The Nintendo Switch’s hardware, particularly its 4GB of memory, makes running modern games challenging. This limitation impacts the quality of games such as “The Witcher 3,” which appears much less detailed than its PC counterpart.
Modders have been testing software and hardware modifications to explore the potential of more powerful hardware. They’ve successfully installed an Ubuntu 18.04 Linux operating system, which offers more capabilities than the native OS. The built-in NVIDIA Tegra X1 SoC, with its 256 CUDA cores, has difficulty running modern games. However, new upscaling technologies and more efficient translation layers like Wine are making gaming on this hardware more feasible.
A modder upgraded the Switch’s 4GB memory to 8GB, making many games finally “playable” or at least able to “run” on the handheld console. For instance, “Tomb Raider: Legend” performs relatively well, while “Final Fantasy VII Remake” and “Grand Theft Auto V” hover around 20 FPS. “Fallout: New Vegas” can maintain 60 FPS indoors, but frame rates drop below 20 FPS in outdoor areas.
Upgrading the Switch’s memory to 8GB might not be worth it because its successor is expected to have 12GB of RAM and a new GPU architecture, offering improved performance. However, since this concerns unofficial gamers, modders will first need to determine how to install third-party software on the new hardware, which is probably just a matter of time.
Images: naga
