2024-04-10
But performance takes a massive hit
Talk of potential tech specs for 'Switch 2' has been floating about for so long by this point, it seems that the whole thing is going around in circles. Will Nintendo's follow-up be able to run 4K or won't it? It's something that we have heard time and time again, and now one modder has taken things into their own hands to make their current Switch hit these resolution dreams (thanks, WCCFTech).
The modder behind the YouTube account naga has been busy at work tweaking the specs of their Switch OLED, modding the console to swap out its standard RAM modules for two higher frequency 4GB modules, effectively doubling its power in the process
Many Switch games appear to be hard-capped to 4GB of RAM, rendering the mod ineffective, however, naga was able to get The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom to make the most of the additions, pushing the game to run at 4K resolution thanks to a good amount of overclocking.
We should point out that 4K Zelda is all well and good, but even with the additional power, the console mod tanked the game's performance to a near-unplayable state — you thought Korok Forest was choppy before, just wait. We have added a video which shows the modded console in action at the bottom of this article and naga has also uploaded a video which shows the modding process itself, for those interested.
Of course, this isn't something that we will be trying ourselves (and we'd advise that you don't either, looking at the performance results) but it does beg an interesting question about whether Nintendo will actually pull through and achieve such technical wizardry for whatever console comes next. Rumours out of last year's GamesCom suggested that the follow-up was shown to developers behind closed doors at the event, with the demo reportedly running Breath of the Wild at 4K 60FPS.
If the latest rumours are to be believed, however, a 2025 release is looking much more likely than our lofty hopes of a launch this year. We'll keep waiting for an official announcement, we suppose.
Source: Nintendolife.com
