If you were expecting the upcoming Switch 2 to be Nintendo’s entry into the world of 4K gaming, you might want to temper those expectations for now.
In a recent episode of Digital Foundry’s DF Direct Weekly podcast, co-host Richard Leadbetter said that his sources tell him Nvidia’s custom T239 processor — which will reportedly power the Switch 2 — won’t feature a Deep Learning Accelerator (DLA). Leadbetter claims that this would “limit the viability of DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) quite significantly.”
If his sources are accurate, the DLSS on the Nintendo Switch 2 would likely be limited to 1080p upscaling or possibly 1440p on specific games. You can watch the clip from DF Direct Weekly’s latest episode in the embedded video below (via IGN):
This serves as a follow-up to Digital Foundry’s report identifying the Nvidia T239 as the chip that will likely dethrone the Tegra X1 on the Switch 2. In that report, Leadbetter explained that a DLA would significantly reduce the computational cost of DLSS on Switch 2. Without it, the Switch 2 won’t be able to achieve quite the same results.
Nintendo has never hung its hat on graphics or performance, so missing out on 4K for another generation would not be terribly surprising. That said, it will disappoint fans who were expecting the Switch 2 to take full advantage of their 4K TVs. And once Mario Kart X comes out, no one is going to be talking about its resolution anyway.