Nintendo’s Switch 2 launch is happening tomorrow evening, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, a key supplier for the hybrid console, sang the praises of the machine and its main processor today.
“For all of us at Nvidia, we’ve worked with Nintendo for more than a decade, drawn together by shared that technology should serve creativity and that joy is worth engineering for,” said Huang. “I still remember the day Iwata san shared his dream with us.”
It’s touching that Huang, whose company has moved on to great heights with the AI revolution, remembers Nvidia’s roots in gaming.
Huang said Satoru Iwata, the former CEO of Nintendo who passed away from cancer, wanted to create something no one had seen before, a console powerful enough for big, cinematic games, but small enough to take anywhere.
“It sounded impossible, but that vision became the original Nintendo Switch. We lost Iwata San before the launch, but his clarity, his purpose — it still inspires our work,” Huang said. “Every day together, we poured everything into that system. The Nintendo Switch took over 500 engineer years at Nvidia. We rethought the entire stack, chip architecture, OS, APIs, game engines, so the magic could travel with you.”
Huang said the results speak for themselves. Over 150 million consoles sold. It was a global platform that brought families together, empowered indie creators and redefined what a console could be.
“And now a bold new chapter begins the mission build a new console that takes the original vision further to make it so we had to reinvent everything,” Huang said of the Switch 2. “The chip inside Nintendo Switch 2 is unlike anything we’ve built before.”
The Nintendo Switch 2 has a custom Nvidia processor, the T239, with an Ampere-based GPU. It features 1,536 CUDA cores, runs at 1GHz (docked), and 561MHz (mobile), with a memory interface of 128-bit LPDDR5. The GPU can deliver 3.07 TeraFLOPS in docked mode and 1.71 TeraFLOPS in portable use.
The system’s CPU has eight ARM Cortex-A78C cores, 12GB LPDDR5X (128-bit interface), memory bandwidth of 102 GB/s (docked), 68 GB/s (mobile) and storage of 256 GB UFS 3.1. It has RT Cores, Tensor Cores for AI-driven enhancements, DLSS support and 4K gaming in TV mode.
He said it brings together multiple breakthroughs: the most advanced graphics ever in a mobile device, full hardware ray tracing, high dynamic range for brighter highlights and deeper shadows, and an architecture that supports backward compatibility, dedicated AI processors to sharpen animations and enhance gameplay in real time, and ultra low power.
“We optimize the semiconductor process technology for high performance in a handheld device so we can go wherever you go,” he said. “This chip is a technical marvel. It delivers performance, intelligence and beauty in the palm of your Switch 2 is more than a new console. It’s a new chapter worthy of Iwata san’s vision.”
He added, “To our friends at Nintendo, congratulations, we’re honored to be on this journey with you. And to everyone who loves games, let the fun begin. This is a proud moment for all of us at Nvidia too.”