Nintendo’s Switch 2 to Feature NVIDIA’s Tegra239 SoC; New Chip Image Emerges

It seems that Nintendo’s latest console, the Switch 2, is powered by the technological prowess of NVIDIA, just like the previous model. Recently, images of the chip surfaced online, giving us our first glimpse at the hardware.

NVIDIA’s Tegra239 is the powerhouse behind the Nintendo Switch 2. This chip is built on ARM architecture and offers impressive performance levels. When the Switch 2 was launched, we heard about its capabilities, like delivering 4K graphics at 60 frames per second when docked. However, the specifics of its core technology started out as a bit of a mystery. Given Nintendo’s ongoing collaboration with NVIDIA for custom Tegra systems-on-chip (SoCs), it was widely speculated that the Tegra239 would be at the heart of the new device. Confirmation came when the Twitter user @Kurnalsalts posted what appears to be a snapshot of NVIDIA’s chip, labeled quite simply as “T239.”

The tweet itself didn’t dive into specs, so we fall back on existing knowledge of the Tegra239. It’s reported to pack eight Arm Cortex-A78C cores alongside a hybrid GPU that combines elements from both NVIDIA’s Ada Lovelace and Ampere architectures. This setup boasts 1536 CUDA cores, operating at a clock speed estimated between 1.1 GHz and 1.5 GHz, depending on whether the console is docked. Memory-wise, it operates over a 128-bit LPDDR5 interface, which adds to its robust performance capability.

There’s a lot left to be uncovered about the Tegra239, but we do know it supports NVIDIA’s DLSS upscaling technology. This feature significantly enhances the console’s overall performance. If you’re interested in more technical specifications of the Switch 2, we have detailed them in our previous posts.

With the Tegra239, NVIDIA reaffirms its commitment to custom ASIC solutions, and through its partnership with ARM, it continues to exclusively power Nintendo’s latest console.

Looking beyond the gaming scene, enthusiasts are keenly awaiting NVIDIA’s foray into the AI PC market. Rumors had circulated since the previous year about a possible collaboration with MediaTek to create an ARM-based SoC aimed at artificial intelligence applications, speculated to be named the N1X and N1 series. However, there haven’t been any official updates on these developments yet.