Nintendo has released technical specifications for the upcoming Switch 2, but the company’s page is noticeably light on details in a few technical areas. Fortunately, Digital Foundry has stepped in with what it describes as “rock solid” specs, offering new insights into the console’s CPU, GPU, memory, and more.

One of the vaguest parts of the official reveal was the chip itself, which Nintendo simply called a “custom processor made by Nvidia.” Digital Foundry goes much deeper, reporting that the Switch 2 runs on a custom Nvidia T239 processor featuring an ARM Cortex-A78C CPU with eight cores. Six of these cores will be available to developers, while two will be reserved for the system.

The GPU is based on Nvidia's Ampere architecture, the same one used in the RTX 30 series. It includes 1,536 CUDA cores and 12GB of LPDDR5X memory, although 3GB of that will be reserved for the system. Nvidia also confirmed that the chip supports DLSS and real-time ray tracing, but how exactly does it work? Digital Foundry gets more specific.

Nintendo Switch 2 will support multiple DLSS options

In a contrast to Sony’s approach with PSSR, the Nintendo SDK's support for Nvidia DLSS has already been confirmed by CD Projekt RED, with Cyberpunk 2077 being the first officially announced Switch 2 title to use it. Other games, like Street Fighter 6, are also reported to come with DLSS support. Now, Digital Foundry has also confirmed that the Switch 2 will support multiple DLSS modes, including DLAA, 1X, 2X, and 3X.

While exact details on these modes aren't available yet, we do know that DLAA essentially renders at native resolution and uses DLSS purely for high-quality anti-aliasing. Digital Foundry believes the 1X, 2X, and 3X options will likely line up with the performance, balanced, and quality presets seen on PC. Interestingly, during the demo, Cyberpunk 2077 appeared to be using both dynamic resolution scaling and DLSS simultaneously, rather than relying solely on one method.

That said, Digital Foundry goes into a lot more detail in its coverage of the specs, like the Switch 2 not supporting VRR while in docked mode, so be sure to check them out. The Switch 2 is scheduled to launch on June 5th, and judging from the preorder havoc situation, Nintendo expects the sequel to sell just as well as the original, in a shorter amount of time (in other words, even better).

About the Author

Hassam Nasir

Hassam boasts over seven years of professional experience as a dedicated PC hardware reviewer and writer.