The Nintendo Switch 2 will support the full set of Unreal Engine 5 features, but the hardware will likely have trouble running all of them simultaneously.
Replying to a supporter's question during the latest episode of their weekly podcast, the tech experts at Digital Foundry commented on how the soon-to-be-released new Nintendo system will handle games powered by the Unreal Engine 5 using features like Nanite, Lumen, and Virtual Shadow Maps. While it's obviously impossible to say for sure at this time, chances are high that games powered by the engine will likely be unable to use all the above features at the same time, not even targeting 30 FPS with significant compromises in terms of resolution, image quality, and performance. Recently, we have seen the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X struggle to run UE5-powered games using all three features, and the Nintendo Switch 2 would struggle even more, considering its hardware.
All the above, however, doesn't mean that we won't see Unreal Engine 5-powered games using these features on Nintendo Switch 2, only not all of them at the same time. According to Digital Foundry, how Fortnite runs on the system is a good indication of what should be expected on the console for UE5 games. The popular battle royale game was shown running at 60 FPS, but without Lumen, which has proven to be highly demanding in a test conducted by the tech experts featuring The Matrix Awakens demo ported to the latest public version of the engine running on comparable PC hardware with an Ampere architecture GPU. With Lumen, the demo ran poorly even at low resolution, and with NVIDIA DLSS in Performance mode, the feature is the prime candidate, together with the demanding Virtual Shadow Maps, that will be cut or heavily cut down to achieve acceptable performance.
While the system may struggle with the complete set of Unreal Engine 5 features, the Nintendo Switch 2 handles Cyberpunk 2077 rather well, so there's a solid chance the system will be pushed beyond expectations once developers get more comfortable developing games for it. We won't have to wait much longer to finally see what the system will be capable of, as it finally launches worldwide on June 5th.
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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