'Most' Nintendo Switch 2 games will use NVIDIA DLSS and Nintendo passed on using Lovelace

Nintendo Switch 2 rumors, speculation, and inside information have been popping up everywhere lately. The latest confirms what many have been saying about the upcoming console: it will support NVIDIA's AI-powered DLSS rendering, boosting performance while maintaining next-gen image fidelity.

This comes from YouTuber Moore's Law is Dead, who states in a recent video that "most" games in development for the Nintendo Switch 2 will use DLSS. However, it won't be mandatory. That last bit is what we would have expected to see, as specific titles like 2D games would probably not have any need for leveraging upscaling technology.

Where it gets interesting is the news that Nintendo passed on using NVIDIA's cutting-edge Ada Lovelace architecture for the Switch 2 in favor of a more affordable and cost-efficient Ampere chip. According to Moore's Law is Dead, some Lovelace features, like efficiency tweaks, were added to the custom chip.

Several sources point to the Switch 2 using a custom NVIDIA T239 chip, which features an 8-core Arm A78C CPU with an integrated GeForce GPU based on the GeForce RTX 30 Series Ampere architecture. As a mobile chip, the focus is on power efficiency and cost-effectiveness over raw performance - its 1536 CUDA Cores are significantly less than even the GeForce RTX 3050's core count. Still, it's lightyears ahead of the hardware found inside the current Switch hardware.

The Switch 2 will reportedly also include NVIDIA's dedicated ray-tracing hardware, so Switch 2 titles could include real-time ray-tracing - and DLSS 3.5's Ray Reconstruction technology. Either way, getting more confirmation that the Switch 2 will leverage DLSS tech is excellent news because it will allow the portable console to punch above its weight when rendering modern games. Current rumors point to the console launching sometime in Early 2025.

• Read more: Switch 2 reportedly coming in 2025, not 2024
• Read more: AMD 'bid against' NVIDIA 'hard' to win Nintendo Switch 2 contract
• Read more: Nintendo Switch 2 rumored to launch with the feature every gamer wants
• Read more: Nintendo Switch 2 slated to launch without its best rumored feature