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Update: Current thinking is that we'll combine the two scenarios outlined below and do a full Direct, with Switch 2 as lead story and we'll get it out to everyone ASAP. We'll see how it goes!

Original Post: Hello there, I'm putting out this Call For Questions now not really knowing what I'm actually asking of you, or indeed what kind of shape the next episode of DF Direct will take. So here's the deal:

Scenario 1 - Switch 2 Reveal: In this scenario, the usual DF Direct Weekly with early access is replaced by a Switch 2 reaction special that'll go out publicly as soon as it is done, which we will be filming in the immediate aftermath. We will cover the clocks leak as well! Obviously, we would love your questions on this - but we will only be taking questions on Switch 2.

Scenario 2 - Normal DF Direct Weekly: If today comes and goes like a normal day, we take the blue pill and revert to the standard Direct set-up. We'll be discussing the Switch clock leaks, we'll find the time to look at Jedi Survivor's PSSR upgrade/fix and maybe talk about the PDF version of Doom, along with any other news stories that catch our eye. And it's weapons-free on Supporters Questions of course. In this scenario, we WILL film on Friday and release early on Saturday to Supporters.

Sorry about the uncertainty here. It would almost be hilarious if the day passed as normal without anything happening! Assuming scenario one is the case, we'll give you around an hour before we sit down to film. Assuming scenario two, we'll take questions up until 8am tomorrow morning UK time. It'll be John, Rich and Oliver on the panel for scenario one, with scenario two still TBC.

Thanks!

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Comments

Spodlude

Are games consoles toys? Ergo, is Nintendo a toy maker?

Perfect_Organism

Can I ask if DF has heard anything behind the scenes about today being the fateful Switch 2 day?

Question Generated By JensenGPT

John - why do Gameboy Advance games played on the Gamecube's Gameboy player look so good, especially on a CRT? I just booted up my old GameCube + Gameboy player for the first time in probably 16+ years and I was shocked at how clean and good everything looked. I would argue it looked better and more appealing than running the same games on a modern emulator. What's the deal here?

goregutz

Have you looked into the Arc Battlemage overhead issue which pops up when the game is CPU limited? Does it change any of your conclusions from your review? Do you think Intel can fix it? (N.B: The last windows update breaks Roblox...*sigh*)

goregutz

Hi DF team. You previously mentioned that you were looking into the alleged improvements that the Arrow lake bios patches brought. Any updates with regards to that?

Dissecta

Will LINCHDOM BATTLEMAGE be a switch 2 launch title…?

VitaminJ

a) Does Rich have a large red button that summons everyone instantly in case of a Large Video Games Announcement? b) Would you ever consider doing a live-stream to such an announcement, with the same enthusiasm as your PS5 Pro unboxing, as an antidote to all the whooping and hollering youtuber stream-a-longs?

gartenriese

Do you think GTA6 will run on the Switch 2?

minty-hippo

Hi DF crew! To Oliver, do you think that the Switch 2's potential for PS4/XBone ports will also translate to game devs adapting those ARM ports to Apple Silicon Macs/iOS devices? While they would have to contend with Metal and other APIs, wouldn't it simplify the process of bringing that generation of great games to Apple's cash cow mobile gaming platform alongside improving the library of Mac native games? I would love for them to also consider Snapdragon Windows devices but Rich returned his Surface and I doubt he wants to take advantage of another generous return window. I love what you guys do, keep up the great work :)

Mario Rosa

Hey there, team. I'm always amused by Alex's frustrations with traversal stuttering in UE games, I recall him saying it was the "bane of my existence", and that got me wondering: what technical hiccups from past generations caused you to groan? Specifically, issues that don't pop up nowadays because they've been more or less solved. I was never particularly tech savvy so it was only until I was introduced to you guys that I started learning a bit about what performance issues can pop up and how they can impact gameplay so I'm curious what past issues were present that I wasn't aware of.

liosan

Hi guys, do you believe we’ll see any major CPU or unified memory upgrades with the PS6? By the time 2028 rolls around, GPU’s with 16GB of dedicated VRAM will probably be the norm, so the PS6 still having 16GB of unified system memory seems like it would be a quite a bottleneck. If future games decided to push for more real time physics and more RT implementations, I believe an 8-10 core CPU would still not be enough, right? Is it fair to assume the PS6 would have something in the ballpark of 32GB of unified memory, along with a 16 core CPU?

Mehzeb Chowdhury

Hi DF Crew. Given that Doom has now been ported to run inside a PDF, what other file formats would you like to see the legendary game run on?

Mehzeb Chowdhury

Hi DF Team. How could leaks of upcoming hardware like the Switch 2 potentially impact Nintendo’s business strategy and marketing campaigns? Do leaks of unconfirmed details give competitors an advantage by allowing them to adjust their own hardware or marketing strategies? And, has there been any historical evidence of leaked Nintendo hardware leading to actual design or feature changes before launch?

