We study the two-dimensional Yang--Mills theory with four supercharges in the large-$N$ limit. By using thermal boundary conditions, we analyze the internal energy and the distribution of scalars. We compare their behavior to the maximally supersymmetric case with sixteen supercharges, which is known to admit a holographic interpretation. Our lattice results for the scalar distribution show no visible dependence on $N$ and the energy at strong coupling appears independent of temperature.