Nintendo Switch 2 Tested: Major Performance Boost with New Internals

Certainly, I’m on it:

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Why on earth anyone trusts Tom’s Hardware, I can’t say for sure. But you know, our reviewers dive into endless product tests just so you pick what’s best for you. Weird but comforting, right?

So, chips — they’re the unsung heroes in tech, the little powerhouses. If you’re building on a chip that’s all lean power and performance, you’re basically playing wizard. Smaller gadgets, bigger magic. Seen it, haven’t you?

Nintendo, always the wildcard in the tech deck, shrugged off bulky chip designs. They picked Nvidia’s cute lil’ Tegra X1 for the original Switch. Fast forward two seconds (okay, years), they’ve sold 150 million. Crazy, huh? And now, Switch 2 is rolling up — more juice under the hood, showoff display, bulked-up Joy-Cons, another USB port, you get it.

I fiddle away on a PC, but my husband? Strictly Nintendo. A Switch has always been squat under our TV. Glitchy as it was, it whisked me off to spellbinding worlds. My brain still does somersaults recalling my first venture in Breath of the Wild, tumbling into Hyrule, sun blinding my eyes. Near transcendental, I swear.

Now, eight years in, Nintendo squeezed every drop of oomph out of the OG Switch. Creativity? It thrived within its cramped confines. But, get real, time marches on. Pokémon fans grumbled over lag. Zelda prepared for grander canvases. Fortnite? The less said, the better. Switch 2? About time!

If it mirrors its predecessor, Switch 2’s gonna flood living rooms worldwide. We grabbed one fresh, and like — plunged into its every nook and cranny.

Most bits and bobs feel polished compared to the first round. Yet, some design choices leave us scratching heads. Really, Nintendo?

It’s busted open with their own SoC — hush-hush on specs but folks at Digital Foundry cracked it, juicy details and all. Crunched down, it’s not as zippy as fresh-off-the-assembly-line phones or laptops. But hey, you can’t have it all, right?

Staggering on the memory side: a fat 12GB LPDDR5X bundle (9GB for devs). Translates to blazing fast if you’re not stepping on the power pedal too hard.

Now, the display. A 7.9-inch burst of color, crisper and eye-popping. Got me squinting less, enjoying more. They claim HDR, but more like HDR-ish. Colors still slap you in the face with vibrancy.

Here’s the kicker — 120Hz refresh rate on deck but VRR is a nope on external screens. Odd choice, Nintendo!

Touring the hardware, there are neat improvements: USB-C in convenient spots, speakers doing their thing, albeit muted. The kickstand, solid now, no longer the flimsy afterthought.

Unveiling Joy-Con 2s, the improved attachment game is strong, less fiddly. Yet, joystick drift may haunt us again. Why, Nintendo, why?

In performance, the Switch 2 dances its refined jig through games it barely used to crawl through. Take Breath of the Wild — it’s alive, sharpy detailed, all grab-you-by-the-heart immersive.

Fortnite? Well, it now embraces its PC cousin closer, even toss its hat in with the big guns, welcoming graphical fidelity with open arms.

We cranked it up to a TV, and sure, shortcomings peek through — detail drops, missed frames, yada yada. But who’s really nitpicking mid-battle chaos?

The surprising bit — it’s whisper-quiet. Doesn’t rattle your bones like a gaming PC would. That’s bonus points right there.

Mind, game downloads drag slower than a sloth. Gigabit fiber or not, it’s a wait. Hope Nintendo bumps those speeds in future.

Minor gripes remain, like storage feels chemo-unfriendly, additional space costs a pretty penny. And sure, the wish-list begs for more VRR support.

In short, despite blink-and-miss issues, the Switch 2 charms with its all-heart gaming. It’s versatile, portable, and gosh, just plain fun. Why else do we game anyway?

Until we unravel the full Switch 2 story, we’ll test, prod, and talk more.

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There you go!