Jonny_5a

I could be wrong but think I vaguely recall an excel doom some time ago

DaJaCo (Dan)

Happy Half Fortnight Lads! This week it has emerged that Sony might soon be using Decima engine more broadly amongst its studios. (It's looking like Bend Studio's next game is likely to use it in addition to Death Stranding 2) Is this a bright new horizon in a UE5 dominated world? Will these guerilla tactics be fruitful or will they ultimately be decimated like everyone else?

DaJaCo (Dan)

Switch 2 Scenario (1) Question: Happy Switch-Night Lads! - Do we anticipate that the Mouse Sensors on both Joy-con will be utilized for "dual-mouse" gaming of some variety, or is it likely that it is simply to facilitate Left and Right handed options? (I have a feeling Metroid Prime 4 is going to have some killer controls).. - Were there any other hints from the reveal that indicate other sensors or functions?

Kris Graney

Hi. Will the base resolution of Switch 2 games be 720p (ish since I expect some dynamic scaling even then in handheld mode) then use the DLSS to upscale to 1080p or 1440p resolutions?

MGsubbie

I basically want you to confirm or adjust your take on what DLSS can do in the Switch 2. I primarily play my Switch docked and to say it doesn't look great on a 4k TV is an understatement. My biggest hope for the Switch 2 is looking decent on a 4k output.

ConcreteLlama

Last week Alex and Oliver said that Nvidia is 5 years ahead of the competition. Last year Microsoft said the next Xbox will be the "biggest ever generational leap". Is it pretty much a given at this point that Microsoft is going to switch to Nvidia? Unless the other vendors manage to freeze time for 5 years I see no way of them catching up any time soon.

Takeshino

Hi DF. A conversation about the push for realistic graphics made me realise that we don't really see devs mess around with the RT buffer for stylisation, right? Why is that? Surely adding a texture overlay or dithering pattern to shadows or ambient occlusion or a subtle distortion to reflections isn't that complicated, right? It doesn't have to be full on Spiderverse shenanigans but I do find it weird that we haven't really seen stylised RT. Obligatory Switch 2 comment: Surely if anyone would do something like this, it'd be either an indie dev or Nintendo themselves, right?

ConcreteLlama

I'm not a PC gamer but it seems for the past couple of console generations, a high end PC graphics card is released that becomes something of a "staple" due to its price/performance ratio and its level of performance versus the consoles - I believe in the 360 era this was the 8800 GT and in the PS4 era it was the 1080 Ti (or was it GTX 970?). Do you see any of the 50 series cards becoming that for this generation?

MGsubbie

Very much doubt it.

Jonathan Hamilton

The Star Wars Jedi: Survivor patch was specific to the PS5 Pro, but the patch was deployed to lots of base PS5s as well. Why waste the resources pushing that out to players who get no benefit from it?

Peter Karadimas

Hello crew, will the Nintendo Switch 2 be capable of using the new transformer model of DLSS recently revealed by NVIDIA?

Cold Hotman

Do you have any thoughts on the logistics of developers updating Switch 1 games with Switch 2 patches if such a thing is supported? Something like The Witcher 3 seems like a very obvious upgrade, but something like Crysis 1-3 remastered didn't sell anywhere near as well and might be harder to justify investment.

GenerativeJake

Hi Crew, with mid-gen refreshes like the Xbox One X & PS4/PS5 Pro often mainly focusing on GPU & memory upgrades, would it be beneficial for console makers like Nintendo who use docking systems already in the Switch and expected Switch 2, to have the option for a dock with an external GPU? I’m thinking of an evolved version of the Expansion Pack from the N64 days, but GPU focused, which could take a game that is say targeting 720p on the handheld up to 4K when docked using more than just extra power to the internal APU. At CES Asus announced a new XG Mobile Dock with Thunderbolt 5. What would stop Nintendo from doing something similar but with maybe a proprietary PCIe connection like the Beelink EX Docking Station, for those users who would be willing to pay for it above a “standard” docking station? Perhaps providing a path for mid-gen refreshes without needed to release an entirely new console. Thanks and Cheers!

TheMightyEthan

Hey DF! Non-Switch-2 question here, so I'm probably the only one crossing my fingers that it doesn't get revealed today! Even though I already have a 4090, I am (unreasonably?) tempted by the 5090. At 4k with DLSS 3.x performance mode and current 2x framegen I can easily maintain 90+ fps on even the most demanding games. I only have a 120hz display, so there's really not all that much fps headroom left, but I would really prefer to use a higher base resolution, since DLSS 3.x performance mode still has noticeable IQ limitations. With DLSS 4 and its improved image quality coming to earlier RTX cards, is that issue solved now, or is there still perceptible degradation compared to quality mode? Also, do you anticipate games becoming significantly more graphically demanding before the next console generation, limiting my ability to hit that 90+ fps? If you can talk me out of this purchase, my wallet will thank you. Cheers!

