There have been numerous rumors about a possible Switch Pro, a new higher-powered machine to iterate on the Nintendo Switch, over the last few months, but very few firm details. Now thanks to Bloomberg, the leading source for Switch Pro information, we can throw some actual details into the mix. Like the original Switch, the next iteration is once again using Nvidia’s tech, but it is now leaning heavily on technologies like their proprietary resolution software.
“The new Switch iteration will support Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling, or DLSS,” Bloomberg reports, “a novel rendering technology that uses artificial intelligence to deliver higher-fidelity graphics more efficiently. That will allow the console, which is also set for an OLED display upgrade, to reproduce game visuals at 4K quality when plugged into a TV, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plan is not public.”
Essentially, DLSS allows the game to render at a low resolution internally to better match the hardware’s capabilities and then uses AI learning to make it look like the output resolution is rendering at a much higher resolution. If you’ve never witnessed this technology on a PC, it’s not entirely perfect, but it does an incredibly impressive job of fooling you into thinking it’s outputting a native resolution.
What this means is that Switch games, which have been struggling for a bit in terms of resolution and framerate, can render at a much lower resolution than a launch Switch would and re-render it for docked players. This would give benefits to things like framerate, because resolution is no longer acting as an anchor to the game’s performance.
Of course, this is also all completely theoretical for the Switch, as the Switch Pro still only exists in the realm of rumors right now. Nintendo has yet to comment on the rumors and likely won’t until or unless the damn thing gets revealed.
[Source: Bloomberg]
