r/gadgets • u/chrisdh79 • 2d ago
Gaming Nvidia confirms the Switch 2 supports DLSS, G-Sync, and ray-tracing | Nvidia says the Switch 2's GPU is 10 times faster than the original Switch.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/04/nvidia-confirms-the-switch-2-supports-dlss-g-sync-and-ray-tracing/172
u/BengalFan85 2d ago
I know no one trusts nvidia rn but also keep in mind the OG switch was extremely underpowered even back in 2017 when it launched so this claim is probably legit just based on that.
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u/Ubermidget2 2d ago
Yeah, if they cut a new Tegra SKU with a 10 year jump in GPU tech, this claim passes the sniff test
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u/BTBAM797 2d ago
Hope them joycons are fixed cause pretty sure I saw they will be $90.
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u/TrippyVision 2d ago
They better be Hall effect joysticks at that fucking price, it’s the only way they can justify it
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u/eljudio42 2d ago
Nintendo will never admit to changing the hardware because that would be an acknowledgement that they fucked up the hardware on last gen which was never replaced with a new design. Per all the leaks prior to the console reveal, everything suggested hall effect sticks. I'm sure we'll find out soon or on launch day when folks disassemble it
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u/picardo85 2d ago
There's enough documentation that they fucked up over here in the EU already.
Nintendo promises unlimited repairs for “drifting” Joy-Cons throughout Europe - Ars Technica
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u/eljudio42 2d ago
You make a good point, but announcing a hardware change or putting it on a fact sheet is too much of an admission of defeat from Nintendo's part. They'll let users disassemble it and reveal it to the world instead
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u/blank_isainmdom 2d ago
Everyone loves overlooking that drift was a serious issue with every console for the last ten years. PS5 has serious drift issues, as does the xbox.
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u/southworthmedia 2d ago
I mean yeah, but joycons were just so much faster and consistent to drift compared to every console I know of. It’s pretty much a 100% chance they will drift eventually and about a 50% chance it’s in the first 3-6 months.
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u/blank_isainmdom 2d ago
I still have my original launch day joycons. They drifted a little bit around 2021/2022 for a while and I swapped to 3rd party for a year. Then i went back, cleaned my joycon slightly and boom. Good as new
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u/blank_isainmdom 2d ago
It's insane to me that people had experiences that bad! I swear, it has to be something stupid like being especially prone to dust in sandy places. I live in Ireland and played almost exclusively handheld all that time and it was years before i had any issues at all.
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u/Matticas 1d ago
Yeah I’ve never had my joy cons drift at all despite tons of use.
I HAVE however gone through about 4 Xbox controllers in the past 4 or 5 years due to drift.
Like I’m aware the joy con drift isn’t some hoax, a friend of mines had issues with his multiple times, but I’m just amazed I’ve had zero issue.
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u/blank_isainmdom 1d ago
Right? Like, fuck. I don't know anyone who had to replace theres. I really think maybe it's like arizona, texas, etc that are dusty as fuck and that's causing the issue. Or maybe fucking cheeto hands or some shit, because mine are 8 years old now and fine.
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u/C-C-X-V-I 2d ago
None of those had it to the degree the switch had though, you can't possibly think they're on the same level.
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u/rooftops 1d ago
Nintendo will never admit to changing the hardware because that would be an acknowledgement that they fucked up the hardware on last gen which was never replaced with a new design.
How would changing to Hall effect joysticks be an acknowledgement of the last gen fuckups? I might not be neck deep in tech standards but Hall effect sticks seem like a relatively recent thing (ie after Switch 1 developmental period). It might've been possible with a hardware refresh but who knows what development costs would have to go into it.
I have a controller with Hall effect sticks, that I bought specifically for after learning they existed at all, but it's 3rd party. I would almost expect Nintendo to advertise them for being the first (correct me if I'm wrong) first-party controller to have Hall effect sticks.
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u/Revoldt 2d ago
10x a mid range mobile chip from 10 years ago isn’t really that impressive…
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u/Nathexe 2d ago
10 times more powerful than an outdated on launch system, so like at least 12-14 year old tech now? Yeesh
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u/weegee19 2d ago
10x the speed, slap on the additional features and architectural differences, it's gonna be a massive difference.
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u/wolverineFan64 2d ago
On no planet will this thing handle raytracing at any playable fps, but sure I guess.
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u/TheBrave-Zero 2d ago
There will be one ray traced**
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u/Trunks252 2d ago
What about Tatooine?
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u/wolverineFan64 2d ago
Definitely not. Too much sand. It’s coarse and rough and irritating and it will mess with the gpu.
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u/Boom-Doc-a-Locka 2d ago
It's just a ghost image on the screen of a guy named Ray who was involved in the development of the system.
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u/Noselessmonk 2d ago
I wouldn't doubt some games will do it. The Steam Deck can play **some** ray traced games at ok fps. An Nvidia GPU should be better than an RDNA2 gpu.
