Nintendo's next-generation Switch 2 is expected to be unveiled next week, joining the party of Sony's just-announced higher-end PlayStation 5 Pro console. But now we're learning AMD bid "hard" against NVIDIA to win the Switch 2 contract, and lost... but AMD also won the PlayStation 6 contract, so there's that.
In a new video from Moore's Law is Dead, we're learning from Tom's sources inside of NVIDIA that said the T239 SoC inside of the Nintendo Switch 2 was finalized back in 2022. We've heard plenty about the T239 processor since then through leaks and NVIDIA hacks, with the source saying T239 inside of Switch 2 has some efficiency tweaks from the Ada Lovelace GPU architecture, and a "few other goodies" but it's basically a cost-optimized verison of NVIDIA's Orin chip.
MLID talked to some of his sources within NVIDIA, where the first source said: "I'm not that close to the project, but I can say that Samsung 8nm is a perffect 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. Also, remember that with the 128-bit LPDDR5, Nintendo could realistically choose 8GB, 12GB, or 16GB capacities for the SoC we designed for them".
The second source said: "To be honest, the Switch 2 isn't really on my radar anymore -- right now I am focused on finishing up validating for Blackwell. Switch 2 silicon has been done since late 2022. As far as I'm aware, that Digital Foundry article looking at the T239 processor leaked from when we were hacked is an almost entirely correct summary of what's true about the silicon in the Switch 2".
The source continued: "We presented several options to Nintendo, including one that utilized Lovelace, and they basically selected a cost-optimized version of Orin. It has some efficiency tweaks from Lovelace, and a few other goodies added as well. Oh, and AMD bid against us HARD for the Switch 2 btw, but ended up losing the bid".
We are expecting Nintendo to unveil its next-gen Switch 2 handheld NEXT WEEK according to the latest rumors. You can read more about that in the links above.
