We can finally put the rumors to rest: Switch 2 does indeed feature ray tracing and DLSS thanks to its Nvidia graphics chip, bringing it in line with the features offered in the manufacturer’s high-end PC graphics cards.
“The Nintendo Switch 2, unveiled April 2, takes performance to the next level, powered by a custom NVIDIA processor featuring an NVIDIA GPU with dedicated RT Cores and Tensor Cores for stunning visuals and AI-driven enhancements,” Nvidia says in its announcement.
The most exciting of those enhancements, for my money, is Deep Learning Super Sampling, or DLSS, which is Nvidia’s collection of AI upscaling techniques. If you want AI upscaling explained in full, you can follow that link, but, in short, it essentially lets the hardware run the game at a lower internal resolution which is then upscaled into a sharper resolution. That means you get the performance benefits of a game running at low rez, but the upscale can, in many cases, make it look just as sharp as if it were running natively in 4K.
There are a whole bunch of different AI upscaling techniques for different pieces of hardware out there – console players might be familiar with PS5 Pro’s PSSR technique – but DLSS tends to produce some of the technique’s best results. I’ve had a DLSS-equipped GPU in my gaming PC for years, and at this point I turn the feature on pretty much the instant I launch a new game. After dealing with blurry Switch 1 games with mediocre-to-bad frame rates for so long, I’m very excited to finally have confirmation that DLSS is going to be available on Switch.
It’ll likely be up to individual developers to decide how DLSS is implemented, setting resolution parameters and performance targets. But between DLSS and the general improvements of Switch 2’s new graphics processor, Nvidia says the new console can deliver “10x the graphics performance” of Switch 1. It remains to be seen just how accurate that claim is, but with the limitations the aging mobile hardware had put on so many Switch developers, it’s exciting to finally see a current-gen visual upgrade on Nintendo hardware.
Check out all the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct news right here, or if you’re already sold, here’s our guide to Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders.
