They say that comparison is the thief of Joy-Con — or something along those lines — but ever since Switch 2's reveal, people have been clamouring to work out how Nintendo's latest matches up against the other consoles on the market. Before launch, the tech experts over at Digital Foundry suggested the console was roughly in line with Sony's PS4, but Koei Tecmo has recently estimated that it might be even beefier.
That is according to producer Takuto Edagawa, who, in a recent interview with Wild Hearts S, estimated that Switch 2 might be closer to the Xbox Series S in of "raw computing power" than Sony's last-gen system.
"There are a lot of characteristics when it comes to raw computing power, so it's difficult to generalise," Edagawa told the outlet, "but I think it can be thought [of] as closer to the Series S".
We suspected that Switch 2 would never be able to stand toe-to-toe with the likes of the PS5 and Series X, but hearing that developers understand it to be roughly in line with the Series S proves that there has been a pretty substantial upgrade under the hood — as if the promise of Star Wars Outlaws wasn't proof enough.
Elsewhere in the wccftech interview, Edagawa revealed that the team has not used NVIDIA's DLSS Super Resolution for the Switch 2 version of Wild Hearts S, though they did implement HD Rumble 2 to achieve "more nuanced vibration without additional costs for adjustments".
Wild Hearts S arrives on Switch 2 on 25th July, bringing the Monster Hunter-style adventure to the Nintendo hybrid with more beasts and modes, GameChat implementation, and a new four-player multiplayer option.
What do you make of Switch 2's power so far? Is it falling roughly in line with the Series S for you? Let us know in the comments.
[source wccftech.com]
Comments 80
I sure hope the Switch 2 can run Black Ops 7
It's probably somewhere in between. The OG Switch was plenty more powerful than the 11 years old PS3, but quite far from the 4 years old PS4. Switch 2 is in a similar space between the 12 years old PS4 and the 6 years old PS5, probably closer to PS4 than PS5. I think the PS4 is more relevant today than the PS3 was when the Switch 1 launched, so I'm fine with this, they probably hit a good spot with regards to price, battery life and power.
Well, a lot of comparison video's already showed it to be somewhere between PS4 and PS5, right? Anyway, I really don't care as long as I can play awesome games on my Switch 2, I'm not complaining.
Sorry but I don't believe them. We already saw a lots of comparision videos and this device obviously between ps4 and ps5. Koei Tecmo is a company that has trouble porting its games to consoles other than PlayStation and is bad at it. There are examples of Nioh, and everyone saw how bad it looked in the Wild Hearts S gameplay video they released for Switch 2.
At its simplest, we have an example like Cyberpunk. Then there is the FF Trilogy. In short, he made a very ridiculous statement. But there are many people who agree with him.
Maybe he can explain why Wild Hearts S looks like ass then.
Seems about right looking at comparisons but I think a lot of the lifting to get there is done by dlss, so depends how bothered by those artifacts you are I think will be the difference. Hopefully it means more awesome ports like cyberpunk keep happening and quickly get a library of awesome games.
As long as the hardware does us well for many years im happy, hopefully with some great third party ports coming over the years (as we all know Nintendo will provide solid games for its lifecycle)
TBH I hope these comparisons stop and everyone gets to enjoy what they have.
@JokerCK
But the Series S is between a PS4 and PS5.
@JokerCK He said the Series S, not the PS5.
Even just in of the raw numbers, it is much more powerful than the PS4, and close to the PS4 Pro.
But that doesn't take into being able to use DLSS and having better hardware, which gives it an even greater edge and puts it closer to the Series S, and above the PS4 Pro.
@JokerCK just playing devil's advocate here, but isn't a series s basically between ps4 and ps5 anyway?
I've owned all 3 (was never gonna buy an X), and after playing the s2, I'd also say its a fair view, no matter how bad they are at porting as a company, with the hardware at its disposal.
in the docked mode Switch 2 GPU is close to Series S, but XBox has few times more powerful U because U in Sw2 is capped around 1 GHz.
plus a memory bandwidth in XBox is at least 2x higher
Have to say, I am very happy with my SW2. Probably quite a bit more than I was expecting.
@JokerCK
“ this device obviously between ps4 and ps5”
That would tally with a Series S comparison
@JokerCK
So he's about right then, as Series S is somewhere between PS4 and PS5.
*A developer.
Not multiple developers. This is one guy.
I think it’s somewhere between Switch OG and Switch 3 but that’s just a wild guess.
So does that mean a Ninja Gaiden 4 and Nioh trilogy announcement for the NS2?
The trouble with trying to make these comparisons is that all the machines will likely have their strengths and weaknesses and with machine learning as an additional way to manage resources straight comparisons - spec vs spec tell us nothing much any more.
