Nintendo's next-gen Switch 2 handheld console is expected to feature over a thousand NVIDIA GPU cores based on the Ampere architecture based on the latest rumors.
Nintendo Switch 2 Handheld Expected To Feature NVIDIA & Arm Combo: 1280 GPU Cores, 8 CPU Cores
Earlier this week, the T239 SOC (System-on-Chip) was spotted which is allegedly being used to run the upcoming handheld. The SOC is said to be designed by NVIDIA and makes use of its previous-gen Ampere GPU architecture and an Arm CPU complex. So far, there have been various leaks as to what the actual specifications of this SOC might be and even more so on the process node that will be used to manufacture it.
Now we have at least two leakers, Kopite7kimi and Tech_Reve, who are very confident that the SOC will be based on a Samsung 8nm process node. According to Kopite7kimi, the SEC8N will be used in the manufacturing of the T239 SOC for the Nintendo Switch 2 while Tech_Reve highlights the use of the Samsung 7LPH process node which is an improved version of the Samsung 8nm node. It might sound similar to TSMC's 4N node for NVIDIA which is technically an improved version of its N5 or 5 nm node.
SEC8N.
— kopite7kimi (@kopite7kimi) September 14, 2023
Samsung Foundry 7LPH(8-nanometer improved version)
— Revegnus (@Tech_Reve) September 16, 2023
Now the NVIDIA Orin SOC "T234" already features the above-mentioned process node and while there have been rumors that the Nintendo Switch 2 SOC might come in a 5nm node, those sound slightly too optimistic given what we have seen from Nintendo in the past. I won't deny that those rumors can't be true since NVIDIA can use a better foundry process and surprise us with an even better architecture/chip design for Nintendo's upcoming console but do take those rumors with a pinch of salt for now.
8x A78
1280 CUDA— Elysian Realm (@KittyYYuko) September 16, 2023
So with the process node out of the way, let's talk about specifications. KittyYYuko states that the Nintendo Switch 2 SOC is expected to feature 1280 CUDA cores. Now NVIDIA has two versions of Ampere, the HPC version with 64 cores per SM and the consumer version with 128 cores per SM. Just like the Orin SOC, the Nintendo Switch 2 SOC would feature the consumer version with 128 cores per SM so that gives us a total of 1280 cores across 10 SMs.
But here's where the fun part begins, Kopite7kimi states that the T239 is based on a single GPC while the Orin SOC is based on two GPC's, each with 8 SMs for a total of 16 SMs and 2048 cores. NVIDIA did have a single GPC with 10 SMs with its GA106 GPU die but T239 being an SOC might look very different compared to that. Furthermore, it may be possible that the SOC could have extra locked or disabled SMs that might be enabled in a future variant. Following is what a 10 SM Ampere GPU looks like:
On the CPU side, the Nintendo Switch 2 SOC is rumored to pack a total of 8 Cortex A78 Arm cores. All of these cores are arranged within a single cluster and is possible that we might see the A78 "C" variant which packs up to 8 MB of L3 cache. The version featured on Orin "A78AE" featured 2 MB of L3 cache per quad-core cluster so that's 6 MB for a total of 12 cores.
Recently, we have been hearing a lot of rumors regarding the Nintendo Switch 2 handheld. These rumors basically come after Gamescom 2023 where the device was showcased to select media & behind closed doors. According to rumored details, the Nintendo Switch 2 handheld was running various games at 4K 60 FPS natively and is also said to offer full support for Ray Tracing & NVIDIA's DLSS technologies. The Switch 2 handheld was shown to run the Unreal Engine 5 Matrix Awakens demo with NVIDIA DLSS 3.1.
There's currently no official launch date announced yet for the Nintendo Switch 2 handheld but more information might come in the months ahead.
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