Will Switch 2 Games Actually Have Ray Tracing?

The Nintendo Switch 2 supports ray tracing, but whether it can actually play games with ray tracing depends on a few factors listed here.

Picture of Nintendo Switch 2 with detachable Joy Cons — Nintendo Switch 2 with detachable Joy Cons (Image via Nintendo)

The Nintendo Switch 2 was fully revealed at the Nintendo Direct event on April 2, 2025. While Nintendo shared a lot of details about the new handheld console and its games, the company failed to share some crucial information about the SoC and whether it supports rendering technologies like ray tracing. Some people wondered whether Switch 2 can even play ray-tracing games.

In this article, we will analyze the official Switch 2 hardware details and any other information to answer whether the Switch 2 games will actually have ray tracing.

Note: Some aspects of this article are subjective and reflect the writer’s opinion.

Does the Nintendo Switch 2 Support Ray Tracing?

Picture of Nintendo Switch 2 connected to a wall adapter — Nintendo Switch 2 connected to a wall adapter (Image via Nintendo)

The SoC powering the Nintendo Switch 2 is an Nvidia chip, so it surely supports ray tracing. In fact, Nvidia posted a huge blog post a day after the Nintendo Direct event, confirming the presence of both ray tracing and DLSS in the chipset.

Why Nintendo chose not to talk about ray tracing at the event, even though it’s supported, is certainly bizarre. Perhaps game developers were not ready to showcase ray tracing features in their titles, which is certainly a possibility. However, what we do know for certain is that Switch 2 does support ray tracing, but how or when it will be implemented is yet to be officially revealed by Nintendo.

Can Switch 2 Games Realistically Have Ray Tracing?

Picture of Nintendo Switch 2 connected to a TV — Nintendo Switch 2 connected to a TV (Image via Nintendo)

Before we start, let’s try to briefly understand what it is and how it works. Ray tracing (RT) is a rendering technique that can create highly realistic graphics based on real lighting physics, which is why it is so heavy on the GPU.

The Switch 2’s processor is tiny compared to a console processor or a full-fledged PC GPU, so its ray-tracing capabilities are expected to be limited. Therefore, there’s no way it can run multiple RT effects like RT Reflections, RT Shadows, RTGI, RTAO, and more simultaneously. However, the Switch 2 SoC should be able to handle at least one RT effect. Therefore, we believe the Nintendo Switch 2 can run games decently well with ray tracing turned on, so long as only one RT effect is enabled at a time.

Also, Nintendo announced that Cyberpunk 2077 and Star Wars Outlaws will launch on Switch 2. Both games support ray tracing, but whether they will have ray tracing effects on Switch 2 is yet to be officially announced. Cyberpunk supports both rasterized and ray-tracing-based rendering systems, so CD Projekt Red may opt not to add ray tracing in the Switch 2 version.

However, Star Wars Outlaws has some form of ray-traced GI running all the time, even with the low graphics settings. Therefore, it will be interesting to see how Ubisoft handles this. Nonetheless, we will learn more as we move closer to the handheld console’s launch or its games.

We provide the latest news and “How To’s” for Tech content. Meanwhile, you can check out the following articles related to PC GPUs, CPU and GPU comparisons, mobile phones, and more: