Digital Foundry discovered from developers that the Nintendo Switch OLED dev kits feature 8GB of RAM (random access memory).
The development kits for the current Nintendo Switch models include 6GB of RAM. Though it should be noted that all consumer /retail Nintendo Switch units are and will continue to have only 4GB of RAM.
The team at Digital Foundry also points out that it is unlikely that we will get a just slightly more powerful mid-generation Nintendo Switch refresh.
Digital Foundry – Nintendo Switch OLED Highlights
So, for Nintendo and indeed game developers, the Switch OLED model is very much business as usual, to the point where the platform holder is telling game makers that no new development kits are essential for making games and there are no new technical requirements that require changing standard Switch iconography in-game to accommodate the new model.
On top of that, games running on Switch OLED have no idea they are running on anything other than a standard unit – Nintendo’s developer documents reveal that there is no way for their games to query the system, to figure out whether they are running on Switch OLED or not. With that said, the firm does recognise the need for developers to test their games on the new screen.
With that in mind, a new ADEV development model is being made available to co-exist alongside the existing SDEV and EDEV versions. For reasons undisclosed by the Nintendo, this machine ships with 8GB of onboard memory compared to the 6GB in the other development models and the 4GB of all retail units.
With the Switch approaching four-and-a-half years in the market, it now seems almost certain that Nintendo will not deploy a mid-generation refresh in the mould of the DSi or the New 3DS and its offshoot models. With prior handhelds, the platform holder introduced new specs and the ability for developers to tap into extra horsepower, even if developer take-up for the extra power ended up being rather slight. That does not seem to be the case for its most modern machine.
There has been disappointment that Switch OLED isn’t Switch Pro – or features any performance advantages at all – and that is a shame because the longer this generation continues, the more obvious the machine’s challenges as a docked home console become.
I wonder how long the Nintendo Switch lifecycle is going to be, don’t get me wrong the console is great. But the gap with others is only becoming bigger and that is becoming more of an issue for cross platform titles.
