NVIDIA confirms the Switch 2 can handle ray-traced reflections, shadows, and 'dynamic lighting'

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Although full specs on the chip and its capabilities have yet to be confirmed, NVIDIA has confirmed that the Nintendo Switch 2 includes an NVIDIA GPU with "RT Cores and Tensor Cores" to support AI enhancements like DLSS and real-time ray-tracing. Nintendo's official technical specs for the new console simply list a "Custom processor made by NVIDIA" for the CPU and GPU.

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An NVIDIA GPU powers the Nintendo Switch 2, and it features RT Cores and Tensor Cores.

Either way, it's a massive improvement over the original switch, which included a custom NVIDIA Tegra X1 chip based on the pre-GeForce RTX 'Maxwell' architecture - a chip also used in NVIDIA's Shield devices. With RT Cores and Tensor Cores (the exact CUDA Core counts and clock speeds are still TBC), the Switch 2's GPU architecture, according to leaks, is based on NVIDIA's Ampere architecture from the GeForce RTX 30 Series.

"The new RT Cores bring real-time ray tracing, delivering lifelike lighting, reflections, and shadows for more immersive worlds," Muni Anda, Vice President of Software Engineering at NVIDIA, writes. "Tensor Cores power AI-driven features like Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), boosting resolution for sharper details without sacrificing image quality."

NVIDIA states that RT Cores will enhance in-game realism with "dynamic lighting and natural reflections," confirming that Switch 2 games will be able to include real-time ray-traced reflections, shadows, and global illumination. Of course, enabling ray-tracing comes with a significant performance cost, so it'll be interesting to see what games will leverage the Switch 2's RT Cores for ray-tracing.

Nintendo has always showcased new features for its hardware, so we're assuming that the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour digital launch game will include a couple of ray-tracing demos. With DLSS support confirmed (based on the lower hardware spec, we're assuming this will be a version of DLSS 2.X or DLSS 3.X), the good news is that it will be able to render internally at a lower resolution and then be upscaled to 1080p in handheld mode or 4K when docked.

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