Nintendo Wiiu

[Moo]

Based on everything we saw at E3, Nintendo's new Wii U console didn't look any more powerful than an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. Now, though, some developers are apparently saying that's not the case!

Speaking with IndustryGamers earlier today, Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia said "Some of the developers we spoke to indicated to us that the console will have 50% more processing power compared to the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360. This is yet to be confirmed by Nintendo."

Now, this isn't an analyst guessing, or making a prediction like they normally do. This is an analyst directly passing on information they say they've heard from people working on the console.

Such a vague term could mean anything, of course, especially without more technical information in support of it, but for those hoping games could look a little better than what was shown at E3, it's cause for optimism.

http://m.kotaku.com/5811681/the-wii-...han-we-thought

Let's see they quote no developers and it's coming from an analyst. Yeah take that with a grain of salt. The only developer that actually tried to answer the question on an interview is ubisoft(they were the only ones with a real game also) and even then they dodged the question and gave some bs answer.

http://kotaku.com/5811470/ubisoft-st...l-the-wii-u-is

[Moo]

Wii U has last-gen Radeon inside, still more powerful than PS3 and Xbox 360

Slowly, but surely, we're starting to piece together what's going on inside that mysterious white box known as the Wii U. IBM was a little coy about the multi-core CPU it was providing, but did tantalize us by mentioning the name "Watson" in describing some of its underlying tech. Now details about the custom Radeon GPU are starting to surface and, while certainly capable, it's not exactly cutting edge. At its heart is a chip similar to the R770 found in AMD's last-gen cards like the 4890 and, before you dismiss the it, remember the PS3 and Xbox 360 are still capable of pumping out impressive visuals while packing five-year-old silicon (The 360 is essentially running a souped up ATI X1900). The custom core also supports Direct X 10.1 (Microsoft runs out of steam with Direct X 9) and Eyefinity-like multi-display tech for up to four SD video streams -- though it'll be up to Nintendo and developers to put that to good use. In case you're still not convinced of the Wii U's graphical prowess, Crytek has said its advanced CryEngine is "pretty much" up and running on Nintendo's upcoming console -- and, if it's good enough for Crysis, it should be good enough for you.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/14/w...ul-than-ps3-a/

[Vardant]

It's obviously more powerful on the GPU side, CPU who knows, but that won't matter that much, because it will be limited by this generation of consoles. Maybe even more, than the PC versions of the multi-platform games.

I suspect, that Wii U will use higher resolution and will be capable of delivering higher fps, but not much beyond that. Still, with a good price, it might offer the best experience among the consoles.

[Zelda_fan]

Originally Posted by |MaguS|

Let's see they quote no developers and it's coming from an analyst. Yeah take that with a grain of salt. The only developer that actually tried to answer the question on an interview is ubisoft(they were the only ones with a real game also) and even then they dodged the question and gave some bs answer.

http://kotaku.com/5811470/ubisoft-st...l-the-wii-u-is

Considering how cheaply a GPU can be made that's 2x the power of the PS3, it wouldn't surprise me at all if that's that case.

The Zelda HD demo looked terrific. As good as anything that's on the market right now.

[HiCZoK4]

yeah right. 3ds also was suppose to have good graphics and eerything is jagged and pixelated psp level.

I guess we will have to wait couple of years

The console hasn't even released yet and its already using 3 year old tech... so by the time it releases its gpu will be 4 years old. They better not be thinking about charging a lot of the system, can only see the CPU and new drive being the most costly thing about the unit.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=21901

TIME’s "TechLand" blog claims that the console, set to launch in 2012, will pack a R700 series variant from Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD), built on a 32 nm process with 1 GB of video memory. R700 GPUs are found in AMD's two-generations-old Radeon 4000 Series -- the R700 architecture launched in 2008.

While the GPU may seem a bit underpowered by modern PC gaming standards, consider that the PlayStation 3 from Sony Corp. (TYO:6758) uses a modified version of the NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA) chip found inside the GeForce 7800 (2006-era) and the Xbox 360 from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) uses a "Xenos" AMD GPU -- which falls somewhere between a R520 (2005 era) and a R600 GPU (2006 era GPU). In other words, by console standards, the Wii U's reported GPU is quite advanced, with its architecture surpassing those found in the PS3 or Xbox 360.

