There’s an interesting new rumor about the Switch 2.
As shared on the GamingLeaksAndRumours subreddit by user TheVideoGameNutt, Nash Weedle claims that the Switch 2 will let you choose a performance mode while the console is undocked, AKA on portable mode.
Nash Weedle goes on to claim that this information comes from a developer who has their hands on the Switch 2 dev kit. Nash Weedle says that Nintendo’s intention is to simplify configurations for gamers who want to customize their use of their console.
While some fans are focusing on Nintendo’s alleged intent for easier configuration, we would like to point out that this seems to be the first time that Nintendo is offering a device with such options at all.
As older fans know, Nintendo made video game hardware following principles put forward by Gunpei Yokoi. Yokoi first made his name building Game & Watch, and hit a particular balance between making the device cheap to make, but still offering technological innovation.
As one of their first gaming devices, Game & Watch also reflected Nintendo’s design principles informed by their run as a toymaker. And that design philosophy informed their hardware design since, from the NES and Game Boy, even all the way to the Switch.
But a big difference maker for the Switch is that Nvidia’s SOC is not just a CPU that’s a generation behind its peers. If that were true, it would not be possible to make ‘impossible’ ports of current generation games at such an impressive level, such as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Doom: Eternal, and Nier Automata.
In fact, their Tegra chip is a modern miracle, that didn’t exist when Nintendo and Sony was forced to release the Wii U and the Vita with lesser hardware. Tegra was the first mobile chip to come to market that had the power of a video game console.
Releasing in 2014, a full eight years before AMD’s Ryzen 2 powered the Steam Deck, Nvidia put the overperforming chip on their Nvidia Shield line of Android based hardware, before winning the contract to provide their chip for the Switch.
This rumor suggests that the generational leap in the T239 SOC that Nvidia will be supplying to the Switch 2 will be that much more powerful, that Nintendo has to consider even adding this.
In the past, Nintendo chose to prioritize battery life and other factors over sheer power. That decision paid off for them when pitting the Game Boy against the Game Gear and Atari Lynx, and it paid off when they pitted their Nintendo DS against the PSP.
In 2024, Nintendo sees that even when they chose a chip in the T239 that’s a little bit older, so that they could get a cheaper and ready supply, there’s still enough power in it that it can run games with more power, at the cost of battery life.
And if you have reviewed technical assessments of why the original Switch is deliberately constrained when in portable mode, you will understand that Nvidia may have enabled a serious generational leap. This is something that Nvidia genuinely does better than AMD.
This all also hints that the Switch 2’s battery mode, consequently, will run circles around the Steam Deck, ROG Ally, Legion GO, and the host of other PC portable handhelds that run on AMD’s chips.
Now, by this point our readers should understand that we don’t report rumors because we have complete 100 % trust in sources like Nash Weedle and Moore’s Law is Dead. We know they have some sources that have delivered real scoops before. Their reliability is ultimately limited by the reliability of their own sources, as well as how they assess information on what is worth sharing and when.
And with all things taken into account, even if we don’t know enough to 100 % trust this rumor, given other rumors about the SOC the Switch 2 will have and its potential performance, this is entirely credible. It’s credible enough that it’s worth talking about, because we might really be getting it on the Switch 2.
