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[dcx4610]

The memory is what really gives the Wii U a bump.

Unfortunately, the only people that are going to exploit the power of the system is Nintendo themselves since 3rd party developers aren't going to devote the time, money and resources on a ground-up build of a game.

3rd party games just end up being straight ports from the 360 so it's hard to gauge how much more powerful it could be. I think it would be fair to say that the Wii U could handle any game on the PS3/360 and run it at a higher resolution and framerate.

 

[ozfunghi]

People said the same about that X trailer last year and look at those awful character models now.

Yeah... but those are looking hidious for other reasons than hardware limitations.

 

[Mike Golf]

It'll be interesting to see how Bayonetta 1 stacks up against the 360 version and subsequently how Bayonetta 2 looks and performs against it as well. Otherwise we have few multi plats to compare with the best case for the U being the latest NFS game if I recall correctly. Better textures and higher quality shaders than PS3/360 versions.

I'm certainly impressed with what 1st party games have delivered on the system, as for if they could be done exactly the same on the PS3 or 360 I don't know and we never really will. Every game has been a hit and were/are very enjoyable. Art direction will always trump pure graphics grunt and realism in my opinion. I do enjoy high graphical fidelity games, Crysis 3 being one of my faves on my PC but there are plenty of games vying for the top graphics spot so games that put art dirwction first are always a breath of fresh air to me.

 

[th3sicknness]

The memory is what really gives the Wii U a bump.

Unfortunately, the only people that are going to exploit the power of the system is Nintendo themselves since 3rd party developers aren't going to devote the time, money and resources on a ground-up build of a game.

3rd party games just end up being straight ports from the 360 so it's hard to gauge how much more powerful it could be. I think it would be fair to say that the Wii U could handle any game on the PS3/360 and run it at a higher resolution and framerate.

Nintendo developers are the ones that give the Wii U a bump.. Outside of of the Shinen / Criterion guys there have not been any third party devs to really push the Wii U like Nintendo has (Possibly Platinum?).

 

[lherre]

Besides it will be pointless to compare Bayonetta 1 Wii U and X360 as a reference for anything.

Basically, Bayonetta 1 on X360 is the first Platinum attempt in HD hardware. I'm sure they are now more adapted to work with this machines (including Wii U). Bayonetta 1 will be better now in X360 than it was when it was released.

 

[Vanillalite]

(Thinks: Do I jump into this one?) Oh, what the hey.

I spent way too much time looking into this issue leading up to and after the release of the CPU and GPU die shots. In essence, what some have already said are true:

CPU is 3 Wii CPU cores with alot more cache. There is other easily accessible for those really interested, so I'll just leave it at that. Easier to use than Xbox 360 CPU and Cell but less peak performance. Devs got quite good at working around the PS3/360 CPU weaknesses last gen as well.

RAM is twice as much (accessible) but slower. It has eDRAM as well, kind of like Xenos in the 360 and it seems to have similar bandwidth to the GPU (32 GB/s), but no high speed connection to the ROPs (units used for many things including anti-aliasing, which reduces jaggies).

GPU is a more modern architecture, but not as modern as some people think. It is based on the Radeon HD4000 series, but Nintendo's custom tools make for some differences. There is no indication of significant tweaks to the shader architecture. It has 160 shaders vs Xenos' 240, and with architecture and clockspeed difs that adds up to 176 GFLOPS vs Xenos' 216 GFLOPS (theoretical).

Audio DSP is the same as in Wii at around ~120 Mhz. ARM security processor is also the same as in Wii (ARM926 something).

I think that covers the major points...

While it has been pretty much proven now the Wii U is 160 shaders vs the original 320 rumor the architecture differences shouldn't be understated.

The difference from the 7800 based RSX and the HD4000 is still rather massive even with the 4000 series being really old hat now in the GPU space. Just purely on the base instruction set there is a GAP. Granted the Wii U lacks raw FLOPs, but it's amazing what a modern instruction set can do. Just look at under powered mobile with modern instruction sets.

