Nintendo Switch 2 and Switch OLED in comparison
Nvidia reveals first details about the Switch 2 processor, including DLSS support. The rumor mill provides even more information.
(Image: Nintendo)
A major aspect of the Nintendo Switch 2 is its hardware upgrade compared to the previous Switch. The combined processor once again comes from Nvidia. Nintendo reveals initial details about the technology on its product page, including welcome innovations such as variable refresh rates (VRR) for the display.
This means that the screen does not rigidly display its maximum 120 Hertz, instead the GPU dynamically adjusts the refresh rate to the frames per second (fps) of the game. This is practical for game developers: they no longer have to bluntly optimize for 30, 60 or 120 fps.
Meanwhile,Nvidia speaks in its blog of ten times the graphics performance when making the leap from the first Switch to the Switch 2. Neither Nintendo nor Nvidia go into the processor specifications. However, the rumors of recent months and years paint a fairly accurate picture.
Larger GPU, more memory
The Switch 2 is presumably a smaller version of the Nvidia Jetson Orin AGX car and robot processor. The Switch 2 processor is said to have eight Cortex-A78C ARM cores. The integrated graphics unit allegedly comprises 1536 shader cores. In addition, there would be 12 GB of RAM, presumably in the form of LPDDR5-6400 or even faster LPDDR5-7500.
Together with higher clock frequencies, the raw GPU performance is said to be almost eight times that of the previous Switch. The 400 gigaflops of the Tegra X1 processor selected at the time can now be achieved by almost any PC processor with an integrated mini-GPU.
Added to this are architectural improvements and the significantly faster and larger memory. The factor of 10 could therefore also be meant without an AI upscaler.
Meanwhile, a high increase in performance is desperately needed, as the Tegra X1 processor in the old Switch was already outdated and slow when the console was launched. However, the Switch 2 is unlikely to contain the latest technology either, but at least it will have technology that is more appropriate for a games console.
| Vergleich Switch 2 und Switch OLED | ||
| Konsole | Nintendo Switch 2 | Nintendo Switch OLED |
| System-on-Chip | ||
| Designer | Nvidia | Nvidia |
| Fertigung | unbekannt | TSMC 16 nm |
| Prozessor | ||
| Kernarchitektur | ARM Cortex-A78C (ARMv8)* | ARM Cortex-A57 (ARMv8) |
| CPU-Kerne / Threads | 8 / 8* | 4 / 4 |
| Taktfrequenz | unbekannt | 1,02 GHz |
| Grafikeinheit | ||
| GPU-Architektur | Nvidia Ampere* | Nvidia Maxwell |
| Compute Units | 12 (1536 Shader-Kerne)* | 2 (256 Shader-Kerne) |
| Taktfrequenz | 561-1000 MHz* | 307-768 MHz |
| FP32-Rechenleistung | max. 3,1 TFlops* | max. 0,4 TFlops |
| Speicher | ||
| Menge, RAM-Typ | 12 GByte LPDDR5-6400 oder -7500* | 4 GByte LPDDR4-1600 |
| Ăśbertragungsrate | 102,4 oder 120 GByte/s* | 25,6 GByte/s |
| Display | ||
| Größe | 7,9 Zoll Touch | 7 Zoll Touch |
| Auflösung | 1920 × 1080 | 1280 × 720 |
| Bildwiederholrate | 120 Hertz mit VRR-Support | 60 Hertz |
| Paneltyp | LCD (IPS) | OLED |
| Massenspeicher | ||
| Kapazität | 256 GByte | 64 GByte |
| Speichertyp | UFS | eMMC |
| Erweiterung | microSD Express | microSD UHS-I |
| AnschlĂĽsse | ||
| Audio | 3,5-mm-Klinke | 3,5-mm-Klinke |
| USB | 2x Typ C (Geschwindigkeit unbekannt) | 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbit/s) Typ C |
| Sonstiges | ||
| Gewicht | 401 / 534 g (ohne / mit Joy-Con) | 320 / 420 g (ohne / mit Joy-Con) |
| Größe | 272 mm × 166 mm × 13,9-30,7 mm | 242 mm × 102 mm × 13,9-28,4 mm |
| Preis | 470 Euro (UVP) | 360 Euro (UVP), ab 290 Euro verfĂĽgbar |
| *unbestätigt, anhand von Gerüchten naheliegend | ||
DLSS, but probably without frame generation
The GPU is said to belong to the Ampere generation, i.e. the state of the art of the GeForce RTX 3000 series from 2020. This is the second generation with ray tracing and tensor cores for AI algorithms. Considering the moderate computing power, overly pronounced ray tracing graphics effects are not to be expected. Even a GeForce RTX 3050 should be significantly faster than the Switch 2 GPU.
The 2020 technology status would explain why Nvidia mentions support for Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), but does not go into any specific functions. Nvidia releases DLSS 3.5 for Ampere, still without frame generation for interpolated intermediate frames. DLSS 4 is only available from Ada Lovelace (GeForce RTX 4000); Multi-Frame Generation (MFG) with several intermediate frames from Blackwell (GeForce RTX 5000). The Switch 2 should mainly use the AI upscaler to reduce the render resolution and thus increase the frame rate. For comparison: The Switch 1 GPU comes from the Maxwell generation, which debuted as the GeForce GTX 900 in 2014 – without any AI hardware.
If you want to play with the Switch 2 on a TV, you are limited to HDMI 2.0 with 60 Hertz in 4K resolution. Nevertheless, the console can output 2560 Ă— 1440 pixels (WQHD) at 120 hertz.
Meanwhile, the Cortex-A78C cores, like the Ampere GPU, are from 2020. The significantly wider CPU cores, the doubled number and presumably higher clock frequencies bring a considerable leap in performance.
The four Cortex-A57 cores of the old Switch barely exceeded one gigahertz. In the case of the Switch 2, CPU clock frequencies of 2 GHz or more are close – which the Jetson Orin AGX also achieves, and ARM has also optimized the A78C cores for this value. It is not known whether Samsung or TSMC manufactures the processor. The Jetson Orin AGX and all RTX 3000 GPUs originate from Samsung's older 8-nanometer production. However, there have also been rumors that Nvidia may have switched to a process from TSMC's 7 nm class with the Switch 2 offshoot.
(mma)
