Nintendo Switch 2 Specs Breakdown: Digital Foundry Confirms Major Hardware Upgrades

Nintendo Switch 2 Specs Breakdown: Digital Foundry Confirms Major Hardware Upgrades As anticipation grows for Nintendo's next-generation hardware, new details have emerged regarding the Nintendo Switch 2’s internal specifications.

In a comprehensive analysis by Digital Foundry, the technology experts provide the most complete breakdown yet, confirming key upgrades and solidifying expectations for Nintendo’s upcoming console. The original Nintendo Switch, released in March 2017, was driven by the Nvidia Tegra X1 chipset—essentially a standard (“vanilla”) mobile SoC at the time.

By contrast, the Nintendo Switch 2 is set to feature a custom-designed Nvidia T239 system on a chip, tailored specifically for Nintendo’s requirements.

Digital Foundry’s Rich Leadbetter emphasized that this custom silicon demonstrates Nintendo’s commitment to performance leaps, setting a new standard for hybrid gaming devices. **CPU and GPU Upgrades** Under the hood, the Switch 2’s CPU moves to eight ARM Cortex A78C cores, backed by the ARMv8 64-bit instruction set and cryptography support.

As with the original Switch, Nintendo reserves a portion of CPU resources for the operating system—two cores go to system functions, leaving six available for game developers.

This is a notable increase from the first Switch, which provided three out of four ARM Cortex A57 cores for developers. Each core in the Switch 2 is supported by 64KB of L1 instruction cache, 64KB of L1 data cache, and a sizable 256KB of L2 cache.

All cores share a generous 4MB pool of L3 cache.

In practice, CPU clocks reach 1100MHz in handheld mode, 998MHz in both performance and docked modes, with a peak clock of 1.7GHz. On the graphics front, the Switch 2 leverages Nvidia’s advanced Ampere architecture—replacing the original Maxwell GPU’s 256 CUDA cores with a robust 1536, and bumping graphical power to approximately 3.072 TFLOPs (docked) and 1.71 TFLOPs (handheld).

GPU clock speeds hit 1007MHz when docked and 561MHz in handheld mode. **Next-Gen Features and Memory Enhancements** Ray tracing, a highly anticipated feature, is now confirmed for the Switch 2’s GPU.

Digital Foundry reports the system can process up to 10 gigarays per second in handheld mode, doubling to 20 gigarays in docked mode.

While no titles have yet demonstrated real-time ray tracing on Switch 2, this capability is likely to be a game-changer for visual fidelity. Memory also receives a significant boost: Nintendo has opted for 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM divided into two 6GB modules, offering a memory bandwidth of 68GB/s (handheld) and 102GB/s (docked).

Of this, 3GB is reserved for system operations, with 9GB for developers—more than doubling the original Switch’s 3.2GB available to games. Additionally, Nintendo is introducing enhanced development tools, including a simulator for GameChat, which allows studios to test the impact of real-world network latency on in-game communication—a point Digital Foundry identifies as a primary area of concern for game teams. **Technical Comparison: Switch vs.

Switch 2** - CPU: 8x ARM Cortex A78C (Switch 2) vs.

4x ARM Cortex A57 (Switch) - GPU: Nvidia Ampere (1536 CUDA cores) vs.

Nvidia Maxwell (256 CUDA cores) - Memory: 12GB LPDDR5X (Switch 2) vs.

4GB LPDDR4 (Switch) - Memory Bandwidth: 102GB/s docked (Switch 2) vs.

25.6GB/s docked (Switch) - System Reservation: 3GB system/9GB games (Switch 2) vs.

0.8GB system/3.2GB games (Switch) Nintendo has yet to announce a launch date for the Switch 2, but this confirmed technical breakdown ensures developers and players alike can look forward to a major leap in handheld and docked performance.

As the company continues to shape the future of gaming hardware, all eyes are on how developers will take advantage of these next-gen specs for the Nintendo Switch 2.

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