The article you are reading is an updated version of what I shared on Discord a few weeks ago, so there is much more information than you saw in that archive. This is still just a temporary overview of the hardware of the potential Switch 2, Nintendo's next-generation console that will replace the current Nintendo Switch in the market.
The Switch 2's main chip
The main chip of the console has been designed by NVIDIA, it is unknown which manufacturing node Nintendo and NVIDIA have opted for, at first it was going to be manufactured under TSMC's N7 node, but everything points to the choice being the N6 node. The SoC is completely custom, so it will not be used in any product other than Nintendo's next console and is codenamed T239.
We know this from NVIDIA's leaked documentation a few months ago from the attack on their lapse servers. Thanks to this we were able to know that the T239 is the chip of the Nintendo Switch 2 by being related to the NVN2 API. Remember that NVN is the Nintendo Switch graphics API, so this would be an improved version of the one used in Switch.
Coprocessors
However, despite being derived from the Tegra, which are now automotive-focused, a good part of the coprocessors included for it have been discarded in the process, so the only ones included in the chip, apart from the CPU and GPU are:
The chip can play video in all kinds of formats, including AV1. It actually inherits from the Tegra Orin its NVDEC. Unfortunately, Nintendo has taken away its ability to encode video through NVENC.
The Audio Processor Engine or APE is in charge of audio processing on the Tegra and therefore the music and sound libraries of the games depend on it. So it is obviously a unit that is maintained.
The VIC or Video Integrated Controller is the one that reads the image buffer and transmits it through the video signal to the display. Whether it is the console's own display or an external TV.
The chip contains temperature sensors that act in conjunction with the coprocessor responsible for carrying out the control of the system. This coprocessor is important in Switch 2 and is responsible for handling the following parameters:
The frequency and voltage of the CPU and GPU.
The number of active cores at any given time.
To turn coprocessors on and off when they are not in use.
A final coprocessor is a DMA unit with on-the-fly data compression and decompression for transfer between storage and RAM and vice versa.
Clock frequencies and CPU-to-GPU ratio
In Switch 2 the concept of Dock mode and Undock mode (portable) has completely disappeared, the console has adopted the same concept as NVIDIA's Max-Q/Max-P that AMD would later copy in the form of Smartshift, which went to PS5, and, therefore, we are talking about clock rates being dynamic and not static. The coprocessor in charge of keeping track of the system takes the different values depending on the load level in the game.
If the CPU is on high, then the GPU is set to low.
On the other hand, if the GPU is on high, then the CPU is set to low.
There is a balanced mode where both run at medium speed.
When we are browsing the console menu or in the eShop, the system is designed to use only 2 CPU cores at the lowest supported speed and the GPU with most of its cores disabled except 2 SM and also running at the lowest possible speed. The first CPU core controls the operating system and is isolated from the rest, the second one is in charge of handling the menu environment and when we load a game this environment remains in the background in the system RAM.
The number of GPU SM cores and CPU cores can be disabled when they are not needed. This is not done by the game code, but if a part of the chip is unused, it is immediately de-energized. It is precisely the part in charge of battery life that they have optimized the most, so games do not use 100% of the hardware all the time.
The CPU
The core processor is two full Cortex A78E clusters of four cores each, all with a 2 MB L2 cache per cluster. So we have a total of 8 cores. Nintendo and NVIDIA have not placed any additional support processors in the form of e.g. the A55. The processor also does not support multithreading.
Its power is higher per clock cycle than PS4 and Xbox One CPUs, but it is a far cry from those of the current generation. Moreover, in Switch backwards compatible mode it runs in a limited way at 1020 MHz and using only 4 cores. In contrast, in Switch 2 mode it has 3 clock speeds that depend on the workload at the time.
L3 cache
The Switch 2 SoC has 4 MB of third level cache, which is located before the memory controller and is responsible for making all RAM accesses between CPU and GPU coherent and that these can also pass messages to each other without passing through RAM. This reduces power consumption and communication latency. In backward compatible mode this cache is not used and is completely disabled.
GPU
The graphics processor in Switch 2 was designed with the recently released RTX 30, so its SM cores are exactly the same as you can find in the RTX 30. Actually the internal name of it is GA10B and a trimmed version of the RTX 3050.
I have made a quick diagram so you can get a visual idea of it, which is much easier to understand
Descriptively, the Switch 2 GPU has the following features:
Unlike Switch's TX1 where we only had one GPC, we now have two, so the number of raster triangles per clock cycle has doubled.