HelenX

Hello gentlemen of the future. Bit of a dark question this time . What the hell can be done about the outright Luddism that has become the bread & butter of so many Angry Gamers ? The people that talk about how modern games are bad, games are not optimised and that there has been no technical progress. Just greedy, lazy people all through the production chain. But the reality is people that these people refuse to play games and call them bad. They refuse to use any of the new technical advancements and then say that there have been none? I can explain to people about Moors Law ending and its negative effect on ‘throwing cuda cores at the problem’, then they argue that game’s should just stay stagnant. I then argue that a 2060, a low end 5 year old card being easily able to play modern games is an example of, not of stagnation but of old cards and old computers not being priced out of gaming and everyone being included in the fun. But then they complain about 2nd hand and the new equivalent cards being price gouged. Does anyone think that nvidia cares enough to try to price gouge the zero-profit-margin market segment? And of course the modern AMD Apus that provide wonderful desktop gaming experiences for a super budget don’t count either. People don’t want solutions they want to be angry but I can’t understand why.

HelenX

I think that the 3080 would have been that if not for the crypto mining and covid supply problems.

Palindrome Fan

Long time listener, first time caller. AI solutions like DLSS have proven to be more efficient than simply increasing chip sizes, but Tensor cores do have limits and take up die space. At what point will developers have to start picking and choosing which of Team Green’s ML features to use? Could a mainstream card like a 5070 really leverage DLSS, ray reconstruction, neural textures, and all the other CES-announced bells and whistles without hitting an architectural limit? Looking further out, at what point will ML run into the same die space and process walls that made it difficult to scale raster performance in recent generations?

VitaminJ

Optical sensor on both joycons? Introducing dual-mouse gaming?!

Perfect_Organism

Very curious to see if there’s a 3rd pill DF now has to take given the trailer provided almost zero info ha.

Spodlude

If Nintendo aren’t talking more switch 2 until April. When are your bets on release date? June?! Later!? Good lord…

Abadaba-Pling Boink Wee Juhu

Hehe, the Switch 2 was revealed some minutes ago with a 2 minute trailer. Were you disappointed by the reveal - how do you plan to fill a 1h podcast with only talk and questions about such a short reveal?

Abadaba-Pling Boink Wee Juhu

Do you agree that the Switch 2 design is kinda boring? It looks too black and SteamDeck/AyaNeo-like IMO, it doesn't have the bright colors that made the Switch 1 so distinctive anymore.

Abadaba-Pling Boink Wee Juhu

How smart of Nintendo is it to upload the Switch 2 trailer to YouTube on both their UK and US channels, with the only difference being the date format? 04.02.2025 and 02.04.2025. It's like they don't expect their trailers to be shared outside the channel countries.

Snorlax cat

The switch 2 doesn’t look interesting even after the leaks… also I think they did not show Mario kart 9 but a new track for Mario kart 8

Full House's John SteamOS

Honey wake up, Nintendo just dropped the Switch 2 reveal. What're your thoughts on the officially stated backwards compatibility with Switch 1? Bog standard compatibility, or do you think we'll have boost mode?

Eric Benoit

Hello DF Crew, at the end of the trailer for the Switch 2, it stated certain Nintendo Switch one titles may not be compatible. Which ones do you think will be? Also, I guess I'll be playing Halo CE on a Nintendo handheld before an Xbox handheld?

Dave Brown

Do you think Nintendo will introduce GameCube and Wii titles to NSO, now that we're on newer hardware? I could imagine a hybrid approach: offer those games via cloud streaming to all users, but offer a download/local option for Switch 2 users.

Xbox Ally Has Gone ROGue!

What will be the properitary upscaling technology name for Switch 2? Would that be Nintendlss? Super Nintendo Resolution? SWITCHUP? or FWHSAA (Finally we have some anti-aliasing)? Put your bets gentlemen!

BespokeEP

Poor Oliver. Nintendo!!!! Let the man sleep!!! It’s bloody 5am on the West

Julian Shniter

Do you think the Switch 2 will support VRR, I feel like that would be a game changer in handheld mode

Whambat

Hello DF! In the 5 seconds we saw of the Switch 2 screen, does that look like an edge lit lcd screen?

Macky Dee

I think the most important hardware question of the reveal is: who is your Mario Kart racer of choice?

Joseph Caruso

Do you believe that the Switch 2 reveal trailer is hinting at the new Joy-cons being able to be used similar to a computer mouse for an on-screen cursor? You can see them gliding along a flat surface like some of the leaks suggested, and I can't help but think that the wrist-straps look like a mouse's tail in that moment, but maybe I'm looking too into it.

Alex’sRayTracedBottom

Probably that one game that John said kept inexplicably crashing on his OC’d Switch.

CodeMalfunction

Given the confirmation of what looks like an optical sensor on the Joycons, plus an unmarked button on the right Joycon(at least in the reveal trailer), what do you think these will be used for?

Julián Oroza

The potential “Mario Kart 9” looked quite underwhelming visually. Do you think this is a sign of graphics expectations for this machine or is this just a one off?

VitaminJ

Probably the ones that relied on the IR camera on the OG joycons? e.g. 1-2-Switch and RingFit?

