No evidence of DLSS found in Nintendo Switch 2 presentation despite ‘custom’ Nvidia GPU
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Nintendo has now confirmed that the Switch 2 does indeed support DLSS and Ray Tracing technology. This information comes from IGN, referencing a “hardware-focused roundtable Q&A in New York”.
Takuhiro Dohta, a senior director, is quoted saying: “We use DLSS upscaling technology and that’s something that we need to use as we develop games.” Noting that the hardware is able to output to 4K in TV mode. He goes on to add that “Whether the software developer is going to use that as a native resolution or get it to upscale is something that the software developer can choose”.
This doesn’t confirm that DLSS was in use during the presentation, but it at least confirms its will be supported on Nintendo Switch 2. Dohta also adds that “the GPU does support ray tracing”.
Nvidia's DLSS suite of tools has made waves with its ability to hugely improve gaming performance. Yet despite its custom Nvidia processor, there was no sign of this technology in the Nintendo Switch 2 presentation.
After months of rumours and speculation, the official announcement of the Nintendo Switch 2 was met with excitement. As soon as Nintendo released the official technical specifications, fans were poring over the details to see what they could expect out of the new hybrid console. Some analysts noted something unusual when they compared the tech specs to the details in the presentation.
Nintendo Switch 2 features custom Nvidia hardware
The Switch 2 will use a custom processor made by Nvidia, which will act as both CPU and GPU, a configuration sometimes called an APU, or SoC for single-chip solutions. Even though the processor is made by Nvidia, there was been no mention of DLSS technology so far.
The omission was noticed by tech news outlet Digital Foundry, which did a detailed run-down on the new Nintendo console following an hour-long Nintendo Direct. They note: “I don’t think we saw any evidence of DLSS within the whole presentation; could be wrong there, but [it] doesn’t look like it”.
The lack of DLSS is very curious, since the technology has been heavily pushed by Nvidia. The DLSS toolset can improve upscaling and increase framerates using AI-assisted processing. Perhaps the Switch 2 simply doesn't have the power needed to run DLSS, and a more lightweight solution has not yet been developed (or is ready to show off yet).
One Twitter/X thread speculated that the Switch 2 could instead rely on AMD's FSR technology, or perhaps Nintendo has simply ruled out frame generation tech entirely, though it is hard to imagine why they would do that, especially when the console can target up to 4K 60FPS while in docked mode.
It is possible that DLSS is being reserved for a future update. One commenter spotted that the footage for the new Metroid Prime showed settings for ‘Quality' and ‘Performance', suggesting that scaling tech is ready to be implemented, but no visual pointers seem to suggest it has been shown in action just yet.
Another user pointed out that Nintendo previously patented a machine-learning upscaler model of its own, so it is possible that this is the software planned for use. Until the console is released or Nintendo provides official details on DLSS support, it is hard to say for certain.
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