How a “Switch Pro” leak may point to Nvidia’s megaton mobile-gaming plans

Enlarge / Nvidia is already tied heavily to the existing Nintendo Switch, since it includes the company's Tegra X1 SoC. But recent rumors make us wonder about Nvidia's potential push into mobile 3D-rendering dominance. (credit: Aurich Lawson / Ars Technica)

Earlier this week, Bloomberg Japan's report on a rumored Nintendo Switch "Pro" version exploded with a heavy-duty allegation: all those rumors about a "4K" Switch might indeed be true after all. The latest report on Tuesday teased a vague bump in specs like clock speed and memory, which could make the Switch run better... but jumping all the way to 4K resolution would need a massive bump from the 2016 system's current specs.

What made the report so interesting was that it had a technical answer to that seemingly impossible rendering challenge. Nvidia, Nintendo's exclusive SoC provider for existing Switch models, will remain on board for this refreshed model, Bloomberg said, and that contribution will include the tantalizing, Nvidia-exclusive "upscaling" technology known as Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS).

Since that report went live, I've done some thinking, and I can't shake a certain feeling. Nvidia has a much bigger plan for the future of average users' computing than they've publicly let on.

Read 23 remaining paragraphs | Comments