@KevinSelder I believe you found the reason why already. They don't need to sell millions of machines at a cheaper than production cost to sell their ecosystem, because they have a monopoly in the PC space. They're gonna be the preferred store either way. And they can't see the point of loosing money, if it doesn't bring any tangible advantage.
@Granadico I totally get your frustration, battery life on modern handhelds is a step backward compared to the GBA days. However, the short battery life on the Switch 2 isn't actually because the hardware is 'power hungry' or inefficient. It's because Nintendo chose a physically very small battery.
The Switch 2 only has a 5,220 mAh (19.3 Wh) battery. To put that into perspective, it's actually smaller than the battery inside many normal smartphones today—especially Asian flagships like the Xiaomi 15 Pro / Ultra, which pack massive 6,000 mAh cells into a tiny chassis.
If you look at PC handhelds, they are on a completely different level: a standard ROG Ally has double the capacity (40 Wh), and the ROG Ally X has four times the capacity (80 Wh).
So the system is actually incredibly efficient for what it does. Nintendo just sacrificed battery capacity to keep the console thin and relatively light. To counterbalance the actual large footprint, I suppose.
@Pesky_wabbit I agree. I switched to the alienware aw2725q from the asus xg27aqdmg, and it's plenty sharp for my taste. I'm overall very happy with the switch because the display is noticeably sharper and the full-color uniformity is absolutely perfect compared to the WOLED, I did lose some overall brightness though. More importantly, I've noticed a hit in the depth of blacks and dark colors in general when there is ambient light in the room, even if it's just coming from a simple window with a curtain. I already knew about the purple tint issue beforehand, but I honestly hoped it would be less noticeable in my setup.
@MattGPT Interesting point on the base consoles. I wonder if this will be the first time we see a significant gap between the Series X and PS5. Xbox has native INT8 support baked into its RDNA 2 implementation, but PS5 doesn't. If FSR 4 relies on that, the Series X could theoretically run the algorithm more efficiently while the PS5 deals with the emulation overhead.
A new laptop is not on my to buy list. But, I'm definitely interested in discovering the impact Nvidia would make by entering the ARM on Windows market. Will it deliver what Apple did by ditching Intel based x86 chips for their in house M series ones? I hope so. I believe it would benefit the newer gaming handhelds' generations, as well.
I’m relatively new to the PC world. My previous build of mid-2023 was actually the first one I've ever built; after switching from an Xbox Series S. I upgraded about a year ago, moving from a Ryzen 5 3600 paired with an RTX 2080 to an i5-12600K and an RTX 3080. I kept my 16GB of DDR4 because I didn't feel like I needed, or need, any more than that amount and, as usual, bought everything used online. Seeing the current prices, I’m so glad I made the jump when I did!
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Re: Valve Would "Love to Make the Steam Machine More Affordable" - Just Don't Expect It "Any Time Soon"
@KevinSelder I believe you found the reason why already. They don't need to sell millions of machines at a cheaper than production cost to sell their ecosystem, because they have a monopoly in the PC space. They're gonna be the preferred store either way. And they can't see the point of loosing money, if it doesn't bring any tangible advantage.
Re: Nintendo Switch 2 - Year One: The Digital Foundry Verdict
@Granadico I totally get your frustration, battery life on modern handhelds is a step backward compared to the GBA days.
However, the short battery life on the Switch 2 isn't actually because the hardware is 'power hungry' or inefficient. It's because Nintendo chose a physically very small battery.
The Switch 2 only has a 5,220 mAh (19.3 Wh) battery. To put that into perspective, it's actually smaller than the battery inside many normal smartphones today—especially Asian flagships like the Xiaomi 15 Pro / Ultra, which pack massive 6,000 mAh cells into a tiny chassis.
If you look at PC handhelds, they are on a completely different level: a standard ROG Ally has double the capacity (40 Wh), and the ROG Ally X has four times the capacity (80 Wh).
So the system is actually incredibly efficient for what it does. Nintendo just sacrificed battery capacity to keep the console thin and relatively light. To counterbalance the actual large footprint, I suppose.
Re: LG and Samsung Announce Two Very Different OLED Innovations on the Same Day
@Pesky_wabbit I agree. I switched to the alienware aw2725q from the asus xg27aqdmg, and it's plenty sharp for my taste.
I'm overall very happy with the switch because the display is noticeably sharper and the full-color uniformity is absolutely perfect compared to the WOLED, I did lose some overall brightness though. More importantly, I've noticed a hit in the depth of blacks and dark colors in general when there is ambient light in the room, even if it's just coming from a simple window with a curtain. I already knew about the purple tint issue beforehand, but I honestly hoped it would be less noticeable in my setup.
Re: AMD FSR 4.1 Now Coming to Older Radeon 7000 GPUs in July After Radeon 9000 Debut, With Radeon 6000 Support Coming in 2027
@MattGPT I hadn't thought about that but it would be cool to see it tested.
Re: Photos of Microsoft's Xbox Cloud Gaming Controller Have Leaked Online Via Brazil
Looks like a dog bone, kind of cute though.
Re: AMD FSR 4.1 Now Coming to Older Radeon 7000 GPUs in July After Radeon 9000 Debut, With Radeon 6000 Support Coming in 2027
@MattGPT Interesting point on the base consoles. I wonder if this will be the first time we see a significant gap between the Series X and PS5. Xbox has native INT8 support baked into its RDNA 2 implementation, but PS5 doesn't. If FSR 4 relies on that, the Series X could theoretically run the algorithm more efficiently while the PS5 deals with the emulation overhead.
Re: Nvidia Is Making Laptops Now: N1/N1X Leak Shows a 128GB Monster Derived From Their DGX Spark Desktop AI Workhorse
A new laptop is not on my to buy list. But, I'm definitely interested in discovering the impact Nvidia would make by entering the ARM on Windows market. Will it deliver what Apple did by ditching Intel based x86 chips for their in house M series ones? I hope so. I believe it would benefit the newer gaming handhelds' generations, as well.
Re: The Best Time to Build a Gaming PC Was a Year Ago, but the Second-Best Time Is Now
I’m relatively new to the PC world. My previous build of mid-2023 was actually the first one I've ever built; after switching from an Xbox Series S.
I upgraded about a year ago, moving from a Ryzen 5 3600 paired with an RTX 2080 to an i5-12600K and an RTX 3080. I kept my 16GB of DDR4 because I didn't feel like I needed, or need, any more than that amount and, as usual, bought everything used online. Seeing the current prices, I’m so glad I made the jump when I did!