Rumors and leaks have been very active with the Nintendo Switch 2 in recent weeks and have left us a lot of information which allowed us to clarify a little more some points that we had doubts about the next Nintendo console, one of the most wanted consoles of the next generation.

I want to tell you a lot of new things, so I decided to create a new special, where I collected the latest information and the latest rumors. more reliable that have appeared on the Nintendo Switch 2 so far.

My goal is to tell you all we know so far about the said console focusing on things as important as its specifications, its possible performance, its design, its release date and its selling price.

Nintendo hasn’t released any type of official information yet, but as I said in the previous paragraph, everything I’m going to tell you is highly credible, and it’s likely that many of the things we’ll see they will eventually be fulfilled as they are while others might undergo some changes but their base would also remain.

Design and basic approach

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The design of the Nintendo Switch 2 is outlined clearly a continuous approach. That makes sense, Nintendo could go with “if something works don’t change it” which I think would be successful. This means that this new console:

• It will continue to offer two modes, a portable mode and a docked mode.
• It will have ergonomics and lines similar to the current model.
• It will have detachable Joy-Cons that can be used in different ways.

We shouldn’t expect drastic changes, simply minor evolution of the Nintendo Switch design, which would basically focus on polishing the ergonomics a bit and introducing some goodies to improve it on an aesthetic level, nothing more.

The basic approach will also be the same as I told you before, which means that the Nintendo Switch 2 will continue to be the console that will work in both laptop and dock modewhich allows you to connect it to an external screen and use it as if it were a desktop console.

Possible Nintendo Switch 2 specs

This is one of the most important topics and still raises the most doubts. Gradually, there are leaks in the supply chain that, along with rumors and other information we already had, allowed us to clarify things a little.

These are the features that the Nintendo Switch 2 should have if we believe From all the information we have so far:

• 8-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and a refresh rate of 60 Hz or 90 Hz.
• NVIDIA Tegra SoC customized and built on Samsung’s 8nm node.
• ARM processor with eight 64-bit cores based on the Cortex-A78C architecture running at a frequency between 2 GHz and 3 GHz.
• NVIDIA’s own GPU based on the Ampere architecture, the same one used by the GeForce RTX 30. It would have 1,280 to 1,536 shaders and a 128-bit bus.
• 12 GB of LPDDR5X memory at 7500 Mbps.
• 256 GB of UFS 3.1 type storage with a maximum sequential read speed of 2,100 MB/s.
• DisplayPort connectivity for easy use in dock mode.

A closer look at the GPU

Thanks to the NVIDIA Ampere GPU, the Nintendo Switch 2 will have second-generation cores to accelerate ray tracing, will also have specialized artificial intelligence cores, and will be compatible with NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution and Ray Reconstruction, but not with Frame Generation.

GPU will work much slower speed in laptop mode due to the drop in TDP, which will be between 5 and 10 watts to be shared between the CPU and GPU, while in docked mode it could reach a TDP of 30 watts, which will cause a rocket growth in the working speed and a significant improvement in performance.

Possible GPU spec option 1

• 1,280 shaders at 800 MHz in portable mode.
• 20 SM units.
• 80 texturing units.
• 32 raster units.
• 80 tensor cores of the third generation.
• 20 second generation RT cores.
• 1.28 MB L2 cache.
• 128-bit bus, bandwidth up to 120 GB/s (depending on LPDDR5X speed).

This configuration would have power 1.92 TFLOPs per FP32 in portable mode. If the frequency in docking mode is changed to 1.5 GHz, the performance rises to 3.84 TFLOPs.

Possible GPU spec option 2

• 1536 shaders at 750 MHz in portable mode.
• 24 SM units.
• 96 texturing units.
• 48 raster units.
• 96 tensor cores of the third generation.
• 24 second generation RT cores.
• 1.53 MB L2 cache.
• 128-bit bus, up to 120 GB/s bandwidth (depending on LPDDR5X speed)

With this configuration, the raw performance would be in portable mode 2.3 TFLOPs in FP32. If the speed in docked mode is increased to 1.5 GHz, the performance will increase to 4.6 TFLOPs in FP32.

Nintendo Switch 2 Estimated Performance

The most limiting factors of this console at the performance level will be its ARM CPU and its low TDP in notebook mode. The processor will be the main bottleneck that makes it not worth working at very low resolutions and may end up limiting the usefulness of DLSS Super Resolution, and TDP between 5 and 10 watts will make the CPU and GPU work at lower frequencies. very low, although it will have a positive impact on working temperatures and autonomy.