From what I have seen and played the S2 is very capable and my feeling is that ports of games to Nintendo's console are now about good optimisation rather than compromise.
Ultimately I don't think it matters much. The important thing is it is a good step up from the Switch 1 (it had to be) and it has tech like DLSS as well. I think as devs get to know the Switch 2 more we'll be surprised what can be done on it. There were some miracles worked on the OG Switch, so it will be interesting to see what devs manage on the new one as years go by.
switch 2 ( GTA 5 and 6 )
Having had a Series S for a few years , I would say it’s a fair comparison.
@JokerCK The Nioh games ran fine on PC. You might be confusing them with Wo Long and Rise of the Ronin which were badly optimised for PC and besides, Koei is merely the publisher of those games not the developer.
This is good news; why are so many people on here being so negative about it? Man we just can't have nice things without some people wanting to ruin them can we? Switch 2 is awesome and obviously quite capable. Sorry if that's "triggering" for some people.
There's too many variables to be exact. Its not PS5. Its not XSX. Its probably in the ball park of PS4 Pro to the Series S but will vary game to game, developer to developer.
This is good as this gen we've seen alot of cross gen releases, even when the S has struggled with some.
SW2 is in the right area to continue with current gen multipat releases. SW1 had hit a ceiling of how much further it could go.
@Debo626 not so much on this site but if you go to sites like IGN and look at s comment history, it's the same people complaining about price in one thread and specs underpowered in another. Its equally contradictory and funny at the same time.
"We want more power but don't want to pay for it" 😃
Seems pretty clear cut that the machine is at least par with the PS4 Pro approaching PS5. Let’s not forget Cyberpunk 2077 runs on Switch 2 and functions quite poorly on a Sony machine below a base PS5.
Common sense. Add DLSS and it's pretty much on par with Series S. A simple look at its specs, newer arcitecture & games released makes that totally clear. Using Cyberpunk for comparison it's clearly miiiiiles ahead of half performance things like PS4 base and Steam Deck, and clearly also better than PS4 Pro ( can't go beyond 30fps on Cyberpunk ), so it's elementary to compare it with that outdated hardware. It can run everything from the current gen, and it will get everything too in the following months/years too. Heck, even Street Fighter 6 looks way better than the Series S version and neraly on par with PS5/SeriesX. Not to mention that its DLSS will be constantly be updated throughout the years, its OS usage is being reduced to 1 core from 2 and 2GB Ram from 3, freeing more resources and its U/GPU speeds can be unlocked to add 70% more U performance and 40% more GPU performance ( they unlocked partially the ones in Switch at one point, so they will do the same here too in the future ). Meaning it will also get "more powerful" as time es too. So all in all complaining about graphics on Switch 2 is total nonsense and a product of ignorance. It's not like on Switch's case, get your fact straight. Not that it matters, it wouldn't sell less gazillions, even it was less powerful than it is, cause games!
@cdriper
The Series S U is definitely more powerful than Switch 2, as one would naturally expect.
However, one cannot calculate the actual performance of any U based on its clock speed alone, that will get you precisely no idea of real world performance. Just look at how well Apple has done with its ARM64 architecture on a performance per watt factor compared to X86, for instance. The architecture, cores, clock speed, features of the silicon including AI calculations, cache and so on and so on must be taken into , the clock speed alone is arguably less important now for performance per watt than it ever has been.
Synthetic benchmarks (roughly) put the Switch 2 U performance at more than double that of the PS4 in single core performance and multi-core pushes to more than 2.5 times that of the performance of PS4. Just for a little perspective.
For a handheld it’s actually quite performant.
Nonetheless, why these comparisons to home systems with different architecture and significantly higher power draw keep popping up is beyond me. It’s about time we just enjoyed the games.
Rest assured, there’s enough juice under the hood to cope with (often cut-down in resolution, LOD, texture quality and so on) most third-party games for years to come. Not a single one of the games released for the system thus far is actually pushing the system to its limits. That will come in the next few years, particularly with software designed and developed for the silicon.
Not that I’m saying I’m not impressed with the launch lineup, CDPR has done excellent work in getting Cyberpunk to run as well as it does, but I expect to see even better from them down the line. Fast Fusion, MKW, and several others all have impressive elements in one way or another for launch games as well.
At the end of the day all of the specification analysis and comparisons really don’t mean much, what matters is what you see on the screen. And if you’re a gamer such as myself who’s been around since the beginning (although I it my perspective is also slightly different being a developer) the single most important thing is gameplay. Everything else is just gravy, very nice gravy and it definitely makes the meal better, but gravy nonetheless.
