The Nintendo Switch gaming console is scheduled to hit the market in March, and sources with knowledge about the highly-anticipated console said that it will not surpass the hardware capabilities of the PlayStation 4, a console released three years ago.

Two sources have confirmed to GamesBeat that the Nintendo Switch console will use the last-generation Nvidia Maxwell graphics cards. Nvidia has already released earlier this year the new Pascal architecture, which is more powerful than the Maxwell and more power efficient. However, the Pascal architecture is not compatible with the Tegra chip, which is integrated into the Switch console.

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The Nintendo Switch uses a Maxwell Tegra processor, which is based on the 20nm process as opposed to the 16nm process of the Pascal. Although some tech analysts agreed that the Maxwell Tegra chips can provide the necessary horsepower to render quality graphics, it might not be on the same playing field when it comes to the graphics fidelity of some PlayStation 4 games. According to GamesRant, there is a big possibility that the Switch will not support 4K gaming on its release.

Nintendo promised that the Switch can still deliver realistic-looking graphics. The fact that the Switch is also a portable console might surprise some gamers as to how Nintendo could squeeze such graphical fidelity out of an old hardware like Maxwell. The Nintendo Switch might not be a hardware workhorse, but many analysts agreed that the console's hybrid functionality is a good enough selling point.

Graphics expert and market researcher Jon Peddie said, "If Nintendo gets traction with this, we forecast they will ship 5 million Switches by the end of 2017."

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