How Will be Switch 2 Performance Wise?

[Soundwave]

bonzobanana said:

Soundwave said:

The gap between Switch 2 and PS5 looks smaller than Switch to Steam Deck, lol. Steam Deck really looks really poor in comparison.

Although I don't think Switch 2 is bleeding edge, it's clearly not crap hardware either. It's a good medium of price and performance I think, and probably well worth the $450. This is not a budget device but it doesn't perform like one either. 

I'd say it's performance might be in some way ahead of a ROG Ally or about on par in a lot of end results, and that is a $600+ piece of kit. Raw specs only tell a part of the story, it looks like Nvidia really made a very custom chip for Nintendo and a lot of people underestimated how much of a difference system specific optimization does for performance. 

Sure some ports will be worse than others, but that's nothing new. Some devs will get better results and put more effort in. 

I think we will get a much more realistic perspective when launched when we see retail hardware which may not be quite as powerful as development Switch 2's plus the Switch 2 is on a elderly Samsung mainly 10Nm fabrication process and only a 20Wh battery. Some of the newer PC based portables are on 4Nm process and battery packs up to 90Wh. The Steam deck can only use FSR 3.1 or is it 3.2 which is rubbish upscaling so that isn't really an option for gaming on that platform. I guess you could try rendering at 360p on it and upscaling to a much higher resolution but we know it would look rubbish due to FSR not getting good until FSR 4.0 and that requires a higher level of AMD graphics hardware. However the Switch 2 is excellent hardware for gaming its just I think expectations are a little higher than reality for portable performance. As ever its very interesting to see what level of performance a console offers and how it compares to other platforms.

The results for the Switch 2 will get better post-launch, not worse. Which system maxed out performance on day 1?

There will be better ports and more impressive ones than Cyberpunk 2077 as time goes on, it's inevitable. 

Yes the system is on a more cost effective node, but it also looks like the chip is significantly tailor made to still provide good performance even at that node and isn't just a simple cut down T234 from the die shots. It's really just too bad that COVID delayed this system most likely be at least a year, so we're getting it a year+ late most likely because of that but there's not a whole lot that could be done about that. System was never going to release until Mario Kart World and a software slate to back it up was ready, certainly not after the debacles of the 3DS and Wii U launches. 

I also do think we will get a Switch 2 Pro this time around. Nintendo, contrary to some opinions, actually does come around on a lot of things that ultimately make them more money. DLC? Nintendo initially said no, then caved. Optical discs? Same thing. Paid online? Also once upon a time was a no for Nintendo. Now it's paid. Movies and theme parks? Miyamoto has said initially they resisted but now had come around. $400+ hardware? Welp, there were people who swore up and down it would never happen from Nintendo, certainly not this gen. Wrong again. 

This is definitely not the Wii/DS era anymore, people still acting like that Nintendo that makes bottom of the barrel dirt cheap hardware and tries to sell it entirely on the back of a hardware gimmick is basically gone. Their chief hardware designers now are completely different from 15 years ago, these newer guys all grew up in the 90s basically, same with the new president, whereas Takeda (the former head of Nintendo hardware for years) grew up in like the 60s and 70s, lol. 

I think there's a fair bet there will be a $600 Switch 2 model one day. 

Last edited by Soundwave - on 25 May 2025