Sean Murray is a bit of a wizard. Honestly, there is no other way to explain how No Man's Sky actually runs on the current Nintendo Switch hardware. When the port first dropped in 2022, most of us expected a blurry, stuttering mess that would probably set the console on fire. Instead, we got a functional, albeit visually compromised, version of an infinite universe. But as we look toward the future, the conversation has shifted entirely toward the No Man's Sky Switch 2 experience and what happens when Hello Games finally gets some real horsepower to play with.
The current Switch is old. It’s ancient in tech years. We are talking about a Tegra X1 chip that was already showing its age back in 2017. Playing No Man's Sky on it today involves a lot of "smoke and mirrors"—aggressive dynamic resolution, simplified lighting, and the total removal of settlements. It works. It’s impressive. But it’s not the "full" vision.
The Technical Leap We Are Actually Looking At
What makes the prospect of No Man's Sky Switch 2 so tantalizing isn't just a bump in pixels. It’s the architectural shift. Rumors and leaked shipping manifests for the "Switch 2" point toward a T239 chip based on NVIDIA’s Ampere architecture. In plain English? We are moving from a world without DLSS to a world where AI-powered upscaling is the standard.
For a game like No Man's Sky, DLSS is a literal game-changer. Right now, the Switch version struggles with "shimmering" on planetary horizons. It’s distracting. With the hardware in the next console, the game can internalize a lower resolution to save battery and then use AI to output a crisp 1080p or even 4K image when docked.
Imagine flying from a space station down to a lush, overgrown planet. On the current Switch, you see the "pop-in" happening in real-time. Trees materialize out of thin air twenty feet in front of your ship. It’s jarring. The increased memory bandwidth on the new hardware means those assets can stream in much faster.
The RAM is the real bottleneck right now. The original Switch has 4GB of LPDDR4 memory. That is nothing. Most modern smartphones have more. Reports suggest the Switch 2 will jump to 12GB or even 16GB of RAM. This allows Hello Games to finally bring back the features they had to cut.
Settlements and the Missing Features
If you play No Man's Sky on PC or PS5, you know about Settlements. You become a supervisor, build a town, manage NPCs, and defend against Sentinel attacks. It’s a huge part of the mid-game loop. On the Switch? It’s gone. Totally absent.
Hello Games had to make a choice: do we keep the settlements and have the game run at 5 frames per second, or do we cut them to keep the exploration smooth? They chose the latter.
With No Man's Sky Switch 2, there is no longer a reason to keep the game in this "Lite" state. The CPU overhead required to track NPC paths and settlement building logic is easily handled by the rumored ARM Cortex-A78C cores expected in the new machine. We aren't just getting better graphics; we are getting the full game. Finally.
The "Worlds Part 1" Effect
Recently, Hello Games released the "Worlds Part 1" update. It completely overhauled water physics, added volumetric clouds, and introduced new weather effects like wind-blown trees and reactive waves.
Watching this run on a standard Switch is a miracle of optimization, but it's clearly hitting a ceiling. The water looks okay, but it lacks the true screen-space reflections and transparency seen on higher-end builds. On the Switch 2, these "Worlds" updates will actually breathe.
🔗 Read more: Why Need for Speed: The Run Is Still the Most Polarizing Entry in the Series
Think about the wind. In the updated engine, wind affects the way grass moves and how rain falls. On the current Switch, these calculations are stripped back. On the successor, we will likely see parity with the Xbox Series S version of the game. That’s a massive jump for a handheld.
Will It Be a New Game or an Update?
This is the big question. Nintendo fans are used to buying the same game twice—look at the Wii U to Switch era. However, Hello Games has a legendary track record of free updates. Since 2016, they haven't charged for a single expansion.
It is highly probable that No Man's Sky will receive a "Switch 2 Enhancement Patch." This would allow existing owners to carry their saves over and instantly see the benefits. Considering the game already supports cross-save through the Hello Games servers, moving your 200-hour journey from the old Switch to the new one should be relatively painless.
Dealing With the "Heat" Problem
One thing people forget is how hot the Switch gets when running procedurally generated universes. No Man's Sky is a CPU-heavy game. It’s constantly calculating math to determine where a rock should be or what color a creature's scales are.
The new hardware needs to handle this without throttling. The shift to a smaller nanometer process for the chip (likely 5nm or 4nm) means more efficiency. Less heat. More battery life. No more fans sounding like a jet engine taking off while you’re just trying to mine some Copper.
What Most People Get Wrong About Procedural Generation
There’s a common misconception that "procedural" means "random" and therefore doesn't need power. That's wrong. The more powerful the hardware, the more complex the "rules" of the procedure can be.
On a more powerful Switch 2, the game can calculate more complex terrain. We could see taller mountains, deeper oceans, and denser forests than the current Switch can handle. It’s about the density of the simulation.
Actionable Steps for Current Players
If you are currently playing No Man's Sky on Switch and are planning to upgrade to the next console, there are a few things you should do right now to prepare.
- Enable Cross-Save. Make sure your account is linked to the Hello Games cloud service. This ensures that even if the physical "Switch 2" transition is rocky, your save data is backed up outside of the Nintendo Switch Online cloud.
- Hold off on massive base builds. If you’re hitting the build limit on the current Switch, don't delete your hard work. The next-gen hardware will likely raise those limits, allowing you to expand bases that currently cause lag.
- Don't buy the game twice. Wait for the official announcement regarding the "Enhanced" version. Given the history of the PS5 and Xbox Series X upgrades, it is almost certain to be a free patch for existing owners.
- Clean your current console. If you’re staying on the OG Switch for a while, make sure your vents are clear. The "Worlds" update pushes the hardware to its absolute limit, and thermal throttling will kill your frame rate.
The jump to the next generation of Nintendo hardware represents the moment No Man's Sky on a handheld stops being a "compromise" and starts being the definitive way to play. We are looking at a future where you can have the entire universe in your pocket, with zero asterisks attached.