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[M°°nblade]

The PS3 subHD games were even lower res than the 360's subHD games, probably due to that.

Either way, we're going from the Wii (which had essentially a whole 3MB of VRAM to play with) to a console with 32MB, and the 360 was limited to 10MB and DVDs. I'm not really concerned about the Wii U's ability to do HD gaming.

Ofcourse people shouldn't be concerned about the Wii U's ability to do HD gaming.
But they also shouldn't overestimate release priorities, porting timeframes and human resources.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if the Wii U version of CoD still happens to be native subHD.

 

[TheD]

He didn't say anything conclusive enough to be right..

Well, if the specs in the OP are right then yes, it would be a good current gen console and a poor next gen one.

 

[FyreWulff]

Ofcourse people shouldn't be concerned about the Wii U's ability to do HD gaming.
But they also shouldn't overestimate release priorities, porting timeframes and human resources.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if the Wii U version of CoD still happens to be native subHD.

I wouldn't be surprised either. Companies do whatever's the cheapest route, these are the same devs that just ported PS2 projects up to Wii even though the console was capable of much more. They had two guys port CoD3, who were literally just given a DVD of the assets used to make the PS2 version.

 

[Donnie]

How much room there is to grow depends on whether the system has 1.5 GB overall or 2 GB. I don't see Nintendo reserving a whole GB to an OS, so it seems more likely to have 1.5 GB. That's not a lot of room. Sure, we only have vague rumors, but so far it looks like the other systems will have 2 GB for games minimum

I don't know 1.5GB seems like a very odd amount of physical memory to use. I wouldn't be surprised if they had 2GB of physical memory and just gave devs half at first as its still over twice the amount 360 or PS3 have available.

Wasn't it reported that initially 3DS developers only had 64MB to work with, from a total of 128MB. Then that changed to 96MB for games and 32MB for OS (or am I imagining it?).

If the total physical memory was 1.5GB then that still leaves the possibility of freeing up 256MB or so.

 

[Dorfdad]

Wow the level of stupidity and false claims coming in this thread are off the charts. Why can't you all just look at it like this. The Wii-U is a MASSIVE jump in terms of graphics, functionality and Online features compared to the Wii.

It is the only This Gen or Nextgen console to support 100% backward compatibility (excluding the Wii itself) and will be launching at a responsible price point if rumors hold try.

Also regardless of what your thoughts about PS4 and 720 are if your a fan of Nintendo franchise The Wii-U is the only console to play them on. Some of the best games this gen have been on the Nintendo Wii and while I understand the comments about Third party software and ports look at it like this.

The first year you can expect ports to at least MATCH current levels of 360 and PS3 games. Once developers get better tools and familiarity with the system they will be improved. In fact almost all the "ports" coming this year have improved framerates, and enhanced visuals from current offerings. Also the Wii-U is running games at native 1080p 60fps where the current gens are not even doing except in very rare cases. Most are lower res scaled up.

So in closing the Wii-U is a HUGE upgrade over Nintendo's lastgen console and the Nextgen looks soooooooooo much better and I am really excited for the Wii-U

Haters are going to hate and continue to be negative over a console for some reason. If this is the biggest problem in your lives consider yourself lucky..

 

[Always-honest]

Wow the level of stupidity and false claims coming in this thread are off the charts. Why can't you all just look at it like this. The Wii-U is a MASSIVE jump in terms of graphics, functionality and Online features compared to the Wii.

It is the only This Gen or Nextgen console to support 100% backward compatibility (excluding the Wii itself) and will be launching at a responsible price point if rumors hold try.

Also regardless of what your thoughts about PS4 and 720 are if your a fan of Nintendo franchise The Wii-U is the only console to play them on. Some of the best games this gen have been on the Nintendo Wii and while I understand the comments about Third party software and ports look at it like this.

The first year you can expect ports to at least MATCH current levels of 360 and PS3 games. Once developers get better tools and familiarity with the system they will be improved. In fact almost all the "ports" coming this year have improved framerates, and enhanced visuals from current offerings.