It’s important to note that if the Nintendo Switch 2 arrives with 12GB of LPDDR5X memory, it will be the console that you will be able to receive current generation game versions without problems, because it will have more unified memory than the Xbox Series S, which only reaches 10 GB, although it has more bandwidth in its 8 GB (224 GB/s) block, while its other 2 GB works at only 56 GB/s.

All of this It brings us closer to the performance we might expect from the Xbox Series S, but in terms of raw performance, Microsoft’s console should be better because it has top performance 4 TFLOPs on FP32. There is only one scenario where the Nintendo Switch 2 could be slightly better than the Xbox Series S, and that would be with the former in docked mode if the GPU 2 specs are met.

A UFS 3.1 storage drive would also put it very close to the Redmond giant’s console, as it would run on 2,100 MB/swhile the other has an SSD capable of reaching 2400 MB/s. This is another key factor when it comes to streamlining ports from current-gen consoles to the Nintendo Switch 2.

In portable mode and in the worst case scenario, the Nintendo Switch 2 would have 1.92 TFLOPs in FP32, a number that would rank it only slightly above the 1.84 TFLOPs in FP32 that the PS4 has. However, it should be taken into account that Sony’s previous console has a very weak Jaguar-based CPU and that, although it achieves a bandwidth of 176 GB/s, it only has 8 GB of memory, 5 of which are free for games.

NVIDIA DLSS will make the difference

In addition to raw performance, which is of course important, but not the only factor to consider, is the value that NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution technology will bring to the Nintendo Switch 2. This intelligent upscaling allows you to work in four modes different:

• A quality mode that renders 66% of the target resolution pixels.
• A balanced mode that renders 57% of the pixels of the target resolution.
• A performance mode that renders 50% of the pixels of the target resolution.
• Ultra Performance mode that renders only 33% of target resolution pixels.

The fewer pixels rendered, the greater the performance improvement, but also the lower the image quality. The Nintendo Switch 2 will have a screen resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels in an 8-inch format. With such a small screen size Performance mode could be used seamlessly.

Depending on each specific game and its CPU dependency, the improvement in frames per second that DLSS Super Resolution, configured in performance mode, can provide can be approx. between 50% and 60% with the console running in portable mode under 1080p resolution.

DLSS 2 scaling on GeForce RTX 4060.

In docked mode, the improvement could be greater, and with NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution, it’s likely that the Nintendo Switch 2 can work with 1440p resolution in said mode. There was also talk of 4K resolution, but in current games this resolution would be too demanding for the mentioned console, and applying DLSS in ultra performance mode to output the image to a large TV would not be a good idea, as the loss of sharpness and image quality would be quite noticeable.

We must not forget another important point, namely when NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution is applied GPU usage usually drops significantly, which in certain cases translates into lower consumption and lower temperatures, all this means in terms of thermal and energy efficiency. Simply put, this technology can help reduce battery consumption and improve range.

Nintendo Switch 2 possible release date and price

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The first leaks and the first rumors said that this console will arrive at the end of this year, but finally Nintendo itself indicated that we will not see it until first quarter of 2025. This date caused some controversy due to some alleged statements, which in theory came from NVIDIA employees, who claimed that the Nintendo Switch 2 has been finished for a long time and that Nintendo forced an “incomprehensible” delay.

This may be true, but such a delay would not be difficult to understand. It could simply be because Nintendo still has large amount of Nintendo Switch stockand that he simply decided to put away his new console to make cleaning said inventory a little easier. When the Nintendo Switch 2 arrives, the original version will still be on the market, but it’s clear that it won’t generate the same interest and will be a harder sell.

In terms of price, the Nintendo Switch 2 is most likely to be placed in the range of 400 euros. Nintendo could also decide to place it at 350 or even 450 euros, but this middle price seems more reasonable, especially considering the current market situation and what we can find in the category of portable game consoles.

In this sense, there is no doubt that the Nintendo Switch 2 will have another important attraction that we all know, exclusive big N franchises, one of the key pillars of the huge success of the current model. We will see new parts of The Legend of Zelda, Mario, Bayonetta and Metroid and the rest of the most popular franchises from Nintendo.

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