Although Nintendo officially revealed the Switch 2 last month, consumers still haven’t been able to try it out firsthand. However, Chinese tech YouTuber Geekerwan has already reverse-engineered the Switch 2’s motherboard to examine its Nvidia system-on-chip (SoC), GPU, CPU, and other hardware components. Based on this analysis, we’ve gathered all the major hardware specs, gaming performance data, and benchmark results to get a clearer picture of how the handheld console performs. Let’s dive into the details.
To begin with, Geekerwan’s video reveals that the Nintendo Switch 2 is powered by Nvidia’s T239 system-on-chip (SoC), originally finalized in 2021. Using Focused Ion Beam Scanning Electron Microscopy (FIB-SEM), they examined the T239 and determined it’s likely built on Samsung’s custom 10nm/8nm hybrid process, referred to by Nvidia as the “8N” node.
Regarding its physical dimensions, the T239 chip has a die size of approximately 207 mm²—roughly double that of the Tegra X1 used in the original Switch. Notably, this makes it comparable in size to GPUs like the RTX 3050 and 2050, and even larger than high-end chips like AMD’s Ryzen 7 7840H, Apple’s M2, and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite.
In addition, Geekerwan reports that the Nvidia T239 chip in the Nintendo Switch 2 can draw up to 34.4 watts of power—relatively high for a portable console. That said, typical usage is unlikely to reach that maximum level.
Nintendo Switch 2: Graphics Performance
Turning to the GPU, the T239 is expected to include an Ampere-based Nvidia graphics processor featuring 6 Texture Processing Clusters (TPCs). This configuration results in 12 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), translating to a total of 1,536 CUDA cores. Currently, there’s no confirmed information regarding the inclusion of ray tracing (RT) or Tensor cores.
When it comes to GPU clock speeds, the Nintendo Switch 2 runs at up to 561MHz in handheld mode and reaches 1007MHz when docked. To estimate its graphics capabilities, Geekerwan downclocked an RTX 2050 laptop GPU to closely replicate the performance of the Switch 2’s GPU, which shares a similar architecture and setup.
3DMark Steel Nomad Light Performance
In benchmark tests using 3DMark Steel Nomad Light, the simulated Switch 2 GPU scored 2,205 in docked mode and 1,308 in handheld mode. This puts its docked performance roughly on par with a desktop GTX 1050 Ti, while its handheld performance surpasses the GTX 750 Ti but falls slightly short of the Steam Deck.
Compared to the original Switch, the Switch 2 delivers approximately 7.5 times the performance in handheld mode. With Nvidia’s DLSS technology, the performance could potentially improve by up to 10 times, according to Nvidia.
Nintendo Switch 2: Gaming Performance
Geekerwan also tested real-world gaming scenarios on the simulated hardware. In Cyberpunk 2077, the system managed 30 FPS in docked mode at 720p internal resolution with DLSS set to Quality, outputting at 1080p using low settings. In handheld mode, it reached 40 FPS using DLSS in Performance mode, outputting at 1080p with an internal resolution of 540p.
Lastly, the Nvidia T239 chipset in Nintendo Switch 2 packs an octa-core CPU featuring 8x Arm Cortex-A78 cores. In the handheld mode, all Switch 2 CPU cores can go up to 1.1GHz, and in the Docked mode, the CPU clock speed is limited to 1.0GHz.
Geekerwan also ran the Geekbench 6 CPU test on the Nvidia Jetson Orin NX to simulate Switch 2’s CPU performance. Since both have identical CPUs, they downclocked the clock speed to exactly match Switch 2’s CPU frequency. In the Geekbench 6 test, the simulated Switch 2 CPU in Handheld mode scored 526 in single-core and 2,877 in multi-core.
The CPU performance is slightly better than the eight-year-old Snapdragon 845 processor but ranks much below the Steam Deck. However, compared to the first Nintendo Switch, you get almost 6x faster CPU performance. Geekerwan says while the CPU performance is underwhelming in the benchmark, it’s not a bottleneck and performs rather well in games.
To conclude, based on the current information, the Nvidia Switch 2 offers a substantial leap in performance when compared to the original Switch. However, it’s not as powerful as current generation handhelds or consoles, if we go by early leaks. That said, DLSS does improve the gaming performance significantly on this portable device.