So in closing the Wii-U is a HUGE upgrade over Nintendo's lastgen console and the Nextgen looks soooooooooo much better and I am really excited for the Wii-U

Haters are going to hate and continue to be negative over a console for some reason. If this is the biggest problem in your lives consider yourself lucky..

I think everybody knows this tbh

 

[Boerseun]

I think everybody knows this tbh

Yeah, but not everbody KNOWS this, if you get my drift.

 

[2MF]

It will be hard for companies to justify not porting to the Wii U especially if they launch PC versions of their games which support all kinds of GPUs, from weak DX10 ones to the top AMD/Nvidia beasts.

 

[Donnie]

Well, if the specs in the OP are right then yes, it would be a good current gen console and a poor next gen one.

I'd say that if any of the current gen consoles had been released with 1GB of RAM available for games and a DX10.1+ compliant GPU that would be more than good, extraordinary would be the word

Look I don't doubt that WiiU won't be as powerful as the next Sony/MS consoles coming 2013/2014. What I had a problem with in his post was the utterly absurd attempt to downplay every aspect of the system.

Also I have to say it again but there are very few specs in the OP. There are NO specs for the CPU and very few for the GPU, nothing that tells us anything about power. The only specs we have there is that the GPU is at least DX10.1 (the person who wrote the info has already said its more than that) and that 1GB of RAM is currently available for games. GameCube had 24MB of RAM vs 64 for XBox, it had DX7 vs DX8 for XBox. Was it a poor console for its gen?, quite the opposite. Now I'm sure WiiU will not be the GameCube of next gen obviously. But I'm just trying to point out that what we have in this article isn't as damning as its being made out to be. Far more important will be info on the specifics of the CPU and GPU, such as clock speeds, ALU count ect.

 

[kitchenmotors]

I think everybody knows this tbh

Not entirely true, this is GAF, should come as no surprise. There have been some pretty apparent facts about the console that we've known about for over a year, but people still come into threads like this, act surprised, and troll with their complaints.

 

[Ovid]

Read the OP, does the Wii U's specs put it on par with the 360 and PS3, or slightly better?

 

[Always-honest]

Yeah, but not everbody KNOWS this, if you get my drift.

Maybe they have a different agenda, but they know it ;p

 

[DaSorcerer7]

I'd say that if any of the current gen consoles had been released with 1GB of RAM available for games and a DX10.1+ compliant GPU that would be more than good, extraordinary would be the word

Look I don't doubt that WiiU won't be as powerful as the next Sony/MS consoles coming 2013/2014. What I had a problem with in his post was the utterly absurd attempt to downplay every aspect of the system.

Also I have to say it again but there are very few specs in the OP. There are NO specs for the CPU and very few for the GPU, nothing that tells us anything about power. The only specs we have there is that the GPU is at least DX10.1 (the person who wrote the info has already said its more than that) and that 1GB of RAM is currently available for games. GameCube had 24MB of RAM vs 64 for XBox, it had DX7 vs DX8 for XBox. Was it a poor console for its gen?, quite the opposite. Now I'm sure WiiU will not be the GameCube of next gen obviously. But I'm just trying to point out that what we have in this article isn't as damning as its being made out to be. Far more important will be info on the specifics of the CPU and GPU, such as clock speeds, ALU count ect.

Well said, Donnie.

 

[ozfunghi]

Ok, i have to say that i had to laugh hard when the cat got out of the bag that these specs were leaked by good old Arkam, who has been verified as working for a development studio... but who has also acknowledged he is not a techie (and has not been working on the hardware himself iirc) and was not able to provide any form of context months ago when he first appeared, except for the fact that they were basically trying to run 360 code on WiiU. He made a comment once "that's exactly what they did!" concerning Nintendo making the broadway multicore. Again, no relevant context. And now again with this leak, no context.

