Nvidia Confirms AI and Ray Tracing Capabilities for Nintendo Switch 2 SoC, Holds Back on Full Specs for Now

Nintendo certainly grabbed attention with the big reveal of the Nintendo Switch 2 yesterday, but intriguingly, the company’s hardware team stayed pretty hush about the specifics of its new chip. Thankfully, Nvidia, who crafted this custom chip, decided to spill some beans in a recent blog post.

During a developer roundtable, Tetsuya Sasaki, the technical director of the Switch 2, shared, “Nintendo doesn’t delve too deeply into the hardware specs. Our priority is always about how much value we can deliver to our consumers.” True to this approach, Nvidia is keeping tight-lipped on the finer details like core numbers and processing speeds. However, they did promise a major leap forward, claiming that the new chip offers graphics performance that’s ten times better than the original Nintendo Switch.

Thanks to Nvidia’s inclusion of RT cores, we’re in for hardware-driven improvements in ray tracing, lighting, and reflections. Their tensor cores are behind the DLSS upscaling magic, likely boosting the system’s performance up to 4K when docked, and aiming for a silky-smooth 120 frames per second in handheld play.

On top of that, Nvidia revealed that these tensor cores can handle face tracking and background removal via AI. This was showcased in the new GameChat feature and in several Switch 2 games we got to test out, like Super Mario Party Jamboree – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV. It’s still up in the air whether this taps into some of the Nvidia Broadcast technology familiar to PC users.

Nvidia also disclosed that the handheld version of the Switch 2 sports a variable refresh rate (VRR) display powered by G-Sync, which should be a game-changer by eliminating any pesky screen tearing.

Reflecting on history, Nvidia powered the original Nintendo Switch with a custom version of the Tegra X1. Nintendo managed to optimize that rather-limited chip for an impressive eight years, supporting a steady release of games over time.

As we gear up for the launch of the Switch 2 on June 5, priced at $449.99, it’ll be fascinating to see just how much developers can extract from this new powerhouse chip.