Nintendo may have finalized a customized SoC for Nintendo Switch 2
Of late, whispers concerning the Nintendo Switch 2 have been incessant, suggesting that Nintendo’s next-generation console is tantalizingly within reach for avid gamers. Reports have previously intimated that Nintendo extended invitations to a coterie of game developers at Gamescom 2023, orchestrating a clandestine showcase, wherein “The Matrix Awakens: Unreal Engine 5 Tech Demo” was rendered, intriguingly featuring both ray tracing and DLSS technology.
Recent murmurings among netizens assert that the System on Chip (SoC) intended for the Nintendo Switch 2 has been finalized — a bespoke T239 crafted by NVIDIA. Samsung is purportedly the chosen foundry, embracing an 8nm fabrication process, akin to the GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs. The once-rumored T234, it seems, has been consigned to oblivion.
Informed sources delineate that both the T234 and T239 are tailored iterations stemming from the Orin blueprint, a relic from the design annals of 2020. The CPU segment harnesses the power of the Arm Cortex-A78AE (Hercules) core, while the GPU draws its lineage from the Ampere architecture. The T234 CPU boasts 12 cores, its GPU—dubbed GA10B—is replete with 2048 CUDA cores, and it flaunts a thermal design power peaking at 60W. The distinctions between T234 and T239 remain cloaked in mystery, but one could postulate that given power consumption constraints, the T239 might undergo some specifications trim, culminating in an overall performance that pales in comparison to the T234. Notwithstanding the Nintendo Switch 2’s capability to support ray tracing and exploit DLSS to amplify frame rates, the ray-traced gaming experience might remain somewhat lackluster.
Currently, the extant Nintendo Switch is anchored by NVIDIA’s Tegra X1 (Erista) SoC — a tailored T214 variant, sculpted using TSMC’s 20nm process. In its arsenal, it houses four Cortex-A57 and four Cortex-A53 cores, albeit only the quartet of Cortex-A57 cores are operational. Subsequent iterations of the Nintendo Switch transitioned to the Tegra X1+ (Mariko) SoC, or T210. Performance disparities between T210 and T214 are negligible. However, a pivot to TSMC’s 16nm process rendered the SoC more energy-efficient, thereby bolstering the device’s battery longevity.
