Evidence of a new Switch model capable of native 4K gaming output has been mounting for years now, however gamers may have to wait until 2024 before the console is ready.
Nintendo's next-gen Switch Pro 4K-ready console will release in 2024, not in 2022, analyst firm Ampere Analysis predicts. "I'm not expecting a Switch Pro in 2022. We have a next-gen Nintendo console in our forecasts for late 2024, so I'm not convinced a 'Pro' model is going to appear at all," analyst Piers Harding-Rolls told GamesIndustry.biz.
If Harding-Rolls is accurate, the new Switch could kick off a separate generation and may not be be an extension of the current Switch hardware environment. We've postulated that the new 4K-ready Switch could utilize NVIDIA's new 8nm Orin-based Tegra SoC that's used in its DRIVE autonomous vehicle platform.
Nintendo is definitely working up to a 4K Switch model. Half of the Switch Pro's hardware is already in stores today.
Despite have identical internal hardware as a 2019 Switch, the new Switch OLED's dock allows native 4K 60FPS video output, however the Switch OLED's built-in Tegra X1 SoC isn't capable of achieving native 4K gaming without the help of NVIDIA's supercomputers.
Nintendo has been investing R&D cash into machine learning and deep learning since 2019, both of which are hallmarks of NVIDIA's next-gen Tegra and RTX platforms.
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It's believed the Switch Pro will use DLSS to upscale resolution and improve frame rates. NVIDIA has made DLSS work on ARM-based processors, which are the same kind of chips used in the Nintendo Switch.
Finally we have reports that game developers already have Switch 4K devkits and are working on making their games backward and forward compatible across the two generations.
Check below for a breakdown of each Tegra SoC released by NVIDIA for an idea of what to expect from the new Switch model.
