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 Switch titles has offered compelling reasons why the brief Mario Kart 9 preview hints at a significantly more powerful Switch 2. While Nintendo's official specifications remain undisclosed, the developer, Jerrel Dulay of Sungrand Studios, points to several graphical features in the trailer as evidence of a substantial hardware upgrade.

Last week's Switch 2 reveal showcased new Joy-Cons, a redesigned kickstand, and a larger console, but power specifics remain elusive. Dulay, a veteran who worked on Wii U and 3DS titles, provides insightful analysis in a recent YouTube video (via GamesRadar).

Mario Kart 9: A Graphical Deep Dive

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Dulay highlights the use of physically-based shaders in the Mario Kart 9 footage. These shaders, impacting reflections and lighting, were resource-intensive on the original Switch, often impacting frame rates. The trailer, however, showcases extensive use of these shaders without apparent performance issues. Furthermore, he notes detailed material reflections and high-resolution ground textures, demanding significant RAM and processing power.

Rumors suggest the Switch 2 utilizes an Nvidia T239 ARM mobile chip with 1536 CUDA cores (Digital Foundry report, corroborated by motherboard leaks), a significant leap from the original Switch's Tegra X1 with only 256 CUDA cores. The rumored 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM (two 6GB SK Hynix modules) offers a substantial increase over the original Switch's 4GB, potentially running at significantly higher speeds (up to 7500MHz compared to the original's 1600MHz). This improved RAM capacity and speed directly translates to faster texture loading and the ability to handle a higher number of unique, high-resolution textures.

The trailer also demonstrates the use of volumetric lighting, computationally expensive for any GPU, and far-distance shadows, both significant challenges for the original Switch's hardware. Dulay emphasizes that the smooth 60fps performance, coupled with these advanced graphical features, strongly suggests a considerable power increase. The high polygon count characters and real-time cloth physics on the flagpoles further support this conclusion.

In summary, Dulay's analysis of the Mario Kart 9 footage provides strong circumstantial evidence supporting a significant power boost in the Switch 2. While official details are awaited (a dedicated Nintendo Direct is planned for April), his insights offer valuable perspective on the potential graphical capabilities of Nintendo's next-generation handheld.

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