The Nintendo Switch Pro rumours are back, as claims of a reference hidden in Nvidia source code emerge.
Repeated claims of a fabled Nintendo Switch Pro were somewhat doused with the arrival of the Switch OLED, alongside a flat-out denial by Nintendo itself.
There’s no smoke without fire in the games industry, however, and a fresh spark looks set to reignite the Switch Pro inferno.
Twitter user @NWPlayer123 has drawn attention to an interesting portion of source code drawn from the recent Nvidia data breach. Right in the midst of the company’s DLSS code is the mention of “NVN2”.
The original Nintendo Switch console’s graphics API goes under the code name “NVN”. Is Nvidia working on the core technology of a Switch Pro follow-up?
Further digging suggests that NVN2 – whatever it is – is designed to work with Nvidia’s Ampere GPU architecture, which will support both Ray Tracing and DLSS.
The latter is Nvidia’s AI-assisted rendering technique for dramatically sharpening up low resolution graphics, essentially boosting frame rates without compromising on sharpness. Just the kind of technique you might need to employ to create a 4K TV-ready portable console, in fact.
The source also points out that there are references to T234 and T239. The former is the code for Nvidia’s Orin System-on-Chip, while the latter is purported to be a custom version of the T234 that was initially tipped for the Switch Pro last June.
If it sounds as if we’re being overly cagey with these rumours, that’s because we’ve been burned by Switch Pro/Switch 2 rumours before. But this is the most promising sign yet that Nintendo is cooking up a new hybrid console for your 4K telly.
