Why That Brief Look at Mario Kart 9 Suggests Nintendo Switch 2 Is 'Significantly More Powerful' Than the Original — According to a Developer

An indie game developer with extensive experience creating games for the original Nintendo Switch has offered compelling evidence suggesting the Switch 2 boasts significantly enhanced processing power. This conclusion is drawn primarily from analyzing the brief, but revealing, glimpse of Mario Kart 9 showcased in the recent Switch 2 announcement video.

Nintendo's official specifications remain elusive, leaving much to speculation. While upgrades to the Joy-Cons, kickstand, and overall console size are confirmed, the true extent of the Switch 2's graphical capabilities remains undisclosed.

Jerrel Dulay of Sungrand Studios, a developer with a proven track record on Wii U and 3DS titles, provides insightful commentary in a recent YouTube video. He highlights several key graphical elements in the Mario Kart 9 footage as indicators of a substantial power increase.

Mario Kart 9 - A Graphical Deep Dive

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Dulay points to the use of physically-based shaders, impacting reflections and lighting on the karts and environment. These shaders, demanding on the original Switch's hardware, are prevalent throughout the footage. He further emphasizes the high-resolution ground textures and numerous unique textures used, requiring significant RAM.

Reports suggest the Switch 2 utilizes an Nvidia T239 ARM mobile chip with 1536 CUDA cores, a significant leap from the original Switch's Tegra X1 with only 256. This is supported by motherboard leaks indicating an 8nm chip. Furthermore, the rumored 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM (compared to the original's 4GB) and potentially much faster RAM speeds would drastically improve texture loading and overall performance.

The presence of volumetric lighting and far-distance shadows, both computationally expensive processes, further strengthens Dulay's argument. These features were major challenges for developers on the original Switch.

The high polygon count characters and real-time cloth physics on the flags also point towards a substantial increase in processing power.

Dulay's analysis provides a compelling perspective on the Switch 2's graphical capabilities, hinting at a significant leap in performance compared to its predecessor. While official details remain scarce, the Mario Kart 9 footage offers a tantalizing preview of what to expect. Further information is anticipated in Nintendo's April Direct.

What do you think of the Nintendo Switch 2 reveal?

I love it and am absolutely buying that consoleIt was a little tame but I'll still buy the Switch 2I liked it but need to see more before I make a decisionIt was a little underwhelming so I'm not really botheredThe reveal was pretty iffy and I don't care for the console eitherSomething else!AnswerSee Results