
Nintendo needs to handle the Switch like they handled the New 3DS systems. Make slight power improvements on the old formula but keep the system mostly the same. Make the same library playable on the newer console while having games benefit from more powerful hardware. Nintendo has hit a successful formula with the Switch I would hate to see them mess it up like they did going from Wii to Wii U.
A Short Hike had some interesting settings as well, didn't it, where you seemingly lowered the resolution even further?
Great video!
0:57 not to be rude but for a moment I honestly wasn’t sure if some of these shots were blurry due to low res or being purposely out of focus 😂
This is like Digital Foundry’s version of the Razzies
The Nintendies
I'm ready for next gen hardware from nintendo. The jump from wii u to switch was so small it felt like buying the same console, except switch is handheld which I rarely use as a handheld device.
We all are and i have my switch for just 2 years although i am using it almost everyday the only thing i want besides better specs and dlss support is backwards compatibility
Wow. it's nearly criminal that they shipped ARK in that state. I'm glad they going back and reworking the port. I hope the people who already bought it are getting it for free.
I‘m usually an advocate of substance over style… however, there are some incredible Switch games that are so low-res that they actually hurt in the eyes. I tried but had to put them down e.g. Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
Personally, I just think Nintendo should focus on evolving the Switch template for the successor.
To be fair to the current Switch, the Tegra X1 _is_ capable of handling FSR 1.0, which is already used in Nintendo Switch Sports and Splatoon 3.
Should have really explored modding the Switch, ALL of the games mentioned here(except maybe Ark) CAN run at full 720 with an overclocked switch, some games can even do 60 FPS. the new 16nm chip from 2019 (Mariko) can be overclocked to the moon, with the GPU reaching 1300(more than 3x the common protable default speed), CPU at 2400(more than 2x the defualt), and ram hitting 2100(about 1.5 more) , AND still retain about 2-4 hours of portable gameplay, Modded it's basically a Switch with Kaioken 20x , in all regards :)
Sorry to say, the switch is just getting started,
Idk the Switch still sells crazy amounts of units. It might be another few years until we even get an announcement
Nintendo will definitely bring a switch successor sooner than later i expect a 2023 released either spring with botw2 or November
@@katakouzinos Based on what? I'm sure Nintendo are working on something but until the Switch stops selling tens of millions of consoles each year, as a business they won't be releasing it soon. The profit margins they're making on Switches these days, after 5 years, are probably insane. Also given the global supply chain is still F'd, releasing a new piece on hardware on a new manufacturing process seems out of reach given how PS5s are still impossible to find AND increasing in price. Even if they released a new Switch in about a year, it would be sold out for a long time and probably would be harder to find than a PS5. I'd love a new Nintendo console, the Switch is great, but Nintendo are heavily unincentivized from multiple areas to make anything new for the foreseeable future.
TLDR I'd love to be wrong, but the odds are extremely unlikely.
Does the Switch port of QUAKE let you change the resolution to the original low rez settings like the Xbox One port does? That'd be interesting to see on the Switchs handheld mode!
It would have been more interesting if you talk also about the docked mode of these games to see the difference between portable and docked mode. 😁
Will we see a video focusing on notable Switch games that are able to keep a constant 720p/1080p resolution and framerate?
No need for that this video is meant for the next switch i guess and how it can improve some of the lowest resolution games
Amazing, 216p! The Megadrive came out in 1988, and it was a 224p console, sheesh
Any chance of a video with a CFW Switch showing these (or similar) titles with a CPU and GPU overclock to unlock the Tegra chip? I often use a GPU overclock of even just ~70mhz or so and it stops games like XC3 dropping frames or res anywhere near as much as stock in portable mode.
Oculus' neural supersampling for real-time rendering is another great option. Taking input at 960x540 and bumping to 3840x2160 using motion vectors and Zbuffer data then enhanced by a trained model, it is in a lot of ways DLSS but hardware agnostic.
