Nintendo Switch 2 could pack some RTX 40 efficiency improvements as leak confirms previously rumored specifications

First expected to come out in late 2024, the latest rumors suggest that the Nintendo Switch 2 has been delayed to March 2025. Moore’s Law Is Dead (MLID) has now provided more context to the reports of the Switch 2 delay while giving credibility to the already leaked specifications of the console.

For starters, one of MLID’s NVIDIA contacts suggested that the SoC powering the Switch 2 and the software has been ready for “a very long time” and it is Nintendo who is holding back the launch. This confirms previous reports of Nintendo delaying the Switch 2 to ensure a robust launch lineup and plenty of console supply.

MLID also alleges that, per an NVIDIA source, the information provided by Digital Foundry about the Tegra T239 is “an almost correct summary”. For the uninitiated, Digital Foundry suggested back in November 2023 that the Tegra T239 chip could feature 8 ARM A78C cores, a 128-bit wide memory bus, 8-12 GB of RAM, and 102.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

Interestingly, although the GPU inside the Tegra T239 is based on the Ampere architecture, it appears to pack some Lovelace technologies. According to MLID’s source, Nintendo was offered “several different options” for the Switch 2 SoC which also included a product based on Lovelace but the company allegedly prioritized the “cost-optimized version of Orin”. However, NVIDIA did backport some Lovelace technologies to the SoC which includes “some efficiency tweaks” alongside other stuff.

Fortunately, we might already know what these Lovelace technologies could be as the aforementioned Digital Foundry report explained that the Tegra T239 features an 8th-generation NvEnc Media Block and improved clock gating. Both of these are Lovelace technologies that seem to be making their way to the Switch 2.

Finally, MLID’s source also mentioned AMD bidding hard against NVIDIA for the Switch 2. This isn’t really surprising as the Nintendo Switch 2 is expected to move a ton of units if the 139 million sales volume of the original Switch is any indication.

Long story short, it is likely that the Switch 2 will utilize a Tegra T239 chip with an ARM CPU and custom Ampere GPU packing technologies seen only on the Lovelace cards. But, as always, the leaked Switch 2 specifications should be taken with a giant grain of salt.

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