Nintendo Switch 2’s Custom Nvidia Chip Supports Ray-Tracing and DLSS

Nintendo has once again teamed up with Nvidia to create a custom chip to power the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2, and the new silicon should be a big leap forward in terms of performance. In a blog post detailing the new chip today, Nvidia said that the custom GPU on the Switch 2 will offer dedicated RT Cores and Tensor Cores to enable ray-tracing and Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS).

“With 1,000 engineer-years of effort across every element — from system and chip design to a custom GPU, APIs and world-class development tools — the Nintendo Switch 2 brings major upgrades,” Nvidia said today. “The new RT Cores bring real-time ray tracing, delivering lifelike lighting, reflections and shadows for more immersive worlds.”

Nvidia didn’t reveal which generation of DLSS the Tensor Cores on the custom Nintendo Switch 2 GPU will support, however. The company also made no mention of the frame generation technology that it introduced with DLSS3 for RTX 40 Series GPUs: The GPU maker only said that DLSS on the Switch 2 will “boost resolution for sharper details without sacrificing image quality.”

The Nintendo Switch 2 will support up to 4K gaming in TV mode and up to 120 FPS at 1080p in handheld mode. Nvidia says that the Switch 2’s custom GPU will deliver “10x the graphics performance of the Nintendo Switch,” and gamers can also expect support for Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) in handheld mode via Nvidia’s proprietary G-SYNC technology.

On Nintendo’s website, the page detailing the technical specs for the Switch 2 mentions a 5220mAh battery providing between 2 and 6.5 hours of battery life depending on the games you play. In comparison, the 4310mAh battery on the original Nintendo Switch offered between 4.5 and 9 hours of battery life, and that dropped to 3 to 7 hours on the Switch Lite, which has a smaller 3570mAh battery.

Despite the Switch 2 having a larger battery than its predecessor, it looks like Nvidia’s custom chip isn’t as power-efficient as the Tegra X1 chips powering the original Switch. However, the console will be able to run demanding open-world games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Star Wars Outlaws, and this should lead to much better support from third-party developers.

The Nintendo Switch 2 will launch on June 5 at $449.99/£395.99/€469.99, and pre-orders will open on April 8 in the EU and April 9 in the US.