We’re getting closer to the Nintendo Switch 2’s expected launch, so of course leaks are coming in fast. And most recently, the motherboard has been allegedly leaked on Reddit to show us exactly what we’re going to get.
My first reaction in one word was “yikes,” but I know that chasing peak performance has never been Nintendo’s thing. And given the image upscaling patent that just got filed by the company, I’m feeling confident that the Switch 2 looks to be another winning formula.
Nintendo Switch 2 motherboard
So what does this motherboard leak show us? Well, there are three key things:
First, Nvidia is back. The Switch 2 looks set to stick with an Nvidia system on a chip (SoC). While the specifics of what this chip is are a little vague, as the name is seemingly scrubbed out, we can see that it’s built on Samsung Foundry’s 8nm mode. That’s the same as Nvidia Ampere, which focused on improved ray tracing cores, faster memory and AI performance (more on that later).
Tying this back to the long-running rumor that the Switch 2 could sport something similar to Nvidia’s Tegra T239 chip, speculative analysis points to this being in the PS4/PS4 Pro range in terms of what the Switch 2 can actually pull off graphically.
Second, the Switch 2 may get 3x more RAM. One of the biggest restrictors on the Switch towards the end of its cycle has been the fact it's only sporting 4GB of RAM. Don’t get me wrong, Nintendo has been able to pull off some true witchcraft in terms of gorgeous games running smoothly on this thing, but that’s always been a low ceiling.
But looking next to the Nvidia module, we’ve got two 6GB LPDDR5 modules from SK Hynix soldered onto the board — giving developers a roomy 12GB of RAM. Pair that with the graphics potential from above, and you should be able to see this potentially achieve 4K gaming with one heavy caveat.
Finally, two USB-C ports are coming. At last! You have no idea how frustrating it’s been to try and do the whole houdini trick of playing the Switch on a table while plugging the charging cable in the bottom. Now you’ve got two sockets — one at the top and one on the bottom.
One interesting thing to highlight is there is no microSD card slot here. Either this is just the case of it being an early board without it on there, or Nintendo could be lining up some different kind of storage expansion — both on board and in the form of something a little more proprietary.
At first glance, I was worried. Nintendo has never been the company to chase speeds and feeds like PlayStation and Xbox are, but this would continue to put the company an entire generation behind — especially given how old that SoC is. However, a new report has allayed a lot of those fears.
The answer is AI
If the Switch 2 is using an Nvidia Ampere-based chip and 12GB of RAM, what is Nintendo going to do with it? Well, give us a Nintendo-fied version of DLSS of course!
The PS5 Pro has seen success in creating its own spin-off off AMD’s FSR in the form of PSSR to make games run ultra smooth while drastically improving fidelity, so the Switch 2 looks set to have the same. A full patent was just filed detailing a trained neural network that can upscale a 540p image to 1080p, or a 720p picture to 4K.
For those Nvidia nerds out there, these are the equivalent to DLSS 2.0 Performance mode and Ultra Performance mode, respectively. In additional detail, Nintendo states that the upscaling features are off by default when the console is running on the battery, and activated when connected to power. It looks like you will have the option to enable it manually, but given the additional computation needed, just be careful of that battery life hit.
Before I get ahead of myself, that’s not to say this will come immediately. Patents are regularly filed to call dibs on products that won’t launch for years. But I’m quietly confident this is a different story, as given the old SoC in this thing, Nintendo’s going to need all the help it can get to squeeze every bit of potential out of that Ampere architecture.
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