Nintendo Just Revealed Switch 2’s Real Power — It’s WAY More Than You Think

0:00 Okay, so Nintendo finally revealed the official specs of Switch 2. It took them a long time. We haven't seen them since now. And I know you might be thinking like, Zack, we've seen the games, we've seen the system, who cares? But the specs are actually very interesting for multiple reasons. Nintendo has given us a system with multiple modes of DLSS. It's given us a system with three times as much memory as the Switch One had. It's given us a system with a custom Nvidia chip. and it's given us a system where game chat is really an anchor, like the heavy kind. So, good morning, Mario, and good morning, Switch fans. We're going to dive in to the Switch 2 specs. No tech degree required, just what it means for the Switch 2 and if people were right all along about this system. So, hit that like button if you're excited for the Switch 2, which is coming out in a little over three

0:45 freaking weeks. Cannot believe we're getting so close and cannot believe that we finally have the Switch 2 specs. So, the important things here are that we know this Switch 2 is beefed up and ready to go. Now, some people might just be saying, "Okay, look at the teraflops, Zach." But teraflops never tell the full story. We're going to get those out of the way right off the bat. The Switch 2 is running about three teraflops. Okay? And some people are going to point to that number and say, "Look, it the teraflops of the Switch 2 are not what they need to be. They're nowhere near the 12 teraflops of the Xbox Series X. They're not even the 4.2 teraflops of the PS4 Pro." But let me let you in on a little secret. How many teraflops do you think the Switch One had? Can you guess? Do you know? Would you think maybe it had two teraflops? Like this system is one and a half times stronger. 1.5

1:31 teraflops. The system's twice as strong. Nope. This new system is about 10 times as strong because the original Nintendo Switch actually made it work on 39 teraflops. So hopefully that makes you see that teraflops do not tell the whole story. This system is actually very very strong for a handheld and incredibly strong for a Nintendo platform and greatly strong for what it needs to do to carry modern video games. So, the good bits here, the best bits that we now know officially are, yes, the DLSS support. So, it's got that 4K upscaling without needing raw 4K power, which is super important. It's got three different modes of DLSS, um, which seem to be compared to like different modes of settings on a PC, which is great. some variability there. It has 12 GB of

2:17 RAM, which is triple the RAM of the original Nintendo Switch, which feels pretty good. Now, not all of this RAM is able to be used for games. Okay, so it's got two modules of 6 GB of RAM for 12 GB, but three of those are reserved for the operating system, and nine of those will be used for games. But it does seem like those nine are still a very healthy number that developers have been quite pleased with. 3 GB of RAM for the operating system feels like a lot. It's a larger chunk reserved than what the Switch One had. And even though thus far we've seen the Switch One and the Switch 2 have a very similar looking UI and operating system. It might be because of game chat. Okay, we'll get to game chat dastardly game chat in a second here. One of the cool things though is that

3:03 this as compared to the Switch One is a custombuilt Nvidia chip. So, the Switch One was just using a very generic Tegra chip, and the Switch 2 is utilizing a much more custommade for Nintendo for the Switch 2 Nvidia T239 chip. Now, a lot of this is what had leaked out before, and when things leaked, people are like, "No, the Switch 2 won't be able to do that much. The Switch 2 won't be able to do that good of graphics." And yes, the answer is it can. We've seen it happen, and now we have the actual specs to prove it. So, this is running the new Nvidia T239 chipset. It's got 12 GB of RAM. It does have multiple modes of DLSS. CPU clocks reveal that the CPU runs at 1100 MHz in handheld mode, drops down to 998 MHz in

3:50 performance mode. Docked mode right around there at 998 as well. The maximum clock speed is much higher at 1.7 GHz. So, not sure how that's going to be unlocked, when it'll be able to be used, what kind of situations. Digital Foundry seems to think it'll be very specific. Um, but it does mean that there's potentially even more power in the Switch 2 than you're seeing right off the bat. It does have eight total cores in the CPU. Six of them usable for games, which you might think sounds weird, but that's very common to what modern consoles are running where not all the cores are usable for games. Basically, the engineers did their job. Nintendo did their job. Okay, this system is a beefy graphics system. It's a system that costs quite a bit to make. Reports state it costs about $388 to make. So, it's it's more expensive to make than the Switch OLED is to sell,