I don't think Nintendo is going to release a Super Switch anytime soon since the chipset shortage is still real even with scalpers slowing down and Switch sales of hardware and software is still going strong. :)
I think they will. For the last couple years Nintendo invested a lot in new parts, which could mean they are preparing for a console release by having parts in stock.
If we assume the sales roof is around 150m, which is how many ps2 were sold, the Switch is actually going to stop selling soon and Nintendo needs a new hardware on the making to keep the momentum going
Honestly, it's been absolutely wild seeing what would be impossible ports brought to this system. It's a shame image quality is first to go, but if you told me I'd be playing crysis, doom 2016/eternal, and the Witcher 3 on a handheld the rough size of a DVD case...
I'd have not even remotely believed you. These impossible ports, while not the ideal way to play if you've gone multiplatform in your household, will always draw me in, if only to marvel at the sheer amount of effort and work that goes into them.
Been doing it since the "get it to run doom" and "can it run crysis" days, will continue into the "lemme see the switch port" days!
My mind never recovered from being blown when I could carry Ocarina of Time around in my pocket with 3ds.
Why is it wild?
Make it look and play like absolute shit and you can port most anything.
UE games especially have very high porting \ tweaking compatibility. It really isn't as much of a technical win as people keep thinking.
I would but i guess I was pretty tech savvy as a kid and very ambitious but yeah when ive seen an iphone running 360 games like bioshock back in the day I already knew what was doable with portable systems.
I was weird kid I thought amnesia the dark descent was a shockwave flash game and some guy thought i was trolling, well sorry if I've seen shockwave flash games where you can move in a 3d space unlike most flash games that were 2d, I just thought almost anything was possible to some extent with hard work and analyzing skills at least
I was playing serious Sam 3 yesterday and had to change it to performance mode.
It was either play with glitchy graphics or at a lower detail mode. It was not good either way tbh.
Really hoping that the next console will be 1080p 60fps
Being a mobile console is nice but the low spec tv experience isn't great.
It won't lol
What’s funny about Crash Team Racing is in Yuzu at 60fps 4k it looks like what the PS5 version should…
I’m pretty sure that during a nvidia hack, a mobile Ampere SOC was leaked, probably to be used in a future Nintendo switch. I do think next year we could see a new switch. They use old architectures to keep costs down.
Yes 2023 i think is the year they could even do a botw2 launch like the original switch to ensure switch 2 dominance lol
I’m surprised DF Supporters Program for $5 a month, doesn’t include early release to videos. More specifically early videos for upcoming and very soon to release games (like a week before games release). That would be fantastic.
Are you telling me the 5 year old hardware is outdated already? No way!
It was outdated on launch day.
@@arkeshn729 *shock* no way!
@@arkeshn729
Just like the PS5 and Series X were.
@@MatthewdangeR I barely take the switch out of the dock. So judging console price to performance. Xbox Series S >>>switch.
@@fhagane6821 Nintendo definitely made the right move seeing as the Japanese market is mostly handheld now. But no 3rd support means having to buy a second console or having a gaming PC that emulate switch games.
It's been no secret this console is incredibly dated, I can emulate it with i5 processors dating way back to 2013, at full speed and way higher resolution (if your GPU can handle it, native is still an option). Those who don't want to bother with it, use Yuzu.
Even with better hardware on a future switch, we have to play the games with DLSS (anti-allising,sharpening) at resolutions of 360p just to save more battery on the go. Cause the quality will be fine for such a small screen. At the other hand as docked mode 540p scale quite well in 1080p monitors.
I noticed a lot of the titles mentioned here are racing, fighting, and shooters-all genres that prioritize frame rate over virtually all else.
I wish we had a "Super Switch," that's still compatible with Switch games, but could handle all of these games at the 720p that they should be.
I hope that 720-1080p portable and 1440p-4k(with DLSS) on dock.
I think I saw some report about your account can be use with all digital games you bought and backward compatible for Nintendo's next gen.