PS: Biggest Wii U downfall is the extra RAM for better textures and stuff being held back by the lack of quality AA to help IQ.

 

[th3sicknness]

Besides it will be pointless to compare Bayonetta 1 Wii U and X360 as a reference for anything.

Basically, Bayonetta 1 on X360 is the first Platinum attempt in HD hardware. I'm sure they are now more adapted to work with this machines (including Wii U). Bayonetta 1 will be better now in X360 than it was when it was released.

That is not entirely accurate.. "Platinum ended up outsourcing much of the project to a little-known studio based in Osaka called Bee Tribe".. The same team isnt working on bringing it over.. Your statement might be a bit more accurate when it comes to Bayo 2 since the part of the same team is making that game.

 

[Log4Girlz]

Slightly more powerful and more efficient/modern hardware allowing one of the most talented and dedicated developers to create games exclusively for it that outshine multi-plats from 8 year old competitors. Nintendo's simple, clean art design shines on the hardware.

It's like having two 300 horsepower muscle cars. They are both in line in terms of power, but one has better brakes, suspension and a lighter frame. The more efficient one will own on the track.

 

[Fourth Storm]

While it has been pretty much proven now the Wii U is 160 shaders vs the original 320 rumor the architecture differences shouldn't be understated.

The difference from the 7800 based RSX and the HD4000 is still rather massive even with the 4000 series being really old hat now in the GPU space. Just purely on the base instruction set there is a GAP. Granted the Wii U lacks raw FLOPs, but it's amazing what a modern instruction set can do. Just look at under powered mobile with modern instruction sets.

PS: Biggest Wii U downfall is the extra RAM for better textures and stuff being held back by the lack of quality AA to help IQ.

True true, while Xenos was definitely ahead of its time, and beyond DX9 in some regards, just having a card with DX10.1 equivalent features is surely allowing for better results.

Other things I forgot to mention or didn't go into enough detail: Nintendo has a pool labeled MEM0 handling certain tasks in the background and actually, Wii U's accessible DDR3 RAM is more than twice the main RAM in PS360, due to a portion of the latters' RAM being allocated to the OS. Also, as I mentioned, there are many small caches on the GPU which are larger than those in Xenos (if they exist at all) and probably also faster - texture cache (L1 and L2), local and global data shares (supposedly not used in first wave of software and unknown if this has changed), instruction cache, constant cache, and so on. These are not specs which console warriors typically use as ammo, but they do matter.

The lack of AA is a bit of a downer, and I hope Nintendo can come up with a decent shader-based solution or use MLAA from AMD, as some third party titles already do.

Edit: Something I didn't mention (was trying to not get too technical, but whatever) is that Wii U has half the texture units of 360 (8 vs 16). This would appear to put Wii U at a disadvantage, but something must be balancing it out, whether it be the texture cache or more modern design. The lower number of texture units along with lower bandwidth to DDR3 (12.8 GB/s) appears to make sense from a balance/efficiency point of view. We need to ask where developers were running into bottlenecks with their last gen engines. It was most likely memory size in many instances, which Nintendo addressed. However, it should be noted that in multiplatform games, "alpha effects" such as blood splatters, tree leaves, and shadows have been paired back in Wii U versions. This could be a result of the texture unit deficiency. Surely, with more experience and time with the hardware, better results could have been achieved. If everything were on par, however, the games should just run without anything needed to be cut. Documentation may have started out poor, but the system was not designed to be "quirky." It simply has its pros and cons, and with more experience, the cons should be able to be ironed out somewhat.

 

[OG_Original Gamer]

Wii U's advantage over 360/PS3 is that the Latte GPU has a more modern feature-set, including a newer Shader Model, than the older Xenos/RSX GPUs, and Wii U has more RAM.

In terms of *raw* GPU and CPU performance/speed and the console's external bandwidth (12.8 GB/sec) Wii U is actually behind both the 360 and the PS3.

It's eDRAM bandwidth my friend puts well ahead those consoles, you can't achieve MK8 with 12.8 GB/sec. The so called bandwidth starved console that could.

