Nintendo Switch Pro leak appears to confirm 4K console — but raises more questions

Nintendo Switch Pro leak appears to confirm 4K console — only raises more questions

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Nintendo might have revealed some juicy details about the next generation Nintedo Switch Pro (or maybe only Switch 2). At that place's been much speculation almost the side by side console getting 4K support, merely a tweet suggests that code has started to announced in updates which confirms some of the details.

In firmware version 12 there are 2 clues that point to the Switch Pro getting some exciting tech. The first is a line which refers to the new Cradle Aula (apparently the new dock'southward codename) and its ability to take a firmware update. That would mean that the new Switch dock will exist doing some class of advanced processing, rather than merely being a stand with ports, which is what the current dock is.

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WinFuture points out that a 2d line is also of involvement, namely: "4kdp_preferred_over_usb30" which internet sleuths take taken to mean 4K DisplayPort over USB iii.0. Why Nintendo would utilise DisplayPort instead of HDMI remains to be seen, but DP could equally mean something else entirely.

[Nintendo Switch Firmware Update]Most my earlier tweet nigh update 12.0.0 being able to upgrade the dock firmware...There is also this setting: "is_crda_fw_update_supported""CrdA" = Cradle (Dock) for Aula. Aula is the codename for the new model.(Thanks to @hexkyz!) https://t.co/USSPCbG20q pic.twitter.com/gwsOZdmg6bApril 6, 2021

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It looks like the Switch Pro may end being quite similar to the original device in how it operates. Out of the dock it could be a 720p games console with an improved OLED screen. One time docked information technology seem likely it will offer some sort of 4K pick, although it may be upscaled.

The two options could be that the dock itself contains either a more-powerful GPU, which the Switch uses when information technology's being continued to a Television receiver or, the more probable option, that Nvidia is providing some sort of bespoke hardware that tin become the dock running its DLSS applied science. Given Nvidia'due south involvement with the first Switch, information technology'south quite likely the new model will follow a similar route.

Deep Learning Super Sampling, or DLSS takes a lower resolution signal and applies machine learning to the output to make it look like it was rendered at 4K. Results on the all-time gaming PCs with Nvidia GPUs produce impressive results using DLSS, simply the applied science needs to exist congenital-in to games, it can't simply be applied to anything.

The additional complexity is that DLSS happens in the GPU, using the Tensor cores. Information technology takes place in the graphics pipeline, not afterward it, and then upscaling the output from DisplayPort wouldn't yield the aforementioned results. And so the Switch Pro would either need to have a quite powerful GPU built in, or have a secondary GPU in the dock, which would be active when the console was plugged in. That would get expensive, and there'due south no proffer that Thunderbolt, which would exist needed, is part of the spec.

Bearing in mind that Nintendo has a long history of preferring games, especially first-party titles, run at 60fps, the likelihood of a portable console existence able to reach that without some actress help is fairly minor.

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Ian has been involved in applied science journalism since 2007, originally writing near AV hardware back when LCDs and plasma TVs were merely gaining popularity. Nearly xv years on, he remains as excited as ever about how tech tin can make your life better. Ian is the editor of T3.com but has also regularly contributed to Tom's Guide.