Quick rundown
Digital Foundry’s deep-dive into Skyrim running on the Switch 2 is…awkward. The game looks noticeably better than the original Switch release, but under the hood a few big problems make the whole package feel half-baked.
Input lag: the real villain
Here’s the gut-punch: input lag is enormous on the Switch 2. Digital Foundry measured it at around 293.8ms — compared to about 204.5ms on the original Switch and 118.3ms on a PS5. That sort of delay can make the game feel mushy and unresponsive, and DF even suggests it’s worse than many cloud-streaming setups. Ouch.
Don’t blame the gestures (they don’t fix it)
Bethesda suggested turning off gesture or motion controls might help, but DF’s tests were run without those enabled and the lag remained. So flipping off the fancy inputs doesn’t seem to be the magic bullet right now.
30fps: stable, but not impressive
The Switch 2 version locks to about 30 frames per second. To be fair, the frame pacing is generally steady — it doesn’t stutter like a busted cassette player — but 30fps is the bare minimum for a modern console port, especially for an older game that’s run better elsewhere.
Pretty… but quirky visuals
Graphically the Switch 2 build has stepped up from the original handheld, but it comes with weird little gremlins. Water reflections can misbehave when you tilt the camera, and some areas — like Riften — show an odd bluish tint to foliage. It’s more annoying than catastrophic, but it’s noticeable.
Will Bethesda fix it?
The studio has already said they’re investigating, so a patch is likely on the way. Players can probably expect tweaks to input handling and other under-the-hood fixes. Still, we’d really like to see the team try to push performance beyond the current 30fps baseline if possible.
Final thoughts
On paper the Switch 2 port looks like progress compared to the old Switch release, but the massive input lag and a handful of visual hiccups make this a launch that needs attention. If Bethesda irons out the responsiveness and polishes those odd visual bugs, this could become a nice on-the-go Skyrim — until then, treat it like a talented but slightly clumsy bard: charming, but frustrating.
