Nvidia reportedly plans to power more upcoming gaming handhelds than just Nintendo Switch 2

[Redaktion]

Analyst Dan Nystedt recently broke the news that Nvidia is reportedly working with MediaTek to co-develop an ARM AI processor for PCs. A new follow-up rumor suggests that the pair are also working to release a gaming handheld SoC. If this stands true, we may see more upcoming Nvidia-powered handhelds besides the rumored Nintendo Switch 2.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Nvidia-reportedly-plans-to-power-more-upcoming-gaming-handhelds-than-just-Nintendo-Switch-2.838094.0.html

[George]

As expected...

It might be worth noting (guessing!) what the frustration with Nintendo is?

While the Switch has arguably an order of magnitude longer run time (on battery) then the AMD & Intel based handhelds, I can imagine Nintendo wanting to scale down performance considerably to preserve battery life. (wherein Nvidia would rather wish to showcase leading edge performance)

Granted the AMD & Intel offerings are x86 based it would be interesting to have 'Windows for ARM' running with a decent Nvidia iGPU in a handheld.

It might open the door for the next generation of consoles being ARM based?

One wonders.

[Hope then Cope]

It might be worth noting (guessing!) what the frustration with Nintendo is?

If I were to take a guess:
a) Nvidia offered a much more powerful & efficient SoC for the Switch 2 for only slightly more but Nintendo said no.

Previously when the original Switch launched it really had no peers or competitors - so it didn't matter as much. But now there's Apple releasing triple A games on iPhone, success of steam deck, AMD building increasingly more powerful iGPUs in their mobile APUs such as used by ROG Ally and future strix successor handhelds, Intel working on lunar lake, the continued interest by multiple partners/OEMs in building future successor handhelds in a new and growing market- Valve, ASUS, Lenovo, MSI etc.

b) they still aren't taking orders of the custom silicon Tegra Orin chip that was completely years ago. Nintendo is just sitting there, refusing to take orders and keeps on selling original switch h/w based on Tegra X1. At this point the arch is so old Nvidia probably does not want to even produce it anymore and is forced to keep such factories online solely pretty much only for Nintendo. They probably feel it was an almost wasted effort investing all that time, money and resources for R&D on custom silicon only for it to not really show up anywhere in timely manner.

Also makes Nvidia look bad and they don't like losing, at least not on their home turf (which used to be gaming). But Nintendo have delayed it so much that by the time it releases it will almost put Nvidia in a bad showing or light. People may think Nvidia isn't as premium of graphics brand anymore, at least not when it comes to mobile graphics for handhelds.

In all honesty tho, Nvidia is making so much from data center AI atm, that I don't think they're too worried or concerned and this is largely just gossip that isn't true. They're making way more money than Nintendo from non-gaming revenue alone. Could completely quit gaming graphics division for 5 years and then come back with the trillions they've now.

But I guess better to be safe than sorry. Nvidia does not want to make the same mistake as Intel. AI bubble won't last forever. There's only so many RTX 4090 buyers out there and due to current economic conditions not everyone is comfortable dropping $2.5k on laptops just to game. There is a massive potential market for <$699 device to run pc games well, which Nintendo isn't catering to and Nvidia sees it.

[George]

It might be worth noting (guessing!) what the frustration with Nintendo is?

But I guess better to be safe than sorry. Nvidia does not want to make the same mistake as Intel. AI bubble won't last forever. There's only so many RTX 4090 buyers out there and due to current economic conditions not everyone is comfortable dropping $2.5k on laptops just to game. There is a massive potential market for <$699 device to run pc games well, which Nintendo isn't catering to and Nvidia sees it.

Agreed.

Nvidia is currently winning in the AI and desktop graphics departments and naturally could branch out into the ever expanding handheld gaming market.

Experimentation with high efficiency & high performance GPU's can be leveraged in their other markets. Since coupling with an x86 CPU is mostly locked down to AMD/Intel the obvious choice is to partner with an ARM company.

I guess we could only dream/wish that Snapdragon X Elite had an Nvidia iGPU die on it however will have to wait and see what might be forth coming. :)