Is Huang (Jensen Huang) the savior of the Switch?

After the release of the Switch 2, its built - in graphics API, NVN2, made its public debut for the first time.

Compared with the previous - generation Switch, which had problems such as overheating, lag, short battery life, and reduced image quality, the Switch 2 equipped with NVIDIA's NVN2 is obviously much more capable. It can handle various AAA - grade games with ease.

Eoin O'Grady, a co - developer of "Cyberpunk 2077", said that as long as a game can run at a full 60 frames per second on the Xbox, it can almost be easily ported to the Switch 2.

Behind NVN2 is a decade - long in - depth cooperation between Nintendo and NVIDIA - a technological alliance that was once overlooked by many.

When Nintendo Meets NVIDIA

At the beginning of June this year, just four days after the release of the Switch 2, its sales exceeded 3.5 million units, breaking Nintendo's fastest sales record in history.

But if we rewind more than a decade ago, Nintendo and NVIDIA were far from as successful as they are now.

At that time, Nintendo was affected by the dismal sales of the Wii U, the previous - generation handheld console of the Switch, and the rapid rise of mobile games. In 2013, its profit plummeted by 30%. The Wii U became the worst - selling game console in Nintendo's history, and Satoru Iwata, the then - president of Nintendo, led a group of executives to take salary cuts.

To reverse the decline, Satoru Iwata set his sights on developing new mobile game hardware, and the prototype of the Switch was born - a new product that combines a console and a handheld console.

However, the requirement of "both high performance and portability" prevented Nintendo from following the traditional home console route. The development team finally decided to use the existing system - on - a - chip (SoC). This kind of chip integrates multiple modules such as CPU, GPU, and memory. It has low power consumption and a small size, making it very suitable for mobile game devices.

On the other hand, although NVIDIA's Tegra chip, which was specially designed for the mobile end, had good performance, it had been losing ground in the mobile market.

After 2015, Tegra almost disappeared from Android phones and tablets. In the console field, AMD had already won over Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PS. NVIDIA urgently needed a foothold to "turn things around".

Thus, one company was seeking change and innovation, while the other was eager to break through.

Nintendo was exploring a new form that blurred the boundaries between handheld consoles and home consoles, while NVIDIA was eager to find a real - world scenario for the Tegra series to unleash its graphics potential.

Just like that, the two companies hit it off, and the Switch was born!

However, the specific details of the cooperation between the two companies remain a mystery to this day. According to Stephen Witt's description in "The Book of Jensen Huang", when Nintendo announced that it would choose NVIDIA as the partner for the new Switch game console, many people, including Lisa Su, were surprised.

On the one hand, Nintendo has a long - standing relationship with AMD: ATI (acquired by AMD in 2006) had provided graphics hardware support for several generations of Nintendo game consoles, including the GameCube and the Wii. On the other hand, NVIDIA had repeatedly faced setbacks in the game console field. After the failure of the Xbox deal, Jensen Huang even planned to withdraw from this field.

However, regardless of the intermediate process, NVIDIA not only provided a customized Tegra X1 chip for the Switch but also developed a dedicated graphics API - NVN to maximize the performance of Tegra in games.

This chip and NVN happened to fit Nintendo's vision of creating a device that could handle both "casual" games and "in - depth" games.

We all know how the story ended.

The Switch became an instant hit, with total sales exceeding 150 million units, making it the best - selling game console in Nintendo's history.

The sales of NVIDIA's originally "dying" Tegra processor increased by 108%, soaring to $332 million, and its "long - suffering mobile chip line" was revived.

Combining Portability and High - Quality Graphics

NVN deserves a lot of credit for enabling console - level games to run on the Switch's small body.

Due to Jensen Huang's secrecy, the outside world has never stopped speculating, hyping, and discussing this technology.

As early as when the two companies first started cooperating, there were continuous speculations about the configuration.

In 2022, leaked information indicated that the new - generation NVN for the Switch (that is, the current NVN2 on the Switch 2) was under development.

Now, as mentioned at the beginning, everything has been confirmed.

So, what exactly is NVN, which makes the game graphics on the Switch have better lighting, more details, and higher smoothness?

To put it simply, NVN is a graphics API customized for the Switch. It is used to convert rendering instructions written in game engines or programs into low - level graphics commands that the graphics card can understand.

However, different from general - purpose graphics APIs such as OpenGL or Vulkan, NVN removes unnecessary general functions, thus greatly reducing the performance overhead when calling graphics instructions.

Therefore, although the hardware performance of the Switch is not as good as that of the PS or Xbox, it can run smooth and beautiful game graphics on a device weighing about 400g thanks to the lightweight NVN graphics interface.

In addition, with the exposure of NVN2 on the Switch 2, the addition of NVIDIA's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) and Ray Tracing (RT Core) can make the game graphics more delicate and smooth.

In players' actual tests, "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom" jumped directly from 720p/30fps to 1440p/60fps, and with the support of DLSS, it could even approach native 4K image quality.

This means that the Switch 2 not only retains portability but also achieves a graphics experience close to that of a desktop console.

In the handheld console field, this is a real - sense technological breakthrough.

All for "Play Any Way You Want"

The success of the Switch is not just a victory for a piece of hardware but also an innovation in thinking.

Even before the release of the first - generation Switch, producer Kanhira Koizumi once mentioned:

Japanese players are used to playing games with friends on the go, while Western players prefer to experience games alone at home.

This device called the Switch was born for "free switching between different scenarios" - you can play it on the subway or plug it into the TV at home to enjoy AAA - grade games.

The Switch does not separate life from games but brings the act of "playing" into life itself.

When the Switch 2 was released, Jensen Huang personally showed up. In the video, he mentioned:

Technology should serve creativity, and happiness is worth fighting for.

After all, technology is just a tool.

What really touches people's hearts is the imagination and happiness it carries.

It is not perfect, but it has always been telling players: Play any way you want.

Reference Links:

[1]https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/nintendo/cyberpunk-co-developer-says-any-60-fps-xbox-series-can-be-easily-ported-to-nintendo-switch-2-despite-the-console-being-closer-to-a-ps4-in-terms-of-raw-performance

[2]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic2ez3ZoKAk&t=11s

[3]https://time.com/4661055/nintendo-switch-interview/

[4]https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/6a855j/nintendo_switch_helps_drive_nvidias_tegra/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

[5]https://www.androidauthority.com/nvidia-smartphone-market-influence-3455999/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

[6]https://www.nintendo.co.jp/corporate/release/en/2025/250611.html

[7]https://x.com/TechPowerUp/status/1498608826152624130

[8]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Switch#cite_note-time_feb2017-36

This article is from the WeChat official account "Quantum Bit", author: henry, published by 36Kr with authorization.