Anxiously Chrono Triggered

Hello gentlemen, do you think the Switch 1 games that would not be supported by Switch 2 are those that use JoyCons in a specific manner and setup, E.g. Ring Fit Adventure, for a simple reason - JoyCons2 are bigger and have different connection? Or do you think there might be other reasons behind this claim? Cheers

Rich

In the 50 series at least, tensor operations and shaders can be mixed on the same core. Take a look at just how many more Tflops a tensor provides over other instructions, you'd be surprised. In fp16, the lowly rtx2060 released in 2018 has well over 50 Tflops, in int8 that doubles to over 100! Rtx30 added sparsity, rtx40 added fp8, and now rtx50 adds fp4. Each one of those innovations essentially DOUBLES speed without losing accuracy for inference! It will be an extremely long time before AI is limited by die space or process walls, the amount of computation is MUCH, MUCH more efficient. Indeed, Nvidia's chief scientist Bill Dally says that process node only accounts for a small percentage of the overall progress in AI speed anyway.

Deadeyes

If my calculations are correct, if you run a game at 4k with DLSS Ultra Performance mode and 4x MFG, only 2.86% of the pixel information you'd see would have been rendered by the GPU in the traditional sense.... just 1/9th of the "real frame" pixels, with 3 interpolated frames between. Obviously it won't look super great, but the idea that it would even be functional and usable with over 97% of the pixel information being essentially made up is a modern marvel in my eyes. What do you all think?

gartenriese

Did you find any signs of ray tracing in the Mario Kart 9 preview?

Skyrimfest 26 FPS Edition

The magnetic Joy Con attachment looks cool, but how does the DF team think Nintendo will stop them flopping around? Is there anything comparable on other devices?

M

Are you serious? It was practically a thumbnail view in a compressed 1080p YouTube video. What quality did you expect to see?

Julián Oroza

Looked like Mario Kart 8 🤷‍♂️

Anxiously Chrono Triggered

Hey DF Crew, I guess Oliver you’re pretty exited about the new Mario Kart coming with Switch 2. Have you noticed anything potentially exciting in that short teaser? It seems like it doesn’t look that much better than MK8, but a. It’s just a short clip, b. it was a 1080p YT video so what else could we expect?, c. Character models seem significantly better, d. If it ran in 4K DLSS performance level I think it still would be neat! Cheers!

DaJaCo (Dan)

The tapered socket is doing most of the work here, the magnets only prevent them moving in 1 direction (outward).. all other directions are mechanically held. They'll be much less rickety than the original.

Anxiously Chrono Triggered

Hi DF Crew, Can we expect Nintendo to release free performance patches for old Switch games to run better on Switch 2? The fact they mention (and show) Switch games running on Switch 2 in their reveal trailer give some hope they won’t be releasing paid remasters. Or have I inhaled too much copium? Cheers!

M

The kart models were much more detailed and the lighting looked significantly improved in the zoom ins. It's got the mk8 design language but it's a leap closer to the movie styling from the Mario movie last year

M

Gentlemen, to my eyes, the MK9 snippets looked like quite the enhancement. The kart models were much more detailed and the lighting looked significantly improved in the zoom ins. It's got the mk8 design language but it's a leap closer to the movie styling from the Mario movie last year. As a launch title do you suspect baked lighting or some minimal ray tracing? Thanks!

andre surles

From an Industrial Design perspective the Switch 2 really doesn’t move the needle. Is anyone else concerned that the average consumer won’t notice the change? Was that the point?

DaJaCo (Dan)

HAPPY Switch-Night Lads!! If you pause the trailer at the right moment, it looks like the speedy Micro SD Express slot is present under the kickstand on one side. It also seems the "C" button on the right joy-con stood for "C-u-later", because it's totally blank! - As for the confirmed mouse functionality, the fact that it's present on both joy-cons opens the door to "dual-mouse, dual analogue" control variations - any ideas as to what mad control implementations we could see. Think it could be the first "portable FPS beast" ? P.S. Is "Switch 2" subliminal messaging "Switch to..(us)" .. the 'us' is silent of course..

Rich

I think it's a technical possibility but it might not be actually be ported, at least not at launch. I bet an rtx3050 PC could run GTA6.

DaJaCo (Dan)

Ray Trace was one of the characters?

DaJaCo (Dan)

Will likely be the handful of games that require the missing IR blaster on the bottom of the right joycon.

Alex’sRayTracedBottom

The reveal trailer essentially confirmed mouse support in the Joy-Con controllers. Do we think Nintendo will develop some kind of control override to enable this feature, or will each developer have to decide individually whether their game supports it? I’d love to play some of my Switch 1 games with mouse support, but I don’t see that happening unless Nintendo includes a built-in override.

DaJaCo (Dan)

The real question is to what extent they will open it up to 3rd party developers! I'd go with "NSR"

CABBAC

How many barracudas are there living inside the Switch 2? Can you add more barracudas to increase the cores? How much will you have to pay in fish food on a weekly basis to feed all the barracudas?

Aaron

One of my favorite DF (Retro) traditions is when you all rewatch past console announcement events and dissect their big reveals and cringey moments. With the Switch 2 coming, could we see you do the same for the Switch’s original live presentation back in 2017?

DaJaCo (Dan)

He chucks some reactive metal swarf into the blast furnace, emitting a bright flash of fire and smoke as a beacon to the foundrymen.

