NVIDIA and Nintendo: When gaming nostalgia meets chip gigantism

It has become rare for NVIDIA boss Jensen Huang to talk about gaming without immediately drifting into AI spheres. This made his recent appearance at the Creator’s Voice event all the more remarkable, where he spoke almost maudlinly about the Nintendo Switch 2. According to Jensen, the new chip is a technological wonder. A statement that would normally be ticked off under “compulsory program” for a CEO with a constant PR barrage – if it weren’t for the technical depth that the green giant has come up with this time.

Ampere in the handheld – or: How to teach an old dog new tricks

The chip in the Nintendo Switch 2, codenamed T239, is based on the well-known Ampere architecture – and that is both exciting and a calculated risk. 1.536 CUDA cores, dedicated tensor cores for DLSS, ray tracing support in hardware, HDR10 – all garnished with an eight-core ARM processor (Cortex-A78C) and a clock speed of up to 1.7 GHz. Plus 12 GB LPDDR5X RAM and 256 GB UFS 3.1 memory. On paper, this reads like a scaled-down RTX 2050 with additional functions. But be careful, paper is patient. The chip runs at 561 MHz in mobile mode and up to 1,007 MHz in docked mode – which multiplies the performance, but is also far below what current AMD handheld SoCs offer. NVIDIA calls this “ultra-low power”. I call this diplomatic capitulation to battery life.

AI as a savior in times of need?

What still makes the Switch 2 exciting is what NVIDIA traditionally does best: clever software. DLSS – Deep Learning Super Sampling – should do the trick. With tensor cores and a specially tuned algorithm, the aim is to make the impossible possible: AAA titles in acceptable quality on a mobile device. The whole thing is complemented by ray tracing and HDR – nice buzzwords, but with a question mark in terms of real implementation. A device that promises ray tracing but runs at less than 600 MHz in mobile mode? Sounds like a double-edged sword – and a lot of optimism. But hey, if anyone can do it, it’s probably the people who have already brought RTX to 75-watt GPUs.

Marketing meets myth – Iwata as the joker

Things got emotional when Jensen Huang brought Satoru Iwata into play. According to Huang, the Switch 2 is a tribute to his vision. More than 500 years of engineering had been invested. That sounds romantic, but also like strategic pathos. NVIDIA is staging itself as the custodian of the Nintendo legacy – and thus securing the emotional backing of a tradition-conscious fanbase.

Price, positioning and prospects

At 449 US dollars RRP, the Switch 2 is dangerously close to the PS5 and Xbox Series X – but deliberately offers a different niche: mobility, hybrid use, AI-supported efficiency. The aim: to bridge the gap between core gamers and casuals without scaring off either side. Whether this succeeds depends largely on the choice of games and support from third-party developers. A ray-tracing-capable handheld is of little use if nobody uses the features. As always, success therefore stands and falls with the content.

Conclusion: a return to the past or clever PR?

The fact that Huang is talking about gaming again at all shows that NVIDIA has recognized this: Gaming isn’t dead, it’s just gone quiet under the roar of the AI wave. The Switch 2 is not the fastest handheld – but perhaps the smartest. A technological balancing act between market and feasibility, between tradition and Tensor core. And that’s more than you can say for many other consoles.

Source: Youtube