SomeOrdinairyGamer/Mutahar also mentioned it’s inbetween a ps4 pro and XSS leaning closer to XSS capabilities thanks to DLSS
The Switch 2 has a custom Ampere GPU. It's being discussed as similar to an RTX 2050 which would make it more powerful than the Series S which is similar to a GTX 1660. However, there's more to it than a 1:1 scale of a PC GPU. There's a lot of things to consider with a custom chipset. Being between a PS4 and PS5 is too large of a range.
@Debo626
Nope, that pretty much sums it up for me too.
A handheld that’s more performant than a PS4 on the go, and more powerful than a PS4 Pro on the big screen, at a reasonable price, bearing in mind it also includes a Dock and detachable controllers that are each an independent controller in their own right allowing for multiplayer on the go without buying any other accessories, how on earth can people not be happy with that in this day and age?
People will complain no matter what, it’s human nature. Give them more power and slap on an extra couple hundred bucks to the price, would they be happy then? No, they’d still complain, mainly about the price.
But let’s , this is the internet and public forums on the internet are so detached from what most people in the real world think that it’s really not worth bothering about.
@JokerCK Ummm… hate to break it to you, but Series S IS in between PS4 and PS5…
@Stwert PS4 SoC is from 2013, it's 28 nm and U is only 1.6 GHz
and actually it was very slow even vs x86 desktop U from that era
Benchmarks say modern era x86 U core have almost the same performance as modern ARM U per Hz. But obviously ARM is much more efficient in of performance per watt. And Apple gains great boost vs x86 by deploying RAM directly inside SoC.
I think U core in Switch 2 is 20-35% faster than U Core in Switch 1 at the same frequency.
It’s the advancement in architecture with DLSS, mesh shaders, variable rate shading, texture compression and all those other bells and whistles that will allow the Switch 2 to exceed PS4 in typical gaming. Raw compute isn’t the be all and end all, it’s how efficiently resources are used that also plays a key role in final results.
@Sambuc i praise your comment sir, as it has the perfect counterpoint in your profile pic.
Just so long as there are good games with good gameplay that interst me. That's what matters most to me.
Yep as long as the gameplay is spot on, I'm happy. However, I was impressed with fast racing's visuals.
it's very good,my console playstation one and game cube very beautiful
I never understood why the Switch 2 having similar power to a PS4 is a bad thing. This is a console that is able to run games like Uncharted 4, God of War and Ratchet & Clank. I'm perfectly happy for the next Bayonetta to have similar graphically fidelity to Devil May Cry 5 on PS4.
The Xbox Series S is really impressive for the price and size (look at Tekken 8!) so if we get something close to that with the Switch 2, it’s gonna be an amazing gen!
@JokerCK As many others have already said, Series X = "between PS4 and PS5" so curious what exactly you don't believe? You basically reiterated what KT said.
@Strumpan PS5 is 4.5 years old, not 6.
@BTB20 You're absolutely right, sorry about that!
@Strumpan No big deal.
@JokerCK Yes, and the series S is between the PS4 and PS5.
Tell me you didn’t actually read the article without telling me you didn’t actually read the article.
People whom saw DF messup has been saying this all along but people are deaf to this until now. This doesn't surprise me one bit.
switch 2 power is between ps4 pro and ps5 not at ps4 after digital foundry fiasco.
I’ve been thinking this all along once I saw SW Outlaws was coming. The baked in ray tracing that game has, and S2 ability to run it more or less proves that. Even at ultra low resolution the steam deck can’t really run that game in a playable fashion unless you edit the config files and disable Ray tracing (there’s no menu option to do so). Then the game becomes playable, but looks atrocious.
I think a lot of people disregard or don’t realize that S2’s APU is based on RTX 30xx tech, which is nothing to sneeze at. Sure it’s not a full fledged 30xx, but the tech alone puts it leagues ahead of previous generations.
Digital Foundry once said that the Steam Deck was "closer to Xbox Series S than what the Switch was compared to PS4 and Xbox One". That should be enough buzzword.
The first PS4 comparison was made when the console was just revealed. Now it's good to hear that from the devs themselves, and it's better that way to be honest.
Basically... PS4/XOne - PS4 Pro/Series S - /One X --- Series X/PS5.
Where does the Switch 2 find in-between? Probably between PS4 and Series S, but it does have some inner tech like DLSS that makes scalability easier, which means it should find itself closer to the middle. Considering how compromised current-gen games can look on Series S it's definitely something to consider.