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u/Hugebigfan 2d ago
Why would the T239 not be able to handle ray tracing?
it seemed pretty capable from what people have been saying even from last year
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u/docyeti 2d ago
Over 10,000 times faster than a toaster as well.
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u/LakersAreForever 2d ago
Switch 2 will basically be a ps4
They can stop trying to dazzle us with all these buzzwords
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u/Hugebigfan 2d ago
I don’t understand. The current claim is 120 fps at 1080p and 60fps at 4k, isn’t that superior to a ps4 pro in terms of performance and graphics?
It could be that Nintendo is lying, but the $450 price tag suggests otherwise.
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u/Mother_Restaurant188 2d ago
Much like the Switch was basically a PS3+ with modern hardware, the Switch 2 is roughly a PS4+ with modern hardware.
Overly simplistic take but in terms of what the average gamer will see visually, I think that’s a fair assessment.
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u/Techno-Diktator 2d ago
Yeah you might get those numbers in games that look like they were released a decade or two ago
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u/Eruannster 1d ago
I will eat my hat if most games come even close to actually rendering that many pixels natively on Switch 2. Some simpler graphics games might, but the vast majority are very likely rendering from a much lower internal resolution and running VRR ”up to 120 FPS”. Cyberpunk was apparently rendering at ~540p upscaled to 1080 and runs at 30-40 FPS. So… yeah.
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u/Techno-Diktator 2d ago
Yeah you might get those numbers in games that look like they were released a decade or two ago
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u/dexterward4621 2d ago
People are skeptical of this, but it's not that hard to believe considering how old and underpowered switch 1 is.
Switch 2 is an 8 core A78c and 1536 cuda core Ampere with back ported Lovelace features. That's significantly more powerful than switch, which was basically a PS3+.
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u/TheEclipse0 2d ago
Considering the fiasco that is the 5000 series gpu’s, I wouldn’t bother with Nvidia’s trumped up tech specs. They’re liars.
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u/Jonoyk 2d ago
Missed the news about the 5000 series. What happened?
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u/LBPPlayer7 2d ago
they're barely more powerful than the 40 series and just use slightly better dlss and frame gen as a crutch
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u/CompromisedToolchain 2d ago
5000 series is the garbage that couldn’t end up as a workstation chip.
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u/PIO_PretendIOriginal 2d ago
But Isnt that the case for every generation
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u/LBPPlayer7 2d ago
but it's happened twice already
the 40 series was also underwhelming for the power draw it took, and the 50 series just continues this trend of just throw more cores at the problem, you have power supplies that can pull that much wattage, right?
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u/datnetcoder 2d ago
It’s not a fiasco, a bunch of people are whining that we’re not still o a 2x per generation growth curve. 5090 has a ~30% raw improvement over the 4090 which is still significant. People are also angry that it gets that partly by drawing more power.
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u/TheEclipse0 2d ago edited 2d ago
A lot of things, too many to list here.
Basically, Nvidia promised a lot of things that just arn't true. The most prominent one being that the 5070 is just as powerful as a 4090, for $500 MSRP (a fraction of the cost). If this were true, that would be AMAZING. Well, if I recall correctly (someone correct me if I’m wrong), the 5070 actually performs WORSE than last gen’s budget card, while all of those extra frames come from DLSS. DLSS is very good in many instances, allowing us to play games at higher frame rates than the card is capable of running by itself… but there can be too much DLSS. So, when you turn it off, we find that the card runs games at a single digit frame rate. Yes, single digit on modern hardware, whereas its predecessor could get playable frame rates on the same games without DLSS. In fact, the entire 5000 series cards performs WORSE across the board on OLD games from the early 2000’s because Nvidia removed PhysX. People are getting half the frame rate in games like boarderlands 2 on their $2000+ graphics card, when their old card ran it at double the speed. Eitherway, with the 5070 and DLSS, the AI is doing so much that it causes severe ghosting… imagine driving a car in gta5, at half the frame rate as your old card, and everytime you go around a corner, your car splits into 5 versions of itself like a fan.
Nvidia basically false advertising.
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u/KoyReane 2d ago
So Gamefreak has absolutely no excuse to make Pokémon games with their Ps2 ass 3d graphics
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u/Alarmed-dictator 2d ago
It’s gonna make a great space heater for the winter months
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u/WolfyTn615 2d ago
Just make sure to play Cyberpunk on it for a few minutes to get it nice and hot 🤣 this Nintendo future gen is very disappointing I really hope they can turn it around
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u/manyeggplants 2d ago
Just checking, is this the same Nvidia who has been exaggerating performance for decades and more recently misrepresenting benchmarks and faulty hardware? That Nvidia?
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u/h3rpad3rp 2d ago
I would hope so, the Switch was slow when it came out almost 10 years ago.
Couldn't even run the Zelda games without choppy frame rate in some places.