I have the same problem with lherre's statements. Yes, he confirms these specs, but again does not provide context (lherre, who once didn't know what wsippel meant when asked if he was talking about real world performance or on paper... 0_o). I find it hard to believe a 3core Wii cpu could run ports of ACIII and Aliens CM for instance, so it OBVIOUSLY is not just a multicore broadway. The specs say "enhanced". In what way? After putting his job on the line with these leaks, further commenting on what exactly that means would not make a difference, but yet he (Arkam) doesn't. Why? I presume because he can't. He doesn't know.

So what are the options here, what could realistically be expected from an advanced broadway? Some CPU achitectures are more than a decade old. So anyone able to provide some context, please do, or else this thread could just as well be closed as this is basically old news from a known old source.

 

[Lonely1]

Read the OP, does the Wii U's specs put it on par with the 360 and PS3, or slightly better?

Not enough info. Not like that little fact discourages people from making statements about its power, though.

 

[Hydderf]

I plan to buy every early multi-plat games on Wii U. That will be my (small) part in the great challenge of this generation : letting third parties know that gamers care for their games on Nintendo consoles. This unfair preconception turning every time into a self-fulfilling prophecy can't last any longer. Who's with me ?

Spoiler

* Awkward silence *

 

[KageMaru]

I don't see anything special in the zelda tech demo too ... (with anything special I mean nothing that we couldn't see in current gen machines).

Hey great, hopefully they'll believe you.

Power7 is an architecture, it comes in multiple flavors of number of cores, clock rate and therefore TDP.

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/34683.wss

This means absolutely nothing. Strip out everything that makes a Power7 core a Power7 CPU and it's no longer a Power7 core. Even with that said, it's highly unlikely the CPU in the Wii-U was even originally based on the Power7 core to begin with.

The bottom line here is the Wii U is stronger than the 360 and PS3. The Wii U also happens to have a newer architecture that developers have to get used to just like how developers had to get used to the newer architecture of the 360/PS3 back in 2005/2006.

Not really close to the same situation. Much like the other thread discussed, the Wii-U will benefit from all the years of experience devs gained over the last 6+ years developing on the PS360. I'm sure the devs are more familiar with the Wii-U's hardware than they were with the 360's or PS3's hardware at launch. IIRC it was the tools included in the dev kits that were different than the norm in the Wii-U.

Sub-HD wasn't power related (strictly), it was the fact that you couldn't fit a 720p framebuffer into the EDRAM with full HDR, etc without resorting to tiling, which is a notable hit on performance since it was only 10MB. Halo 3 was 640p for this reason, Halo Reach was full 720p in the vertical dimension and had lower HDR range, and Halo 4 has even lower HDR range and is the first new full 720p Halo title on console.

the Wii U will be able to do full HDR @ 720p without tiling.

That's only one of the many many reasons why games are sub-HD on 360. Sub-HD games can also be the result of a lack of power, lack of memory, lack of eDRAM, etc on both the ps3 and 360. Honest question, do we know if the 32MB of eDRAM is for the GPU or CPU? In the beginning I thought it was for the CPU since that's what brought on the comparisons to Watson, which has eDRAM.

Also, you have a link detailing Halo 4's HDR as you describe here? Genuinely curious.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if the Wii U version of CoD still happens to be native subHD.

Sub-HD games this gen like CoD, and CE3 games, are the ones I'm looking forward to see most on the Wii-U. I'm curious to see how they turn out and if they are improved on the resolution side of things.

 

[Mr Swine]

Not enough info. Not like that fact discourages people from making statements about its power.

Well Wii U can already run most of the late gen games which are extremely optimized to run on the PS3/360. Even if devs have problems right now due to some stuff not being exactly like the 360. I'm still impressed that it can run Asscred III. Hopefully more games will look a lot better next year on Wii U :3

 

[Always-honest]

I plan to buy every early multi-plat games on Wii U. That will be my (small) part in the great challenge of this generation : letting third parties know that gamers care for their games on Nintendo consoles. This unfair preconception turning every time into a self-fulfilling prophecy can't last any longer. Who's with me ?

Spoiler

* Awkward silence *

If multiplats have a small edge on the Wii-U in terms of AA, framerate resolution or texture detail, i will buy them.
just like i bought the best multiplat version between xbox 360 and PS3...

