Rumor: Wii U final specs

Things confirmed:
2GB RAM: 1GB for games, 1GB for the OS
22.5MB/S Blu Ray drive speed
32GB flash memory in the premium, 8GB in the standard
Will feature a GPGPU

1GB is hefty for a game console OS, I was expecting it to half that at most. But it is nice to see Nintendo not cheap out on the RAM pool.

Nintendo offering two SKU's is an interesting departure for them. This is the first time they have ever done that for a home console.

A GPGPU? I guess this will make up for whatever shortfalls the CPU will have. Interesting... is this the SNES all over again?
 
2GB of memory. Looks like all of my messageboard reading paid off!

well, i spilled the beans for yah months ago :p Granted, i doubted my own source when they said "1GB for OS" so i added the "at least 512mb" to secure the thing. But they were reliable all along !

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=38580503&postcount=531
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=41676271&postcount=3426

It's pretty sure some of this ram will be unlocked down the road.

But it's the same if you only have 1 gb to "play". I mean it doesn't matter at all. The os memory doesn't change anything.

see lherre ? you doubted me when i repeated you in private that the wii u will have 2GB total since february :p
 
Sounds like one hell of a waste to reserver 1 GB entirely for system. Even if it's slower RAM, it can still be useful for games. I hope that later in the lifecycle some of it will be accessible for developers.

I would wager that you will see the OS pool shrink overtime. I would expect it not to drop below 512mb though. Nintendo is very intent on Multitasking.
 
So wait:
1GB RAM for games (which isn't really a lot...) and 1GB RAM only for the OS?

What?
1GB alone for the OS?
Isn't this a bit... too much?
 
1GB is hefty for a game console OS, I was expecting it to half that at most. But it is nice to see Nintendo not cheap out on the RAM pool.

Nintendo offering two SKU's is an interesting departure for them. This is the first time they have ever done that for a home console.

A GPGPU? I guess this will make up for whatever shortfalls the CPU will have. Interesting... is this the SNES all over again?

Well remember that even the lowly Radeon 5450 can do GPGPU stuff. Not a huge deal unless there's enough stream processors.
 
Does it having a GPGPU fuck up all the systems people use for trying to measure what this rumored CPU can do?

yes....if what i think you mean is how it also explains why PS3/360 port jobs may be running into trouble, and points in the same direction as PS4/720 architecture
 
I still feel that it's Nintendo overcompensating. They'll reduce it over time.

Some people owe you some apologies for all the heat you took over the GPGPU thing.

Also, that OS better be amazing. Hopefully they can optimize a little with an update and cut that back.
 
Considering Nintendo overcharges for nearly every DD game and rarely if not never gives discounts this 10% means nothing.

I bought NSMB2 for the same price as retail on the 3DS. If they keep a steady supply of digital releases of retail titles going that 10% off can quickly make up for the extra 50 dollars.
 
But it's the same if you only have 1 gb to "play". I mean it doesn't matter at all. The os memory doesn't change anything.

Hush you! You're not telling me what I didn't already know. ;)

well, i spilled the beans for yah months ago :p Granted, i doubted my own source when they said "1GB for OS" so i added the "at least 512mb" to secure the thing. But they were reliable all along !

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=38580503&postcount=531
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=41676271&postcount=3426

It's pretty sure some of this ram will be unlocked down the road.

I'll give you 55% of the credit and 45% to the other person I asked since he didn't say it as a definite. :P
 
Though buying the premium gets you 10% discount on games for 2 years

I don't really see myself buying any retail games online. I prefer to have the physical games unless i'm getting really steep discount (like a Steam-type discount). 10% really won't mean much for the digital-only games, and that's all i'd use them on.
 
So wait:
1GB RAM for games (which isn't really a lot...) and 1GB RAM only for the OS?

What?
1GB alone for the OS?
Isn't this a bit... too much?
They're playing it safe. Reserving too much RAM early on is no big deal, reserving too little will lead to problems down the road.
 
GPGPU = surprising and good news.

This means that the GPU can be used to perform certain calculations normally left to the CPU. Since GPUs are insanely optimised to perform certain calculations much faster than a CPU, many programs will benefit from using the GPU instead of the CPU for these calculations. This means faster calculations for certain tasks, which takes away some strain from the CPU.

It'll be up to developers to add support for this though, which may explain why some current engines are struggling with ports. The engines are probably not optimised for GPGPUs.
 
I bought NSMB2 for the same price as retail on the 3DS. If they keep a steady supply of digital releases of retail titles going that 10% off can quickly make up for the extra 50 dollars.

I guess I'm just cheap, but even for games that I get at retail at or near launch, I almost always get at least 20+% off, if not more.

I mean, it's very common to get $60 games at or near launch for $40 either through a straight discount or some gift card promo now. Buying a digital copy of a game for $54 doesn't sound enticing to me at all.
 
Wonder why they never released the specs of the GPGPU?

Wonder if this means it will be able to get next gen ports, since it might have a similar architecture?
 
1 GB for the OS does look like way too much. I wonder if it's cheaper RAM on a completely different bus, or is it unified?
 
You can presumably do anything the system does while a game is suspended. And you can multi task on the Pad, like using the browser or video chatting while in game. That's why there is so much RAM reserved.
 
well, i spilled the beans for yah months ago :p Granted, i doubted my own source when they said "1GB for OS" so i added the "at least 512mb" to secure the thing. But they were reliable all along !

