Modded Nintendo Switch showcased running God of War, Genshin Impact and more natively

Have you ever wondered how Sony's 2018 reimagining of the beloved God of War series would look on Nintendo Switch? Or perhaps Rockstar Games' evergreen open-world game GTA 5? Maybe even Genshin Impact? All of these scenarios and more have been made a reality on the hybrid console thanks to the power of modding.

YouTuber Geekerwan's latest video showcases the versatile modding community for Nintendo's latest handheld. Simply put, the video centers around installing Linux OS on the platform to install and play Steam games. Here are the results.

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How do PC games like God of War and GTA 5 run on a modded Nintendo Switch?

The YouTuber showcased a few PC games on a modded Nintendo Switch console. All of these were tested at native 720p low or medium settings. The in-game gameplay results are both surprising as well as expected:

• Titanfall 2: 15-30 FPS
• Devil May Cry 5: 15 FPS
• God of War: 9-10 FPS
• GTA 5: 5-7 FPS

Two tricks were utilized to make this happen: Overclocking and Linux. As mentioned before, the modding community for the Nintendo Switch is nothing short of incredible. In short, users can swap the custom Nintendo-developed Horizon OS for any other - in this case, the PC build of Linux.

The games in question are translated through Wine. This makes the end performance all the more impressive as it is a compatibility layer that allows running Windows games on Linux. As for the hardware itself, it is the identical Nvidia Tegra X1 at the heart of the console. Except it has been overclocked.

The fan-favorite Michael in all his glory on the Nintendo handheld (Image via YouTube: Geekerwan)

These are the specs for this modded Nintendo Switch:

• CPU: up to 2.3 GHz
• GPU: up to 1267 MHz
• Memory: 2133 MHz

In comparison, here are the speeds of the base console that Nintendo has out on retail shelves:

• CPU: 1 GHz
• GPU: 768 MHz (Docked), 307-460 MHz (Handheld)
• Memory: 1600 MHz (Docked), 1331 MHz (Handheld)

The overclocked Nintendo Switch is a more powerful rendition of the vanilla hardware. However, it is still by no means a full-fledged PC, so it makes sense how these games do not perform well despite overclocking. However, this bodes well for the future, as the rumored Nintendo Switch 2 should be more than capable of handling these games on paper.

Interestingly, these clock speeds are lower than the stock Tegra X1 speeds, which is the setup for the Nvidia Shield TV home console. In other words, the Switch is an underclocked Shield TV. This is likely done to conserve battery life and regulate temperature.

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What about Android gaming?

Honkai Star Rail running on Nintendo Switch (Image via YouTube: Geekerwan)

A few native Android games were also tested by installing Google's popular OS on the console. Unexpectedly they fare much better as the Switch is an ARM-powered device too. Here's how it looks:

• Genshin Impact: 10-30 FPS
• Honkai Star Rail: 30-45 FPS

The hardware seems to be bottlenecked by the CPU with regards to Genshin Impact, which could explain why the announced port still has not manifested. Honkai Star Rail, on the other hand, is a GPU-bound game, and the console has more than enough horsepower in that regard, even at stock speeds.

Overall, it is a fascinating experiment that shows that Nintendo's latest console can punch above its weight in many areas.