Digital Foundry: hands-on with Cyberpunk 2077 on Switch 2 – can the new Nintendo console handle it?

Cyberpunk 2077 is a once-in-a-generation kind of game – perhaps the Crysis of its day, the ultimate benchmark title. Yes, you can play it on PS4 or Xbox One with varying levels of effectiveness, but it scales up to challenge even the most powerful PC hardware of the era, up to and including the mighty RTX 5090 – which makes its debut on Switch 2 absolutely fascinating. We’ve known it was coming for some time and it was great to see it feature (albeit somewhat briefly) in Nintendo’s Switch 2 Direct, but now we’ve been hands-on. It’s early days for the port, the version we played is already seven weeks old, but the experience is absolutely fascinating.

And yes, we should clarify that reports that the version on display in Nintendo’s event is the result of seven weeks’ work is a misunderstanding. The game has been in the works for far longer than that. However, the code we saw is indeed a snapshot of the game as it looked almost two months ago – with the game set to release in parallel with Switch 2 itself in seven weeks’ time. The other major topic of debate – whether the game is using Nvidia DLSS – also remains unknown. On site at the Nintendo showcase, a CD Projekt RED representative could neither confirm nor deny.

What I found interesting about the reports from the New York and Paris events (which Digital Foundry did not attend) is how variable reports on Cyberpunk 2077 were. Some say it’s impressive, others were not so kind. The truth is that the mixed response is based entirely on a mixed experience based on the build as it stands. There are times where it is truly impressive, but equally, it’s clear that a good degree of optimisation is required to get a consistent experience – and it may well be that for a launch title at least, Cyberpunk 2077 may simply be ‘too big’ for Switch 2.

0:00:00 Introduction0:01:11 News 1: Cyberpunk 2077 tested on Switch 2!0:16:54 News 2: Metal Eden PC demo has issues0:31:04 News 3: Asus teases Xbox PC handheld0:37:59 News 4: RTX 5060 Ti prices allegedly leak0:51:46 News 5: Microsoft launches Muse AI Quake 2 experience1:04:53 News 6: Switch 2 portable mode simulated!1:20:42 Supporter Q1: What will future Nvidia and AMD handhelds look like?1:27:37 Supporter Q2: What will PhysX development look like after being made open source?1:32:00 Supporter Q3: Why doesn’t Switch 2 support 4K120?1:36:16 Supporter Q4: Should Nintendo unlock higher Switch 1 clocks?1:40:43 Supporter Q5: Will Switch 2 run Switch 1 games in their docked configurations in portable mode?

I had access to the build running on both mobile and docked configurations and played with both performance and quality modes. The quality mode targets 1080p resolution, capped at 30fps, while the performance mode apparently targets 1080p at 40fps while docked, while the mobile performance mode attempts 720p at 40fps. What is beyond a shadow of doubt is that we are not talking about native resolution in any case: dynamic resolution is in play. Based on the asset released with Nintendo Direct, a minimum 540p looks likely for mobile play, while docked to operate from around 720p to 1080p. Those are highly provisional figures based on the very, very limited footage that has been shared. On-site pixel counting at an event isn’t possible.