Switch 2: The technical specifications that Nintendo and Nvidia do not share

Nintendo has rarely come across the technical specifications of his consoles, whereby only a minimum of details indicated and – rightly so, some may say that concentrate on the games themselves. It makes sense to consider that the company left the console specifications with the Wii in 2006. The pattern continues with Switch 2 and its core processor, whereby only the Nvidia partnership has been confirmed and, in a broader sense, the fact that the new machine has both machine learning functions (hello, DLSS!) As well as hardware-ackeler-ray tracing. How much horsepower does the machine have? How does it compare to PlayStation 4 or Steam Deck, for example?

The truth is that we know a lot about the technological composition of the machine – even without official disclosure of Nintendo or Nvidia. The story begins on June 11, 2021, where the well -known PC Leaker Kopite7kimi discussed a chip called T239, which is apparently used from the T234 processor NVIDIA, which is used for the automotive industry and its own Jetson Nano Dev Kit. Since then, we have known from our own sources that T239 can share the same GPU architecture as T234 -which AMPERE architecture used by NVIDIA for its RTX 30 series graphics cards, but everything else is everything else. The deep learning accelerator and the ARM Cortex A78AE have disappeared, while the GPU from 2048 CUDA Core is jammed to 1536 cores. In the meantime, a 256-bit memory interface falls on 128-bit. The gigantic 455 mm2 T234 processor falls to around 200 mm2 – much larger than steam decks, but produced on a less demanding, less transistor -sighted process.

How do we know that these facts are true and apply to Switch 2? A combination of Linux open for T239 in combination with an Nvidia hack made it possible to put together an almost complete list of specifications for the chip on Reddit and the Famboards Forum. In the meantime, T239 itself was part of the Nvidia and Nintendo shipping, and confirmed that this is actually the Switch 2 processor, while the technology confirmed such as a file such as a file accelerator (the load on the CPU for the handling of assets that are traded in hot from the memory) are very play-based technologies that are just a different application for others have.

• 0:00:00 Introduction
• 0:01:11 News 1: Nvidia reveals Switch 2 tech
• 0:24:57 News 2: Switch 2 Follow-up: Display and streaming
• 0:34:42 News 3: Switch 2 Compare and Highlights: Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Hogwarts Legacy, Elden Ring
• 0:43:35 Metroid Prime 4, the legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• 0:53:52 Fast Fusion, Hyrule Warriors, Star Wars Outlaws
• 1:04:46 Supporter Q1: Is Switch 2 game and console prices justified?
• 1:15:07 Supporter Q2: Is the Switch 2 a steam deck killer?
• 1:21:59 Supporter Q3: Why are there such a difference between Metroid Prime 4 and many third -party switches 2 games?
• 1:25:47 Supporter Q4: Will developers often target 40FPS on Switch 2?
• 1:32:25 Supporter Q5: How high is the CPU performance of the Switch 2?
• 1:39:53 Supporter Q6: Which processor node step is required for a switch 2 lite?

The controversial pursued T239 as a Kopite7kimi-Leck that the chip uses the same inefficient Samsung 8NM technology as the cards of the RTX 30 series were contradictory to a small, cool chip for a handheld. However, when a fully populated Switch 2 motherboard is leaked through and a 200 mm2 processor, which is clear from Samsung, showed practically all doubts. However, this led to doubts about the skills of the processor. Steam deck is now over three years old and uses a superior 7 -nm process for its 162 mm2 processor. 7nm itself was used for both PS5 and Xbox series consoles that go back to 2020. The core process for Switch 2 is worse In 2025 – but is it important?

The only missing part of the specifications affects the clock speeds of switch 2. With such a large chip, we should expect low frequencies, and this leak-plausible, but still unconfirmed-confirms this. Based on my own expectations from T239 (where I simulated the approximate switch 2 GPU performance with a wider RTX 2048-Core RTX performance to 750 MHz) I expected the approximately 1 GHz GPU watches to look sensible. Downclocking memory bandwidth of 102 GB/s docks on 68 GB/s for the handheld game also resisted what Nintendo did with the original switch. The only question mark remains over these watch concerns Why The CPU frequency in the handheld game (1101 MHz) is faster than docked (998 MHz).

In view of all of these specifications, I have to say that there is nothing of Nintendo Direct in the last week or the practical demos in the events in Paris and New York, which are surprisingly looking at. Everything seems to be perfect with the expectations, apart from a striking lack of DLSS-supported games. A long ago, Activisions Bobby Kotick described the machine as the power of the PS4 class and, on the whole, in the baseball stadium of what the demos revealed by third-party providers. Elden Ring runs at 1080p at 30 fps or something on PS4, and we saw that on the direction of last week with Switch 2. Despite some briefing from Sega that Yakuza Zero runs at 4K60, all gameplay -assets that we have seen look like the same 1080P60 as PS4. It is the same with Final Fantasy 7 remake: True, Switch 2 gets the exchange version, but it runs apart with 1080p and shaky frame pacing again and runs at 30 fps.