 

[Log4Girlz]

I don't know 1.5GB seems like a very odd amount of physical memory to use.

Not really, that can be accomplished with 3 512 MB sticks, or 6 256 MB ones.

 

[Mr Swine]

Not really, that can be accomplished with 3 512 MB sticks, or 6 256 MB ones.

I think that most hardware makers want to avoid having many memory sticks if one goes bad. Isn't it more costly also?

 

[Donnie]

I have the same problem with lherre's statements. Yes, he confirms these specs, but again does not provide context (lherre, who once didn't know what wsippel meant when asked if he was talking about real world performance or on paper... 0_o). I find it hard to believe a 3core Wii cpu could run ports of ACIII and Aliens CM for instance, so it OBVIOUSLY is not just a multicore broadway. The specs say "enhanced". In what way? After putting his job on the line with these leaks, further commenting on what exactly that means would not make a difference, but yet he (Arkam) doesn't. Why? I presume because he can't. He doesn't know.

Also lherre once confirmed that WiiU's CPU was multi-threaded, now he confirms an enhanced Broadway, which which almost certainly contradicts that earlier claim. I'm not trying to attack lherre but it wouldn't be difficult to clear up that confusion even without going into specifics.

 

[onQ123]

Read the OP, does the Wii U's specs put it on par with the 360 and PS3, or slightly better?

from the looks of things everything is better but the CPU is in question.

 

[2MF]

Consoles don't use sticks, despite what some pieces of wood might tell you

 

[Thunder Monkey]

Consoles don't use sticks, despite what some pieces of wood might tell you

Yep.

They bolt them directly to the Pikmin.

 

[Donnie]

Not really, that can be accomplished with 3 512 MB sticks, or 6 256 MB ones.

Well sticks aren't used, but anyway they're then going to go with extra buses? That'll add to the cost and complexity of the system.

 

[mrklaw]

If multiplats have a small edge on the Wii-U in terms of AA, framerate resolution or texture detail, i will buy them.
just like i bought the best multiplat version between xbox 360 and PS3...

sure, same here. But for how long? If you're thinking to get a PS4 or 720, then in the back of your mind you'll be thinking that you'll probably switch as soon as they are out. So it risks being a transitory multiplatform machine

 

[Log4Girlz]

I think that most hardware makers want to avoid having many memory sticks if one goes bad. Isn't it more costly also?

I meant chips lol. Hardware makers usually go for a manageable number of chips. So it would be 3 chips or 6 chips. If it were sticks, that could be done in like 2 sticks.

 

[ozfunghi]

I meant chips lol. Hardware makers usually go for a manageable number of chips. So it would be 3 chips or 6 chips. If it were sticks, that could be done in like 2 sticks.

And these 512MB chips exist?

 

[zoukka]

Isn’t the giant spider from the 2nd TP trailer?

Not saying they are the exact same thing, they would most likely touch up the models.

Well if they are not the same thing, they are obviously not TP assets then.

 

[Always-honest]

sure, same here. But for how long? If you're thinking to get a PS4 or 720, then in the back of your mind you'll be thinking that you'll probably switch as soon as they are out. So it risks being a transitory multiplatform machine

Agreed completely. I'll stop buying them on Wii-U as soon as there are btter version out there, as we can expect from Xbox720 or PS4.

For Nintendo the first year will be key i think..

 

[Log4Girlz]

And these 512MB chips exist?

They do for DDR3, not sure for GDDR3, but the 256 MB variety does. Which would mean 6 chips.

 

[beril]

I'd say that if any of the current gen consoles had been released with 1GB of RAM available for games and a DX10.1+ compliant GPU that would be more than good, extraordinary would be the word

Look I don't doubt that WiiU won't be as powerful as the next Sony/MS consoles coming 2013/2014. What I had a problem with in his post was the utterly absurd attempt to downplay every aspect of the system.

