Skip to Content

How to Use an iPad as a Nintendo Switch 2 Display

When you're away from home and want to play your Nintendo Switch 2 on a larger display, you can do so if you have a USB-C iPad. All you need is an app and a couple of accessories to get everything connected, as MacRumors videographer Dan Barbera demonstrates.


To use this setup, you need a USB-C ‌iPad‌ that's able to run the latest version of iOS, and a Nintendo Switch. We're demonstrating with Nintendo's new Switch 2, but it also works with the original Switch, plus other Playstation and Xbox consoles.

Along with the ‌iPad‌ and the Switch 2, you need to pick up an HDMI cable and a video capture card dongle, which is easy to get on Amazon for around $20. Along with the hardware, you need to get an app that captures the video feed from your Switch and sends it to your ‌iPad‌.

We tested Orion, which is free to use, but has a one-time $5 upgrade for extra features like 4K upscaling.

When you have all the components and the software, plug in the Switch 2 dock, then plug the HDMI cable into the dock. The other end of the HDMI cable connects to the video capture card, and the capture card's USB-C cable plugs into the ‌iPad‌. From there, put the Switch 2 in the dock and power everything on.

You should see your Switch 2's display come up on the ‌iPad‌, and you're ready to play. There is a little bit of input lag, but it's minimal. You may not want to play online shooters, but offline games should be fine.

Popular Stories

MacBook Neo Feature Pastel 1

First MacBook Neo Benchmarks Are In: Here's How It Compares to the M1 MacBook Air

Thursday March 5, 2026 4:07 pm PST by
Benchmarks for the new MacBook Neo surfaced today, and unsurprisingly, CPU performance is almost identical to the iPhone 16 Pro. The MacBook Neo uses the same 6-core A18 Pro chip that was first introduced in the iPhone 16 Pro, but it has one fewer GPU core. The MacBook Neo earned a single-core score of 3461 and a multi-core score of 8668, along with a Metal score of 31286. Here's how the...
imac video apple feature

Apple Unveils Seven New Products

Friday March 6, 2026 11:48 am PST by
Apple this week unveiled seven products, including an iPhone 17e, an iPad Air with the M4 chip, updated MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models, a new Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, and an all-new MacBook Neo that starts at just $599. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as the iPhone 16e, but it gains Apple's A19 chip, MagSafe for magnetic wireless charging and magnetic...
Apple MacBook Pro M4 hero

Apple Planning 'MacBook Ultra' With Touchscreen and Higher Price

Sunday March 8, 2026 8:05 am PDT by
Apple is planning to launch an all-new "MacBook Ultra" model this year, featuring an OLED display, touchscreen, and a higher price point, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. Gurman revealed the information in his latest "Power On" newsletter. While Apple has been widely expected to launch new M6-series MacBook Pro models with OLED displays, touchscreen functionality, and a new, thinner design...

Top Rated Comments

9 months ago
I would imagine playing through a capture card would introduce a ton of lag.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dontwalkhand Avatar
9 months ago
Isn't the entire point of a Nintendo Switch, is that you can undock it and it has a screen built in, so you shouldn't need an external screen like an iPad? :p
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Arislan Avatar
9 months ago
Why? This needs the Switch 2 dock which completely defeats the purpose of it being easy to travel with. The screen on the Switch 2 is giant compared to the original so you really don't gain much going to an iPad screen. If the Switch 2 could output over USB-C without the dock and the iPad could digest it natively without a dongle, then this wouldn't be a bad idea. This is just a mess of cables that no one needs.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
9 months ago
If I'm on the road and I have a dock and hdmi cable with me... why wouldn't I just plug into an actual TV and / or portable / external laptop monitor?!?
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
9 months ago
All capture stuff introduces horrible and unacceptable amounts of lag. None of them work for any games that aren't just interactive slideshows. The dream of using existing iPads/iMacs/iAnything as a gaming display is no. Nope. Noway.

Get an ASUS or ViewSonic or Lenovo or LG or whatever portable display (1080p or hard-to-find 1440p) or a desktop 1440p display with 120 Hz or faster refresh (120/240/360/480). Watch out for non-standard resolution displays because some of them (like the ASUS portable 2560x1600) will not properly handle 1440p and will instead stretch the content to fit the display and butcher the aspect ratio and provide no settings to deal with this. Make sure whatever it is has HDMI input, some portable displays are USB-C only.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SanderEvers Avatar
9 months ago
So a capture card for an iPad... That is going to add at least half a second of input lag, and well... the Switch 2 already has a screen. It's like connecint an iPhone to an iPad.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)