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Yes. Experimental Universal Windows Platform (UWP) ports now run Nintendo Switch software natively on retail Xbox Series X consoles in Developer Mode. The best current results are genuinely strong: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Mario Strikers: Battle League and Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! are reported at a stable 60 frames per second after shader compilation.
That does not make the Series X a drop-in replacement for a Switch. Performance varies sharply by game, the projects are unfinished development builds, and demanding open-world titles remain slow or fail against Xbox’s memory budget.
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What “good” means on Xbox Series X
The breakthrough comes from experimental UWP projects that run directly on Xbox hardware rather than streaming a game from another device. The strongest current fork, eden-xbox, is a work in progress and has no published packages; users must build and sign the application themselves. A separate project, NXbox, is further from general playability and reports that no game is yet fully playable without bugs.
All reported figures come from project maintainers testing retail Xbox Series X hardware in Developer Mode. There is no independent laboratory benchmark or standardized cross-game test behind these numbers, so treat them as useful demonstrations rather than a guarantee for every setup.
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Reported game performance
| Game | eden-xbox | NXbox | Important qualification |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mario Kart 8 Deluxe | Stable 60 FPS | Not stated | eden-xbox reports no graphical errors in races after shaders are compiled. |
| Mario Strikers: Battle League | Stable 60 FPS | Not stated | 60 FPS reported in matches. |
| Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! | Stable 60 FPS | Not stated | Maintainer-reported result. |
| Super Mario Bros. Wonder | 55–60 FPS, stable | Not stated | Frame rate varies within that range. |
| The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | About 20 FPS | About 5–10 FPS | Open-world performance remains heavily limited. |
| The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom | Renders, then reaches the 5,120 MiB Xbox app-memory limit | Not stated | The reported failure is a hard UWP memory ceiling, not simply low frame rate. |
| Persona 5 Royal | Not stated | Reaches the first playable area with audio, but stutters and has serious bugs | NXbox maintainer describes the build as experimental. |
The contrast explains why “Switch emulation is good” needs a game attached to it. Well-optimized or less demanding titles can hold 60 FPS, while large worlds such as Breath of the Wild expose CPU, graphics-driver and memory bottlenecks.
eden-xbox and NXbox compared
| Area | eden-xbox | NXbox |
|---|---|---|
| Graphics path | Native Direct3D 12 renderer in a UWP rebuild of Eden | OpenGL 4.6 routed through a patched Mesa D3D12 driver |
| Code translation | Dynarmic JIT translates Switch ARM code on Xbox | |
| Best reported results | Stable 60 FPS in several games; 55–60 FPS in Super Mario Bros. Wonder | Breath of the Wild at about 5–10 FPS; Persona 5 Royal reaches an early area with major issues |
| Memory behavior | Tears of the Kingdom hits the 5,120 MiB app-memory wall | No comparable memory figure published |
| Setup maturity | Development fork; no published package; build and signing required | Experimental; maintainer says no game is 100% playable without bugs |
| Public package availability | No package published by the project | Not stated by the project material |
Why first runs can stutter
Shader and pipeline compilation
The emulator maintains shader and pipeline caches. The first launch can stutter while those assets compile; repeat runs should be smoother once the cache is populated. A 60-FPS report therefore refers to gameplay after compilation, not necessarily the opening minutes of a fresh installation.
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- Gaming Resolution: True 4K; Performance Target: Up to 120 FPS; High Dynamic Range: Up to 8K HDR; Optical Drive: 4K UHD Blu-Ray; HDMI Features: Auto Low Latency Mode, HDMI Variable Refresh Rate, AMD FreeSync.
- Bundled with HDMI_Cable
Different rendering strategies
eden-xbox’s native Direct3D 12 renderer avoids translating OpenGL calls through another layer. NXbox instead sends OpenGL 4.6 through a patched Mesa D3D12 driver. Both approaches still rely on Dynarmic’s just-in-time translation of Switch ARM instructions, so renderer overhead and emulation CPU work can affect different games in different ways.
The UWP memory ceiling
Xbox UWP applications have a fixed budget. eden-xbox maintainers report a 5,120 MiB limit, which Tears of the Kingdom reaches after rendering begins. More console performance cannot bypass that application-level ceiling.
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What you need to try it
- Use an Xbox Series X in Developer Mode. These projects are UWP development applications, not ordinary retail-store downloads.
- Open the Xbox Device Portal. The documented workflow uses the portal to install and manage the developer-built application.
- Build and sign the chosen project. eden-xbox does not publish a ready-made package, so installation requires the project’s own build process and signing step.
- Supply your own game dump. The documented file types are
.nsp,.nszand.xci. - Provide firmware and decryption keys from your own console setup. Neither project bundles games, firmware or keys.
- Allow time for shader compilation. Expect initial stutter before caches are created, then retest the same title.
An Xbox controller is mapped as a Switch Pro Controller, so no special input device is required for ordinary control. External USB storage can be useful for storing game files where the Xbox setup supports it, but storage capacity does not remove the UWP memory limit.
Legal and practical boundaries
Use only game dumps, firmware and keys you are legally entitled to possess under the law that applies to you. Do not download or share copyrighted game images or system files. A February 2026 report from Windows Central noted that emulator disputes generally focus on distributing copyrighted games or system files and on monetized access to emulators, rather than on the abstract act of emulation alone. Laws differ by jurisdiction, so check local rules before copying or transferring any data.
Rank #4
- What's in the box: Xbox Series S 512GB console, 1 Wireless Controller, High Speed HDMI cable.
- CPU: 8X Cores @ 3.6 GHz (3.4 GHz w/SMT) Custom Zen 2 CPU; GPU: 4 TFLOPS, 20 CUs @1.565 GHz Custom RDNA 2 GPU; SOC Die Size: 197.05 mm2.
- Memory: 10GB GDDR6 128 bit-wide bus; Memory Bandwidth: 8GB @ 224 GB/s, 2GB @ 56 GB/s.; Internal Storage: 512GB Custom NVME SSD
- Gaming Resolution: 1440p; Performance Target: Up to 120 FPS; HDMI Features: Auto Low Latency Mode, HDMI Variable Refresh Rate, AMD FreeSync.
The projects themselves state that they ship none of the copyrighted material needed to run a game. Developer Mode and a self-built app also mean there is no supported retail installation path or consumer-grade troubleshooting process.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteIs Series X a Switch replacement?
For experimentation, the answer is yes: Series X has enough CPU and GPU capability to deliver console-like performance in several Switch titles, including stable 60-FPS results in the games listed above. For a complete replacement, the answer is no. Breath of the Wild remains around 20 FPS in eden-xbox and 5–10 FPS in NXbox, while Tears of the Kingdom runs into the app-memory wall. Compatibility, bugs, shader behavior and setup effort remain title-specific.
Choose this route if you are comfortable with Developer Mode, building UWP software and supplying your own legally obtained files. If you want a plug-and-play library with predictable updates and support, these unfinished projects are not there yet.
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