 

[Log4Girlz]

One had to wonder what Nintendo's games would look like on legit XB1 level hardware. If that performance level was their goal instead of power efficiency (even though the XB1 is no monster power hog compared to the power draws of the OG 360/ps3) and having a tablet controller they could have provided that without trouble.

 

[th3sicknness]

One had to wonder what Nintendo's games would look like on legit XB1 level hardware. If that performance level was their goal instead of power efficiency (even though the XB1 is no monster power hog compared to the power draws of the OG 360/ps3) and having a tablet controller they could have provided that without trouble.

It would have most likely looked the same just with more AA and better textures .. The game doesn't look like it needed anything else other than aliasing to be honest. That is the best part about Nintendo games.. The tech specs dont matter as much because Nintendo devs got dat magic.

 

[RobFox64tm]

This topic is always a real hornets nest. The truth is that no matter the technical differences, Nintendo will squeeze a lot out of it's own hardware, just as they've always done. This may result in games that seem like they run better on Wii U, but it's just the result of having intimate knowledge of their own console. We know they are in the same ballpark; that shouldn't even be up for debate, but it's also fair to say that I think we'll see some impressive things from Nintendo's software on the console for the reasons I stated above.

 

[Tetranet]

From what I've seen so far the Wii U can hang around for a decent time slightly behind the PS4 and X1, if not next to them. It has power for developers that want to commit to making a good game. Multiplatform is another issue though.

The Xenoblade gifs that were posted are amazing and Zelda should be excellent too. And there's the games already released, such as MK8 which is very impressive.

 

[fred]

I think you're just caught up in the hype. I don't see anything from that reveal that couldn't be done on 360/PS3. Sure it has decent art direction but from the limited footage we've seen it's not a technical marvel.

"WOW I can go to those mountains?!!"

Super Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Xenoblade Chronicles X and Bayonetta 2 are all beyond the capabilities of the PS3 and 360 to reproduce without downgrades to lighting, shadows, models, framerate and v-synch. They're throwing around a lot of polys at 720p native, 60fps and have v-synch enabled (although Xenoblade Chronicles X is probably 30fps) and the dynamic lighting and shadows is impressive.

And I'd personally add ZombiU and The Wonderful 101 to that list too.

There's definitely stuff going on under the hood that we're unaware of, what we've seen from those games above shouldn't be possible on a bog standard GPU pushing 176GFlops/352GFlops drawing around 20W. I'm still in the fixed function camp myself, it explains everything including why the ALUs are twice the size the should be.

 

[nasos_333]

Zelda WiiU is hands down one of the most spectacular looking next gen games, so any comparisson to PS3 and 360 is a joke imo

 

[Kai Dracon]

I was under the impression that essentially every developer who has spoken about Wii U agreed it has a stronger GPU than the PS360. In that case it makes sense that games made specifically for the platform could invoke better effects than strictly possible on last-gen systems. Besides twice the ram available for game use, which would have an immediate effect on open world games like X and now Zelda, at the very least.

Of course, how dramatic the difference is seems very situational. It's not enough of a generational leap for every game to look visibly superior in all ways.

 

[th3sicknness]

Super Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Xenoblade Chronicles X and Bayonetta 2 are all beyond the capabilities of the PS3 and 360 to reproduce without downgrades to lighting, shadows, models, framerate and v-synch. They're throwing around a lot of polys at 720p native, 60fps and have v-synch enabled (although Xenoblade Chronicles X is probably 30fps) and the dynamic lighting and shadows is impressive.

And I'd personally add ZombiU and The Wonderful 101 to that list too.

There's definitely stuff going on under the hood that we're unaware of, what we've seen from those games above shouldn't be possible on a bog standard GPU pushing 176GFlops/352GFlops drawing around 20W. I'm still in the fixed function camp myself, it explains everything including why the ALUs are twice the size the should be.

Isnt the peak measured output of the Wii U 34W?

