For some time now, we have been talking about the possible specifications of the Nintendo Switch 2, the highly anticipated console that has been the subject of much speculation, namely It will be a huge step forward both in terms of performance and supported technologies compared to the current model. In this sense, Nintendo has it simple, as the Nintendo Switch uses a modest Tegra X1 SoC, which is equipped with an NVIDIA Maxwell GPU with only 256 shaders.

Although the Nintendo Switch entered the market in March 2017 The GPU that is attached uses the 2014 architecture, and it is a low-end model that already offered very limited gaming performance at the time of its launch. That’s why I say that the big N has no problem with the Nintendo Switch 2 raising the bar much compared to the original model in terms of performance.

The specifications of the Nintendo Switch 2 have not yet been officially confirmed, but over the past few months we have seen numerous rumors that have gradually allowed us to build a fairly complete and credible set of possible features for this console. There’s been a new leak recently that sheds a bit more light on this, and it’s pretty plausible because His source was related to the project and works at NVIDIAat least in theory.

According to a source, NVIDIA presented Nintendo with several options with different SoCs that could fit into its next console, and one of them used a GPU based on Ada Lovelace’s architecture, which meant having support for frame generation (DLSS 3). However, the Japanese company finally made up its mind a customized version of Tegra Orinwhich is optimized for cost reduction and has some efficiency adjustments and specific improvements.

AMD presented an interesting proposal to Nintendo to try to put an APU with a Ryzen CPU and a Radeon GPU in the Nintendo Switch 2, but in the end ended up being eliminated in favor of NVIDIA. The truth is that seeing the good results that AMD achieved with the Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU is something somewhat surprising, but also interesting because it means that NVIDIA’s proposal offers excellent value vs. AMD APUs.

Possible Nintendo Switch 2 specs

Image courtesy of Digital Foundry

In theory, the information that Digital Foundry offered at the time about the possible configuration and performance of the Nintendo Switch 2 is “pretty accurate” that’s what the source literally says. With this information and all the information we previously had, I can offer you a very complete and reliable list of what the final Nintendo Switch 2 specs could be.

• 8-inch LCD display with 1080p resolution. A version with an OLED panel should arrive later.
• Custom NVIDIA Tegra T239 SoC.
• An 8-core ARM Cortex-A78C CPU, of which one or two cores would be reserved for the operating system and core applications.
• 12 GB or 16 GB of unified LPDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus.
• GPU based on Ampere architecture with 1536 shaders, 12 RT cores for ray tracing, 48 texturing units, 48 ​​tensor cores for AI, 24 raster units and 3rd generation Optical Flow Accelerator (Ampere, without frame generation support).
• Other key GPU highlights: DisplayPort connectivity with HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, 8th generation NvEnc codecs (Ada Lovelace level), improved dynamic frequency management (Ada Lovelace level) and a new file decompression module, exclusive to this chip.
• Compatibility with DLSS 2 Super Resolution and Ray Reconstruction, although the latter technology would have no real use, as it is designed specifically for trajectory tracking.
• A PCIe or UFS SSD storage unit with a capacity of at least 128 GB.

What level of performance would a console have with this configuration?

AI generated GPU image

The closest in performance, if we talk about GPUs, would be the GeForce RTX 2050 Mobile, which despite being identified as a 20 series, uses the Ampere architecture. However, it is impossible to make a direct comparison because the laptop’s graphics card It has a larger number of shaders (2,048) and a total TDP of 30 watts, which means it is theoretically better in brute strength.

The NVIDIA Tegra T239 SoC that the Nintendo Switch 2 will use will at best a maximum TDP of 30 watts, but shared between CPU and GPU. With this layer of customization it will have, it will offer some improvements that were exclusive to the Ada Lovelace architecture, but are more focused on efficiency and multimedia. With that in mind, it’s easy to understand that this console will be a step below the GeForce RTX 2050 Mobile in graphics performance.

My intuition tells me that with the DLSS 2 technology, the Nintendo Switch 2 could do with this configuration move current games in 1080p resolution at minimum 30 FPS, although in most cases with a medium or low level of quality. It may be that with exclusive Nintendo titles, less demanding and specially optimized for this console, the performance will improve even more.

When is the Nintendo Switch 2 arriving and how much will it cost?

Last we know, this console has been delayed first quarter of 2025and that it could be introduced later this year, although nothing is confirmed yet, so the expected date of the introduction could change and be delayed until CES 2025, which will be held in January of that year.

As for the price, the most reliable rumors indicate that the Nintendo Switch 2 It will be about 400 euros, a figure that may change slightly depending on final production costs. It is expected to be backwards compatible with the Nintendo Switch, a feature that will be essential for the console to get off to a good start.

Cover image generated by artificial intelligence.