Also I have to say it again but there are very few specs in the OP. There are NO specs for the CPU and very few for the GPU, nothing that tells us anything about power. The only specs we have there is that the GPU is at least DX10.1 (the person who wrote the info has already said its more than that) and that 1GB of RAM is currently available for games. GameCube had 24MB of RAM vs 64 for XBox, it had DX7 vs DX8 for XBox. Was it a poor console for its gen?, quite the opposite. Now I'm sure WiiU will not be the GameCube of next gen obviously. But I'm just trying to point out that what we have in this article isn't as damning as its being made out to be. Far more important will be info on the specifics of the CPU and GPU, such as clock speeds, ALU count ect.

that's not true. GCs main memory was 24MB, but it had 43 MB in total, including 3 MB eDRAM

 

[Stephen Colbert]

Overall, the Wii U is indeed slightly more powerful than consoles released 7 years ago. Nevertheless, according to developers, it still manages to be weaker in terms of the CPU atleast.

I don't see how any of this is worth celebrating. Given how quickly technology moves, barely beating 7 year old tech and chalking that up as a job well done is kind of pathetic.

At the very least, I wish Nintendo made a system capable of graphics on par with the highest fidelty games of this past gen while managing to run them at 1080p and 60fps with 4x AA. I still don't understand how Nintendo's E3 Wii U tech demos manage to look worse than games like God of War III, Uncharted 2, or GT5, and yet still only manage to run at 720p 30 fps and with no AA. If it's the CPU that's bottlenecking the system, why in god's name didn't Nintendo opt to use a IBM Power 7 cpu instead of an overclocked three core variant of the Wii's Broadway CPU?

 

[Horse Armour]

Overall, the Wii U is indeed slightly more powerful than consoles released 7 years ago. Nevertheless, according to developers, it still manages to be weaker in terms of the CPU atleast.

I don't see how any of this is worth celebrating. Given how quickly technology moves, barely beating 7 year old tech and chalking that up as a job well done is kind of pathetic.

At the very least, I wish they made something capable of graphics on par with the highest fidelty games of this past gen at 1080p 60fps. But that doesn't seem to be the case given the Nintendo's E3 Wii U tech demos manage to look worse than games like God of War III, Uncharted 2, or GT5, and yet still only manage to run at 720p 30 fps.

They also didn't feature any anti aliasing at all.

 

[Always-honest]

Overall, the Wii U is indeed slightly more powerful than consoles released 7 years ago. Nevertheless, according to developers, it still manages to be weaker in terms of the CPU atleast.

I don't see how any of this is worth celebrating. Given how quickly technology moves, barely beating 7 year old tech and chalking that up as a job well done is kind of pathetic.

At the very least, I wish Nintendo made a system capable of graphics on par with the highest fidelty games of this past gen while managing to run them at 1080p and 60fps with 4x AA. I still don't understand how Nintendo's E3 Wii U tech demos manage to look worse than games like God of War III, Uncharted 2, or GT5, and yet still only manage to run at 720p 30 fps and with no AA. If it's the CPU that's bottlenecking the system, why in god's name didn't Nintendo opt to use a IBM Power 7 cpu instead of an overclocked three core variant of the Wii's Broadway CPU?

Seriously?

 

[EuroMIX]

I have mostly the same questions/doubts as ozfunghi. There's been a lot of confusing rumours and it's becoming hard to know who or what to believe, especially when they start to conflict.

To those who understand such matters, could some three core Broadway variant run the games that we've seen so far?

 

[Mr. B Natural]

Well Wii U can already run most of the late gen games which are extremely optimized to run on the PS3/360. Even if devs have problems right now due to some stuff not being exactly like the 360. I'm still impressed that it can run Asscred III. Hopefully more games will look a lot better next year on Wii U :3

Were you impressed when the 360 could play Halo 2?

What's the secret to success in this industry? Easy: lower your consumers' expectations deep deep below sea level.

 

[KageMaru]

Overall, the Wii U is indeed slightly more powerful than consoles released 7 years ago. Nevertheless, according to developers, it still manages to be weaker in terms of the CPU atleast.