Wild Hearts for example, was severly compromised on Series S, to the point I thought they just couldn't optimise it properly, especially for the shading. The Switch 2 version has seemingly modified the lighting system to allow for more contrast between shadow and lighting, which will probably make it better-looking than the Series S version in some moments. Not to mention Hyrule Warriors will seemingly run at 60fps with high-quality graphics, which looks promising.
But anyway, the PS4 is still very surprisingly powerful in of numbers. It obviously got outclassed by current-gen, but more specifically, for the more expensive higher-end consoles. The Series S was made to be more accessible and it honestly does a good job at that. Thing is, with Rog Xbox Ally recently announced and probably promising outright Series S-level performance (maybe something a bit more with overclocking), the Switch 2 needs to find itself with a price advantage yet comparable performance when docked at least.
But to be honest I still have to see Dragon's Dogma 2 running on it. Games devs made specifically for the PS5 can sometimes look very compromised on Series S without much scalability offered by the majority, so how say, Final Fantasy XVI could run on Switch 2 is a good question.
My Switch 2 plays Switch 2 games WAY better than my Series S does.
Seriously though: I suspect that it's roughly the same. Maybe the Switch 2 will have a lower native rendering with upscaling. We can compare Cyberpunk now, and we'll see how developers utilize it as ambitious multi-platform games get released: Star Wars Outlaws, AC Shadows, Indiana Jones, Call of Duty, etc.
But I own a Switch 2 to play Nintendo published games, mostly. I have a PS5 for power (and Sony exclusives) and a Series S for Game .
It's closer to PS4 pro, everything else is copium; unless the Series S is really that trash.
@Sambuc
The main problem with Black Ops 7 for Switch is that they are struggling to downgrade 150 GB to less than 64 GB for Switch 2 and making it run without stuttering.
The SD card speeds is a lot slower than SSD and can cause games to stutter, especially UE 5 games.
Also isn't it weird that not one single Xbox game have been announced for Switch 2, when they ported a bunch to PS5 already?
I suspect it's because of the storage limits on Switch 2 that it will take forever to port games to it.
No SSD on Switch 2 causes a headache for a lot of developers.
All PC Handhelds s multiple SSD's at the same time with a Dock.
Nintendo Wii U ed 2 SSD's at the same time out of the box...
See Atlus? It is not that hard.
@Toastmaster Microsoft is abandoning physical on their own platform. They're almost certainly not going to try and fit their games on Switch 2 carts.
I forgot Outlaws is coming. !!
@Toastmaster These are interesting points you're making.
It also makes me wonder though - wouldn't this have been discussed during development of the system? Surely Nintendo has already realized this and done something to help it, right?
@JokerCK That’s literally where a Series S lands in of power lol
As practically everyone except for few including Digital Foundry has been saying all this time in one way or another - anyway, love to further hear confirmation about it as it means even more games will be able to come to Switch 2 first and foremost, better performance and so on (can't wait to play on it myself as soon as mine gets delivered)!
@PikaPhantom Probably not.
Microsoft ported several games to Switch, but ignored PS5.
This time it's the opposite, so far.
Perhaps they are waiting to see how well Switch 2 sell during 2025 to see if ports are justified ?
Switch 2 sell like hot cakes right now at least, and are sold out in most stores worldwide.
@AussieMcBucket
The reason why Switch 2 don't SSD in docked mode is this.
Kids will unplug the Handheld while the game is running from SSD, causing the games to crash instantly because the storage they are running from is not connected anymore.
Why not make SSD an option for adults who maybe only play Switch 2 docked?
They could have done that with Switch 1 too.
Activision knew about Switch 2 for a long time, so it's weird nothing were done to get it running on Switch 2 for day 1 release.
It already runs on last gen consoles like Xbox One and PS4 and also the cheap Xbox Series S console.
@Toastmaster I mean, maybe. I think the biggest reason is that the console is supposed to be portable. If you have over half your games on an SSD, then how much is the system fulfilling it's promise?
But yeah, I don't know why we haven't heard from 3rd parties outside of launch titles. Madden's coming the same day as other consoles, so that is great. But otherwise... not much. We haven't even heard much from Nintendo! I wonder if something is causing delays. But CDPR said it was no big deal. And at this point, I feel like Nintendo knows how to develop their consoles in ways that work well with other developers. They want the 3rd-party games to come to S2. I dunno. I guess we'll see. Maybe we will get a Direct soon that reveals lots more.
@Toastmaster You make some good points, but let's not jump the gun; a couple rumors have claimed this fall/winter will be a big third-party blowout, and it makes sense. Quite a few third-party games are already available at launch, all things considered, and the bigger publishers understand that launch timing has become one of the most important factors for success.
