Nintendo Switch Pro rumor looks legit, thanks to this Nvidia email
Nintendo Switch Pro rumors have been reignited as an Nvidia employee seems to have confirmed the existence of the chip allegedly powering the device.
No official announcement of the Nintendo Switch Pro has been made as of yet. But an Nvidia leak posted to the r/GamingLeaksandRumours(opens in new tab) subreddit seems to all but confirm the Tegra239 SoC (system on a chip) is real, by way of an email from an Nvidia employee.
The Tegra239 has been rumored to exist since last year. Twitter tech leaker kopite7kimi originally brought the chip to light(opens in new tab) in June 2021, when they suggested the next-generation Nintendo Switch would be powered by a «customized» Tegra234.
This also lines up with information found in the Nvidia leak from March this year, which made reference to 'NVN2' (likely the successor to the Switch's NVN graphics API) as well as specific mention of the T239 chip.
There's no doubt that the Nintendo Switch's Tegra X1 chip is an ageing piece of hardware, and certainly isn't the best fit for large-scale games like Xenoblade Chronicles 3 or the upcoming The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Commenters in the Reddit thread are largely in agreement that the Tegra239 would be similarly powerful to the PS4. That probably isn't the generational leap you'd be hoping for, but I imagine it's more palatable for third-party developers and publishers, who might then find it easier to port their games to the Switch Pro without relying on cloud-based versions.
For my money, it points to the Switch Pro being a mid-gen upgrade rather than a new console outright. Not unlike the PS4 Pro or Xbox One X. I think this would be the right move for Nintendo, and lines up with comments made by president Shuntaro Furukawa
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