Nintendo Switch 2 to dispense with fan and have an extremely low TDP, but run faster in the dock

Following detailed leaks about the most important features of the Nintendo Switch 2 in the past few months, leaker Moore's Law is Dead has now revealed further details. First and foremost, the Nintendo Switch 2 is said to be doing without a fan, meaning that the console is likely to run silently in handheld mode, which is why the ARM chip will only operate with a maximum power dissipation of 5 watts.

The first Nintendo Switch was already quite economical as far as gaming consoles go - Nintendo specifies a power consumption of 7 watts when gaming in the dock, but the cooling system still depended on a fan. The fan may well be moved to the dock in the new model, as the boost clock frequencies of the graphics chip have supposedly increased from below 800 MHz to over 1.2 GHz in the dock, which, if true, will increase the power dissipation from 5 watts to 15 to 30 watts. Such a performance boost will allow Nintendo to output games in 4K resolution, but only through the use of upscaling technologies. 

Moore's Law is Dead supposes that the Switch 2 will use a combination of Nvidia Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) and a simple upscaler to achieve an acceptable picture quality on a 4K TV. Ultimately, Nintendo is aiming for a lower maximum frame rate than the Steam Deck, but a higher output resolution. The Nintendo Switch 2 will be officially unveiled by March 2025 at the latest, as has already been confirmed by Nintendo. The console is expected to be available in large quantities at launch, continue to support physical game media and receive significant RAM and storage upgrades.