Thursday, April 3rd 2025

Official: Nintendo Switch 2 Leveled Up With NVIDIA "Custom Processor" & AI-Powered Tech
The Nintendo Switch 2, unveiled April 2, takes performance to the next level, powered by a custom NVIDIA processor featuring an NVIDIA GPU with dedicated RT Cores and Tensor Cores for stunning visuals and AI-driven enhancements. With 1,000 engineer-years of effort across every element—from system and chip design to a custom GPU, APIs and world-class development tools—the Nintendo Switch 2 brings major upgrades. The new console enables up to 4K gaming in TV mode and up to 120 FPS at 1080p in handheld mode. Nintendo Switch 2 also supports HDR, and AI upscaling to sharpen visuals and smooth gameplay.
AI and Ray Tracing for Next-Level Visuals
The new RT Cores bring real-time ray tracing, delivering lifelike lighting, reflections and shadows for more immersive worlds. Tensor Cores power AI-driven features like Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), boosting resolution for sharper details without sacrificing image quality. Tensor Cores also enable AI-powered face tracking and background removal in video chat use cases, enhancing social gaming and streaming. With millions of players worldwide, the Nintendo Switch has become a gaming powerhouse and home to Nintendo's storied franchises. Its hybrid design redefined console gaming, bridging TV and handheld play.More Power, Smoother Gameplay
With 10x the graphics performance of the Nintendo Switch, the Nintendo Switch 2 delivers smoother gameplay and sharper visuals.
Developers get improved game engines, better physics and optimized APIs for faster, more efficient game creation.
Powered by NVIDIA, Nintendo Switch 2 delivers for both players and developers.
Source:
NVIDIA Blog
AI and Ray Tracing for Next-Level Visuals
The new RT Cores bring real-time ray tracing, delivering lifelike lighting, reflections and shadows for more immersive worlds. Tensor Cores power AI-driven features like Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), boosting resolution for sharper details without sacrificing image quality. Tensor Cores also enable AI-powered face tracking and background removal in video chat use cases, enhancing social gaming and streaming. With millions of players worldwide, the Nintendo Switch has become a gaming powerhouse and home to Nintendo's storied franchises. Its hybrid design redefined console gaming, bridging TV and handheld play.More Power, Smoother Gameplay
With 10x the graphics performance of the Nintendo Switch, the Nintendo Switch 2 delivers smoother gameplay and sharper visuals.
- Tensor Cores boost AI-powered graphics while keeping power consumption efficient.
- RT Cores enhance in-game realism with dynamic lighting and natural reflections.
- Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) via NVIDIA G-SYNC in handheld mode ensures ultra-smooth, tear-free gameplay.
Developers get improved game engines, better physics and optimized APIs for faster, more efficient game creation.
Powered by NVIDIA, Nintendo Switch 2 delivers for both players and developers.
43 Comments on Official: Nintendo Switch 2 Leveled Up With NVIDIA "Custom Processor" & AI-Powered Tech
hmmmm I think there was one game where you could combine DLSS & FSR but I think it was buggyOkay researched a bit & couldn't find anything... maybe I was just gaslighting myself.On a custom implementation, one can run DLSS 4 with the latest frame gens without any issues.
I totally see the trade wars dropping their sales a lot in America though! Not sure if serious, but if so, it's the working hours for one engineer for one year.
For the Emperor.
Think about it...
However what I've read in several tech sites is that the putatively labeled "T239" SoC has Ampere generation architecture which means ML frame generation won't be available. Nintendo/Nvidia have already confirmed DLSS and raytracing.
Knowing Nintendo DLSS will not be a user selectable option. Nintendo doesn't let users twiddle with graphics performance settings.
It will be up each game developer to decide which DLSS mode will be used (if at all) and in what situation. Since there is a power draw impact to DLSS, my assumption is that most developers will not use DLSS in 1080p handheld mode but some may choose to use some level of DLSS in 4K@60 docked mode. Obviously the game devs have the ability to try different DLSS modes (Performance, Balanced, Quality, whatever) while prototyping the game and will ultimately make the decision how to ship the game.
Likewise raytracing might be enabled in docked mode but not handheld. Again this will be a choice made by the game developer.
There is zero reason to believe that DLSS nor raytracing will be a user-selected option. For a consumer-aimed handheld device, this is quite reasonable. After all, the (decent) developer already makes compromises and choices just in how they design their games to ensure it runs acceptably on their target devices. In the same way some modern games are unplayable on an RX 560 because the game developer decided to focus on a market that has more powerful hardware.
Cyberpunk 2077 is coming to Nintendo Switch 2 but there is zero chance the visuals will look like the same game running on an RTX 5090 with all graphics settings maxxed out at Ultra.
Another rumor I've read (again on tech sites, not Reddit or Tik Tok) is that this SoC has about 1500 CUDA cores, less than an RTX 3050. I don't find this particularly alarming as it is clear that Nintendo engineering certainly had access to a wide variety of hardware for prototyping and eventually arrived at this target CUDA core count for the Switch 2 based on their lab findings.
The most curious performance tidbit I've seen is that Star Wars Outlaws will be coming to Switch 2, a game that does not run on Steam Deck. That is possibly one point of reference about Switch 2's relative performance. I'm no graphics engineer so I don't know the reason for the game's unsatisfactory performance on Steam Deck but in the end, Joe Consumer doesn't need to know why.
There have been some additional comments (including some from Nintendo staffers) about how much better the enhanced versions of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom look on the Switch 2. Clearly both titles were at the upper edge of the performance envelope for Switch. And some games like Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077 were obviously beyond that threshold.
The short clips I've seen for these AAA titles look like they will run pretty well at 1080p. The jury is out about how they will fare at 4K@60 but my guess is that DLSS will have a major part in it.
I'm confident that Nintendo's marketing team actually reviewed all the clips they assembled for the Switch 2 reveal and were assured that the games actually ran similarly on dev kits (or even pre-release units).
And hopefully CDPR learned their lesson from their disastrous Cyberpunk 2077 launch. For sure Nintendo will keep CDPR on an extremely short leash because of that bungling. I would expect Nintendo paid particularly close attention to that title. Nintendo is a much bigger company today than when they launched SNES. The stakes are way higher and they have many more eyes on them that are eager to point out any slight stumble, perceived or real.
Today people stream live gameplay on Twitch, YouTube, Tik Tok, etc. No one was doing that in 1995 so there was no audience of tens of thousands assessing whether or not the gameplay was legit.
Nintendo will not pass off pre-rendered video as actual gameplay. In 2025 no one can. In less than two months, people are going to confirm that what they saw in early April was real.
"Fake it until you make it" is NOT a legitimate business strategy. Elizabeth Holmes tried that and she's in prison.