Never Ready Eddie

Will the Switch 2 have Hall Effect sticks? It seems like a good investment given how much stick drift on the original Switch must have cost them.

AGSMA

Hi DF. Nintendo Switch 2-adjacent question. The reveal of a new Mario Kart game seemed inevitable, but my heart sank when I saw the trailer teasing Donkey Kong's new design. Personal taste aside, the fact that they're retiring Rare's design after a 30-year run is a questionable move on Nintendo's part, especially after making a big deal out of DKC's anniversary and the newly released DK theme park at Super Nintendo World being centered around their work to an extent. What do you think of this decision?

Noah White

Hi df team, loved the ces content from alex and oliver - great stuff. Super excited for the Switch 2 but really baffled by the decision not to have an OLED screen. Although not technically confirmed nor denied - all leaks suggest it will be LCD. Im really struggling to see how this is the correct decision. Do you guys have any insight or wisdom as to why they may have chosen LCD? Surely its not cost or burn in risk, as they have used the technology before, power draw maybe?

Hobobench

Hey DF! Do you feel like with all the leaks and minimal information from the Big N about Switch 2 basically confirms it was "delayed" since last year? It feels like everything is ready and has been ready except for new games, which other than the 10 seconds of MK footage we saw, is still very scarce? Interested to know your thoughts!

Crashpad

Hey DF Crew with the announcement of the switch 2 and the leaked specs do you think and the fact that switch 1 has a massive install base do you guys think that we might see more multiplatform games that more thoroughly push current generation Xbox and PlayStation consoles since the games won't necessarily have to scale down to the switch spec to be profitable, anyways cheers 🤘

Bassers

Will I finally be able to play Bayonetta 3 with decent performance on the Switch 2?…it’s been patiently waiting on my shelf for some time now!

Deadeyes

Despite what Nvidia marketing would like us to believe, I think it's a mistake to think of frame gen as increasing framerates under any circumstances. In my mind it's better to think of it as an alternative to technologies like motion blur: actually sacrificing performance to make motion look smoother. You should be configuring game settings and upscaling to achieve a good experience without FG, THEN turning it on. In fact, I think fps counts with FG on are borderline useless apart from making sure you aren't exceeding your monitor's refresh rate. Thoughts?

Anxiously Chrono Triggered

There will be plenty of people buying both V1 and the OLED version of Switch so it’s double the revenue for Nintendo. They know about console sales more than any other company

MeanwhileInTheHere&Now

What fun nintendo-ish colors would you like to see the Switch 2 come in? I personally hate the black shown in the reveal and would love to see a Gameboy color throwback with a transparent blue or green plastic shell. Cheers

Anxiously Chrono Triggered

Hey DF Crew, With JoyCons being able to provide some kind of mouse functionality, what Nintendo games do you think would benefit most from this? I’d say all the Party and Wario Ware are the obvious choice, but I’d really like to see a Super Mario RTS, lol. Or Amiga games support in the Nintendo Online subscription (Cannon Fodder, baby!). Cheers!

Rigor88

Hi DF, with RTX 5000 getting PCIe 5, where do you think the increased bandwidth will help? Maybe games with traversal stutters like Dead Space Remake?

Nuwa

I've recently watched the old "Inside DF" videos about how you guys do Pixel Counting and figure out FPS, since 2015-2016 has the methods and software changed at all? Do you guys still use MS Paint to pixel count?

what does dog need with a starship?

happy switch 2 day! will you guys be applying to attend the upcoming hands on event and/or will there be some exclusive sneak peaks for DF in the future?

FrametimeSommelier

Hi DF Crew! With Steam OS now making its way to third-party devices, what are the chances we'll never see a Steam Deck 2? Was the Steam Deck just a cunning part of Gabe Newell's master plan to subtly infiltrate Microsoft's pool of PC and handheld gamers? There are, after all, 1.86 billion PC gamers in the world. Could this move to third-party PC handhelds be just the opening act, with Valve gearing up to challenge Microsoft in the DIY Gaming PC market next? And if that happens, will Valve even bother with hardware anymore or stick to their software roots? What do you think, are they about to stage the ultimate plot twist in PC gaming history?

Michael Brown

Do you feel this dependence on AI upscaling is actually a negative when it comes to the true performance of the new 5000 series. Native resolution is the best image quality over dlss and fsr so why are they all in on BS frames and BS resolution instead of a true generational leap in pure performance?

Someguyperson

After looking at the raw numbers for the 50 series of cards and comparing them to prior generations, some clear patterns emerge. FP16, FP32, FP64, and Tensor FP16 performance all scale in line with one another 1:1, however RT performance is more of a wildcard from one generation to the next. RT performance has scaled faster than the other metrics on the 40 series and 50 series of cards (57% more scaling from 40 to 50 series & 16% more scaling from 30 to 40 series). Why do you think Nvidia invested in RT more than machine learning performance and general FP performance since 2020?

