A move that comes along with an AMD announcement that could confirm a bit of everything
With the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of Kingdom just around the corner, the latest trailers for the game show something: the Switch has reached its graphical peak. Therefore, talk of a possible Nintendo Switch 2 has resurfaced. But, a new move by Nintendo has raised suspicions.
Nintendo, specifically the Nintendo European Research & Development division, has announced a new job position. They are looking for an engineer/scientist with experience in new hardware development. Although it seems unlikely, AMD has also announced a new series of APUs that could confirm the suspicions.
New job offer = new hardware development?
Nintendo, of the big three gaming companies, is one of the most secretive. Despite leaks of their games, when it comes to their consoles they are an unshakable fortress. However, by European law, job offers made by the Nintendo European Research & Development division must be made public.
However, important positions are not usually advertised by this division. However, in some cases, these offers are also made public. And this is exactly what happened this week. Nintendo is looking for someone for an Engineer/Scientist. They are looking for someone with knowledge of Real-time rendering, High-performance implementation, Low-level optimization, and C/C++ development.
But, the most surprising part of the job offer was the following “The goal will be to aim for and go beyond state-of-the-art solutions in these fields, targeting current and next-generation Nintendo platforms. It will be necessary to collaborate with game developers to bring new technologies to the market”. This would confirm that this person, or persons, will be part of the development of a new platform at some point.
While this does not confirm that we will have a Nintendo Switch 2 this or next year, there was another announcement that seems to be orchestrated to create buzz. But, it really has been a fluke that manages to give more information about the future of a new Nintendo console.
Ryzen Z1 Series
AMD, after the arrival of the Ryzen, has worked hard to achieve a smaller difference with Nvidia in the graphic aspect. Even companies like Sony and Xbox, have relied on AMD for this new generation of consoles. Not only for lower costs but also for the graphics power that these APUs offer.
The same goes for all the handheld consoles that have come out so far such as the Steam Deck and all the like. So AMD has been focused on launching a new series of APUs that allow better performance. Since the Van Gogh APUs already demonstrate small cracks that ask for better performance in certain games.
Therefore, AMD after the announcement of the new ROG Ally, has announced its new series of APUs: AMD Ryzen Z1 Series. An APU that will mount this new ROG console and offers up to 1.5 times the performance of the Van Gogh APUs. So it would mean that coveted 4K 60fps or 2K 120FPS that we so much crave for handheld PCs.
Could Nintendo Switch 2 be powered with Ryzen Z1 APUs?
But, what does Nintendo have to do with all this? Months ago, AMD announced that it would be the supplier of all graphics chips for video game consoles. Which could include Nintendo after NVIDIA’s announcement of leaving aside APUs for consoles.
It is because of this that this new announcement by AMD could confirm that Nintendo is developing its new console. Since this APU would offer the necessary performance. Especially if we compare it with the current hardware of the Nintendo Switch. That barely achieves 60fps at 1080p.
However, nothing has been fully confirmed by both companies. But, possibly at the end of 2023 or early 2024, we will know already confirmed information about this new console.