So ithe PS3 and X360 launched with GPUs based off current or less then a year old technology. So while the Wii U is more powerful because its newer it's pretty pathetic that they could use more current technology.

Oh and about the disc format, they wont say what it is other then its not Blu-Ray and holds 25B of data.

In an interview with Kotaku, Nintendo designer Katsuya Eguchi confirms that the Wii U will use a proprietary high-density optical disc format that isn't Blu-Ray. That can't make Sony too happy. Reportedly the discs will pack up to 25 GB -- the same as the maximum for a single-layer Blu-Ray disc. Mr. Eguchi declined to reveal whether standard DVD playback would be supported, whether double-layer (50 GB) discs would be supported, and whether we might see movies shipping in this new format.

Anyone wana bet they are using HD-DVD Tech?

[Ninja Prime]

Originally Posted by |MaguS|

The console hasn't even released yet and its already using 3 year old tech... so by the time it releases its gpu will be 4 years old. They better not be thinking about charging a lot of the system, can only see the CPU and new drive being the most costly thing about the unit.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=21901



So ithe PS3 and X360 launched with GPUs based off current or less then a year old technology. So while the Wii U is more powerful because its newer it's pretty pathetic that they could use more current technology.

Oh and about the disc format, they wont say what it is other then its not Blu-Ray and holds 25B of data.



Anyone wana bet they are using HD-DVD Tech?

I'm not sure you fully get that an R700 GPU with a gig of ram is awesome for a console at this point in time. Relative to the Xbox360, which has the greater of the two GPUs in the two high end consoles out now, a RV770 would be about six times as fast, and if it were up at RV790 clocks it would be over 7 times as fast. It makes perfect sense to use R700 in a console, because later chips are laden with tons of compute/other PC-centric features that take up power and transistors that a console doesn't need. In fact, I think R700 probably has the highest shader power/texturing power to transistor ratio of any ATI chip since the Xbox360s chip. Its perfect for a console. Todays chips, 5000 and 6000 series from ATI, need more transistors and power to do they same job, because of added features that don't do anything from a console standpoint. R770 is 956 million transistors, Juniper, the equivalent shader level chip from the 5000 series is 1.04 billion, and Barts, the equivalent 6000 series chip is 1.7 billion. Wasted space/heat/power in a console.

Thats about as good as you can hope for at this point in time. Maybe if they made a giant deathstar box like Xbox 1 or PS3, they could put enough cooling in to get something about twice that fast, but you'd hardly see the difference anyway, for spending 3 times the money.

CPU wise, IBM say said it is the same tech as in Watson, which is POWER 7. Rumors are of a 3 core, which would make sense for easy of porting from Xbox360. A 3 core POWER 7 derivative would be awesome. A huge leap from Xenon, while still being fairly compatible. Honestly I expected something older/weaker. I'm not sure what more you want, well I know what you want, you want to giant top end box like PS3/360 when they came out, but you're never going to get that from nintendo, I think what we ended up getting is pretty great, as far as hardware goes.

On the format, I don't think its HD-DVD, those were 15GB layers. I think its Blu-Ray, but customized, just like the gamecube and Wiis discs were. Wii just used DVDs, but they were custom, played backwards and had some weird encoding or something, cant remember exactly. They aren't allowed to call it Blu-Ray unless it plays Blu-Ray movies, IIRC. So, I think its essentially Blu-Ray, but with some modifications.

[nicorulez]

One big question I think a lot of us have is why no harddrive. Isn't that a little lame considering the fact that with increasing bandwidth available to consumers that streaming or downloading games may very well be the future. Moreover, why not download music and movies onto your harddrive. So yes, for a console, gour year old GPU power is gonna be fine...for now (it is released next year remember). However, I expect much more from Sony and Microsoft. It appears that Nintendo focuses more on the controller and minimizes the console. Heck, even the presentation was all about the controller. I suspect that the PS4 and XB360 will absolutely slaughter this barely better than last gen effort . Ultimately, the question remains do you want the best graphics fidelity period, or is playing a with a tablet good enough. The question will ultimately be decided by consumers. I tend to side with the graphics fidelity crowd.

[mullet]

Nintendo Wii U: No DVD or Blu-ray Playback for You!

[Carboy40]

WII U is much more powerful than Nintendo and this is the reason that Nintendo Wii U profit dropped.

[Moo]