I don't see how any of this is worth celebrating. Given how quickly technology moves, barely beating 7 year old tech and chalking that up as a job well done is kind of pathetic.

At the very least, I wish Nintendo made a system capable of graphics on par with the highest fidelty games of this past gen while managing to run them at 1080p and 60fps with 4x AA. I still don't understand how Nintendo's E3 Wii U tech demos manage to look worse than games like God of War III, Uncharted 2, or GT5, and yet still only manage to run at 720p 30 fps and with no AA.[/a] If it's the CPU that's bottlenecking the system, why in god's name didn't Nintendo opt to use a IBM Power 7 cpu instead of an overclocked three core variant of the Wii's Broadway CPU?

Really? Can you, in detail, explain how these comparisons are in any way relevant? I'm sure you can't and you're just looking for an opportunity to troll the Wii-U.

 

[Durante]

The first year you can expect ports to at least MATCH current levels of 360 and PS3 games. Once developers get better tools and familiarity with the system they will be improved. In fact almost all the "ports" coming this year have improved framerates, and enhanced visuals from current offerings. Also the Wii-U is running games at native 1080p 60fps where the current gens are not even doing except in very rare cases. Most are lower res scaled up.

Source? I don't think any PS360 ports will double their frame rate on that CPU.

 

[bgassassin]

But see the curious thing is, why even show them off? Why ever show any footage that didn't at least match the previous gen? Puzzling to say the least. And Watch Dogs looking like RE 4 on PS2 would be pretty good, IIRC the PS2 game stood up quite well to the Gamecube version.

Because that's all they have to show? Nintendo's own stuff doesn't (or barely) look as good as current gen.

Because they need to be seen to have some third party support and that's what they had?

I'm with Azak. Launch is coming up and they showed what was available. But like I said, we've known this was going to be an issue for a long time now. So when certain games are revealed to have those problems, why let it bother you?

Ironic (because he is right).

Nah.

I have mostly the same questions/doubts as ozfunghi. There's been a lot of confusing rumours and it's becoming hard to know who or what to believe, especially when they start to conflict.

To those who understand such matters, could some three core Broadway variant run the games that we've seen so far?

Yes, if you don't get hung up on Nintendo's usage of Broadway.

 

[UncleSporky]

What's the secret to success in this industry? Easy: lower your consumers' expectations deep deep below sea level.

Actually it's releasing a wide variety of appealing games that speak to people from all walks of life, but you were pretty close.

 

[SniperHunter]

Read the OP, does the Wii U's specs put it on par with the 360 and PS3, or slightly better?

Seems like a mediocre design, more ram than PS3 and Xbox 360, updated GPU but a weak CPU....

 

[Jburton]

Also the Wii-U is running games at native 1080p 60fps where the current gens are not even doing except in very rare cases. Most are lower res scaled up.

I think you might be very wrong there buddy.

 

[Mit-]

Also the Wii-U is running games at native 1080p 60fps where the current gens are not even doing except in very rare cases. Most are lower res scaled up.

Which games are 1080p 60fps? I heard MAYBE Rayman is. Not even New Super Mario Bros U is 1080p.

 

[Always-honest]

Which games are 1080p 60fps? I heard MAYBE Rayman is. Not even New Super Mario Bros U is 1080p.

We'll have to wait and see

 

[Stephen Colbert]

Which games are 1080p 60fps? I heard MAYBE Rayman is. Not even New Super Mario Bros U is 1080p.

How is that even possible?

It's a 2D platformer for godsake.

 

[Metalmurphy]

How is that even possible?

It's a 2D platformer for godsake.

2D view point, but the game is rendered in 3D.

 

[Cousteau]

Wii was like a fish going upstream against a raging river. I say the fish won because it managed to reach its destination but others can say the river wins because it continues to flow unabated.

I'M A FISHERMAN!

 

[frankie_baby]

Seems like a mediocre design, more ram than PS3 and Xbox 360, updated GPU but a weak CPU....

Where as others with far more technical sounding posts sugesst the CPU isn't weak at all