The number of GPU cores, SM in NVIDIA slang, is now 12.
Each SM has the same configuration as NVIDIA's RTX 30 and RTX 40.
That is: 64 ALUs in FP32 + 64 ALUs FP32/INT32 switched. This makes 1536 32 bit floating point units.
Twice as many as Xbox One.
50% more than PlayStation 4
3 times more than Steam Deck.
Inside each SM has the corresponding Tensor units to perform the NVN DLSS, a variant of the PC DLSS 2 optimized for the Nintendo Switch 2.
NVN DLSS is only used in dock mode, where the GPU is set to a higher clock speed to trigger the algorithm and scale from 1080p to 4K.
If the connected TV is Full HD then NVN DLSS is not activated.
At the moment, neither Nintendo nor NVIDIA have found a single Switch game that requires the use of DLSS to run at Full HD resolution and 60 FPS.
Unlike the Tegra, each SM has an RT Core for Ray Tracing, which is the same used in the different RTX 30 graphics cards.
We have only 8 ROPS per GPC for a total of 16, so the fill rate has been cut per GPC by half.
The idea is that the impact of the fill rate on system RAM bandwidth is not as large.
Interestingly, the fill rate is the same as Switch.
The clock speed of the entire GPU is 768 MHz in handheld mode and can reach an unknown higher speed in Dock mode if NVN DLSS is enabled.
Switch games when running on the new console run directly in Dock mode.
RAM memory
This is one of the most controversial parts of the new system, as the bandwidth is lower than that of the Steam Deck, since despite also using LPDDR5 memory with a 128-bit bus, its bandwidth is 68 GB/s, due to the fact that it is LPDDR5-4266 instead of LPDDR5-5500. The other difference is that Nintendo's console has 8 GB, of which only 4 GB is used in backwards compatible mode, while Switch 2 games have access to the entire system RAM.
The RAM is not located inside the chip, but in the main circuitry. In order to save space, Nintendo and NVIDIA have done something very similar to what they did with the first Wii and Wii U, and what Apple has also done with its M1 and M2 processors for Mac. Putting everything on top of a common interposer or communication chip to reduce the space occupied by the circuitry.
Other Switch 2 details outside the main SoC
These details are based on leaked documentation, logic and some loose chats with one or another engineer of the project. It should be noted that NVIDIA does not have the complete schematic in order to avoid leaks.
Contrary to what some doomsayers say, the console will continue to have Gamecards as physical distribution of games. The physical storages offered by Nintendo to publishers are the almost the same as with the original Switch, however, with some changes:
Nintendo will no longer offer 1GB, 2GB or 4GB Gamecards. Any game that takes up that much space will be distributed exclusively on the eShop.
Switch 2 Gamecards are 8, 16, 32 and 64 GB.
At the moment, the Switch 2 ones are differentiated by having a gray color that matches the magnesium casing of the main part of the console.
At first glance they would be the same as the Switch, but somewhat wider so that they can not be placed in the normal Switch.
The number of pins is the same.
The transfer clock speed is 100 MHz.
The console can read the Gamecards from the first Switch without problems.
The data on the Switch 2 cards are compressed as standard.
The decompression of that data is carried out by a new coprocessor,
Think of it as a small-scale version of the PS5 and Xbox Series analog units.
Thanks to this, not only the loading times, console startup, but also the installation of games from the eShop have been improved.
As for the screen, for the moment it is unknown what it is, the system supports both IPS and OLED panels.
It is known that it will be HDR at Full HD resolution.
The charging and video transmission connector remains the USB-C Alt-DP.
Its bandwidth is the same as that of the Switch.
Its power supply power is higher, so it can charge the Switch 2's battery in less time.
The space occupied by the system circuitry is smaller than in Switch, while more space has been given to the battery. The battery also has a larger capacity.
The fan now has a slightly larger diameter, plus there is a micro-dotted air outlet on the back of the magnesium alloy case.
At the moment they are testing the circuitry using controllers from the first Switch and the OLED version Dock of the Switch.
They don't know if Nintendo will add any gimmicks to the console at the last minute, as NVIDIA's job is to make sure the available games work with the new hardware.
As a curiosity, the SDK has two NAND Flash memories instead of one.
The first one is Boot0 and corresponds to the original Switch environment.
The second one is Boot1 where there is a Linux distribution where the NVN2 API is being tested.
Inside are included some technical demos based on classic Nintendo games to show the capabilities of the console at a technical level. These are based on classic GameCube and Nintendo64 games.