Rise of the Tomb Raider on Switch 2 couldn't hit 60fps without serious visual cuts, says Aspyr

Rise of the Tomb Raider launched on Switch 2 as a well-received port, but one thing it doesn't do is run at 60fps — and developer Aspyr says that was a deliberate call, not an oversight.

Speaking with Nintendo Everything, production manager Anna Grant and senior game producer Kay Gilmore explained that hitting 60fps would have required "serious compromises." The culprit is the game's heavy GPU demand — Rise of the Tomb Raider simply pushes the hardware harder than its predecessor, leaving little headroom to double the frame rate without cutting something meaningful elsewhere.

Aspyr did explore the option. Fan feedback from the earlier Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition port pushed the team to investigate 60fps for this release, but the numbers didn't work out in their favor. The game currently runs at 30fps on Switch 2, which Nintendo Life scored an 8/10, calling it a strong example of the platform delivering full home-console gaming in handheld form.

For players hoping a future patch might unlock a 60fps mode, Aspyr's comments suggest that's unlikely without a meaningful hit to visual quality. Whether the studio revisits that trade-off is an open question, but for now the port ships as a 30fps experience.