The 8.0.0 update for the Nintendo Switch went live on April 15th, and included several heavily requested features, such as sorting installed software and transferring save data between devices. One thing that wasn’t on the changelog, though, is that Nintendo actually sneaked in a bit of a surprise. The update also had a boost mode that overclocks the system’s CPU during loading times.
Several homebrew enthusiasts at GBATemp noted the feature, with them testing games to show that it works and definitely speeds up the console, cutting down the loading times in some games significantly. You can see a video provided below, comparing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild before and after enabling boost mode to see the difference. The boost mode reportedly juices Switch’s CPU speed from 1GHz to 1.75GHz.
It’s unclear at this time why Nintendo chose to not acknowledge this in the changelog. Perhaps it’ll be part of a bigger reveal down the road. There’s many rumors and reports of Switch revisions coming soon, so it’s entirely possible this is related to that in some way. Either way, those with an up-to-date Switch are getting a boost.