Rumor: Wii U final specs

I'm expecting 4GB for the next offerings from MS & Sony, with about 512MB (1GB worst case scenario) on each reserved for the OS.

Which will leave the Wii-U with anywhere from 50% to 66% less usable memory for games than the competition, not a good sign as far as ports go IMO.

No, but few people buy these ports anyway.
 
Seriously, has anyone got any links to MS making a profit on the 360?

IIRC they had a few profitable quarters, I am not sure if they have made a profit on the Xbox brand. This is not a good example of a loss leading position reaping rewards, especially considering how Sony is doing financially partially due to PS3 and factoring in that Microsoft has other divisions that veritably guarantee massive profits company wide in the order of billions year after year. Xbox is inconsequential to the over-all business.
 
And storing 1 second would produce 1 second of lag. Horrible.

That's not the point I'm trying to suggest, a few frames will obviously have to be stored simply to slow the padddisplay down to match the TVs lag, I'm just saying the suggestion that some massive chunk of the OS GB is obviously for streaming to the pad is flawed
 
It makes sense, and there's plenty of reasons why it's going to be harder for Sony and Microsoft's consoles to have significantly more power than this generation, but I think the price of the Wii U is an encouraging sign if anything. If Nintendo can release a console more powerful than the 360/PS3 in a tiny form factor, with an extremely expensive controller at the same price they launched the Wii at, then Sony and Microsoft should be able to do a lot more with a reasonable budget (and a more expansive case design).

Good point. If Nintendo had gone with a traditional controller, they could've beefed up the specs a bit (more RAM? Higher-end GPU? Faster CPU clock?) and kept the 25000yen price. I imagine this would please the hardcore gamers, but a lot of them may not have actually bought it because "it won't have Xbox Live" or whatever. Who knows how it would've gone. Probably a lot like the GameCube, honestly.

I imagine if MS and Sony don't pull a Wii U or their weirdly expensive controller innovations, their systems might be able to get down to $300-350 packages at launch (with maybe a couple concessions, like no memory included or whatever).
 
Just woke up. IDK why they need 1GB of system RAM, but so far haters have been pwned. Nindrones +1. :P
So now the fanboy shit is this blatant, eh?
I think for the price the Wii U is an amazing deal. I just don't get people bitching about the specs but at the same time would not accept a higher price. If the unit were designed around a BOM of just $50 more, man we would have a really slick piece of kit in our hands.
Yeah... those people would talk shit even if a new Zelda tech demo that looked like lord of the rings appeared on the net. It really would be an awesome piece of hardware if they spent a bit more. Nintendo clearly packed the Wii U to the brim.

oh well
 
Have to agree with people saying 1 GB is not enough for a system that is supposed to last until at least 2018 to 2020.
It will be for nintendo. Still i wish they werent focusing so much on the os which will probably be mess with nintendos os engineers and put another 512 towards games
 
Have to agree with people saying 1 GB is not enough for a system that is supposed to last until at least 2018 to 2020.

Soon to be 1,5 GB. We hope... Anyway, it will be for Nintendo games and for the occasional ambitious third party dev. Multiplats will be bought on either PC, PS4 or xbox720.

It's not sad for us, it's sad for Nintendo. But maybe good multiplats in the first year will make people buy a Wii-U....
 
8 gigs of ram is ridiculous. What's the point of having a disc drive then?

No competent developer needs that much.

All of this talk about RAM is missing the point. Yes, more RAM can be desirable, but at the end of the day there are other things to consider. Most people, not power users or most of the people on GAF, have less than 4GB of RAM in their PCs. These are Windows machines running Office, AV, and a host of other apps that are all memory hogs. The point is these are different environments. Whereas a dedicated console can have its software streamlined for the hardware, a PC builder has to plan for a worst case scenario.
 
Have to agree with people saying 1 GB is not enough for a system that is supposed to last until at least 2018 to 2020.

