How the Switch 2 fixes bad Switch 1 frame rates, even without patches

As pioneering as the Nintendo Switch was in 2017, its hybrid design enabling a much fuller console experience than most handhelds had managed in the past, and laying the foundations for handheld PCs that have flourished in the last few years, the simple fact of is that its adapted mobile chipset was barely powerful enough for most modern games. This gave rise to a slew of “impossible” ports to the console, from Doom to The Witcher 3, while even Switch exclusives could end up seriously compromised.

But now here’s the Switch 2, and just as we’ve seen with Sony and Microsoft’s consoles since 2016, there’s so much potential for the Switch 1’s back catalogue to run better on the new hardware. This comes in a number of forms, with the paid Switch 2 Editions, with free patches, and then just running basic Switch 1 game code on a more powerful system.

It’s this final category that I find particularly interesting and the focus for today. Despite both systems having ARM CPU cores and an Nvidia GPU, there’s enough difference in the hardware such that the Switch 2 doesn’t run Switch 1 games natively. It’s not emulation either, but is instead running Switch 1 games through a translation layer that remaps CPU and GPU calls to the new architecture. It’s the same methodology that allows Windows games to run in Linux via Proton on the Steam Deck. Just as there, Nintendo had to test thousands upon thousands of games to find any compatibility errors, then trying to fix those, either with patches or under-the-hood improvements for the Switch 2’s translation layer.

However it’s come to pass, the improvements can straighten out some really wonky games. The focus of our comparisons is on the docked modes of these games – something that’s more viable to capture and compare, so let’s start with a real problem child on the Switch 1.

We’ve loaded up the demo for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, a game that had some pretty obvious problems on Switch 1, barely holding onto 30fps and often going down to the low 20s – and that’s before considering split-screen. On Switch 2? Well, it’s a practical 30fps lock, which just makes the game feel so much better and consistent, allowing the Breath of the Wild art style to really shine.

We’ll jump on over, now, to the Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes demo, which came a couple years later and shows improved optimisation and balance on the Switch 1. In fact, this game came with an unlocked frame rate that very rarely dipped below 30fps. Though… since it’s in the mid-30s most of the time, it really should have had a 30fps cap at the time.

But in 2025, we’re glad they chose not to, because this makes it a fantastic showcase for the Switch 2’s inherent power bump. Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is a near perfect 60fps on Switch 2!

A similar example is Dragon Quest Builders 2. This game could be really, really punishing on original Switch, especially with more complex custom creations shared online from more powerful platforms. Performance was generally acceptable through the campaign though, the open world gameplay being north of 30fps, but maybe in the low 20s for busy towns, flying around and when lots of NPCs are on screen.

Thankfully, this also comes with an unlocked frame rate, and performance is not far off a straight doubling for Switch 2. In sparse scenes you can get 60fps, though those busier areas and if you’re flying rapidly across the world do pull the Switch 2 down to the mid-low 50s.

Those have all been 30fps target games, but what about an unsteady 60?

Bayonetta 2 was already pretty solid on Switch 1, as a port across from the Wii U. There can be minor dips within the arena combat, and let’s just say that with rare exceptions, Switch 2 evens those minor kinks out quite nicely. It wasn’t quite as smooth in handheld though, and some areas could exhibit noticeable frame rate drops, which have seemingly been ironed out by Switch 2’s increased handheld power as well.

Bayonetta 3 was much more ambitious with the Switch 1 as its base platform and, surprise, surprise, it’s nowhere near to PlatinumGames’ usual 60fps target a lot of the time. We’re taking regularly dropping to the low 50s, high 40s, and the most sensational action going all the way down to the 30s – cutscenes were once again rendered at 30fps.

But guess what? Switch 2 brings 60fps through and through, outside of those most cinematic moments where PlatinumGames input a 30fps frame cap.

Another problem child from the first party line up was Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The worst of the issues in this game emerged when playing handheld where the chip stepped down to lower power modes, the dynamic resolution and upscaling getting seriously blurry, but there are also issues when docked, such as some severe pop-in when loading to a new area and performance that could degrade to below 30fps. Thankfully later games and ports made different technical choices to get better image quality and performance, but Xenoblade 2 has been stuck like this on Switch 1.

Playing on Switch 2 comes with a big improvement thanks to an improved frame rate, a better base resolution that’s noticeable both in handheld and docked, and faster loading of assets.

But the Switch 2 can’t fix or improve everything. If a game was already pretty well attuned to a 30fps cap, then the only improvements can come from better dynamic resolution scaling.

Wolfenstein 2, for example, is a game that’s designed to target 60fps on PS4 and Xbox One, but was limited to 30fps on Switch and, as Panic Button’s second effort with idtech after Doom, it did a pretty good job of sticking to it. This was achieved by much more than just reducing resolution, the texture detail also being significantly reduced, combining to give gives the game a lot of almost putty-like blurriness. Add in hefty motion blur, which is much more of a smear when at 30fps than 60fps, and it makes playing this game feel compromised, regardless of Switch 1 or 2.

The Switch 2 does boost the dynamic resolutions to help quite significantly with blurriness, but the loss of top end detail and being limited to 30fps just doesn’t feel as good as you’d want from this series.

It’s a shade ironic that the most tuned and optimised game for Switch can’t benefit as much from this kind of improvement on Switch 2, while those less optimised titles come good.

In general, this straight backward compatibility offers a fantastic showcase of how the Switch 2 can apply its raw power to last generation games and deliver some tangible improvements. A game with an uneven frame rate can be smoothed out, something with a low dynamic resolution can be improved, and a lot of the most troubled games on Switch 1 will give a better experience on Switch 2.

However, all of the games here would benefit from a Switch 2 patch or a paid Switch 2 Edition release. It would be fantastic to get Age of Calamity running at 60fps, to have Bayonetta 2 and 3 at 1080p in handheld, and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and the rest of the series to remastered for higher resolutions. I know a lot of PlatinumGames fans are also pining for an Astral Chain patch to lift the 30fps lock, to unchain one of the studio’s Switch highlights.

We have seen these kinds of patches in other games, and the results there can be pretty fantastic as well, but that’s for another article…