The Super Nintendo Switch rumors are back thanks to a new report from Bloomberg. The Bloomberg story claims that Nintendo is acquiring new 7-inch 720p OLED displays from Samsung for the updated device. And then the system will target 4K in docked mode.
This joins a long line of rumors regarding a Switch update that would bolster the hardware’s capabilities. But how is it possible for the Switch to render games in 4K? After all, current hardware struggles to run at 1080p.
One possibility is that Nintendo will release a Switch with an ultra-powerful GPU from Nvidia. The 2021 Switch models still use the Tegra X1 design that first debuted in 2015. And since then, Nvidia has not only reduced the size of its chips, but has also introduced multiple new generations of architectures.
DLSS is Nvidia’s magic image reconstruction technology. It is capable of taking a 1080p image and converting it to a 4K image without losing details. In some cases, the deep learning model is so effective that DLSS 4K includes more detail than native 4K.
Nvidia has another cleverly called AI enhancement technique called AI Upscaling. The company uses this to make 480p images look crystal-clear 1080p and even 4K on its Nvidia Shield set-top box.
Another possible solution is something like an additional post-processing chip. Nintendo could build an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) in the Switch base that specifically handles video signal upscaling and upscaling for 4K. Something like this is already possible with devices from a company called Marseille.
Its MClassic dongle can scale a 720p or 1080p image to 1440p while adding contextual smoothing, color enhancement, and image sharpening.