 

[AstroNut325]

Super Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Xenoblade Chronicles X and Bayonetta 2 are all beyond the capabilities of the PS3 and 360 to reproduce without downgrades to lighting, shadows, models, framerate and v-synch. They're throwing around a lot of polys at 720p native, 60fps and have v-synch enabled (although Xenoblade Chronicles X is probably 30fps) and the dynamic lighting and shadows is impressive.

And I'd personally add ZombiU and The Wonderful 101 to that list too.

There's definitely stuff going on under the hood that we're unaware of, what we've seen from those games above shouldn't be possible on a bog standard GPU pushing 176GFlops/352GFlops drawing around 20W. I'm still in the fixed function camp myself, it explains everything including why the ALUs are twice the size the should be.

I think we're looking at different games. The MK8 and 3D World I've seen in action is rather low on the poly counts. And if I had to guess that is the significant contributor towards the art styles chosen by Nintendo and them achieving 60fps. Even Bayonetta 2 looks somewhat low on the poly count from the footage seen thus far.

 

[xch1n]

Not to derail, but was this ever in question? Simple really, 360 had better multiplats (though Ps3 improved as time went on) because it was easier to make games for it. Ps3 had the annoying Cell. Annoying, but powerful- first party studios learned it well apparently. Nothing on Xbox 360 looks as good as Last of Us or God of War 3, at least to my eyes. Hell, outside of resolution, I think God of War 3 holds its own even against some current gen games.

In addition, and this doesn't get nearly enough attention, the unified memory on the 360 gave developers more flexibility. This is also why Skyrim expansions couldn't come to the PS3. They wanted more than 256MB of RAM for game content and couldn't get it. Sony had to step in and help them come up with solutions to this problem. But the overall sentiment is correct.

 

[Log4Girlz]

I think we're looking at different games. The MK8 and 3D World I've seen in action is rather low on the poly counts. And if I had to guess that is the significant contributor towards the art styles chosen by Nintendo and them achieving 60fps. Even Bayonetta 2 looks somewhat low on the poly count from the footage seen thus far.

If Wii u wad truly way more capable than last gen systems them Bayonetta 2 should be at 1080p at the very least. But I don't think it is.

 

[Hermii]

Super Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Xenoblade Chronicles X and Bayonetta 2 are all beyond the capabilities of the PS3 and 360 to reproduce without downgrades to lighting, shadows, models, framerate and v-synch. They're throwing around a lot of polys at 720p native, 60fps and have v-synch enabled (although Xenoblade Chronicles X is probably 30fps) and the dynamic lighting and shadows is impressive.

And I'd personally add ZombiU and The Wonderful 101 to that list too.

There's definitely stuff going on under the hood that we're unaware of, what we've seen from those games above shouldn't be possible on a bog standard GPU pushing 176GFlops/352GFlops drawing around 20W. I'm still in the fixed function camp myself, it explains everything including why the ALUs are twice the size the should be.

I'm pretty sure there is no secret sauce and fourth storms massive technical explanations in the latte thread explains how it can do the things it does and why the Alus are bigger.

 

[M3d10n]

Did we get any info on whether 1st party games are using deferred rendering?

Anyway, while the raw power is definitely PS360 ballpark, the architecture is definitely closer to PS4/bone in many ways. I still don't think down-ports would be as horribly impossible as most will say (with no proof). Just isn't economical. Project CARS will probably be our first real indicator of how good a PS4/PC -> Wii U down port can look.

Mario Kart 8 is obviously using deferred rendering. The abundance of small-radius dynamic lights and the lack of anti-aliasing are telltale signs. I am not aware of any PS360 game that used deferred rendering and runs at 60fps (correct me if I'm wrong), as it was pretty much a ticket to 30fps land.

If Wii u wad truly way more capable than last gen systems them Bayonetta 2 should be at 1080p at the very least. But I don't think it is.

The Wii U is firmly in the PS360 realm, just like the Wii was in the PS2/GC/Xbox performance bracket. It doesn't mean it can't do things a bit better (look at how poorly Bayoneta 1 ran, for example).

