I've been thinking about this for a while where the Switch 2 development hardware has 12GB but has this been confirmed for retail? The development units for the original Switch had up to 8GB of memory but the retail units were 4GB. I've checked the UK and US Nintendo sites and memory isn't mentioned except 256GB storage memory but nothing for the system memory itself. Does anyone have a Nintendo site in their country that confirms 12GB of system memory or is that simply from development units? Nintendo has gone very cheap on the fabrication process and 12GB is incredibly generous for the level of performance offered. I just wondered if people could be confusing development unit spec and retail unit specs? Also I'm sure Nintendo confirmed 4GB at launch for the original Switch but maybe I am remembering wrongly. If they are coughing up for 12GB memory why didn't they cough up for a better fabrication process? Also the Japanese price is only $330 in US currency (I forget the yen price) despite the price elsewhere being much higher as they clearly think the market will bear that elsewhere. The original Switch launched at about $260 in US currency at the time. My point is even in Japan they like to make good money on the hardware.

Also the fact Nintendo are not supplying journalists with retail units until launch day means isn't there some expected bad news that they don't want journalists spoiling the launch with. These could be;

1. Poor compatibility with original Switch games?

2. Reduced performance compared to development consoles?

3. 8GB memory?

I guess its almost guaranteed that poor compatibility will be a launch issue but what about the other two?

I guess if Switch 2 wants to compete with other consoles in having portable versions of the latest games then 12GB makes sense but then why not promote that feature as its a very positive selling point. It's complete absence is strange to say the least on the US and UK sites.

Maybe they were planning on having 12GB but at the last moment due to tariffs they dropped to 8GB to lower their costs and this has created a delay in retail units. Maybe Nintendo have also made hardware revisions based on trade tariffs and trying to find a margin in spite of tariffs. Maybe first revision Switch 2's will be the only Switch 2 withs 12GB and the firmware will disable 4GB so it's the same as later hardware revisions that only have 8GB.

Anyway it will be interesting to see what the big issue is that Nintendo are trying to hide from journalists until the last moment.

I forgot to mention one my important points. The original Switch had 4GB and the development version had 6-8GB. If the development Switch 2 has 12GB and the retail Switch 2 has 12GB there is no additional memory for development. Typically development hardware is more powerful and has more memory so you can develop and test on it. It surely is extremely rare that development hardware and retail hardware have the same memory?

12 GB of Ram (dual channel) LPDDR5 8555MT/S, that is a great frequency for a M Ram, and the OS will use 3GB. so the developers will have 9GB to work.

I saw that too somewhere but why isn't the 12GB listed as spec on the Nintendo site and why does development hardware have the same memory? Also you have stated developers have 9GB to work but that sounds like development hardware not retail hardware, 3GB is an incredible amount of memory given to the operating system. It would make sense if that was the OS and development software but 3GB for retail models seems a lot. It's such a huge amount as a percentage of memory. I can't remember what the original Switch used but it feels like it was a tiny fraction of this. I have 800MB in my mind and I think it was something like that. Close to 4x the amount the original Switch used and only 3x the actual memory. Yes its got some new features but that is a lot. Lets not forget if the operating system is much bigger that is a lot more code and a lot more code means more CPU resources being used to run that code. I personally think 12GB is a great selling point so why isn't being used as a selling point? On my PC I can have a 4GB PC and a 32GB PC and one 10x faster than the other and the operating system is the same size and as the PC gets faster it takes a lot less CPU resources.  

I wonder if a lot of the spec of Switch 2 is actually confusing the development hardware with retail hardware.

I'm not sure if I'm following anything you're saying here. 12GB is not generous. They could have gone with 16GB but didn't.

3GB for the OS is also fairly standard. The PS4 used the same amount of RAM for its OS in 2013.

A lot about the Switch 2 specs is still unconfirmed. We have leaked info from a nvidia hack years ago and shipping manifests info that people from Famiboards managed to get.

However, seeing as some of this info is confirmed already (The T239 SoC being real and 256GB UFS storage), I think the DF spec sheet is the real deal.

Negativity is fine, but negativity for the sake of being negative or "because it's Nintendo" is getting old pretty fast.

Edit: No, they also didn't change the RAM 3 months before launch because of the tariffs. The Switch 2 is already being mass produced for a while now. That's why all the leaks happened before it was announced...

No comment about the review units bit because that's just conspirational stuff based on nothing. Lol.

1. Nintendo has a whole list of Switch 1 compatibility since day 1 of the announcement, unless they are lying about that very public information, there is nothing to hide.
2. Have you seen Cyberpunk running on that thing? I wouldn't worry about subpar performance anytime soon.
3. Yeah, that's not happening, 12GB of RAM with 3 reserved for the system is pretty much confirmed at this point.

I don't think Nintendo is worried about bad news, they are trying to sell 100 million plus over time not an extra hundred thousand at launch. Nintendo is sick of leakers, and chose this route.

I don't consider myself  being negative, I have been very positive about the very impressive DLSS upscaling. I am still curious why a retail model would have the same memory as the development model plus curious why Nintendo haven't officially confirmed 12GB of memory but have confirmed other aspects of the specification. It has been widely reported that journalists aren't getting their review models until the launch date. At all times I'm trying to be realistic, neither negative or overly optimistic but just in the middle I hope. However I am not a Nintendo fanboy so I'm not emotionally attached to what the Switch 2 ends up being in spec. I am very interested in gaming technology though. 

Well, DF confirmed the specs (they obviously have their sources), so yeah, 12GB of LPDDR5X downclocked to 6400MT/s docked and 4266MT/s handheld for 102.4 GB/s and 68.26GB/s bandwidth.

So we've had multiple independent sources confirm the same exact specs. These specs are also confirmed by the SDK and the hardware breakdown of a leaked Switch 2 motherboard. Developers will have to know which resources are available to them before they release their games, so obviously the specs listed as available on final systems in the SDK will reflect that reality. Otherwise, how can developers develop games for hardware they don't know the specs of? 

These are the specs that Digital Foundry confirmed from their sources who have access to the SDK. 

The unknowns/lingering questions are: "what does CPU [and GPU] clock maximum" mean here? Are these modes available for games? Are all Switch 2's using down-clocked LPDDR5x or are only some of them using it, with other SKUs using appropriately clocked LPDDR5 to get the same effective bandwidth? 

12 GB LPDDR5X