A recent disagreement between insiders online may have revealed exactly how powerful the Nintendo Switch 2 will be.
Nintendo's new console has long been an object of fascination by fans online. The new gaming machine is reported to be released sometime in 2025, with a potential reveal coming any day.
However, despite the Switch successor seemingly being months away, not much is known about the device, including what games are coming to it (one of which was supposedly leaked to end 2024), what it will look like, and how powerful fans can expect it to be.
Switch 2 Specs Possibly Reveal How Powerful Nintendo's New Console Really Is
Fans may finally have an idea of how powerful the Nintendo Switch 2 will be thanks to a recent exchange between insiders online.
The conversation surrounding just how technically capable Nintendo's new console will be has been a long one, but it got a recent update by way of The Verge's Tom Warren and Digital Foundry's John Linneman.
This stems from a post on X (formerly Twitter) by Warren, who posted about potential rumors of the machine's power levels, saying "the funniest" has been from fans speculating that the Switch successor would be "as powerful as a [PlayStation 4 Pro]:"
"There are so many rumors floating around about the Switch 2, but the funniest one is about it being as powerful as a PS4 Pro."
This provoked a response from Linneman, who — like Warren — specializes in the technical underpinnings of today's tech. In response to the Verge journalist, Linneman remarked that the Switch 2 is "likely to be quite superior" to the PS4 Pro "in many ways:"
"That is funny because it’s likely to be quite superior in many ways due to using modern Nvidia architecture with access to features the PS4 Pro does not. As a portable device, though, it’ll be limited in other, different areas."
What Can Fans Expect From the Switch 2?
The Nintendo Switch, even when it was released, was never a graphics powerhouse.
This has resulted in a step down technically from Nintendo's competition, Xbox and PlayStation, who have continued to chase high-end power with their consoles. Nintendo has seemingly moved away from chasing the graphics goose, putting a focus on its software output rather than pushing the envelope processing-wise.
Linneman's thinking in his X response was likely that the new console will have the benefit of nearly a decade of technological advancements to play off that the PS4 simply did not when it was released back in 2016.
Paramount of these technical jumps will supposedly pertain to the recent development of AI upscaling technology. Reports over the last few months hinted that Nintendo's new console will utilize Nividia-based architecture for its chipset, allowing for the use of the DLSS (or Deep Learning Super Sampling) upscaling.
A patent filed on December 31, 2024, seemed to indicate such a development, which would be a massive move for the new gaming machine.
DLSS would allow for the console to be somewhat underpowered compared to its competition (maybe sitting around the PS4 Pro in terms of processing power), but make use of an AI model to upscale the image to a higher resolution than the raw output.
While no release date for the console has been made official a reveal of Nintendo's new hardware addition feels imminent. Recent reports have even indicated that a Switch 2 announcement may have been moved up as alleged leaks of the console make their way online (read more about the Switch 2's release plan here).
The Nintendo Switch 2 is expected to be released sometime in 2025.
