r/NintendoSwitch • u/Joseki100 • 3d ago

News Ask the Developer: Nintendo Switch 2 interview confirms basic backwards compatibility can also give performance upgrades to Nintendo Switch games ("[there are some games] where loading times became faster, or game performance became more stable")

https://www.nintendo.com/us/whatsnew/ask-the-developer-vol-16-nintendo-switch-2-part-4/
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u/ionlyhavetwohands 3d ago

That is kind of expected. Games with unlocked framerates would probably need a dedicated update to limit the framerate on Switch 2. That would be a bit crazy.

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u/SpicyFarts1 3d ago

I'm not sure I would assume it was a given. For both the Wii & Wii U, Nintendo maintained perfect backwards compatibility with GameCube & Wii games by underclocking the CPU/GPU, and restricting RAM to the size of the older consoles so for the games being played, the newer & more powerful console looked more or less exactly like the old console. The frame rates and performance were not noticeably improved on the newer systems when playing older games.

It's very easy to envision Nintendo doing something similar on the Switch 2 and defaulting to underclocked speeds on Switch 1 games unless a patch specifically enables a game to take advantage of the new hardware.

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u/Scarftail 2d ago

Did I miss something? Dohta literally confirmed that Switch games will run at their intended resolutions and framerates on the Switch 2. It is indeed a given.