Someguyperson

50 series review question: As you review the 50 series of cards, could you potentially look at performance gains iso-image quality? The Transformer model of DLSS should be substantially heavier than the CNN model, yet the 50 series cards should have better Tensor performance than the 40 series of cards to balance things out. A comparison like "5080 Transformer DLSS Performance 4K vs. 4090 CNN DLSS Quality 4K" would be nice to know for people coming from older cards to see what any potential benefit would be. I think this is very difficult for a reviewer to figure out and I think you guys are really the only ones looking at image quality like this.

Someguyperson

50 series review question: I've been thinking about it, but should we actually consider frame generation as a monitor compatibility feature as opposed to "gaining performance"? I would think you always want a game to hit 60+ FPS using a spatial upscale only and then use frame generation to help hit the refresh rate of your monitor. In that regard, generating 1 frame allows you to use a 120 Hz monitor, while the new 3 frame gen feature allows you to easily use a 240 Hz monitor. Do you see frame generation use differently?

Damokalesa

Greetings DF experts, so, what did you think of the Switch 2 teaser? Specifically, at first glance the new Mario Kart footage doesn’t look like a revolution from MK8 - but can you see something I’m not seing?

Someguyperson

50 series review question: How does multi-frame gen work when you hit the refresh rate of your monitor? I can see a situation where your base framerate is between 40-60 FPS and you're adding 2 generated frames in there to get to 120-180 FPS, but your monitor might only support 120 Hz or 144 Hz output. Would frame-gen move back to a single frame or even no generated frames if you're hitting the monitor refresh rate? Would it try to keep the output FPS below the refresh rate for Reflex? Is that frame pacing hardware purely to solve these problems?

Someguyperson

With the 50 series of cards being able to run Tensor workloads at the same time as traditional rasterization techniques, could we see a new mode of DLSS where the time it takes to upscale is really only limited by the total rasterization framerate? For example, if you render a whole scene in 14 ms and upscale in 2 ms, you can still hit 60 FPS with the current DLSS. However, if you can run Tensor workloads in parallel now (as I understand it), you could spend up to ~13 ms to upscale the current frame alongside that 14 ms to render the next frame and your effective framerate would actually go up as well. This wouldn't really be possible if there's neural rendering or anything else that uses the Tensor hardware, but could we potentially see a future where every card has the ability to upscale to 4K? This would also have a latency cost of however long it takes to upscale, but if it's within a frame, it probably wouldn't be too bad to deal with.

Someguyperson

With Blackwell being able to generate 3 intermediate frames now, it's only a matter of time before we can start generating 7 or even 15 frames in between 2 "real" ones. That would take a 60 FPS game up to 480 or 960 FPS, which would be more than enough for any monitor on the market. How should we think about this feature when Nvidia seems to think these techniques improve "performance"? Should you only benchmark these cards with frame-gen off and teach people about what framerates you should hit so frame-gen works optimally?

Someguyperson

The 5080 seems to be ~40% better than the 4080 in FP performance, ~34% better in memory bandwidth, and ~85% better in RT performance. The 5090 seems to be ~27% better than the 4090 in FP performance, ~78% better in memory bandwidth, and 67% better in RT performance. Do you think the 5090's increased memory bandwidth allows for better scaling than the higher FP & RT performance scaling of the 5080?

Someguyperson

I enjoyed how Alex couldn't wait for Oliver to finish my question before roasting it last week. I will say that I wrote that question based solely on the little information Nvidia put on their website though. Alex & Oliver did a far, far better job of explaining Nvidia's new features better than Nvidia themselves did. How does Nvidia resolve this? Paying you guys to just do the job for them?

Someguyperson

Between the 50 series launches & the Switch 2, is this truly the year of giving Nvidia more money?

Someguyperson

I'm pretty sure GTA6 will be a 30 FPS game because of the CPU in the PS5 & Series X. If the Switch 2's CPU performance can match that, then there's a possibility, but I have a feeling that the Switch 2's CPU will only provide 70%-80% of that performance. So, I think the Switch 2 could probably play GTA6 at 20 FPS, but I don't think a game can come out with N64 levels of performance now.

Someguyperson

The only real negative impact of the leaks is lowered sales of the current console. Nintendo could have announced everything last year, but they specifically waited until after the holiday sales season to announce the Switch 2. The first half of the year isn't great for console sales, so Nintendo shouldn't be shooting themselves in the foot too much announcing the new console today.

Alan

Hi Guys, Is the Switch 2 in trouble? Currently an OLED Switch with a game is £350 (official Nintendo store) this should drop on Switch 2 release, but the Switch 2 must surely be priced at least £100 more, with the Yen being low we could be looking at £450 or even £500 with a game! Is this going to be too much to play last gen ports or worse ports of current gen "on the go" my hype is tempered, NIntendo has got it wrong before, your thoughts please?

Someguyperson

Well, EA has Frostbite and Capcom has the RE Engine, so I would say that the big publishers all are placing bets on their own internal engines.

Mr Bespoke

Hello DF! I hope your all doing well and not too tired from answering Switch 2 questions to answer a different question? Will/would John be willing to do a follow up after the Saturn Vs. Playstation videos with a more modern Vs. of the like of who has the best home brew community and preservation support and hardware Such as ports from other platforms, ODE's, and peripherals? Thanks and keep up all the awesome work!

