One of the problems of the Nintendo Switch is its lack of performance, especially when it is not connected to the Dock, where you can see how many games lower their resolution to worrying levels. With both 3DS and DS we saw improved versions of both in the form of New 3DS and DSi respectively, which led NVIDIA to get down to business developing a new chip for the future iteration of the console, however, for those of Santa Clara things did not turn out as expected.
The divorce of Nintendo and NVIDIA
Let’s be honest, the Switch Pro does not exist as a commercial product, but it has been announced with great fanfare by means of the prestige of Bloomberg during all this time so that in the end everything is summarized in a version of the current Switch, but with an OLED screen, a disappointment for those who expected a console with higher performance.
The reality is that the high sales of the hybrid console have made Nintendo very comfortable with the current model and does not want to know anything about an improved iteration of its system despite the fact that there are games in its catalog with really poor performance. However, NVIDIA has developed an SoC all this time for said laptop.
From Santa Clara they have named said SoC as Diana and it is a variant of the Tegra Orin T239, however, it lacks the units for the automotive sector and has the same configuration as the GeForce MX570, since it is composed of 2048 organized CUDA cores. in 16 SM coming from the RTX 30 architecture. Therefore, this SoC has support for DLSS and Ray Tracing. As for CPU it will come with 8 Cortex A78 cores.
NVIDIA goes its own way
The termination of relations between NVIDIA and Nintendo and the interest of the former in promoting ARM-based gaming together with the appearance of the Steam Deck has been enough to inspire them to pursue new horizons in the form of creating their own portable video game console. which they have baptized as NVIDIA Play Now.
It’s about a hybrid system just like the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck, with the ability to connect the console to the TV via a dock. However it has some improvements such as a Full HD display It would lack a slot for game cards, since it would have an NVMe SSD to store them.
Regarding peripheral support, the console will be compatible with external control knobs to be able to play from the television, as well as with mice and keyboards.
NVIDIA Play Now will have its own titles
NVIDIA’s Play Now strategy is based on two fronts, the first of which is convincing developers to make the jump from x86 to ARM, so we’re going to see a lot of conversions from PC games to ARM. new ARM-based platform. As for the second front, it has to do with GeForce Now and it will help console users to play games that have not been ported yet or those that do not have possession through Cloud Gaming.
The console’s operating system will be based on Linux, but with a proprietary interface reminiscent of the current GeForce Experience and GeForce Now. From there we can load the games, either the versions in the cloud or native to the console. Facing the game in the cloud the console will take advantage of DLSS for higher performance and lower latency when rendering at a lower resolution on the server and scaling at the user console.
To finish Play Now will not allow the installation of other operating systems and its price is expected to range between 799 and 999 dollars. Its launch? Sometime next year, being presented at CES 2022 on January 4.
Clarification: Although it is not impossible for NVIDIA to launch its own portable console, this news is an innocent.