What I'm hoping is performance upgrade/update for games from switch to next gen.
Nintendo probably don't want to waste the Nintendo subscription and make new separate one for the next gen.
@@SeddyAm what about my cartridges?
@@TheVillainOfTheYear probably same feature from gameboy to DS and DS to 3ds cartridge compatibility I hope
Dude, DLSS (maybe with only a handful of tensor cores, or custom version without tensor) and/or FSR 2.0 support along with a much more powerful SoC would be incredible. I means it's just crazy how phones from now several years ago have many times the performance of this thing, even docked. Def time for a nice upgrade, along with those future-proofing features to avoid it getting this bad so soon.
It will probably make use of dlss since the chip according to rumours is tegra orin (ampere based)
Vigor might be a good game to test. Looks pretty rough in handheld mode.
You have forgotten Xenon Racer. On portable mode, it can run at 176p
The biggest upgrade a new Switch could bring is making the docked versions of any game the handheld one. That would give a massive image quality boost to most titles and won't require almost any work from the developers. You can already run docked settings on portable mode with a hacked Switch so I can't imagine it would be that hard to force it on the new hardware.
Dock version on handheld looks sooo much better. At the point that you don’t need better visuals… but you know… console is heavily undeclocked. I wish I could hack my oled switch just to be able to play that way
@@tomianz-1242 Are you sure the Oled can't be hacked?
@@punkpop101 for Mariko tegra x1 consoles you need a physical chip; it’s not cheap tho
It isn't like that not cuz Nintendo has some fetish with that, its to keep temperatures ok, maybe 1 or 2 hours you wont notice, but in 3 or 4 you'll do, that happening during 3 straight years and you got a $300 paperweight
@@Elchinodawn but remember the nvidia shield uses full clocks and it’s also a multimedia device
I love handhelds and have an original switch and a oled but man its hard to go back to the switch after playing games on the steam deck like the witcher 3. But battery life playing aaa games is not so great on the deck. I want the next deck to have a more premium build quality, something like a 6800u, faster ram, same resolution but an oled screen and a bigger battery and bigger storage and more ports. It crazy the switch can even play big open world games like xenoblade chronicles 3 with all its playable characters and huge open world. I tried to play the witcher on the switch and it was just too blurry for me.
New hardware does that. I still go back to the switch cause I take trains to and from work. Switch is a better handheld device. Deck is too big and bulky to pullout in public. Also poor battery life with the deck. Unless you're OK with major graphical sacrifice a-la switch.
@Garrus Vakarian good battery life = 1 hour to you.
@@rahnyc4 so u don't have a steam deck huh
@Garrus Vakarian i have one next to mu bed right now.. 8 hours on 2d games sure.
Thanks for uploading in 4k!
I rarely play my Switch after getting PS5 and a Series X. I still get some use out of it when I travel for work, but now fr lengthy out of town trips I take my old Xbox One X with me and connect it to the hotel TV and WiFi.
Wouldn't DLSS makes more sense to only work during docked play? Nintendo and Nvidia could design an SoC that delivers a good 720p performance during portable play and then turn on DLSS when connected to the dock, where power consumption isn't a problem.
Thats probably what will happen 720p native on portable (more than enough) while upscaling when connected to a 4ktv and still looking great well according to leaks lets hope they wont fack it up
What about the chip that’s inside the oled dock and it’s soft updatable ?
I think the best will be 540p with dlss to 720p on portable… remember new games are demanding… even the steam deck can’t use native res to run the games stable
@@tomianz-1242 So far from what I’m trying…the deck is very capable. So far so good at native res…have yet to buy Spider-Man…144 titles on my steam library. Surprisingly warhammer 40k space marine has active online multiplayer…I played that a lot on ps3.
@@TheL1arL1ar ok, but I’ve watched a lot of videos of games running on steam deck and I couldn’t find any running native but with lower internal res