Switch 2 Emulator Runs Mario Kart World at 60FPS With DLSS 5

A Switch 2 emulator fork called Eglantine has reportedly run Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza at 60fps on PC with DLSS 5, and the hardware isn't even top-tier.

Well, this didn't take long. A Switch 2 emulator has reportedly gotten two of the console's biggest exclusives running at 60fps on PC — and it's layering NVIDIA's DLSS 5 on top for good measure.

According to TweakTown (via YouTube creator ChillyWillMD), a fork of the Switch 2 emulator Eglantine is behind the demo, getting Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza up and running at a smooth 60 frames per second on PC with DLSS 5 rendering stacked on top. The report notes frame rates do wobble here and there, but the visuals come out looking close to a CG movie.

If you've been following emulation for a while, this pattern will feel familiar. Just like the early days of the original Switch emulator scene, modders, programmers, and people leaning on AI tools are spinning up their own branches of Eglantine tailored to different games, hardware, and setups. This demo is just the latest iteration in that wave.

Here's the part that should raise some eyebrows: the test rig wasn't some absurd flagship build. The report lists a GeForce RTX 5060 Ti with 8GB of VRAM, an Intel Core i9-13900K, and 64GB of DDR4 memory. During gameplay, the performance overlay reportedly showed low GPU usage and power draw for both titles. TweakTown's takeaway is that as emulators keep evolving, you may not need a monster PC to hit a steady 60fps.

On the visual side, the report says DLSS 5's photorealistic lighting pass adds shadow and contact shadow detail to scenes and characters. It's not flawless, but the overall look is noticeably different from the vanilla presentation.

Of course, there's the elephant in the room: Nintendo. The company has a well-earned reputation for being litigious about emulation, and projects, game backups, and even videos could get taken down down the line. The report also argues that Switch 2 emulation progress is basically impossible to put back in the bottle at this point — and this is only the beginning. As for whether Nintendo has taken any action over this particular demo, there's no public information yet.

So what do you think — is this a sign that Switch 2 emulation is going to snowball fast, or is Nintendo's legal team about to remind everyone who's boss? Drop your take in the comments.