Someguyperson

I can see The Touryst being rendered at a native 4K in docked mode, while Ark Survival 2 could render at an internal 360p (DLSS Ultra Performance 1080P). It all depends on the game and the developer.

Jimmy Joe McGurl

This question is for the venerable John Linneman: Assuming the Switch 2 will be using some type of emulation to run original switch games, how do you think Nintendo will package games going forward that are not Switch 2 exclusive? Are they likely to have upgraded or native versions for the Switch 2, and do you think we will be looking at an Xbox Series-like scenario where the smaller file version, in this case the original switch version, is complete on the cart, but an upgraded Switch 2 version would require a download? ugh..

Someguyperson

~90 FPS on a 4090 will be in the 108-117 FPS ballpark on the 5090. If you only have a 120 Hz panel, there's really no reason to upgrade. You'll also be able to run the Transformer model of DLSS quite well, which will solve the image quality concerns you are bringing up.

TheMightyEthan

Yeah, that bit about the transformer model is mostly what I'm looking for confirmation on, if I can run games in performance mode but approaching current quality mode IQ then I'm not too worried about it. Otherwise that 3x framegen and higher DLSS mode looks tempting.

Someguyperson

I think $400 seems about right for the MSRP. Exchange rates across the world are definitely an issue though. The GBP to Yen exchange rate is back to where it was before 2009, the Euro is a good bit stronger now, and the US Dollar is really strong right now. I can absolutely see €500/£450 including VAT.

CABBAC

Seems like a legitimate impossibility I know, but do you think the Switch 2 could be more powerful than the Dreamcast as there hasn't been a console released so far that is more powerful than it?

Someguyperson

The 'leaked' Switch 2 clocks don't seem to make a whole lot of sense to me on the CPU side of things. Doubling the GPU clocks and going from 2133 MHz to 3200 MHz memory seems absolutely plausible, but a portable CPU clockspeed of only 1.1 GHz and then a reduction to 0.9984 GHz while docked? For reference, the ARM SoC in smartphones have all been 1 GHz or higher since 2010 or so. I remember overclocking and undervolting the OMAP 3430 in my first smartphone to 1 GHz way back in 2010. Are we really going back in time 15 years to return to these clocks?

Spodlude

What are your thoughts on the switch 2 bezels?

Bobby Gonzales

Are we seeing anything in the very scant video we have of the new Mario Kart that is obviously an upgrade to the visual capabilities of the Switch 1? Lighting, character models, draw distance, etc... Thanks for everything you guys do!

Bobby Gonzales

Do you think the "C"-less C-button is a tiny track pad like on the Legion Go S?

DaJaCo (Dan)

Sure, but we are a far cry from the days of old, when there were almost as many engines as games.

DaJaCo (Dan)

Does seem odd doesnt it. Possibly a mistake? Or could it be to allow higher GPU clocks within a thermal target, but with minimal loss in CPU power?.. still you'd think they'd just improve cooling in the dock slightly?

DudleyTheGentleman

Hi again DF team, Nvidia's press release for the 50 series states that the Optical Flow Field is now generated via AI instead of an AI model, wouldn't this mean that frame generation should technically be possible to run on RTX series cards prior to Lovelace? If not, what's preventing that from happening hardware wise? A separate question, now that neural rendering is official the next frontier of graphics, what speculations do you have about the frontier that Nvidia will tackle beyond what was announced for the 50 series? Neural Fluid sim? AI/ML enhanced physics?

DaJaCo (Dan)

I think it would either be bigger or slightly more pronounced if it was. It's likely to launch their rumoured "campus" social network features.

Jonny_5a

Given the amount of analysis of the several microseconds of Mario kart (9?) I’ve seen today, how sure are we that this is actually a new Mario kart and not a tech demo like the realistic style Link vs Ganondorf from the GameCube pre-launch

RAVE_DAM0S

Hi DF Dudes, When it comes to Xbox and it's rumored plan to make the next Xbox more like a PC than ever before. My question focuses on the API and development of an "Xbox Console" game vs a "Microsoft Store" game. Could you help explain why developing a game for distribution on Xbox is different than developing a game for distribution on PC? If the rumors are true, I imagine the differences between the two will shrink even further. Gracias!

DyeHardX86

Give you my thoughts! I took 2 big L's on Twitter 1 for being wrong about Switch 2 being slightly bigger because Nintendo would be using latest screen tech with bezelless panels and 2. That they would NOT use a number 2 in the name plus my cat just puked on the runner, great day for me all round! Lmao

DyeHardX86

Yeah no way that's right why would it be?

Spodlude

Is this not that it has huge bezels?

tod weitzel

If Microsoft wanted to go full mutually assured destruction to stop SteamOS and Proton from running future Windows titles, what could they do?

BespokeEP

It’s confirmation that just like Mark Cerny, Nintendo watches way too much DF and decided to put a CRT screen in the Switch 2. The large bezels are a buffer zone so that the magnetic joy cons don’t distort the screen. Haha, my actual guess is the internals were bigger than the screen size and it likely houses the magnets and electronics that connect the joy cons to the unit

Perfect_Organism

Literally impossible. Windows CE couldn’t run on a Switch 2.

