In this article, we will compare the specifications and technical features of the Nintendo Switch 2 versus the Nintendo Switch for clarity. what will be the differences between the two consoles. I’ll also show you each console’s performance figures, as well as its most important technologies and features, and show them head-to-head.

My goal with this special is that you can find all the most important information about both consoles in a single article and that it will help clear up any doubts you may have by creating a direct, concise and to the point comparison of the two consoles without introducing any filler to make the content unnecessarily long.

Remember that all the information we have about the Nintendo Switch 2 is based on rumors from reliable sources as well as leaks that have recently occurred within the supply chain. One of them actually allowed us to reveal the possible final design of this console, which was later adopted in a 3D printed model.

The Nintendo Switch 2 will use NVIDIA’s own version of the Tegra Orin SoC.

Possible final Nintendo Switch 2 specs

• 8-inch LCD display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and a refresh rate of 60 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 at 2 GHz.
• NVIDIA’s own GPU based on the Ampere architecture with exclusive Ada Lovelace features and efficiency improvements.
• The GPU will have between 1,280 and 1,536 shaders running at 750 MHz or less in laptop mode. It could exceed 1000 MHz in dock mode.
• 12 GB of LPDDR5X memory at 7,500 Mb/s with a 128-bit bus (120 GB/s bandwidth).
• 256 GB of UFS 3.1 type storage with a maximum sequential read speed of 2,100 MB/s.

Nintendo Switch 2 Specs

• 6.2-inch LCD display with a resolution of 1,280 x 720 pixels and a refresh rate of 60 Hz.
• Custom NVIDIA Tegra X1 SoC originally built on TSMC’s 20nm node.
• ARM processor with eight 64-bit cores. Only the Cortex-A57 quad-core block is active, running at a frequency of 1,020 MHz.
• NVIDIA’s own graphics core based on the Maxwell 2.0 architecture.
• The GPU has 256 shaders running at speeds between 307 MHz and 384 MHz in laptop mode and can reach 768 MHz in dock mode.
• 4 GB of LPDDR4 memory at a speed of 3,200 Mb/s by a 64-bit bus (25.6 GB/s bandwidth).
• 32 GB of eMMC type storage with a maximum peak sequential reading speed of 300 MB/s.

Key differences between the two consoles at the hardware level

The comparison is very clear, the Nintendo Switch 2 will use a bigger screen and have a higher resolutionwhich allows you to offer a sharper and better image in games. This console will also have much more powerful CPU in single-threaded and multi-threaded design, because it doubles the number of cores and significantly increases the working speed.

These improvements in the processor will be important to make next generation games run smoothly on Nintendo Switch 2 and facilitate the development of ports of PS5 and Xbox Series X-Series S games without making major sacrifices. This represents the evolution that will be necessary to transform this console into a much more competitive and attractive model.

The Nintendo Switch 2 GPU will be much more powerful and will use a much more advanced architecture that is not only more efficient, but also supports exclusive technologies not found in the Nintendo Switch, such as ray tracing acceleration hardware and support NVIDIA DLSS Super resolution.

These two keys represent another of the great advances that will transform the Nintendo Switch 2 into a full-fledged next-generation console. As we can see this console triples the amount of available unified memory, and will have much more bandwidth. This will allow ports and cross-platform titles from the current generation of consoles to be ported in a much simpler way that was not possible with the Nintendo Switch.

The storage unit will be too much bigger and faster, and it will be very close to the SSDs that the Xbox Series X and Series S have, which work at a maximum speed of 2.4 GB/s. This is also key to being able to put current-gen games on Nintendo’s new console, and will mean substantial improvements to both load times and in-game asset streaming.

Power and performance: The Nintendo Switch 2 raises the bar a lot

The Nintendo Switch offers performance 393.2 GFLOPS in FP32 in dock mode and 196.6 GFLOPS on FP32 in portable mode. If the Nintendo Switch 2 uses a GPU with 1,280 shaders at 750 MHz in portable mode, it could achieve 1.92 TFLOPs in portable mode and 2.56 TFLOPs in FP32 if it reaches 1000 MHz in dock mode.

The difference in performance between the two consoles It would be huge even in the worst case scenario. We already know that performance in FP32 does not directly equate to gaming performance, but it is a value that allows us to compare raw performance data between two systems and is used to establish benchmarks.

The important thing to make clear from everything we’ve seen so far is that the Nintendo Switch 2 will be much more better designed and more balanced than the Nintendo Switch. It will have a configuration powerful enough to power the current generation of cross-platform games, and with NVIDIA DLSS technology, I believe that You can upscale from 720p to 1080p maintaining good performance and good image quality levels.

NVIDIA DLSS technology will be essential in this console for the value it offers this rescaling in general, and that is:

• When scaling in performance mode, the number of rendered pixels is reduced by 50%.
• The load on the GPU is significantly reduced and thus the consumption decreases, which improves efficiency and autonomy.
• DLSS uses AI and is accelerated on tensor cores, which means it produces a higher quality rescaled and reconstructed image and has a lower rendering time cost due to this hardware acceleration.
• The Nintendo Switch 2 won’t actually have enough power to move current-gen games smoothly at 1080p, but it will be able to overcome that barrier thanks to NVIDIA DLSS.

The Nintendo Switch is a console that has in many cases been limited to 360p resolution and below to be able to achieve a relatively stable 30 FPS in games. Nintendo Switch 2 will be a 720p console which, thanks to intelligent upscaling, should offer a good 1080p experience, always taking into account the limitations of the portable console.

Cover Image: Youtube.