An indie developer with extensive experience creating games for the original Nintendo Switch has offered compelling insight into why the brief glimpse of Mario Kart 9 in the Switch 2 reveal suggests a significant power upgrade. Last week's reveal generated considerable excitement, but Nintendo remains tight-lipped about the Switch 2's technical capabilities beyond visual upgrades like new Joy-Cons, a redesigned kickstand, and a larger form factor.
However, the Mario Kart 9 footage may hold clues. In a recent YouTube video (via GamesRadar), Jerrel Dulay of Sungrand Studios, a developer credited with working on late-generation Wii U and 3DS titles, shared his expert opinion. Dulay believes the Switch 2 will be considerably more powerful than its predecessor.
Mario Kart 9 - A Closer Look
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Dulay highlights the use of "physically-based shaders" on the karts and environments. These shaders, affected by lighting and reflections, were resource-intensive on the original Switch, often impacting frame rates. The Mario Kart 9 footage, however, showcases extensive use of these shaders, along with detailed material reflections.
Digital Foundry's late 2023 report (linked here) on the Switch 2's alleged Nvidia T239 ARM mobile chip, corroborated by motherboard leaks suggesting an 8nm chip, provides further context. The T239's projected 1536 CUDA cores, while fewer than the desktop RTX 3050, represent a significant leap from the original Switch's Tegra X1 chip with only 256 CUDA cores – a 500% increase.
Dulay emphasizes the high-resolution ground textures, noting their significant memory requirements. The original Switch's 4GB of RAM is dwarfed by the rumored 12GB in the Switch 2 (indicated by leaked SK Hynix LPDDR5 modules). The potential for significantly faster RAM speeds (up to 7500MHz compared to the original's 1600MHz) further enhances performance, accelerating texture loading and overall game responsiveness. This allows for not only higher resolution textures, but also a greater number of unique textures.
The Mario Kart 9 trailer also demonstrates "true volumetric lighting," a computationally expensive effect. Dulay points out the realistic rendering of light rays and density, and the detailed far-distance shadows, both significant challenges on the original Switch. The combination of increased CUDA cores, RAM capacity, and speed significantly mitigates these limitations.
Finally, Dulay cites the high polygon count characters, numerous on-screen textures, and real-time cloth physics as further evidence of the Switch 2's substantial power increase compared to its predecessor.
In conclusion, while awaiting further details in April's Nintendo Direct, Dulay's analysis provides a compelling technical perspective on the Switch 2's potential graphical capabilities. His insights highlight the significant leap in power suggested by the Mario Kart 9 trailer. [ttpp]
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