As has been speculated for months now, Nintendo has finally confirmed that the Switch 2 utilizes DLSS upscaling technology and will support ray-tracing as an option for developers.
In a hardware-focused Q&A in New York yesterday, IGN asked the company about the hardware specifications of the Switch 2 and got confirmation of some of its specs. Senior Director of the Programming Management Group, Entertainment Planning & Development Department at Nintendo’s EPD, Takuhiro Dohta, said, “We use DLSS upscaling technology and that’s something that we need to use as we develop games. And when it comes to the hardware, it is able to output to a TV at a max of 4K. Whether the software developer is going to use that as a native resolution or get it to upscale is something that the software developer can choose. I think it opens up a lot of options for the software developer to choose from.”
It was pretty obvious Nintendo would need to utilize DLSS to output 4K visuals as even without a spec sheet, the Switch 2 is not going to be more powerful than a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X. Ray-tracing, however, could have been excluded, but it’s still accounted for. “Yes the GPU does support ray tracing,” Dohta responded when pressed about the feature. “As with DLSS, I believe this provides yet another option for the software developer to use and a tool for them.”
As for just how powerful the Switch 2 is, Nintendo is not talking about specifics right now. Dohta stated that Nvidia would probably reveal the exact CPU and GPU the console is using, but his ultimate conclusion was, “What we really like to focus on is the value that we can provide to our consumers.” I can’t say I blame him as even if we had exact numbers, it wouldn’t mean anything without seeing games running.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
