Rumor: Wii U final specs

Graphics Horse said:
I've never heard that about 3DS RAM. (apart from in similar gaf posts.)
There were rumours of extra processing power being unlocked though.
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No extra ram has been unlocked on 3ds yet though the extra processing power thing is true, games only had access to one of the CPU cores til earlier this year
 
Ubermatik said:
I can imagine the development process for RETRO has been difficult - there's a lot of pressure for them to deliver a visually stunning game, yet with fluctuating hardware and looming deadlines, I bet they've had a reall difficult time pulling the project through. I have every faith they'll develop something amazing, but as is always the case with new tech, I bet they had a struggle to match graphics similar to Witcher 2, Skyrim etc., let alone surpassing it.

If we see Halo 4 level graphics, I'll be impressed. If we see anything surpassing that, I'll be amazed.
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in-house engine? I hope so...
 
Easy_D said:
And this is why I really hope that Retro is working on a Metroid Prime title. Prime 3 looked fantastic considering the hardware it was on. That and I want Wii U Pad scanning, just for novelty's sake.
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I have no idea why this never dawned on me, would make scanning less of a headache.
 
Easy_D said:
And this is why I really hope that Retro is working on a Metroid Prime title. Prime 3 looked fantastic considering the hardware it was on. That and I want Wii U Pad scanning, just for novelty's sake.
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Metroid Prime Trilogy HD will have to sate your thirst for gamepad scanning.
(I hope)
 
Here is the primary question I think we need to ask: From a hardware standpoint, is the Wii U an overclocked current gen console? Or is it an underclocked next gen console?

The Wii was the former at the time of release (even though I consider it current gen in terms of software services), and the complete lack of current gen architecture is what made most ports to it physically impossible. I think if the Wii U sells enough, and does prove to be the latter, enough developers will at least attempt ports to get in on its install base, but it would have to be REALLY successful sales-wise in order for that to make a difference in software. Like, Wii U versions of next gen games would have to be the leading versions in terms of sales numbers.
 
RedSwirl said:
Here is the primary question I think we need to ask: From a hardware standpoint, is the Wii U an overclocked current gen console? Or is it an underclocked next gen console?

The Wii was the former at the time of release (even though I consider it current gen in terms of software services), and the complete lack of current gen architecture is what made most ports to it physically impossible. I think if the Wii U sells enough, and does prove to be the latter, enough developers will at least attempt ports to get in on its install base, but it would have to be REALLY successful sales-wise in order for that to make a difference in software. Like, Wii U versions of next gen games would have to be the leading versions in terms of sales numbers.
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It definitely seems to be closer to the latter than the former. Although it's impossible to say without proper knowledge of the PS4 and XBox3 architectures (or, hell, even the Wii U architecture), the emphasis that Nintendo seem to have placed on aspects like GPGPU functionality indicates that they're targeting as close to functionality parity as possible, even if they can't reach performance parity.

There was actually a post I wrote about how this kind of thing could affect third party support a long while back, might be time for a follow up.
 
The only the way Wii U could be overclocked current gen is if Microsoft and Sony sell their tech to Nintendo and we know this is 100% not the case.

Plus, no amount of overclocking can match the Wii U's ease of programming (2012 engineering vs 2005).
 
JordanN said:
The only the way Wii U could be overclocked current gen is if Microsoft and Sony sell their tech to Nintendo and we know this is 100% not the case.

Plus, no amount of overclocking can match the Wii U's ease of programming (2012 engineering vs 2005).
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Xbox 360 is really easy to program, it is DX9+.
 
Mitsurugi said:
I fully expect Witcher 2 level or better graphics in Zelda and refraction and ray-tracing like effects in Metroid.
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You're going to be disappointed.

JordanN said:
Fixed.
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What does this even mean? How do you define "DirectX 11 like effects"?

Culex said:
The fact that the Wii U can render to two simultaneous screens means it's more powerful.
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Not that I don't agree it's more powerful, but this isn't the way you measure power really. The games that really push the Wii-U's graphical capabilities on the main screen will likely make very simple use of the pad.

XtremeXpider said:
Xbox 360 is really easy to program, it is DX9+.
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JordanN said:
And the Wii U is easier than that.
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"Easy" is all relative and there's nothing easy about game development, on any system.

@ JordanN, without ever writing one line of code for any game console, how would you know which system is easier?

This back and forth at GAF is quite something.
 
Am I alone in not finding Witcher 2 that impressive?

I'm not saying it's bad, but to me it just looks like a current-gen game with better textures.

Maybe the artstyle lets it down for me? I dunno.
 
JordanN said:
And the Wii U is easier than that.
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staples-easybutton.jpg
 
The ease of the Wii U can be overstated. Its easy to get the code up and running sure but there is a lot of optimization and changes needed for optimal to above optimal performance.

Its why a Studio that does a port with 3 people working on it might be tempted to whine. Nintendo has a lot of stuff built into the Wii U to boost performance and lessen the overall CPU load but you gotta actually put the effort in to use that stuff. Quick and dirty ports will be quick and dirty ports.
 
