Nintendo Switch 2 custom SoC specs: 8 Cortex-A78 cores + 1280 CUDA cores
Previous reports indicated that Nintendo has finalized the SoC for the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2, a custom T239 designed by NVIDIA. Samsung has been slated for its production, utilizing an 8nm fabrication process. The previously speculated T234 has now been abandoned. The T239 is a custom product based on the Orin design, originating from the 2020 blueprint. The CPU is derived from the Arm Cortex-A78 core, while the GPU draws inspiration from the Ampere architecture, boasting support for ray-tracing capabilities and DLSS technology.
Recent online disclosures unveiled detailed specifications of the T239. The CPU component houses eight Cortex-A78 cores, while the GPU encompasses 1280 CUDA cores. In contrast to the T234, which sported twelve Cortex-A78 cores and 2048 CUDA cores, it’s evident the T239 presents a somewhat reduced scale, presumably as an energy consumption consideration. With the T239’s support for DLSS technology, it partially mitigates the pressures stemming from potential gaming development constraints due to performance deficits.
It’s understood that the custom SoC employed in the Nintendo Switch 2 exhibits certain divergences in design from Orin. The T239 is anchored on a single GPC, characterized by 10 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), mirroring the structure of the GA106 GPU. This stands in contrast to Orin’s configuration, which utilizes two GPCs, each with eight SMs. Concurrently, all eight Cortex-A78 cores of the T239 reside within a single cluster, sharing an 8MB L3 cache, whereas Orin is segmented into three clusters, each furnished with four cores and a shared 2MB L3 cache.
Additionally, some speculate that the T239 employs Samsung’s 7LPH fabrication process, a refined iteration of the initial 8nm procedure. This bears semblance to TSMC’s custom 4N process crafted for NVIDIA. Although recent murmurs allude to the T239 adopting a 5nm process, such whispers seem overly optimistic.
