Hogwarts Legacy on Nintendo Switch 2: Digital Foundry Technical Analysis Reveals Major Upgrades

Hogwarts Legacy recently landed on Nintendo Switch 2, and tech specialists at Digital Foundry have conducted an in-depth technical analysis, unearthing substantial improvements over its prior release on the original Nintendo Switch.

As Portkey Games and Warner Bros.

Games continue to expand the reach of this blockbusting action RPG, the Nintendo Switch 2 version sets a new benchmark for portable adaptations of AAA titles. The original Hogwarts Legacy port on Nintendo Switch, though ambitious, faced limitations due to the console’s hardware.

However, with the Nintendo Switch 2’s enhanced capabilities, fans can now experience the wizarding world with a suite of graphical and performance enhancements previously reserved for home consoles.

Digital Foundry’s video analysis highlights not just the differences, but the leap in overall quality. One of the standout improvements is the implementation of sophisticated lighting techniques.

The Switch 2 version now boasts global illumination (GI), advanced screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO), and a significant increase in shadow mapping and environmental light sources.

These features lend Hogwarts and its surrounding landscapes newfound depth and atmosphere.

Water surfaces have also received a notable upgrade with real-time screen space reflections and more convincing water ripples, offering a more immersive visual experience absent in the Switch 1 edition. Asset quality has seen a considerable upgrade.

Foliage density is richer than before, new environmental details have been added, and certain vistas—previously scaled back due to hardware constraints—have been fully restored.

Texture quality on some assets even surpasses that of the Xbox One S version, though Digital Foundry notes that foliage can be less dense than what’s found on PlayStation 4. From a gameplay experience perspective, loading screens—a frequent immersion-breaker in prior Switch versions—have largely been eliminated, enabling more seamless exploration of Hogwarts’ sprawling grounds.

In terms of raw performance, the Nintendo Switch 2 runs Hogwarts Legacy primarily at a stable 30 frames per second (FPS), with only occasional brief dips.

Docked resolution sits at 720p, but NVIDIA DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) dynamically upscales the output resolution to 1080p, ensuring the action looks sharp even on larger displays.

In handheld mode, gameplay is rendered at 540p and similarly upscaled, all while maintaining frame rate parity with docked mode. To summarize Digital Foundry’s findings: Hogwarts Legacy on Nintendo Switch 2 delivers a level of visual polish and performance that was simply unattainable on the original hardware.

With advanced lighting, higher resolution textures, fewer constraints on environmental detail, and largely uninterrupted gameplay, it stands as a milestone for third-party titles on Nintendo’s new platform. For those seeking a thorough analysis, the full technical deep dive by Digital Foundry offers granular insights into resolution, asset management, and visual settings compared across multiple platforms.

With these enhancements, Hogwarts Legacy on Nintendo Switch 2 is well-positioned to be one of the standout RPG experiences available through Nintendo’s eShop or after the next Nintendo Direct announcements.

Nintendo Switch 2 Nintendo Switch Nintendo Hogwarts Legacy Switch 2 Digital Foundry Switch Warner Bros. Games Portkey Games Xbox One S PlayStation 4 DLSS