Nintendo Switch 2
If you felt down after Nintendo revealed a glimpse of the next Mario Kart (presumably Mario Kart 9) during the first Switch 2 trailer, you’re not alone. Are you excited for the 24 runner jump? Absolutely! But it wasn’t immediately clear whether the Switch 2 hardware would deliver a massive jump in graphics performance. However, a brilliant and articulate new analysis of the trailer by a game developer has completely upended my expectations and sent my excitement through the roof.
Game developer Jerrel Dulay of Sungrand Studios is intimately familiar with Nintendo hardware. He has worked extensively on 3DS, Wii U and Switch. Dulay describes his analysis as a way to illustrate how the Switch 2 is “a massive improvement that will really help developers get more out of their creative vision and do more with their games.”
What’s particularly fascinating about this video is that Dulay admits that it’s currently under NDA, implying that he may have detailed knowledge of the Switch 2’s hardware specs (likely from a Nintendo-supplied developer kit). So there is a lot of speculation here, but the speculation is based on incredibly smart and compelling observations.
How the Switch 2 is “significantly more powerful”
Dulay begins the video by noting the inclusion of a lighting technique known as “physics-based shadows,” which aims to simulate how light interacts with different materials and surfaces in the real world.
“On the original Switch, you would be very careful with the complexity of your shader,” he says. This is because the more complex they are, the more the game’s frame rate would decrease. Dulay claims that everything shown in the game’s trailer is physically based, from the go-kart’s wheels to the very subtle effect of Mario’s gloved hand getting yellow reflections off the dirt below it.
Later, Dulay gives us a mini-tutorial on how expensive it is to render high-res textures, especially when there are a large number of unique textures present, as there are on the roads near the starting grid of the track.
“True volumetric lighting at this resolution is insane”
But Dulay seems genuinely impressed when discussing what he considers the most important element that demonstrates the Switch 2’s massive performance boost: volumetric lighting.
Volumetric lighting creates a sense of density in the atmosphere, and when light passes through that density, it can make games look realistic and give scenery real depth. “It can be used to communicate clouds, fog, dust,” he says. Dulay then tells us how Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Switch “faked” various volumetric lighting techniques out of necessity.
“To have true volumetric lighting at this resolution is crazy,” he says, citing that the technique contributes most to the massive slowdown in the original Switch games. He suggests that to top it all off, the Switch 2 has at least 200% more memory than its predecessor (between 12GB and 16GB, up from the original 4GB).
Dulay continues with more interesting observations, like real-time cloth simulation happening with some flags blowing in the wind, which suggests that the Switch 2 is also significantly more powerful when it comes to physics simulation.
Honestly, every second of this video is engaging, entertaining and educational. I highly recommend watching it all.
Switch 2: 500% more Nvidia CUDA cores?
This analysis reinforces rumors that suggest the Switch 2 uses a semi-custom processor from Nvidia called the Tegra T239. This is a leak that surfaced in late 2023 and was further confirmed with the latest Switch 2 motherboard photos.
If true, that means the Switch 2 has 500% more CUDA cores than the original Switch. This represents a dramatic jump in potential performance.
An Nvidia CUDA Core is essentially a processing unit inside a GPU that handles complex operations like rendering 3D graphics. Specifically, think about things like particle effects, fire, liquids, and how objects in a game should move based on physics. Because these cores work together, increasing their number improves the speed at which these operations can be handled. And most importantly, it greatly expands how much graphical complexity game developers can add to their games.
While it’s far from the only factor in overall graphics performance, it absolutely makes a substantial difference. And it’s looking increasingly likely that the Switch 2 will be a substantial improvement over the original. Personally, I’m looking forward to seeing how my Switch games perform on Nintendo’s new hardware.
Once again, I would urge you to watch Dulay’s video in its entirety. It’s quite attractive and makes the long wait until April’s Switch 2 Direct feel like an eternity.