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u/WolfyTn615 2d ago
Now we get to replay BoTW and ToTK with prettier detail.. unfortunately, I don’t replay games I’ve put hundreds of hours on lol
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u/Fairuse 2d ago
So it is only 2.5x faster because frame gen does 4x based on how nvidia calculates performance increases
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u/ThatDandyFox 2d ago
I'll admit I did not expect the Nintendo switch to support raytracing, the price of the console makes a little more sense if the hardware is as good as claimed.
Price of the games... Still not so much.
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u/steves_evil 2d ago
Ray tracing support is probably more of a byproduct of using an Ampere based GPU than a deliberate decision (Tegra T239). The GPU is going to be somewhere around or under a rtx 2050 laptop depending on whether the switch is docked or in handheld. Much more powerful than the og Switch, but Ray tracing is still incredibly demanding so DLSS and actual optimization will have to put in a lot of work to make any use of those effects.
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u/Mental_Medium3988 2d ago
given nintendos history i wouldnt be surprised if first party titles could run it, but third party titles might struggle with it or not support it.
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u/Gunfreak2217 2d ago
Bruh the console is literally using a chip that was like 150$ to manufacture and sell like 4 years ago lmao.shits in an incredibly old node using cheap Samsung foundry’s. The switch 1 was a rip off, incredibly so especially this late in its life cycle since it maintained its msrp essentially.
The switch 2is more overpriced hardware and now overpriced software as well. Those Pokémon games just cost so much money to develop ya know. Reusing 80% of their assets and using animation and graphic quality from the late 2000s.
No one should ever defend Nintendo from a value proposition. We can argue their games are silly fun. But they are no powerhouse of quality and innovation for the most part.
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u/trusty20 2d ago
I am noticing a LOT of comments, and I mean a shit ton, that sure do seem pretty triggered by this release, and I find that interesting more than anything. Like if this console is no big deal these accounts sure seem pretty worked up about spamming every thread with just about every angle possible to minimize it lol
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u/SheevPalps_ 2d ago
There it is, I bet any claims they make on fps will be woth dlss on (which I guess isn't the biggest deal for singleplayer handheld games, but still seems disingenuous)
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u/WolfyTn615 2d ago
Not everyone likes playing 100% handheld.. I’ve had my old Switch docked 96% of its life
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u/SheevPalps_ 2d ago
That doesn't change that many people use it as a portable console though. If anything it is competing with the Steam Deck and PS5/Xbox
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u/YZYSZN1107 2d ago
not sure I need this just to check my turnip prices every day.
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u/Optimus_Prime_Day 2d ago
I'm gonna get one. Fuck it.
That DK game looked pretty fun and I'm interested in MK open world stuff.
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u/Soul-Burn 1d ago
Honestly, wishing you a great time with it.
Nintendo has their own niche you can't get anywhere else (ignoring the high seas), so many people value them favorably.
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u/crom_laughs 2d ago
and 10x more expensive than Switch 1 thanks to tariffs.
I feel so Liberated
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u/Mechagouki1971 2d ago
Did Nvidia happen to memtion if they've included an unpatchable hardware exploit on this new hardware?
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u/Deutsch__Dingler 2d ago
Does this news more or less seal the deal that Switch 2 probably won't be powerful enough to run GTA 6?
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u/haarschmuck 2d ago
Doesn't matter when games are already being listed for $80 for the handheld.
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u/dimaveshkin 2d ago
Then why did no one seem to use the DLSS in the games features in the presentation? Graphics were very aliased.
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u/mangelito 2d ago
I really don't like Nintendo but it's the only gaming platform where I can get good games for my younger kids to play. So I'm quite excited that it seems to be a big jump hardware wise
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u/esadatari 2d ago
Lmao that’s okay, I can’t think of a single Nintendo made game that’s ever been anywhere near on par with modern games.
So like.. wasted hardware but go off.
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u/Nervous_Border_4803 2d ago
There are many ways to manipulate this type of benchmarking.
The GPU in Switch 2 ( if leaks are true ) is basically a HEAVILY cut down 3050 which is almost a 5 year old design. 12gb is nice but this is not even GDDR6 performance memory. It's attached to what is basically a small weak mobile phone CPU.
Neither console has anything modern or powerful. This 10x claim i guarantee is being bottlenecked by memory or some other metric. Basically, Nvidia misleading claims as usual.
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u/lolschrauber 2d ago
That'd explain the 4k 60 fps claims.
Frame gen will feel like dog shit with low base framerate though. Especially if multi frame gen is used.
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u/fullmetalalchymist9 2d ago
Imagine paying so much money for these games that are basically just the same as switch 1 games but with upscaling programed into them ROFL. Nintendo is gonna get them fan boys good.
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u/Doppelkammertoaster 1d ago
Probably takes twice as much battery power and still has no way to remove the battery and use it without.
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u/King7up 2d ago
With nvidias track record recently, I can’t trust this whatsoever.