With the Nintendo Switch Lite on the way and especially with the new revision of the standard model now popping up in stores around the world, there seems to be an awful lot of chatter going around regarding the console's performance - and how it could potentially improve.

Now, we already know that the new models will benefit from a new version of Nvidia's Tegra X1 chip, but it appears that this will only be used to improve battery life, with no extra juice being awarded to game performance. So can the Switch's performance really be improved at all? And why has Nintendo chosen to prioritise improved battery life over a boost in power?

Well, the latter makes sense for a console designed to be taken on the go, but to answer the former question, we need to hand it over to the folks at Digital Foundry. Rich Leadbetter has been investigating the effects of overclocking a Nintendo Switch using SysClk, a tool which can push the Switch's processor to run at a higher speed than intended - you probably don't need us to tell you, but using a tool like this is strictly against Nintendo's user policies and would likely result in your warranty being void at the very least.

We won't spoil too much before letting you dive in, but it appears that the potential is there for the Switch to run a number of games in an improved state. The increases in frame rate achieved by overclocking aren't exactly mind-blowing, but they would be welcome nonetheless as a standard feature. Perhaps the power of the new chip could be distributed differently in a theoretical Switch Pro model?

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