Switch 2 Console Hardware is Finally Interesting - Nintendo Switch 2 Forum

Varkster · 2025-05-19T22:18:26+00:00

So obviously there has been a lot of discussion on the hardware in general, and overall, since the recent Cyberpunk 2077 showing of footage, which, by the way, you can download on this link without having to go through YouTube compression: https://press.cdprojektred.com/en/224/797#media something became a little clearer to me. Let's wave aside the trolls online who like to downplay anything about this console, and let's ignore the ones watching these same people who then parrot the same opinion and just say that the console is exceptionally impressive from its form-factor, price and image output on demanding games. But most of all, to me, this has opened my eyes that the console itself is quite a margin more interesting when compared to counterparts if we start diving into the specs. Let's put the console wars aside for a moment, PS4 and Xbox One, when those devices came out, were pretty much equated to PC in architecture. It was very much a what you see is what you get, and that hasn't changed, by the end of the console cycle developers started utilizing techniques to enhance the visuals in their games so they look better than what was seen years back, but all in all the PS4 and Xbox One were the mid-low range PCs at the time which had the perk of having games optimized specifically for them which stayed true until the end of the cycle. The Switch 1 came out, and while it could be argued that we got a lot of impressive ports out of it, the mystique of the hardware was gone on release due to the Tegra X1 chip being already available in Nvidia's own Shield device, meaning people could easily emulate it and determine what the chip is capable of. The PS5 and Xbox Series are self-explanatory following this recollection, since they follow the design principles of the PS4/Xbox One, just beefier. Meaning once again, we pretty much knew what we were going to get out of the gate. The reason I'm putting all of this down is because there is a certain level of curiosity that the Switch 2 is inciting which I don't think I've felt in many years when putting in context console gaming over the last couple of decades. It's the first console that has been continuously disproving people on what is and isn't possible, the Cyberpunk 2077 footage is just one strand, we'll likely see more moving forward. Having a custom designed chip with modern architecture sure helps this a lot, as we now can't equate it to another device accurately and say it's going to display a result similar, because all emulations and comparisons up to this point have been incredibly wrong, the image quality in the Cyberpunk 2077 videos is just a whole lot higher. My point being, is that the least talked aspect about the hardware in the Switch 2 isn't the theoretical FLOPs or what hertz it caps at, but rather how interesting it finally is that we're no longer on a vertical scale, but instead looking at a piece of hardware that manages to output great fidelity with a tiny fraction of power on a horizontal scale. I love my gaming rig and play it quite a bit, but there is no mystique to running a game, of course if I purchase a modern game it should run on hardware that cost as much as it did, with the Switch 2 I've been closely following footage reveals among other tech-savvy YouTubers and blog posters, because it's genuinely been one of the first real interesting consoles to release in a few decades. It's so much more intriguing playing a game like Cyberpunk on the Switch 2 than it is on a $3000 PC where you know what to expect, I already pre-ordered the game to support the developers, just thought I'd put a few thoughts out there that aren't marred by jaded discourse about some numbers which don't matter at all in the long run.

21
Varkster
Thu 22nd May 2025

@Quantumz00 I will respond only because your reading comprehension is awful and you are implying I 'bailed' on an argument.

The reason the hardware is interesting and the entire point of my original post is that it is mobile hardware which is built on custom architecture and NOT PC architecture, hence it has the novelty of being surprising despite performing on a significantly lower amount of power than any PC handheld out there.

In fact, at a lower cost and much lower wattage, it is significantly outperforming other handheld PC versions of the games visually, meaning it is actually exciting to see what developers can do with the hardware, which is not the case for PC handhelds because PC handhelds, being setup as they are on PC architecture, can literally output flat line performance, meaning you know exactly how the games perform based on their requirements and there are no strings attached.

If you are so interested in comparison footage and understanding why this hardware is interesting I suggest you search up Blunty's comparisons on YouTube. Not only does he go through multiple side by side comparisons, but he also explains in very simple terms why this hardware is impressive specifically citing Cyberpunk 2077 as the comparison. He also disproves your "Switch 2 = PS4" statement in the same line of videos.