 

[th3sicknness]

If Wii u wad truly way more capable than last gen systems them Bayonetta 2 should be at 1080p at the very least. But I don't think it is.

By your logic the X1 isnt truly next gen... Titanfall on the x1 runs at 792p... Also there are a handful of X1 games that run at 720p even 900p. You cant judge the GEN based on just the performance or resolution of a game.

 

[joesiv]

Agreed ... The ps3 / x360 couldnt even run Sonic Transformed at a locked 30 with no screen tearing (I understand the game wasnt developed with 60 fps in mind).. Modnation Racer couldnt even run at a stable 30 as well.

To be fair, mod nation racers had user generated levels, even the shipped levels were created with the user creation tools.

It's a lot harder to optimize levels and gameplay for user generated content.

 

[sörine]

Mario Kart 8 is obviously using deferred rendering. The abundance of small-radius dynamic lights and the lack of anti-aliasing are telltale signs. I am not aware of any PS360 game that used deferred rendering and runs at 60fps (correct me if I'm wrong), as it was pretty much a ticket to 30fps land.

Most PS360 games that used deferred rendering had trouble holding 30fps even. And it's not just framerate, most were dynamic res or just set under 720p too.

 

[Gbraga]

If Wii u wad truly way more capable than last gen systems them Bayonetta 2 should be at 1080p at the very least. But I don't think it is.

Did you see the scale the fights get in this game? If it's able to keep 60fps with that scale, it's already showing an improvement over Bayonetta 1 on the 360 in both ways. Better graphics, scale and performance, how is that not superior?

 

[Hermii]

If Wii u wad truly way more capable than last gen systems them Bayonetta 2 should be at 1080p at the very least. But I don't think it is.

At least it looks much better than 1. Besides a lot of cross gen games arent even 1080p on Xbox one, a system that is a lot more capable than last gen in every way.

 

[Log4Girlz]

Did you see the scale the fights get in this game? If it's able to keep 60fps with that scale, it's already showing an improvement over Bayonetta 1 on the 360 in both ways. Better graphics, scale and performance, how is that not superior?

Judging by everything I've seen it is not way better than the previous generation. An improvement yes, but that level of detail would be trivial on the ps4 at 1080p, a system that is truly way more powerful than the last generation

 

[Gbraga]

Judging by everything I've seen it is not way better than the previous generation. An improvement yes, but that level of detail would be trivial on the ps4 at 1080p, a system that is truly way more powerful than the last generation

Well, then it's only a matter of perspective. I don't think anyone truly believes the WiiU comes even close to the PS4, so if one thinks the WiiU is way more powerful, than the PS4 is way waaaay more powerful or whatever.

Though I'm inclined to agree with you, it's not a big enough jump to justify saying it's "way more powerful", I do think the PS3 wouldn't be able to run X at 30fps.

I guess I didn't pay enough attention to your post, you weren't denying there was a difference, only arguing it wasn't that great.

 

[Hermii]

Judging by everything I've seen it is not way better than the previous generation. An improvement yes, but that level of detail would be trivial on the ps4 at 1080p, a system that is truly way more powerful than the last generation

All depends on what you think is way better. No one is saying its close to ps4.

 

[fred]

If Wii u wad truly way more capable than last gen systems them Bayonetta 2 should be at 1080p at the very least. But I don't think it is.

I didn't say it was way more powerful. To have Bayonetta 2 at 1080p you'd need to have hardware as powerful as the PS4. It's 720p native, 60fps and with v-synch enabled, it also has far superior textures compared to the 360 SKU of Bayonetta 1. Just have a look at the Gomorrah boss fight - there's no way that the PS3 or 360 are going to be capable of reproducing that without downgrades.

In terms of power and real world performance I'd put the Wii U somewhere between the PS3 and Xbox One. How far away from the middle the Wii U is either side is a matter of debate. I'd personally put it slap bang in the middle just to be safe lol

 

[Timeaisis]

Better GPU, significantly more RAM.

