The Nintendo Switch might see itself less powerful than Sony’s already three-year-old console!

VentureBeat writes about how the new Nintendo platform won’t utilize the recent Pascal design but instead, it’d go for the Maxwell format. The Pascal isn’t ready for the Tegra chip, which will make the Switch similar to the NVidia Shield. However, the Maxwell requires more power and less cooling, which will help Nintendo lower the cost of the new platform.

Nintendo might be preparing for virtual reality as well: on the NeoGAF forums, a new patent surfaced that shows how Nintendo might provide a similar VR solution like Google’s Daydream or Samsung’s Gear VR. It might not be a good idea, though. Why?

The Switch‘s processing power will be around 1 million teraflops (TFLOP), which is behind even the PlayStation 4’s 1.8 million, not to mention the PlayStation 4 Pro‘s 4.2 million.

Apparently, Nintendo wanted to go for the Pascal, but they had bad timing, not to mention that they are afraid of their rivals releasing a similar solution. Nintendo also considered the Drive PX2 Tegra chip, but it would have required major redesigning to implement the 4K/60FPS-capable chip.

The current Tegra chip, however, will allow Nintendo to overclock it, which will likely be how the docked Switch would get higher resolution. The developers also get the chance to display the game on 540p in handheld mode, with an upscale to 720p.

With the Switch, Nintendo also wanted to make sure that the Unity engine is supported, which would make porting much easier than what the Wii U had to offer. As the Unreal Engine is already supported, the big N doesn’t have worry about that.

January 12/13 is still far away.