New Nintendo Switch 2 report could be bad news for DLSS support

NintendoThe Switch successor (tentatively called Switch 2) may not offer efficient support for Nvidia’s deep learning supersampling (DLSS) technology, a prominent industry insider said. This claim casts doubt on many past reports suggesting that the Switch 2 could offer a significant cross-gen graphics upgrade thanks to its DLSS.

The history of Switch 2 rumors hinting at DLSS support is primarily rooted in the widespread and somewhat substantiated belief that the upcoming console will use Nvidia’s T234 SoC-based system-on-chip. Specifically, the silicon on board the Switch 2 is believed to be his Nvidia T239, the presence of which was previously confirmed by an update to one of his open source kernels at the GPU maker. . Since the T234 is equipped with a deep learning accelerator (DLA), a specialized piece of hardware that specializes in processing various AI calculations, it was expected that the T239 would also offer such a unit .

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It is reported that the Nintendo Switch 2 chip does not have deep learning accelerators.

However, Eurogamer’s technology editor Richard Leadbetter reports that the T239 will not be equipped with DLA, and said as much in the November 20th episode. digital found redirect Podcast. In this episode, the Digital Foundry cast asked questions about the possibility of the Switch 2 becoming a powerful traditional home console rather than a hybrid device like the previous generation. Although everyone agreed that this scenario was “unlikely,” Leadbetter said multiple sources he had recently consulted claim that the next Nintendo console will not feature a DLA-powered chip. I explained this point in detail.

This omission severely hampers the console’s ability to take advantage of modern graphics technologies such as DLSS, which tend to rely on artificial intelligence. That doesn’t make such a solution impossible, though, as Nintendo has widely reported showing off the Switch 2 in action. Breath of the Wild Gamescom 2023 delivered 4K, 60fps performance without an audience, thanks in large part to DLSS support. But from the next console, he said, by omitting a specialized unit dedicated to AI calculations, the company will make technologies like his DLSS “much more computationally expensive.”

A DLA-free Switch 2 likely won’t support DLSS beyond 1440p at best

Elaborating on the specific implications of such a move, officials said DLA-free chips will be able to handle graphics beyond 1080p or “possibly 1440p,” depending on the level of overall graphical fidelity of a particular game. He said that it would not be suitable for upscaling DLSS processing. Without a specialized unit dedicated to AI calculations, DLSS processing is effectively not “free,” as Leadbetter says, and must be handled by the console’s CPU.

AI technologies such as DLSS and AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) have been at the forefront of recent forays into video game graphics, as they can have a smaller performance footprint than natively rendering high-resolution visuals. Masu. However, their best implementations tend to rely on specialized hardware, which is habitually bundled with features like AI frame generation, and which the next Nintendo console will likely lack. So, even though the Switch 2 has long been Nintendo’s best-kept secret, this new report serves as a reminder that there are still many question marks remaining regarding the system’s overall capabilities.