 

[tronic307]

It has more RAM and a more powerful GPU. I don't know much about the CPU.

The CPU has great integer performance, but the floating point seems to be weak when compared to PS360.

People said the same about that X trailer last year and look at those awful character models now.

I think that's because of the size of the world and PS2 JRPG nostalgia. I wouldn't judge the hardware based on that.

 

[LordOcidax]

I have all 3 consoles (PS3, Wii U, 360) and the lighting on some Wii U exclusive games is a lot better than everything i saw on the Old consoles. Also the particles effects and some weather effects looks amazing. If the game is build for the Wii U hardware, taking all the advantage that the system have (More modern gpu, more ram, and gpgpu functions), is a considerable gap. Other than that (Like direct ports) no so big.

 

[ironcreed]

I think it is commonly known that it offers a little bump above the 360 and PS3. The games look great and are fun as hell.

 

[Mohonky]

More powerful, equal, less powerful; whatever the case, Nintendo have been doing something right with the hardware going by what they've been putting out. Maybe because the visuals are bolder and appear cleaner because they arent chasing nitty gritty detail, whatever the reason, i've found the games have less flaws visually, they just appear crisper and cleaner.

Probably the only downer I have seen is some aliasing in the MK8 title, but games like Pikmin, SM3DW, DKTF, Wind Waker all look great to me.

 

[Crisium]

It's clear the PS360 (especially the PS3) were RAM starved - and that's the advantage the WiiU has. And it's a large advantage - over double.

The trade off is that the RAM actually has slightly slower bandwidth than the PS360 - just a bit slower. Also the CPU is still Dolphin technology. More cores and MHz than on the GCN and Wii, absolutely, but it's nothing special. Just based on developer comments, it's probably slower than the 360's in some regards.

I'm not even sure on the GPU's strength, since you hear different amounts on the shaders. But at least it has unified shaders, so it's actually more modern than the PS360's which you should not underestimate the benefits of.

I think if the WiiU were also cursed with 512MB of memory, it would actually produce worse visuals than the PS360. But it has been riding that oh-so-significant capacity advantage.

 

[darkazcura]

Whenever someone posts that pic of Zelda U as if it speaks for itself as to why Wii U has impressive graphics i can't stop cringing. Look at Skyrim for PS3 or 360. Zelda U has the exact same limitations. Look at those barren hills in the distance for instance. They have no grass on them because the render distance for foilage is about as short as it was in Skyrim. I think it looks slightly better than Skyrim because the art style simplifies details and it looks prettier, but that's about it. I can't deny that if this was developed for a PS3 it would probably just get a slight downgrade.

I guarantee Zelda U will run much better than Skyrim did so your point is moot.

EDIT: Honestly it's a little ridiculous for me to "guarantee" anything, but I'd say it is a safe bet considering Nintendo's track record.

 

[OG_Original Gamer]

If Wii u wad truly way more capable than last gen systems them Bayonetta 2 should be at 1080p at the very least. But I don't think it is.

Cut the framerate in half and you would get your 1080p.

 

[lingpanda]

I guess Project Cars will be the game that might be able to answer your question. IMO anyhow.

 

[OG_Original Gamer]

It's clear the PS360 (especially the PS3) were RAM starved - and that's the advantage the WiiU has. And it's a large advantage - over double.

The trade off is that the RAM actually has slightly slower bandwidth than the PS360 - just a bit slower. Also the CPU is still Dolphin technology. More cores and MHz than on the GCN and Wii, absolutely, but it's nothing special. Just based on developer comments, it's probably slower than the 360's in some regards.

I'm not even sure on the GPU's strength, since you hear different amounts on the shaders. But at least it has unified shaders, so it's actually more modern than the PS360's which you should not underestimate the benefits of.

I think if the WiiU were also cursed with 512MB of memory, it would actually produce worse visuals than the PS360. But it has been riding that oh-so-significant capacity advantage.

Uhhh, eDRAM!