4:36 which I think is a very good thing and shows you signs that, hey, you're actually getting your money's worth from this system, which is most important when you're spending $450 on a new console. So, if you're like me and all of the numbers and all of the letters and all of that just kind of gets overwhelming, the basics of this are it has better, faster loading, better faster visuals, smoother frame rates, and on the- go, the handheld experience is going to be fantastic. Now, we do have confirmation that variable refresh rate is only handheld, which some people have thrown their arms up at and said, "Hey, that's a feature you touted about this Switch. Why is it only handheld?" Well, the reason is because Nintendo has the screen right there to give you that variable refresh rate. And it seems like it's something with the ports and the technology of getting it over from display port to your TV that is going to be the holdup here. But it seems like

5:23 many fans are saying, "Hey, this isn't that big of a deal. probably a very small percentage of people even have a television that's capable of variable refresh rate anyways. It's not going to be a huge deal. Getting it in the portable side is just an extra bonus, an extra win, and something that's an extra nice feature when you're for when you're playing on the go. Now, the thing that I find the goofiest and maybe concerning is how much of a anchor the freaking game chat feature is. Now, Game Chat takes up a lot of resources apparently, and Game Chat does take a lot of power, which sort of we saw, right? You saw Game Chat chugging when it was trying to screen share your gameplay in the initial Nintendo Switch 2 Direct where they revealed this new way to play with your friends, which in theory is pretty

6:08 cool. Sharing your face, sharing your screen, everybody experiencing either the same game or different games together. But even within their official marketing, the the frame rate chugged and it's because it is taking a lot of resources to make that thing work and it seems like it is probably going to chug when you use it. Which we can argue then why did Nintendo do it? Why did they make game chat a feature? I don't think game chat is really something that we should, you know, base the systems success on. Game chat is like Nintendo throwing an extra in there, throwing a bone to those who like online play, trying to be the system for families and friends, trying to have those commercial moments where they can be like, "Oh my gosh, it's Christine Aguilera and Blake Shelton playing together across the end." Like, that's what they're doing with this, right? It's it's for those marketing moments. It's for those

6:54 trailers where they can show like everybody playing together. It's very much Nintendo's way. And it's a new feature that they can throw right on the Joy-Con to get you to think, "Hey, this system is more than just an upgrade." because apparently just an upgrade isn't enough for Nintendo whereas it is for like a Sony console or an Xbox console. The Switch 2 is trying to give you something more. But the good news about this is even though it is a resource hog, it does look like Nintendo is providing a way for developers to avoid this. Okay, so they have a tool in there where developers can test the function without an active session um so that they're able to mitigate and prepare for and plan around the performance impact on the system which I think is going to be a way for developers to work around this and to plan and build so that it

7:40 does not become something that absolutely crashes or tanks the game. The other thing is there might be games that do really struggle when game chat is activated and you don't need to use it. We'll have to wait and see. Game Chat has only been shown off with a couple of Nintendo titles. Have yet to see how like Cyberpunk 2077 works with Game Chat. I personally don't plan on using Game Chat possibly ever. Therefore, it doesn't really matter to me. And some could argue that, hey, one of the big features touted about the system isn't even something you're going to use. Well, that's a huge stupid mistake by Nintendo. It's just like I said, it's one of those things that Nintendo needs to put in there to fuel their brand, to forward their marketing plan, and to seem like they're with the times, even if maybe they're fully not. As long as it's not mandatorily taking resources, mandatorily chugging down on my system,

8:27 which it's not. This is only if Game Chat is activated, of course, and only if Game Chat is up and running. It's not something that, hey, Game Chat is secretly leeching in the background. You don't have to worry. It's not something that needs to be there, right? We can just ignore it. Again, maybe that's silly that Nintendo included at all, but I will mostly ignore game chat and focus on the 12 gigs of RAM. I will focus on the custom chip and it'll focus on the multiple modes of DLSS. That should make this system look crazy good. Final Fantasy 7 remake and the series, Cyberpunk 2077, maybe even Expedition 33, if we trust the new talk from those games creators, are coming to the Switch 2 and going to be running good. Not with magic, not with secret sauce, not by pressing the panic button, but because the system can actually handle it, which is great. And that's what these specs

9:12 are made to do to confirm that, hey, the Switch looks like it is going to be a very powerful system, the Switch 2. It's doing its job. It's bringing us great games. It's going to do anything that third parties can throw at it. I'm very happy about that. We got official confirmation today. Let me know what games you're most excited to play on your Switch 2. And if anything here sticks out to you, are you bummed about Game Chat or do you, like me, not really care or plan to use it? Let me know your take in the comments down below everybody and until next time, thanks so much for watching. Stay safe, stay healthy, stay happy, stay positive there. Love you lots.