Testing on the Nintendo Switch 2 display has determined why you might be seeing some incredibly blurry gameplay

Here's Why Your Nintendo Switch 2 Display Looks So Blurry

Testing on the Nintendo Switch 2 display has determined why you might be seeing some incredibly blurry gameplay

To put that into context, Hardware Unboxed compared this to an average LCD panel you'll find in entry-level displays today. These were tested in the same manner and averaged out to a response time of 6.3ms. Perhaps the most damning was the comparison to the original Switch's LCD, a display that is more than eight years old, that presented a response time nearly twice as fast a 21.3ms. Digital Foundry noted the same issues with the display in its extensive Nintendo Switch 2 review earlier this week, noting that, "The Switch 2 LCD has blurring characteristics that are easily worse than the 2017 Switch's display"

Why does a fast response time matter? With slower response times, it takes longer for the image on-screen to transition between new frames, which can lead to noticeable blurring with objects in motion. This is particularly bad when the Switch 2 is running games at 60fps, which thus far is the preferred frame rate of most first-party titles. To put it into perspective, it takes 16.67ms for a new frame to be rendered when running at 60Hz, but it takes the display twice as long to transition from one frame to the next, causing a significant bottleneck that reduces the impact of improved motion clarity that higher refresh rates provide. This would be just as bad, if not worse, in games making use of the full 120Hz the new display has to offer.

It's unclear why this is happening, but Hardware Unboxed offers a suggestion that Nintendo has decided to reduce an overdrive support for the display (which uses higher voltages to drive faster transitions) in the pursuit of better battery life. With a display that is brighter and larger, Nintendo might have potentially reduced its ability to transition faster as a tradeoff. Given that the Nintendo Switch 2 ships with a 19Wh battery, less than half of that found in Valve's Steam Deck, it's understandable why this concession might have been made. But considering how noticeable it can be once you've seen it, it could make portable play significantly less desirable until addressed, if it ever is.

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This story originally appeared on: GameSpot - Author:UK GAG