Although the existing hardware seen on the Nintendo Switch hasn’t really started to show its age just yet, there’s no doubt Nintendo will want to step up the power for the Nintendo Switch 2.
Could a change in chipset be just what Nintendo needs? If so, the recent partnership between AMD and Samsung could be particularly interesting.
What Hardware Does The Nintendo Switch Currently Use?
Released back in 2017, the Nintendo Switch uses an Nvidia Tegra X1 chip which is based on Nvidia’s Maxwell architecture. The thing is, this architecture was introduced all the way back in 2014 and was succeeded by not one, but two different architectures with a third on the way.
This poses a couple of interesting questions, could we see Nintendo opt for a newer Nvidia architecture such as Pascal, Turing, or even the upcoming Ampere? Or, would it make more sense for Nintendo to try something completely new and look towards an AMD solution?
AMD And Samsung Join Forces
Around a year ago, both AMD and Samsung joined forces in a strategic partnership to work on low power, high-performance mobile graphics solutions. Now, the Nintendo Switch is above and beyond what we’d see on any mobile phone but that doesn’t mean it might not be able to benefit.
With it looking like Nvidia won’t be working on the Tegra X1 anytime soon, Nintendo could find that Nvidia doesn’t quite have the technology they need – unless they have already started producing it in secret that is.
AMD and Samsung’s tech has appeared to be a bit overkill for mobile devices at the moment with a leak showing the RDNA-Exynos chip offering up to 190% performance to the Adreno 650 found in Samsung Galaxy S20 smartphones. This could mean them looking to utilize this chip in other types of mobile hardware such as the Nintendo Switch. That would still mean sticking with the approach of a well-optimised, wide-range serving chips for the mobile phone market.
Why Might Nintendo Use AMD?
Nintendo will need a good reason to make the big switch to AMD and this could be based on AMD’s RDNA architecture.
AMD’s Navi Radeon graphics cards may not quite blow Nvidia GeForce cards out of the water, but they’re still an impressive series of cards. The AMD cards are built on the 7nm process which is also used in its new Zen 2 Ryzen 3000 series of processors.
It wouldn’t be wild to assume that AMD could bring that performance to mobile chip graphics – especially if they have Samsung on board too.
A joint venture between AMD and Samsung could help produce a powerful new Switch with better battery efficiency, something which fans of the console will definitely appreciate.
It’s hard to tell what the AMD-Samsung partnership will result in, but there are all sorts of exciting possibilities that we will be on the lookout for. Of course, all this is pure speculation and perhaps a dose of wishful thinking but it would certainly be an interesting possibility.
What are your thoughts on AMD and Samsung potentially joining the Nintendo Switch world? Is it a partnership you’d like to see or are you an Nvidia fan through and through? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.