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=38580503&postcount=531
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=41676271&postcount=3426

It's pretty sure some of this ram will be unlocked down the road.



see lherre ? you doubted me when i repeated you in private that the wii u will have 2GB total since february :p

So you knew all along, eh

IdeaMan, one thing I will say, is you ended up being right on a lot of things. It took a while, but I think people who doubted you before can eat some crow
 
So you knew all along, eh

IdeaMan, one thing I will say, is you ended up being right on a lot of things. It took a while, but I think people who doubted you before can eat some crow

There were like 10 pages of doubters after revealing all this RAM story in february (it was my second leak), "noooo, why the OS will take that much, blablabla" :p

Man, even lherre doubted me when i insisted that it will be 2GB total.

It's a real good news and confirmation, i'm sure games will have more than 1GB for them now, down the road.
 
GPGPU = surprising and good news.

This means that the GPU can be used to perform certain calculations normally left to the CPU. Since GPUs are insanely optimised to perform certain calculations much faster than a CPU, many programs will benefit from using the GPU instead of the CPU for these calculations. This means faster calculations for certain tasks, which takes away some strain from the CPU.

It'll be up to developers to add support for this though, which may explain why some current engines are struggling with ports. The engines are probably not optimised for GPGPUs.

Exactly that. And as we get a clearer picture of the other two next gen consoles, we can see they seem to be following a similar path with more emphasis on GPGPU functionality...looks to be the architecture of next gen, and I bet once those two systems come out and get some games going, we will see games easier to port to Wii U than they seem to be from 360/ps3 for that reason, even if raw power-wsie there is a gap

Why should it be surprising? Any DX10 compliant chip can do that.

It might be surprising to some, because when the idea of the GPU being a GPGPU was originally brought up, it was shot down....you know, the whole "well its Nintendo" straw-man argument

Its a different architecture inherently than what the 360 and PS3 have, so it is simply a confirmation of what many of us have been thinking has played a role in difficulty porting ps3/360 games over
 
You can do anything the system does while a game is suspended. And you can multi task on the Pad, like using the browser or video chatting while in game. That's why there is so much RAM reserved.

This sounds like a very useful feature. Like being able to use the web browser to get hints and stuff while you play.
 
gpgpu confirmation is huge...


bg, right on the ram and looking right on all 3 next gen consoles using similar architecture

It's huge? It was a given.

Pretty much any gpu architecture they were going to pick would be gpgpu capable. It's not a magic elixir wrt technically competing with the other consoles...heck, vita is gpgpu capable iirc.
 
Sounds like one hell of a waste to reserve 1 GB entirely for system. Even if it's slower, it can still be useful for games. I hope that later in the lifecycle some of it will be accessible for developers.

Nintendo reduced the footprint of the 3DS OS so that developers could use some of the extra CPU, so it's possible.
 
How I hate it when people (including my boss) call things "GPGPUs", as if they were any different from a normal GPU.

Any modern (and even not-so-modern) GPU can be used for general purpose computation these days. Hell, I did GPGPU in a Radeon 9700 in 2004.
 
You can do anything the system does while a game is suspended. And you can multi task on the Pad, like using the browser or video chatting while in game. That's why there is so much RAM reserved.
That's still more RAM than an iPhone, and as much as the new iPad!
 
There were like 10 pages of doubters after revealing all this RAM story in february (it was my second leak), "noooo, why the OS will take that much, blablabla" :p

Man, even lherre doubted me when i insisted that it will be 2GB total.

It's a real good news and confirmation, i'm sure games will have more than 1GB for them now, down the road.

Yep, but I'm only interested in "game memory" not os memory :P
 
There were like 10 pages of doubters after revealing all this RAM story in february (it was my second leak), "noooo, why the OS will take that much, blablabla" :p

Man, even lherre doubted me when i insisted that it will be 2GB total.

It's a real good news and confirmation, i'm sure games will have more than 1GB for them now, down the road.

I think that's because the dev kit probably had 3 GB ram max and they probably knew the OS took up at least 512 MB. Since devs probably didn't have to play with the OS much, they increased it to 1 GB and that wasn't reflected in the devkits (which would have to feature 4 GB).
 
They're playing it safe. Reserving too much RAM early on is no big deal, reserving too little will lead to problems down the road.

The feature set of Miiverse and Nintendo Network is constantly evolving and will do so for the next couple of years so even though this ram will eventually be freed up with maybe more than half of it eventually being used for games, it will probably not be evident in games for a couple of years.

What is good to hear is that the Drive is equivalent to a 5X Speed Blu Ray Drive though I thought it would be around 6X speed or around 27MB/s maybe 5X is a constant speed and that the drive is capable of more but will probably get very loud when increased at more then 22.5MB/s


Did Iwata say that the TDP of the unit was 75 Watts? That seems interesting if we are indeed getting an enhanced broadway style CPU in there. the GPGPU might be pretty good. maybe in the upper rang of the 600-800 GFLOPS a lot of us have been talking about. I am going with 640 alu's clocked at 607.5MHz then we are probably looking at over 768GFLOPS (comparable to HD7xxx series GFLOP rating not HD4xxx)

The price is very interesting indeed and it looks like either $250 and $299 or $299-$349 depending on conversion rates. but since the japanese price includes sales tax already I am inclined to go with the former.
I think the US and EU will have a third SKU compared to japan's 2 sku strategy.
 
At least now they have the room to unlock more ram for games further in the lifespan of the system. With only let's say 1,2GB for the system (1GB for games 200MB for system functions) it would have been a lot more difficult !

Let's rejoice :)

Depends on the os ram ... is not that "easy". You are thinking in the best case scenario that both are the same ram, etc, etc.
 
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