Possible Nintendo Switch 2 Details Continue To Emerge

gamespot.com:

Digital Foundry sifted through leaks and hacks to bring this information.

By Grace Benfell on

Nintendo is widely expected to be working on a successor to the Switch. Although there has still yet to be any official word on the system, a new report has provided some insight into the custom processor that may power it

Back in June 2021, tech leaker kopite7kimi posted a picture of Nvidia's T234 processor, claiming that Nvidia was working on a custom variant called the T239 for Nintendo. In a new report, Digital Foundry stakes a claim the T239 is probably at the heart of the Switch 2. They base this assertion on a combination of leaks, LinkedIn posts, an Nvidia hack, and some «common sense reasoning.» A key piece of evidence that the Switch 2 will use this processor is found within the aforementioned hack. According to the leaked information, Nvidia is using a NVN2 API, a second version of the API used to test the original Switch, to emulate the T329's behavior.

The T234 processor was originally designed for automotive and robotics and thus is too big for a mobile console. So the T239 will likely scale down from that chip and cut features meant for usage in automobiles. For example, while the T234 has a CPU architecture with 12x ARM A78AE, Eurogamer's projections give the T239 a 8x ARM A78C architecture. The T239 also reportedly includes a File Decompression Engine not found on the T234, meaning the Switch 2 could have pretty fast load times, provided the rest of the system's hardware is up to the task.

With the information gathered, Digital Foundry attempted to build a PC with similar specs to a potential Switch 2 and tested a variety of games on the hardware. The results are close to (or even above) last-gen consoles like the