Writing two resolutions makes sense, as the former could be the goal for many developers when docked and the latter in handheld mode, but it’s not clear that the big N’s new hardware will achieve that.
The editors of Digital Foundry answered a fan question about the Nintendo Switch 2 in their weekly podcast. What resolution will the Japanese company’s new (as yet unconfirmed) console target? According to the editors, Nvidia’s upscaling technology, DLSS, will be widely used by developers, as it will be a mobile (laptop, portable) chip that won’t be as powerful as other consoles on the market. This will have a small “cost”.
Based on the current version of DLSS, the upscaler will use either 720p or 900p resolution in handheld mode. The higher the resolution, the more “cost” the DLSS will need on the hardware. 900p and 1080p are likely to be suggested for PlayStation 4/Xbox One ports, and 1440p when docked. For current-gen titles, the Switch 2 will obviously struggle more, so developers will need to better balance output resolution and graphics settings. As a result, the resolution in handheld mode may be 720p or even lower, and it won’t be very high in docked mode for third-party titles. For first-party games, high N can target higher resolution and simpler content to keep development costs low.
Balancing will be very important for games running Unreal Engine 5 on Nintendo Switch 2. At low resolutions, they look a bit ugly because Lumen, for example, is quite noisy. Therefore, these games could opt for a higher native resolution in exchange for a lower kimeenet resolution, or they could significantly reduce the graphics settings. A lower resolution wouldn’t be bad for the display, though, since it won’t be as big.
The console’s capabilities also depend on whether the Switch 2’s DLSS is different from the PC’s. If so, it could be interesting to note that No Man’s Sky used a lighter AMD FSR 2 in the Switch port, so if Nvidia makes a DLSS light optimized for the Switch 2, it could be useful for both parties.
The Switch successor will most likely not be announced by Nintendo this year.
Source: WCCFTech