IdeaMan said:
Also, for those concerned by the quality, the speed & quantity of all the memory department of Wii U, don't worry, they are "marvels of optimizations", from caches to the ram. It's a recurring compliment from what i've heard.
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I'm not really concerned about the speed of the RAM. As I've always said, Nintendo learned their lesson from using BUSRAM in the N64 and now go all out with buying RDFRAM (my little acronym thats short for "Realy Damned Fast" RAM). Couldn't the Cube technically match the Xbox RAM-wise due to the fact that the RAM that Nintendo used was so incredibly fast?
 
Thraktor said:
It definitely seems to be closer to the latter than the former. Although it's impossible to say without proper knowledge of the PS4 and XBox3 architectures (or, hell, even the Wii U architecture), the emphasis that Nintendo seem to have placed on aspects like GPGPU functionality indicates that they're targeting as close to functionality parity as possible, even if they can't reach performance parity.

There was actually a post I wrote about how this kind of thing could affect third party support a long while back, might be time for a follow up.
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But what's the point of functionality without performance? If you need your GPGPU to compensate for less CPU power, that means it isn't free for fancy physics etc. if the performance gap is too large then you won't see ports anyway

I hope we will though
 
mrklaw said:
But what's the point of functionality without performance? If you need your GPGPU to compensate for less CPU power, that means it isn't free for fancy physics etc. if the performance gap is too large then you won't see ports anyway

I hope we will though
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I thought the whole point of the GPU for the Wii U is that is can compensate for the CPU and also push more tech and power than the Xbox 360 and PS3?
 
XtremeXpider said:
Well, then Wii U is easier because... it is easier.
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Yeah, lets leave it like that.

It's an easier console based on less hurdles needed to obtain certain results. @_@

beril said:
I don't think any statement has ever needed an explanation more.

Faster, more efficient, more robust feature set, fewer bottlenecks - sure; but "handles code better". WTF does that mean? Outside of actual hardware bugs I can't really see how any system "handles code better" than any other or how it relates to ease of development.
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I'll admit, that sounded stupid the second time I read it.
 
JordanN said:
I don't think that needs an explanation.
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I don't think any statement has ever needed an explanation more.

Faster, more efficient, more robust feature set, fewer bottlenecks - sure; but "handles code better". WTF does that mean? Outside of actual hardware bugs I can't really see how any system "handles code better" than any other or how it relates to ease of development.
 
mrklaw said:
But what's the point of functionality without performance? If you need your GPGPU to compensate for less CPU power, that means it isn't free for fancy physics etc. if the performance gap is too large then you won't see ports anyway

I hope we will though
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You must have missed the Iwata Asks :Wii U because it has the answer.

Ever since the Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo has concerned itself with how to improve console efficiency while constraining power consumption, and this has been a consistent design concept for them.

It even comes across as a sort of challenge to themselves. They constantly bring up the fact that high performance with high power consumption or low performance with low consumption as something "anybody can do" but to get high performance whilst constrained by power is something they find to be the best pursuit.
 
mrklaw said:
But what's the point of functionality without performance? If you need your GPGPU to compensate for less CPU power, that means it isn't free for fancy physics etc. if the performance gap is too large then you won't see ports anyway

I hope we will though
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At a guess, the GPU is simply more efficient at running fancy physics per transistor or per watt than a more powerful CPU would be.
 
KageMaru said:
IMO the people saying we'll see little to no improvement are fighting a losing battle. No matter how new or old hardware is, there's always room for improvement.

The only thing I don't agree with is the statements that we'll see the same leap in improvement as we saw with the PS3 or 360. I understand it's new hardware and that PDZ pushed the 360 as hard as Halo 4, just less efficiently. I don't see how it's wrong to believe developers are achieving better utilization of the Wii-U's hardware at launch than they achieved on the ps3 or 360 at launch. Regardless of the new hardware in the Wii-U, there are still practices and general improvements/lessons learned over the years that will not just benefit development on the Wii-U but also the PS4 and 720. Only difference between those three systems is the pool of resources developers can play with.

So while I fully expect Wii-U games to improve and impress, I think expecting a PDZ->Halo 4 level of improvement is an unrealistic expectation.
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I agree, and in my example I compare the difference between 2010 games to today.

XtremeXpider said:
Come on, Xbox is a 2x~3x PS2, the same can be applied to Wii U-PS360. I'm sure Wii U is more than the "PS2 to Xbox" jump.
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More or less. Wii U is expect to be something 2 to 4x the power of current gen, that is more o less the difference between Ps2 and XBOX.
 
Since the Wii U's GPU "supports Shader Model 4.0 (DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 3.3 equivalent functionality)", doesn't that mean it handles modern shader code better than the HD Twins, which are SM 3.0?
 
BDGAME said:
More or less. Wii U is expect to be something 2 to 4x the power of current gen, that is more o less the difference between Ps2 and XBOX.
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so far we have not seen it.

i'm back to being pretty pessimistic on wii u. until i see something (or some gpu specs) that prove otherwise.

the one thing we have that isn't speculation so far is the games, and so far i haven't seen one iota of a thing you couldn't do on 360.

i'm saying the burden of proof is on wii u right now to show it's even better than ps360 gpu-wise.
 
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