Gamers will never have the time or money for all of the third-party AAA games if they all launched at once. This is also why Nintendo is spacing out their game launches and only keeping the launch window to one big AAA game (MKW) and two remasters (BOTW/TOTK).
I understand the concern that we haven't seen many announcements yet for certain third-party franchises, but they're probably waiting for the dust to settle with everything already on offer so far.
It's only been a week, so let's just wait a little while longer before getting positively worried.
@burndive We can also compare Hogwarts Legacy. In docked mode, I feel like it appears more like a PS4 Pro: impressive and beautiful, but with a larger TV, the few minor flaws are noticeable if I choose to look closely. (like furniture textures)
However, in handheld mode, those flaws are far less noticeable, and all I can think about is how gorgeous this AAA game looks in the palm of my hand.
So I feel like not only will optimization and performance vary between each game, but also the comparison can vary based on the overall impression of a large TV as opposed to a smaller handheld screen.
I would like to know how it compares to other gaming handhelds
What a great console time, where low spec systems do the math. The Series S sold pretty solid, thanks to that, disc games are dying on XBox and Nintendo s are glad, that their new 500£ system is almost as strong as a Series S. 🤦🏻♂️
Cool. Give me Nioh 2 on switch 2 please.
A "PS4 in my hands" is fine by me. That's all I dreamed up for Switch 2.
Just give me 1080p docked with smooth performance and I really don't care about anything else. When they show the "side-by-side" comparisons for different new systems, I can never tell the difference.
@AussieMcBucket Yes, but it's a hybrid. Portable / TV is an option.
A lot of people use it as a TV console only.
As for third parties, it have been quite silent.
I'm surprised Forza Horizon 5 isn't announced for Switch 2.
It's probably one of the most scalable games ever made.
It runs even on PC without a GPU and at 60 FPS on 12-15 year old potato PC's.
@Ulysses I agree. It's only been barely a week since it launched.
It's still weird that Forza Horizon 5 isn't announced for Switch 2.
One of the most scalable games ever.
Runs at 60 FPS on old potato PC's with only 4 core U with good looking settings.
Maybe it wasn't ported because of Mario Kart World...
Too many open world racers for Switch in 2025.
@Toastmaster Yeah, but I don't think they want to get in the way of portability.
Oh, that would be cool. I'm not much of a racer, but I know that game is supposed to be spectacular.
@Toastmaster I wouldn't say it's weird at all, because you answered your own question: Mario Kart World is another racer with an open world, and it's sucking up all the oxygen at the moment.
These days, even the timing of the announcement of a game is carefully planned. Marketing for AAA games can be almost as expensive as a Hollywood movie; the pressure for every step of the process to unfold just as planned is very high. And we've seen entire AAA franchises crash and burn from mistimed launches, mistimed marketing, etc.
@Ulysses Yeah. A lot of games released at the wrong time.
I know about the insane budgets of marketing in general.
Sometimes the marketing cost are more than the whole movie budget.
Forza Horizon are very different from Mario Kart.
Over 900 licensed cars so far, and the cars is a lot faster than karts.
People have jumped 1000 meters with a car in the game after tuning to the max.
Forza Horizon also have a level and track editor unlike Mario Kart.
@AussieMcBucket
You don't need to like racing to like Forza Horizon.
It's designed so you can win 100% of the races if you want, or play on higher difficulty.
If you drive off-road, you can rewind. No need to start the race again.
Besides that, there are over 900 licensed cars so far.
You can tune them to max, so they drive at insane speeds.
I own and played all 5 Forza Horizon games.
Forza Horizon 3 and 4 are the best ones.
@Toastmaster Well, those sound like nice mechanical aspects to Forza.
But on the surface, uninformed prospective buyers may not be aware of those gameplay differences. And every company knows that a large majority of Nintendo console owners prioritizes first-party titles over third-party.
@Ulysses
Mario Kart is the #1 selling game on Nintendo consoles.
At least 50% of console owners buy it.
I think 60% of Wii U owners bought Mario Kart 8.
Releasing any racing game of any kind in 2025 and first months of 2026 on Switch 2 are pointless.
Only MKW will sell the next year on Switch 2.
Could be another reason why there were so little Switch 2 announcements in general.
Mario Kart alone are killing off third party game sales on Switch 2 for the next 12 months.
@Toastmaster Interesting. Well, I might check it out, if it comes to S2.
What, 900?! There's no way that can be right!
@AussieMcBucket
It's correct as the exact number are shown in game.
I think it's 905 or so.
@Toastmaster Sorry, DBZ reference.
@AussieMcBucket
Okay.
According to photo challenge it's 902 cars so far.
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