Wednesday, May 14th 2025
Final Nintendo Switch 2 Specifications Surface: CPU, GPU, Memory, and System Reservation
With the launch scheduled for June 5, Nintendo has quietly confirmed the final technical details for its next-generation hybrid console, the Switch 2, clarifying the specifications of the "custom NVIDIA processor" at its core and specifying exactly how much horsepower developers can access. The Switch 2's SoC is officially labeled the NVIDIA T239, a custom iteration of the Ampere architecture rather than a repurposed Tegra. It contains eight Arm Cortex‑A78C cores running a 64‑bit ARMv8 instruction set, with cryptography extensions enabled and no support for 32‑bit code. Each core features 64 KB of L1 instruction cache and 64 KB of L1 data cache. Six cores are available for game development, while two are reserved for system tasks. Clock speeds reach 998 MHz in handheld mode and 1,101 MHz when docked, and the CPU can theoretically burst to 1,700 MHz for demanding operations or future updates.
Graphics are powered by a full Ampere‑based GPU with 1,536 CUDA cores. Clock speeds top out at 1,007 MHz in docked mode and 561 MHz in handheld mode, delivering approximately 3.07 TeraFLOPS when docked and 1.71 TeraFLOPS in portable use. As with the CPU, a portion of GPU resources is allocated to operating system functions, slightly reducing the amount available for applications. Memory capacity has increased from 4 GB of LPDDR4 in the original Switch to 12 GB of LPDDR5X in the new model, split across two 6 GB modules. Peak bandwidth measures 102 GB/s docked and 68 GB/s handheld. Of the total, 3 GB are reserved for system functions and 9 GB are dedicated to games and applications. Nintendo has also introduced a dedicated File Decompression Engine for LZ4‑compressed data, offloading asset unpacking from the CPU to improve loading times without overheating the chipset. The console ships with 256 GB of UFS storage, expandable via microSD Express up to 2 TB, and features a 7.9‑inch, 1080p LCD that supports HDR10 and up to 120 Hz variable refresh rate in handheld mode. Although HDMI VRR is not yet available, the internal display fully supports it.
Sources:
Nintendo, via Eurogamer.net
Graphics are powered by a full Ampere‑based GPU with 1,536 CUDA cores. Clock speeds top out at 1,007 MHz in docked mode and 561 MHz in handheld mode, delivering approximately 3.07 TeraFLOPS when docked and 1.71 TeraFLOPS in portable use. As with the CPU, a portion of GPU resources is allocated to operating system functions, slightly reducing the amount available for applications. Memory capacity has increased from 4 GB of LPDDR4 in the original Switch to 12 GB of LPDDR5X in the new model, split across two 6 GB modules. Peak bandwidth measures 102 GB/s docked and 68 GB/s handheld. Of the total, 3 GB are reserved for system functions and 9 GB are dedicated to games and applications. Nintendo has also introduced a dedicated File Decompression Engine for LZ4‑compressed data, offloading asset unpacking from the CPU to improve loading times without overheating the chipset. The console ships with 256 GB of UFS storage, expandable via microSD Express up to 2 TB, and features a 7.9‑inch, 1080p LCD that supports HDR10 and up to 120 Hz variable refresh rate in handheld mode. Although HDMI VRR is not yet available, the internal display fully supports it.
31 Comments on Final Nintendo Switch 2 Specifications Surface: CPU, GPU, Memory, and System Reservation
Enjoy your million mobile gotcha games, I'm sure they are awesome. But using your argument, your phone is garbage, my desktop pc is 10 times faster. Unfair comparison, right?
The Switch can output 4k, btw, to a 4k TV. And its 1080p screen is better than the Steam Deck or other handhelds. Did you really want them to put a 4k screen on a tiny handheld lmao?Your strange fetish for ellipsis aside, you don't seem to be able to think through the logic of what you're saying. If nobody wanted to play Nintendo games, Nintendo would just be burning money by aggressively enforcing copyright, shutting down emulators, and making remasters. The only reason they are able to do all of that behavior is because their games are very much in demand. Nintendo has the strongest IP collection of any gaming company. And when you have that IP, yeah, you can make low-powered handhelds, sell $40 remasters and subscriptions, be a PITA to the homebrew and emulation communities, and still make a baziilion $.
I am in no way saying I like this. I'm saying that trying to compare it to a Steam Deck / Rog Ally or an Xbox/Playstation is not possible, because no other company has Nintendo's uniquely strong IP collection and business philosophy.
In reality:-
1) The Z1E real peak TFLOPs is 4.3 not 8.6 as it uses dual issue FP32 ALUs.
2) Switch 2 GPU clocks are sustainable unlike the Z1E 2.7GHz clock which you won't see unless you increase the TDP to >=50W (Outside the specs of the Z1E and the form factor), at 15W TDP most of the time the clock will be ~1000MHz which is about 1.5 TFLOPs. At 30W you'll probably get ~2.0-2.5 TFLOPs. Thats why the Z1E performance in reality is not much better than the 1 TFLOPs Steam Deck.
3) Comparing TFLOPs between different architecture is mostly useless.Different form factor, power and cost targets.
Also, mobile RTX 3000 series has dual issue FP32 ALUs so you need to divide the TFLOPs rating by 2 to get a real number.
The mobile RTX 3050 is much bigger and has a TDP of at least 45W, versus the switch 2 which targets ~10W portable and < 30W docked, what did you expect?