While the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 is expected to be a more powerful handheld gaming system than its predecessor, the Switch, was, it looks like the console can even hold its own against previous-gen consoles like PS4 and Xbox One. In an interview with IGN, CD Projekt RED’s vice president of technology Charles Tremblay spoke about the upcoming handheld’s performance capabilities when compared to the PS4 and Xbox One for the studio’s upcoming Switch 2 release of Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition.
According to Tremblay, along with the ability to use Nvidia’s DLSS, the Switch 2 is also bolstered by its RAM and storage speeds. “We really thought it was going to be more of a challenge,” he said. “But in the end, [it was] not that much.” Tremplay did say, however, that quite a few changes had to be made to the engine powering Cyberpunk 2077 to bring it to the Switch 2, since the game was originally developed with the x86 architecture we see in modern consoles and gaming PCs today.
“Cyberpunk is built for x86 with old PC architecture,” Tremblay explained. “So this from the beginning was completely different. Lots of changes had to be done at the engine level, all the shaders [are in a] different language. We had to convert everything, some HLSL to GLSL. [The Switch 2 uses] a very, very different architecture.”
However, the necessary changes were made thanks to a team that started out small, and eventually, the Switch 2 version of Cyberpunk 2077 started taking form. Tremblay also spoke about how DLSS being available on Nintendo’s upcoming console makes the Switch 2 version of the game even better than the original PS4 and Xbox One versions, along with other modern hardware conveniences like faster storage and memory.
“It was very difficult for the previous generation of consoles,” Tremblay said. “I think I will say that the most difficult problem was the mechanical hard drive, which is one of the things that’s very important not to have.”
“The Switch 2 has more RAM [than the previous generation of consoles], which is also very important,” he added.
For context, the storage on the PS4 and Xbox One was handled by hard drives with disks spinning at around 5600 RPM, essentially putting them in line with older laptops when it came to read and write speeds. Both of the consoles also only featured 8 GB of RAM. More modern consoles have much faster storage as well as memory, with super fast SSDs handling the storage of game files that can then be loaded into high-speed RAM.
Tremblay also spoke about the performance goals that the studio had set for itself for the Switch 2 release of Cyberpunk 2077, insisting that the game dropping to less than 30 frames per second would be considered bad in any scenario. “So just to be clear, if it goes under 30fps, I don’t think that’s great,” he said. “There’s no such thing as ‘Oh, this is fine to get 25 [fps in this section.’] No it’s not, it should be 30fps everywhere.”
Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition will be available on the Nintendo Switch 2 as one of its launch titles on June 5.