Additionally, you are bringing PC handhelds into a conversation about consoles. Read the title of the thread it is really not that hard. The point being that Switch 1 came out with hardware we already knew and PS4, 5 and the Xbox lines were using architecture almost identical to PCs which meant we could immediately build parallels to compute performance using existing hardware before these consoles were even out. The Switch 2 was 'analyzed' by heaps of tech sources and the Geekerwan video ran simulation tests which were extremely wrong when compared to the real results. That is why the hardware is interesting, because it's unique built on an exceptionally custom feature set. Not because there is some $1000 handheld PC out there that can outperform it running at 45w and heating up to 90 degrees celcius.

I did not want to respond to you because you are extremely rude and your arguments make no sense in the context of the discussion I brought up. I presented reasons about why the hardware is interesting on an expectation vs performance level and you immediately went "interesting = graphics". If you still don't understand why your argument was contradictory to what I was initially saying, I don't know what other words I can spell it out to you in.

Not only that but you were also very clearly attempting to 'out-clever' me with some 'gotcha' arguments and I am tired of having constant internet debates which amount to absolutely nothing with people like you. It simply isn't worth my time and energy.

I am making the response this time and giving you the light of day because you continued to try and mock me to another user saying I 'bailed' on something because I have no response. Here is your response. Have at it, hope this makes your day.

[Edited Thu 22nd May 2025 by Varkster]

Varkster

22
BonzoBanana
Sat 7th Jun 2025

I'm really interested in the Switch 2 hardware but I was on VGChartz and think I was a bit pessimistic and got banned basically so I'm going to try to be more positive here and keep to the data. Firstly I'm interested in the hardware like I am all console hardware and PC hardware I'm not trying to put a downer on people's investments into the Switch 2 which I realise is expensive especially some of the games. I love the Switch 2 as a piece of hardware.

What we do know about the hardware is incomplete. We know its a T239 Nvidia chipset and it was designed back in 2020/2021.

The memory bandwidth is 68GB/s in portable mode where as the original Switch was 21.3GB/s so over 3x the potential performance in data terms than the original Switch. The docked memory bandwidth is 102GB/s where as the original Switch was 25.6GB/s docked so pretty much 4x the memory bandwidth so 4x the data.

The Switch 2 is rendering as low as 360p before upscaling, possibly lower than the original Switch in some games but uses DLSS to upscale. This improves memory bandwidth because less data is sent to the GPU to give output at higher resolutions. DLSS also allows for intelligent AI frame doubling which again takes the burden off memory bandwidth.

There is higher speed storage. 12GB of memory and CPU performance is still at 1Ghz approx but now there are 8 cores and they are more advanced. Switch was A57 and now we have a version of A78.

On the downside the Switch 2 is using Samsung's 10/8Nm fabrication process as confirmed by the Geekwan video which is a dated fabrication process.

The battery is only 20Wh so a maximum 10W per hour if the minimum battery runtime is 2 hours.

The T239 seems to be a cut down version of the T234 Orin which has twice the memory bandwidth at over 200GB/s and consumes up to 50W TDP. This is on exactly the same fabrication process as the Switch 2 and was designed around the same time and shows a huge amount of similarities with the T239 at die level. The GPU isn't quite the same as I believe the Gflops rate on the T234 doubles with fp16 precision calculations but remains the same on the T239 which is something to do with the tensor cores.

If you want to find out more about the T234 this is quite interesting. It seems to be at a mid-point between Switch 2 and RTX 2050 in graphics performance.

https://gadgetversus.com/graphics-card/nvidia-tegra-orin-t234...

In theory the Switch 2 has 75% of the performance of the T234 for fp32 calculations and 30-40% of the power for fp16. Switch 2 portable clock rates are obviously much lower roughly half again.

These are all theoretical numbers though because in reality they will be lower in my opinion as the Switch 1 had much lower clocks than the Tegra X1 allowed and its likely Nintendo will do the same again with T239 especially with regards portable performance. This increases reliability and yields of the chipset lowering their price. It makes the hardware run cooler and last longer, less warranty claims etc. Nintendo likes to have fairly robust and reliable hardware as often its users are quite young so durability is a factor. I maybe wrong on this, the Switch 2 does have a more adult look and perhaps they will push for more performance this time around.

BonzoBanana

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