The gaming world is holding its breath for the official reveal of the Nintendo Switch 2. Leaks, rumors, and industry whispers have painted a picture of a significant power upgrade designed to bring big-name, current-generation titles to a hybrid console. However, a new report from behind closed doors at Gamescom has sent a ripple of concern through the community, suggesting that the road to next-gen portable gaming might have a few early bumps.
According to multiple sources who attended private tech demos at the Cologne event, Gearbox's highly anticipated Borderlands 4 was shown running on the new hardware—but not without noticeable performance issues. The key takeaway from these reports is that the looter-shooter was allegedly struggling to maintain a steady 30 frames per second (FPS) during its demo.
The Gamescom Demo: A Behind-Closed-Doors Look
The tech demo, shown to developers and partners in private meetings, was not the full, open-world chaos that Borderlands is known for. Instead, it was reportedly a targeted vertical slice designed to showcase the console's capabilities with the Unreal Engine. Witnesses described a controlled environment with intense combat, showcasing the game's signature art style, particle effects, and enemy density.
Despite this controlled setting, the frame rate is said to have frequently dipped below the 30 FPS target, particularly during moments of explosive action with multiple effects on screen. This has led to questions about the raw power of the upcoming console and its ability to handle modern AAA games that are also targeting the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
A tweet from a known leaker, which you can see below, has been at the center of this discussion, corroborating the performance concerns.
Context is Key: The Art of Early Optimization
Before the alarm bells ring too loudly, it's crucial to inject a heavy dose of context. First and foremost, the hardware being demoed was almost certainly a development kit, not final consumer hardware. These kits are powerful tools for developers but are often not fully representative of the polished, optimized performance of a finished product.
Secondly, the software itself, Borderlands 4, is undoubtedly in a pre-alpha or early alpha state. Game optimization is a monumental task that happens primarily in the final 12-18 months of a game's development cycle. Early builds are notorious for being unoptimized, as developers focus on implementing features and assets before meticulously refining performance.
The reported use of NVIDIA's DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) technology is the wild card here. This AI-powered upscaling technique allows games to be rendered at a lower resolution and then intelligently upscaled to a higher one, dramatically improving performance with minimal visual loss. If the Switch 2 leverages DLSS effectively, many of these early performance hiccups could be completely ironed out by launch.
What We Think We Know About the Nintendo Switch 2's Power
While Nintendo remains famously tight-lipped, the consensus from industry leaks points to a console that won't compete with Sony and Microsoft on raw teraflops but will offer a modern, efficient architecture.
The console is expected to feature an NVIDIA Tegra T239 chip, custom-designed for the platform, with support for ray tracing and, crucially, DLSS 3.1. This suggests a device that uses smart technology to bridge the gap between its mobile form factor and the demands of modern game development. The goal isn't to run games at native 4K, but to use upscaling to deliver a sharp, stable, and visually impressive experience on both a portable screen and a TV.
For a glimpse at the kind of performance the current Switch can achieve with expertly optimized titles, many fans look to games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. You can find the acclaimed game that pushed the limits of the original hardware here: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
The Bigger Picture: Managing Expectations for a Hybrid Future
This report, while eyebrow-raising, ultimately serves as a important reality check. The Nintendo Switch 2 is a hybrid portable console. It will be a marvel of engineering, but it exists within the constraints of battery life, heat dissipation, and physical size. It will not be a PlayStation 5 you can put in your pocket.
The promise of the Switch 2 is not that it will run Borderlands 4 identically to its counterparts; it's that it will run it well enough to provide a fun, faithful, and fully featured portable experience. Stability is often more important than high frame rates for a broad Nintendo audience.
The fact that Gearbox and 2K are reportedly already working on a port is a strong vote of confidence in the platform's market viability. Third-party support was a critical component of the original Switch's success, and Nintendo is clearly working hard to ensure that continues with its successor.
Conclusion: A Cautious Wait-and-See Approach
The news of Borderlands 4's performance struggles on Switch 2 dev kits is noteworthy, but it is far from a death knell. It is a single data point from a very early, unoptimized build of a game, running on pre-release hardware.
It does, however, highlight the immense challenge Nintendo and its partners face. The success of the Switch 2 hinges on a delicate balance of power, efficiency, and technological magic like DLSS. As we move closer to an official announcement—widely expected in Q1 of 2025—all eyes will be on how Nintendo plans to showcase this balance and reassure both developers and players that the next generation of hybrid gaming will be a smooth one. For now, cautious optimism, tempered with realistic expectations about the nature of portable hardware, is the best approach.
Heard from multiple sources that the Switch 2 tech demo for Borderlands was struggling to hold 30. Not a great look, but it’s early. Optimism is that DLSS will carry it, but raw power might be a question mark. pic.twitter.com/2A4d6VpK4C
— Nash (@EpicNNG) October 10, 2024
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