According to a Bloomberg report, the next Nintendo Switch will use a new Nvidia system-on-disk with support for DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling). The chip is said to offer improvements to the performance of GPUs and CPUs, with DLSS being Nintendo’s solution for displaying higher resolution images on 4K TVs.
DLSS was introduced with Nvidia’s RTX 20 series GPUs, based on the Turing architecture. It uses neural networks to reconstruct higher quality game images in real time. Different versions of the technology have relied on the tensor cores of the GPU and the training of the AI on specific games, but the result is that you can deliver a game with a lower traditional resolution and a much higher output with minimal performance penalties get.
This makes it theoretically well-suited for the Switch, which often struggles to get its own resolutions of 720p in manual mode or 1080p on a TV screen. It’s also not surprising to hear that the new Switch needs a brand new chip design from Nvidia; the original Switch used a Tegra X1, which was announced in 2015 before Nvidia stopped producing general purpose SoCs. With the success of the Switch, however, it’s undoubtedly worth delivering a new custom design.
Bloomberg has already reported that the new Switch will have a 7-inch OLED screen. Today’s report states that the device is planned for this holiday season.