BespokeEP

It fills the screen, there is just a chonker of a bezel. They always make bezels black so that it blends in with the screen. It’s likely needed cause they couldn’t reduce the size of the joy con connection components and they needed a reason for you to buy the revision they release in a couple years with smaller bezels

Ryan Luker

Educated nintendo fans have spotted things that are not in the previous titles (24 race slots at start line, karts that are not in any previous title, etc), so most are calling this MK9 footage.

Ryan Luker

Nintendo hasn't really had two successful consoles (from a $$$ perspective) in a row but maybe they are cooking this time around with backwards compatibility and a small generational leap (should keep dev costs down too as most of the game dev industry has been struggling...)? (gamecube (xx) -> wii ($$) -> wiiu (xx) -> switch ($$) -> switch 2 (??))

Ryan Luker

Probably figure out a way to detect ProtonDB / Wine and introduce "bugs" or "instability" hah. I just wish Microsoft would compete more in the PC realm (handheld win11 not great hah) and provide a bit of competition to Valve as it is healthy for the ecosystem.

Someguyperson

Coming up with some educated guesses regarding power consumption, the drop in CPU clocks still makes no sense. Let's say the Switch 2 uses 5w for the SoC in handheld play like the Switch 1 did. That's probably 1w CPU, 3w GPU, and 1w for everything else. Doubling the GPU clocks in docked mode would probably be closer to 10w, and increasing the memory & whatever else might go up to 1.5w-2w. You're still probably under 15w there if you don't drop the CPU clocks at all. If we want to max out mobile power consumption and say the mobile SoC performance is actually 10w (which I think is too much for Nintendo) and we still use 1w for CPU & 1w for memory & everything else, that leaves 8w for the GPU. Doubling those speeds would conservatively draw 24w. Everything all-in would still be under 28w in docked play, and you can easily run the fans quickly enough to dissipate that heat. There is just no way I can see the CPU clocks doing this.

(Don’t be a) Richard

No question, just an observation. After years of wondering how Nintendo, a company always looking to try new concepts, would present the Switch 2 we have our answer. The Switch 2 is just an evolved Switch. The morphing Switch into a new model is probably the most deliberate demonstration that a new model is an evolution of the previous one that can recall for the industry. Even the one game they showed was perhaps their safest bet and again indicated an evolution rather than revolution. It’s what I wanted from a Switch 2 anyway, but it was interesting to see Nintendo embrace this so rigorously.

1040STF

Knowing Nintendo loves accessories, do you believe we will get a Pro Controller successor? If so, what would you like to be improved from the actual one?

CABBAC

It NEEDS an urgent Digital Foundry debate because this needs to be cleared up once and for all.

The Invisible Man

Hello Gents, can you explain the significance of Nintendo opting for microSD express cards for the Switch 2. I heard they run faster than SATA SSD’s? Is this true? Sounds like a smart move. Love the show guys!

Moogall

Yeah. It felt strange. It feels like with the mature color scheme this is targeted more towards adults while the OG switch will continue to be targeted at children who most likely don’t care as much about graphics etc…I feel there won’t be many Nintendo switch exclusives that can’t be played on the OG switch.

Matt_Rant

I ask on Discord, but will ask here as well. We know the math doesn’t work out for DLSS frame gen to make anything except QTE games playable, but what other features from NVidia’s software stack could be ported to the 3050-level GPU and impact players? For instance, it seems likely that DLAA could replace the custom FSR2 in No Man’s Sky, right? Does the fused transformer model, and the resulting drop in memory usage, in DLSS4 possible to use on fixed-function Switch 2 undocked mode? Could Neural Texture Compression be backported to this GPU, unlocking a transformative boost that isn’t revealed by looking at processor clocks and memory bandwidth? Curious for how the math and probability works out in your minds :)

Carlo Tai

Are there new Case layout considerations for Fresh builds with a 5090 Fe blowing more air out the top towards a io cooling rad at top of case ? Please could this be discussed as a topic, there is already a video out regarding this for SFF but what about in regular size tower builds like antec flux pro ?

gēk

Hiya, Fellas! Long time listener, first time caller, and new supporter, to boot…WOOT! Something I haven’t heard mentioned in a while is the potential for the new Switch 2 dock (or “Switch Pro”, as it were) to provide supplemental processing. Looking at the new dock, it seems relatively comparable to the OG in size. I’ve heard mention of additional cooling, and am wondering if this is even a possibility, and also if it might be at least ONE potential explanation for the lower (reported) docked CPU clock speed? Also - and this one is admittedly a bit out there - what if the USB-C port on the top is for connecting a second (or daisy-chaining multiple) Switch 2(s) for improved split-screen performance for couch co-op, or something of the like? 🧐 I appreciate what you guys do, and I’m stoked for the Switch 2!

gēk

Remember a long time ago when Nintendo said they felt the Switch would last longer than the typical console generation? Isn’t the Switch 2 really just the “Switch Pro” packaged as the sequel and successor to the OG?