A bit of bit extra to share: When Nintendo unveiled the Swap 2, it was obscure in regards to the chip powering the gadget, solely mentioning that it was a customized design from Nvidia. It did not listing any specs apart from basic info – as much as 120fps on gadget, 4K at 60fps, VRR, and many others. Fortunately, Nvidia has shed a bit extra gentle on the topic.
Nvidia has posted a weblog highlighting the options supplied by their {hardware} powering the Swap 2 past the knowledge Nintendo supplied. Amongst them is ray tracing help.
Whereas ray tracing can be out there on different consoles, it took some time for builders to start out truly utilizing it. Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Cyberpunk 2077 have been a few the primary titles to implement RT within the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Collection X. The Shortcut notes that as of January, the listing of PS5 titles with RT help has grown to 58. Nonetheless, some solely supply ray tracing on the PS5 Professional model.
One other bragging proper Nintendo can declare is DLSS help, now a mainstay for desktop gaming. Staff Purple’s platform-agnostic various, FidelityFX Tremendous Decision (FSR), has not too long ago trickled into gaming laptops, consoles, and handheld PCs. Each applied sciences permit techniques to extend picture high quality whereas sustaining efficiency, however Swap 2 is the primary gaming handheld to supply Nvidia’s arguably superior DLSS. Because of its Tensor Cores, Nvidia claims Nintendo’s hybrid has 10 instances the graphical efficiency of the unique Swap.
All of this seems nice on paper, however here is the rub. Whereas having DLSS and ray tracing on the Swap 2 is a plus, it is as much as builders to implement it. We aren’t simply going to see video games leveraging these options instantly. It took a while for studios to prioritize it in PS5 and XBSX video games. Rockstar did not add it to GTA 5 till 2022 – two years after the consoles debuted. It should seemingly take even longer earlier than builders implement them on a tool with a relatively smaller display screen.
Even contemplating the enhance in decision the Swap 2 affords whereas docked to a TV, there’s a onerous push to market the gadget as a handheld gaming unit. Its 8-inch show at 120fps in 1080p is greater than sufficient for that use case. So, builders in all probability will not rush to implement DLSS and RT in patches or new video games for some time. Nvidia did not point out any video games in growth that might implement both expertise.
The extra urgent issues with the Swap 2 are its value level and that of its video games. At $450 for sub-console efficiency, many Swap homeowners are taking a tough move on the upgraded mannequin. Nintendo’s new $70 to $80 goal for brand new and beforehand launched video games has additionally raised many followers’ hackles. Whereas the gadget is clearly a succesful handheld, it isn’t on par with house consoles besides in its value.
