Firstly, Moore’s Law is Dead’s sources atNvidia, who is manufacturing the Switch 2’s SoC claim that the hardware has been done “for a very long time” and that the “ball has been entirely in [Nintendo’s] court for years now regarding when they want to launch it…”
Switch 2 specs doubled-down
The previous reports that the Nintendo Switch 2 will be running on Nvidia’s T239 chip have been corroborated here, with two sources from Nvidia claiming that the 8nm Orin chip will be used in Nintendo’s upcoming handheld console.
The first source states: “Samsung 8nm is a perfect match for Nintendo. It’s the lowest cost/transistor node on the market, and it’s not expected to be as competitive for capacity as more modern nodes over the next few years.”
Interestingly, the source also claims that the design Nvidia supplied to Nintendo could be selected with several LPDDR5 RAM configurations: 8GB, 12GB, and 16GB respectively. It’s just down to Nintendo to choose one.
A second source also confirms the T239’s usage, noting that the company could have chosen a more advanced chip based on Lovelace, the architecture powering the RTX 40-series GPUs. However, the company instead chose a cost-optimized version. They also note that AMD made a play to create the Switch 2’s chip, but lost out to Nvidia.
Based on the power of the Nvidia T239 chip, Moore’s Law is Dead estimates that the Switch 2 could bepricedat anywhere between $349-499. The $499 estimation appears to be if Nintendo chooses to opt for higher VRAM, and higher clocks for the Switch 2, which could potentially put the console within spitting distance of the Xbox Series S in terms of pure power.
However, it’s more likely that the Switch 2 will end up being slightly more powerful than theSteam Deck, instead, since Nintendo will want to instead focus on efficiency and affordability for their next home console.
Sayem Ahmed was Dexerto’s Tech Editor in the UK team, leading hardware coverage globally. Sayem is an expert in all things Nvidia, AMD, Intel, and PC components. He has over 10 years of experience, with bylines at Eurogamer, IGN, Trusted Reviews, Kotaku, and many more.
