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- The Nintendo Switch 2’s Tegra T239 SoC features 1,280 CUDA Cores, which is significantly less than comparable low-mid-range GPUs.
- The SoC is designed for low power consumption (15W) to optimize battery life, likely resulting in performance compromises.
- Price will be the deciding factor for Switch 2, considering the specifications and IPS display in 2025.
The Nintendo Switch 2 is now official, but we still don’t know its most important feature: the hardware it integrates. Thanks to KGI Financial Holding Co., a financial holding company, we have increasingly more clues about the NVIDIA SoC.
An internal document reveals some parts of the console’s specifications. A hardware comparison table shows the Nintendo Switch 2’s specifications compared to those of the more powerful PlayStation and Xbox consoles. The document confirms the use of the NVIDIA Tegra T239 SoC, which we now know has the codename DRAKE.
So, let’s examine this information more closely to see what its performance would be like.
Unpacking Switch 2’s Tegra T239 With 1,280 CUDA Cores Ampere GPU
Without any surprises, we already knew that Nintendo had once again trusted NVIDIA to manufacture the hardware for its Switch 2. One of the main reasons is to guarantee backwards compatibility with games from the previous generation console. Nintendo has officially confirmed this backwards compatibility.
It also indicated that specific games would not be backwards compatible. I hope that the company will offer more information in the future, such as a list detailing which of these games are not backwards compatible or present any type of problem in their operation.
According to KGI, the Switch 2’s NVIDIA Tegra T239 SoC will be manufactured using a 5nm process. Hopefully, Samsung Foundry will produce this chip. The reason for this has been rumoured for a long time: Nintendo wanted to reduce the chip’s manufacturing costs as much as possible. This meant not using NVIDIA’s most advanced technology and avoiding manufacturing its chip at TSMC, a market-leading foundry in terms of performance and consumption, but also with higher prices.
There are currently very few NVIDIA graphics cards with this core configuration. There are only two graphics cards focused on professional use such as the NVIDIA A16 and A2. For the gaming market, the closest thing is a GeForce RTX 3050 GPU for laptops, but it has 2,048 CUDA Cores and a TDP of 45W.
The Tegra 239 will run between 15 and 20W, reducing its consumption by reducing the number of cores and frequencies. Therefore, its performance will be lower than the GeForce RTX 3050 laptop GPU.
Another one is with the 1,536 CUDA Core. Still, the document states 1,280 CUDA Cores, which means the TFlop count would range from 1.72 to 1.43 in handheld and 3.09 to 2.57 in docked modes.
Let’s hope it also supports DLSS, which was also revealed in a patent; otherwise, GPU performance is not that impressive. The SoC is accompanied by 12 GB of LPDDR5X RAM at 7,500 MT/s and 256 GB of internal storage.
Nintendo Switch 2 With LCD or OLED Display?
That’s the big question now. With the unveiling of the Nintendo Switch 2, the question of whether it will come with an OLED or IPS panel has once again been raised because of the console’s large bezels.
The OLED Switch drastically reduced the bezels compared to the original model, and it seems that it has now taken a step backwards with the IPS Panel. The first reports spoke of a Switch 2 alongside a future Switch 2 OLED. So, it seems like Nintendo will take the same approach of first selling the IPS variant and then later OLED.
On the other hand, the price. There is strong talk of an official price of $399.99 for the console. Anything above this would be quite harsh. And the console is mainly aimed at a market of very young people without resources. We are talking about $400, just $50 less than a much more powerful PlayStation 5 Slim, with more RAM and 1 TB of storage.
PlayStation 5 is also more expensive to produce. However, the screen and battery are the most economical parts of making a portable device, and this is even more true if you use an IPS screen.
What’s your take on the specifications of Nintendo Switch 2? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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[Editor-in-Chief]
Sajjad Hussain is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Tech4Gamers.com. Apart from the Tech and Gaming scene, Sajjad is a Seasonal banker who has delivered multi-million dollar projects as an IT Project Manager and works as a freelancer to provide professional services to corporate giants and emerging startups in the IT space.
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