The Nintendo Switch 2 leaked clock speeds, which look rather legitimate, further suggest how the system is powered by an 8nm chip, according to a new analysis.
During the latest episode of their podcast, the tech experts at Digital Foundry took a good look at the leaked clock speeds of the new system, highlighting how they look reasonable enough for the type of system the Nintendo Switch 2 will be, although with some caveats, such as the handheld GPU clock speed looking a little low for the type of cooling the system has, and the CPU clock speeds, which are not particularly low for an 8nm CPU sporting eight Cortex A78 cores, being higher in portable mode than docked. The latter is particularly interesting, as it suggests there is still something we do not know about how the system works in this case, as it might disable cores in portable modes to save battery, or could have different CPU frequency modes in docked mode. Still, everything considered, these clock speeds are definitely in line with what an 8nm chip can achieve, further suggesting that it is the process node used for the T239 chip that powers the system. Speaking about the specs, one point of concern could be the low memory bandwidth in portable mode, especially if the system uses a 1080p screen as rumored. The reveal trailer, unfortunately, did not specify if the screen sports a higher resolution than the one of the original system.
What the Nintendo Switch 2 reveal trailer also failed to show is how the system will take advantage of the T239's Ampere architecture. The short Mario Kart footage was not at a very high resolution, and it looked aliased as the vast majority of Nintendo games, and in no part, it showed evidence of using NVIDIA DLSS or any other advanced feature that the architecture can deliver. Speaking about NVIDIA DLSS, Digital Foundry rightly highlights during the podcast how the Nintendo Switch 2 could be able to use the new Transformer Model, but its viability remains a question, considering the new model is computationally heavier than the current CNN model and wasn't developed for a mobile system that's essentially a few generations old at this point. Considering the recent patent essentially details a lightweight DLSS for the Nintendo Switch 2, we are unlikely to see the same identical desktop Transformer model running on the system due to computational limitations.
The Nintendo Switch 2 launches worldwide later this year. More information on the console will be revealed in a dedicated Direct scheduled for early April.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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