According to a new rumor, NVIDIA is stopping the production of the Tegra X1 chip used in the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite and this may be due to the Nintendo Switch Pro being close to release.
A Source within NVIDIA spoke to Gamereactor to claim that NVIDIA is halting the production on the Tegra X1 chipset used in the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite this year. Much else was not shared by the source but the stopping production most probably means the starting of production of the chipset that we may see in the Nintendo Switch Pro, which has been rumored for a long time.
On the other hand, there has been no word on halting of production of the chipset from Nintendo. The Switch was first released four years ago and it is still selling well. It seems very likely that a new chip of some kind will be required to continue producing more Switch units.
And that is where the long-rumored Nintendo Switch Pro comes in. The upcoming Nintendo Switch, codenamed as ‘Aula’ according to ResetERA forums will reportedly feature a new OLED screen and the new Switch will be powered by a Mariko SoC. According to the current information, ‘Aula’ will support both handhelds and docked mode and won’t be a docked-only version.
The leaks have been detailed by SciresM on the ResetERA forums which we have listed below.
Nintendo actually is working on a new model with upgraded display stuff and has been for ~1.5-2 years. I personally believe it’s 4K given the signs I’m seeing in the firmware, but that’s not confirmed yet and could be wrong.
The new hardware is codenamed Aula, it’s using a Mariko SoC. There’s a bunch of references to it in code (atmosphere supports the new display already in theory).
Aula explicitly supports handheld mode. It is not docked only; that’s calcio, which seems like it’s for internal-only/never releasing since Calcio has no gamecard slot and no battery.
The tablet itself definitely has an upgraded display, I don’t know if it’s 4K. Aula has firmware support some Realtek chip that advertises itself as a “4K UHD multimedia SoC”, too, hence my belief it’s 4K. That chip might be inside a new dock and not inside the tablet, though, there’s no way to tell from the firmware code yet.
However, NVIDIA may also be just stopping the production of the Tegra X1 chipset and refreshing it with a few minor tweaks that won’t result in a significant performance boost. We will have to wait for more information regarding the Nintendo Switch Pro.
