Raploz
Member
I think it's more likely to be Hopper than Xavier.
Nintendo using Hopper would allow Nvidia to have it's Multi-Chip Module solution optimized by developers, giving it a huge advantage over AMD's and Intel's implementations.
And according to Nvidia a MCM design only requires 6 months from spec to tape-out.
Either way I see it as being a MCM whether it's Hopper or a MCM using Ampere.
Nintendo could also could save money as a result of increased die yields; and it may allow Nintendo to do 3D without the glasses which they have been working on, by rendering different pixels from different vantage points, using cherkerboatd tendering, although that would likely require 4 MCM chips.
Nvidia added Multi-GPU checkerboard rendering to its GeForce drivers last year as
discussed in this article.
"You might remember that Checkerboard Rendering became popular after its use in Rainbow Six: Siege and then as a staple of PlayStation 4 Pro's 4K games. The difference is that the technique was used there to display even pixels on one frame and odd pixels on another frame to save performance; for multi-GPU configurations, the goal is to allow one graphics card to draw even pixels and the other to take care of odd pixels, all in the same frame."
https://wccftech.com/multi-gpu-checkerboard-rendering-silently-added-by-nvidia/
Developers were able to get almost perfect multi-gpu scaling in Sniper Elite 4 with 2080 ti using Nvlink, as shown in this Gamers Nexus video.
Hopper? No way, if we assume Nintendo is already telling devs to make 4k ready games there's no way they could get a Hopper GPU ready by 2021. Nvidia has just launched Ampere. Maybe in another console in 2023-2024 or so, but not for a Switch Pro. And even by that time, knowing Nintendo, they'd rather use an older and cheaper to produce arch than use anything bleeding edge.
there is absolutely no need for it to be a handheld, they already have a handheld in switch lite.
make this is a docked only console. 4 tflops. pair it with an 8 core 16 thread gpu and ssd and put in some tensor cores to make this 1080p console into a 4k dlss console.
this really shouldnt be that hard. they need to make a play for that market microsoft is going for and that means they need all next gen games running on this bitch.
They could probably do that if they were to release a brand new console, but for a Switch upgrade I don't think that would be possible. They have to make sure at least most of the titles would still be compatible with the original Switch, as they would still be part of the same family of consoles. There's no way developers would be able to downscale a game made for 16 cores and a 4TF GPU to the original console. If they do indeed upgrade the Switch, it won't be a generational leap for them, just a minor upgrade supporting better resolutions and the same games, just like Xbox One X and PS4 Pro.