* Although we are extremely plausible, we have not managed to independently check these technical points. We have included T234 here as the closest mobile component in the Switch 2 processor, while the Laptop RTX 2050 is the closest GPU at the consumer level for the graphic component of Switch 2.

Similar to the original switch, the GPU performance apparently offered in the Xbox 360/Wii U-Class, we should expect more-in one way due to the fact that the ampere architecture of the RTX 30 series is now for five years old, but all modern functions that a developer for hardware acelera traces, mesh shaders and machine learning and machine learning DLSS-Upscaling, want to want Mesh Shaders and Macheltseln for DLSS. With 256 GB UFS memory, which are supported by the file’s decompression hardware, developers should have light snaps access to data in a way that the PS4 has never had. Cyberpunk 2077 will be an interesting exercise to see how Switch 2 the demanding titles takes place, but I can hardly wait to see Star Wars -outlaws – where the film material that was shown on the direction of last week may look too good to be true. Cyberpunk is a good litmus test, but remember that it runs on PS4 and runs well on Steam Deck. Star Wars Outlaws is only up to date and the game is simply “too big” for the deck.

We were asked whether Switch 2 is a “Steam Deck killer” and although we can only bring a final analysis closer to the checking time, our answer is both yes and no for the moment. In particular, our current claim that the Docked Switch 2 delivers more than the deck – but the jury is on the mobile experience. If you look at games from third -party providers such as Elden Ring and Final Fantasy 7, it is hard to believe that the deck native 1080p deliver with the same functions and provides the circuit breaker 2.

Mobile game can, however, be a different story. The valve machine, which is completely unlocked, has a 1.6 GHz GPU and a 2.4 GHz up to 3.5 GHz CPU, and I saw that it consumes up to 28 W electricity. In the meantime, Switch 2 has a 561 -MHz -GPU clock and a 1.1 -GHz -CPU and is based on a 20 -whh battery with a battery life of at least two hours, during the game a maximum of 10 W electricity -almost a third of the consumption of steam deck. No matter how much more efficiently the Switch 2 architecture (or not!), It is hard to believe that the Nintendo machine in the handheld mode is best the deck with regard to raw performance. However, the Nintendo machine has an ASA in the hole: the advantages of a tailor-made development and a to-the-metal graphics API. Still, we just say that I really Really See how Star Wars outlaws are executed on Switch 2. Running according to the standard that can be seen in the direct is a challenge for the docked play, let alone resource -limited in mobile mode.

At the moment, however, I wonder what happened to Nvidia DLSS – striking in the form that we recognize in Nintendo Direct last week (with the possible exception of Hitman: World of AttSibation – we asked IO interactively to confirm this). In the DF Direct this week, the number one, which form – or version – from DLSS Nintendo Switch 2 Supports 2. This is difficult to determine that the games we have seen have only determined a few actual evidence, but the conclusion is: A GPU that uses the AMPERE architecture will have the necessary addition to the tensor kernels that have been carried out for the execution of ml -Workloads are used. There is nothing that it does a version of DLSS from 2.0 upwards – even the transformer model of DLSS 4. DLSS is not a free lunch – it has computing costs. It’s not that much If Switch 2 can run DLSS 4, it is more like whether it is too expensive, and this is a factor for how capable the GPU is.

So we saw what Switch 2 is capable of, and despite very selective information from Nvidia and Nintendo, all leaks merge into something close to four years ago to confirm information that began over four years ago. However, these specifications may change over time: The original switch in the handheld mode has developed over time through a 307 -MHz GPU clock, since Nintendo developers offered more power for a lower battery life. However, the core architecture is blocked: outdated compared to more modern technologies, but clearly capable – and of course the type of these apparently dated components can only mean good things for Nintendo from a business perspective if they map the upcoming generation.

Firstly, there is a main processor based on a process that has not been used for over two years that Nintendo from Samsung secured a very good deal from Samsung if the T239 processor is a big win in a world in which the costs of silicon only increase. Second, like the Tegra X1 in the original switch, Nintendo can look forward to a time to a time at a time when the use of an improved process technology becomes affordable. This leads to a revised unit with much longer battery life and the possibility of starting a smaller “Lite” model -and possibly even an OLED model when the technology becomes available.

At the moment, however, everything revolves around the starting games and we will report with our own practical impressions in due course.