Tom Henderson has shared a new rumor about the Nintendo Switch 2, that really adds fuel to the fire about just how powerful the console will be.
As Tom tweeted at the end of September:
“Really excited for the Nintendo Switch 2 and its tech.
We’ll see “Launching on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC” a heck of a lot in 12-18 months.”
Tom doesn’t refer to it in this tweet, but of course, he is alluding to those longtime rumors that Nintendo demonstrated their unannounced hardware to developers at Gamescom. To make sure we’re on the same page, the big rumor coming from that event, is that the Switch 2 had a demonstration of The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild at a higher performance spec, and it ran the Matrix Awakens Unreal 5 demo.
Of the two of those, the Unreal 5 demo was particularly impressive, because it was the same demo that Sony and Microsoft used to demonstrate the technical capabilities of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles. And the big difference maker is that the Switch 2 can finally run DLSS, the upscaling technology Nvidia themselves came up with to use on their own chips and hardware.
Now, the bar kept getting shifted on what version of DLSS was used. The rumors range from DLSS 2 to 3.5. But the big difference, really, is that the Switch 2 hardware could be compatible with DLSS at all. While FSR was used with some success on the Nintendo Switch, DLSS is more efficient in making games look and perform better at lower spec hardware. We know this from PC gamers who use lower spec parts, and used either FSR or DLSS on their games.
Tom was very clever in writing out this rumor. Everyone directly sharing rumors and leaks about the Switch 2 has tried to be very careful in extrapolating about its power. It’s some of the YouTubers and influencers resharing this information who are wrongly speculating or thinking they were told the Switch 2 will be as powerful as the PlayStation 5.
But Tom is pointing out a dream scenario that Nintendo fans haven’t seen in literal decades; parity, real parity between Nintendo’s platform, and Sony’s and Microsoft’s. That’s possible even if the Switch 2 could be weaker than the Xbox Series S. With a lot of help from Nvidia, Nintendo could have achieved this goal, and this time third parties might actually play ball with them to bring their games.
