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Nintendo Switch 2: hardware analysis and comparison with competitors

Digital Foundry has published the final technical specifications of the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2. The console is a major step forward from the original and is now a genuine competitor to Steam Deck. Let's look at the details.

🔧 Switch 2 specifications

  • CPU: 8-core ARM Cortex-A78C at up to 1.7 GHz
  • GPU: Nvidia Ampere (1,536 CUDA cores), up to 1.4 GHz
  • Performance: up to 3.0 TFLOPs docked, 1.7 TFLOPs handheld
  • Memory: 12 GB LPDDR5X, with 9 GB available to games
  • Storage: 256 GB UFS + microSD Express support
  • Display: 7.9-inch LCD, 1080p, HDR10, VRR up to 120 Hz
  • Technologies: DLSS including DLSS 3, ray tracing up to 20 GR/s, HDR, VRR

📊 Switch 2 compared with Switch 1 and Steam Deck

Compared with Switch 1:

  • Graphics performance increases roughly eightfold, from 0.39 to 3.0 TFLOPs
  • RAM increases from 4 GB to 12 GB
  • Resolution goes from 720p to 1080p, with HDR and VRR
  • Modern technologies such as DLSS, ray tracing, and HDR are now supported

In broad terms, Switch 2 is several times more powerful across every major area: graphics, memory, and display technology. This is not a one-generation leap but closer to two. The old Switch felt like a handheld console; the new one looks more like a compact modern home console in a portable form factor.

Compared with Steam Deck:

  • Switch 2 has the stronger GPU when docked, at 3.0 vs 1.6 TFLOPs, while Deck has the stronger CPU
  • DLSS gives Switch 2 an advantage in image quality on a large display
  • Deck is more open and more flexible, but runs hotter and drains its battery faster

If you focus on graphics and external-display output, Switch 2 pulls clearly ahead, especially when docked thanks to DLSS and higher peak performance. But that does not make it the absolute winner: Steam Deck remains a versatile machine, capable of running PC games, emulators, and mods, as well as serving as a mini-PC. Each device has its own philosophy and its own audience.

🧠 Could Nintendo have built something more powerful?

Development of Nintendo Switch 2 began back in 2019. Lead developers Koichi Kawamoto, technical director Tetsuya Sasaki, and hardware director Takuhiro Dohta discussed this in an “Ask the Developer” interview.

If we imagine that the active development phase took place in 2020 and the engineers could choose any hardware regardless of price, but still had to maintain good power efficiency so the device would not overheat or die after an hour, the realistic options were still limited.

  • Nvidia Orin (Tegra T234) looked promising on paper: Ampere architecture, up to 2,048 CUDA cores, and high performance. But it had one critical drawback — high power consumption, up to 40 W. That is unacceptable for a handheld: it would require aggressive active cooling and the battery could be dead in around 1.5 hours.
  • AMD APU (Van Gogh), used in Steam Deck, was not a perfect fit either. It is genuinely powerful, combining Zen 2 and RDNA 2, but requires active cooling and consumes more power than an ARM platform. The Deck itself demonstrates the trade-offs: a large shell, fan noise, heat, and comparatively short battery life.
  • Apple M1 was the only 2020 chip that was both more powerful and highly efficient. But it has one fundamental problem: it is proprietary, available only to Apple. Nintendo could not use the chip, its GPU, or its platform support in a third-party console for either legal or technical reasons.
  • Snapdragon 865/888 (Qualcomm) also existed as alternatives, especially in Android gaming. These chips offered decent efficiency and Adreno GPUs around the 1 TFLOP range. But they were behind Nvidia in graphics, lacked DLSS and ray tracing, and were designed primarily for smartphones rather than full game consoles. Qualcomm also did not have the same gaming ecosystem or a mature console-oriented SDK.

🧠 Bottom line: in practice, once power consumption, heat, and ease of integration are taken into account, an ARM chip based on Nvidia Ampere with DLSS was the best practical choice in 2020. It offered a strong balance of performance, battery life, and portable operation without requiring huge fans or external batteries.