 

[WolvenOne]

Wii U has a significantly better GPU than the PS360, which is nevertheless significantly weaker than the PS4 or X1 GPU.

Of the three, the PS3 CPU is probably the most powerful, but only in the theoretical sense. It's hard to discern how well the Wii U and 360 CPU's stack up, as both have some rather odd design features.

In terms of Ram, Wii U wins hands down. It has four times the total RAM as either the PS3, or 360. Admittedly some of that is taken up by the system OS, but the PS360 also have OS's that take up significant portions of thier own system memory.

So, long story short, in most respects the Wii U, is considerably more powerful than previous Gen hardware. In fact, I would estimate it to be roughly 2.5 times as powerful as the PS360.

However, the X1 is roughly 8.5 to 9 times as powerful, and the PS4 is slightly more powerful yet.

Basically, Wii U's hardware looks bad in comparison.

 

[Log4Girlz]

Wii U has a significantly better GPU than the PS360, which is nevertheless significantly weaker than the PS4 or X1 GPU.

Of the three, the PS3 CPU is probably the most powerful, but only in the theoretical sense. It's hard to discern how well the Wii U and 360 CPU's stack up, as both have some rather odd design features.

In terms of Ram, Wii U wins hands down. It has four times the total RAM as either the PS3, or 360. Admittedly some of that is taken up by the system OS, but the PS360 also have OS's that take up significant portions of thier own system memory.

So, long story short, in most respects the Wii U, is considerably more powerful than previous Gen hardware. In fact, I would estimate it to be roughly 2.5 times as powerful as the PS360.

However, the X1 is roughly 8.5 to 9 times as powerful, and the PS4 is slightly more powerful yet.

Basically, Wii U's hardware looks bad in comparison.

Neither the PS3 or 360 have anywhere near half their memory committed to the OS. Not even close to half (though their successor are indeed close to half this time around, but that still gives them 5x the working about of the U). Shame that Nintendo didn't allocate more to games, though in the long run I guess it didn't really matter.

 

[th3sicknness]

I don't think anyone will argue it is better than anything next gen .. But I would argue that when a developer puts the time into the Wii U it can and has demonstrated to be noticeably better than last gen systems.

For me it is technically impressive what Nintendo has done with the size of the machine and the power consumption. The Wii U put out late gen ports of 360 / ps3 games without much optimization at almost half the power consumption of the sized down late gen systems.

Nintendo just does more with less.. it might not be 5-10x better .. But it is just more efficient pound for pound.

 

[th3sicknness]

Neither the PS3 or 360 have anywhere near half their memory committed to the OS. Not even close to half (though their successor are indeed close to half this time around, but that still gives them 5x the working about of the U). Shame that Nintendo didn't allocate more to games, though in the long run I guess it didn't really matter.

Didnt Nintendo free up a good chunk of system memory / CPU core reserved for the 3ds OS later in its life cycle with a patch ? I am sure once the OS is more optimized they could offer up that option later?

 

[Log4Girlz]

Didnt Nintendo free up a good chunk of system memory / CPU core reserved for the 3ds OS later in its life cycle with a patch ? I am sure once the OS is more optimized they could offer up that option later?

Perhaps. It will only benefit Nintendo though. Considering their games and art design though, being usually more simplistic, one has to wonder if its even worth the bother. They're getting good enough results as is, why work on stream-lining the OS.

 

[Berg]

360 - 180 watts
ps3 - 190 watts
wiiu - 35 watts

so ~150 watts power difference.

 

[televator]

360 - 180 watts
ps3 - 190 watts
wiiu - 35 watts

so ~150 watts power difference.

WiiU, least powerful confirmed.

 

[Phoenician_Viking]

Looking at Zelda for Wii U , it just looks so beautiful and to me beyond what the PS3 and 360 can do. I also think that a game like Smash Bros Wii U wouldn't run on the PS3 and 360 without framerate issues.

There´s nothing on the WiiU that look as good as Wipeout HD or God Of War 3/Ascension. And Zelda is no where near beyond PS360 capabilities.