It will feel outdated by then, to be sure. The Wii certainly did; but if Wii had permitted HD output like its competitors, I expect it wouldn't have been as noticeable. And 2018 is the most likely release date of Wii U's successor, certainly not 2020... No need to stretch reality to make a point.
 
I fully expect 2017 to be the next release date if this thing doesn't take off.
 
Thanks to MS putting a bunch of other stuff in their entertainment division, it's impossible to know when the 360 broke even.

It hasn't yet. the next xbox might get them close to breaking even but there was so much losses on xbox 1 and the first three years of xbox 360 that it will take many years before this happens, as it is possible they will take losses next year for their next project.
 
All of this talk about RAM is missing the point. Yes, more RAM can be desirable, but at the end of the day there are other things to consider. Most people, not power users or most of the people on GAF, have less than 4GB of RAM in their PCs. These are Windows machines running Office, AV, and a host of other apps that are all memory hogs. The point is these are different environments. Whereas a dedicated console can have its software streamlined for the hardware, a PC builder has to plan for a worst case scenario.

Its still a mere doubling of the previous generation.
 
A console doesn't have to be performance competitive to be considered balanced.
Performance (in the context of what the competition offers) is one of the factors that decide whether a console is balanced or not, though.

I would never describe Wii as a balanced console, and I don't see how Wii U is any different.
 
I'm expecting 4GB for the next offerings from MS & Sony, with about 512MB (1GB worst case scenario) on each reserved for the OS.

Which will leave the Wii-U with anywhere from 50% to 66% less usable memory for games than the competition, not a good sign as far as ports go IMO.

LOL, the next Xbox will have a built in Kinect 2 and both with have expanded media options. They'll likely take a gig as well for the OS. Not worst case scenario but standard
 
It hasn't yet. the next xbox might get them close to breaking even but there was so much losses on xbox 1 and the first three years of xbox 360 that it will take many years before this happens, as it is possible they will take losses next year for their next project.

The discussion was about the 360, not Xbox as a whole.
 
It will feel outdated by then, to be sure. The Wii certainly did; but if Wii had permitted HD output like its competitors, I expect it wouldn't have been as noticeable. And 2018 is the most likely release date of Wii U's successor, certainly not 2020... No need to stretch reality to make a point.

When this unit is released, it is basically the start of 2013, so 5 to 7 years is very normal for the lifespan of a console without a large industry shift in thinking (i.e., with faster console turn arounds). The Originall Wii will be 6 years when the Wii U comes out, and I'm sure will be supported for another year or so, so IMO 5 to 7 years is an extremely valid assertion.
 
Performance (in the context of what the competition offers) is one of the factors that decide whether a console is balanced or not, though.

I would never describe Wii as a balanced console, and I don't see how Wii U is any different.

I think you're missing how the word "balanced" is used in context in that post. A balanced system is one that has what's considered enough strength in each of it's components so that there are no extreme bottlenecks.

Obviously we don't really know if this is the case for the Wii-U, but still how powerful a system is doesn't have any bearing on how balanced a system is.
 
I assume the OS is built on either Integrity or µ-velOSity, the interface is seemingly browser based (WebKit).

Is there anything official on that? We know info will be available on web based platforms probably via XML syndication, but that wouldn't necessarily mean the main OS will be webkit based would it?
 
I just realised that a souped up ps360 is fine by me. A wii was borderline but yeah. Buy Nintendo consoles for quirky games and Nintendo software, and a PC for the rest. Worked fine this gen and I reckon it will next one too. Especially with Japanese devs seemingly warming up to pc gaming and bringing the ports.
 
LOL, the next Xbox will have a built in Kinect 2 and both with have expanded media options. They'll likely take a gig as well for the OS. Not worst case scenario but standard

The rumor was that almost half of the RAM available in the new Xbox would be for the OS.
 
"Uses up to 75 watts of electricity"

sy2puc2ly85.gif
 
I just realised that a souped up ps360 is fine by me. A wii was borderline but yeah. Buy Nintendo consoles for quirky games and Nintendo software, and a PC for the rest. Worked fine this gen and I reckon it will next one too. Especially with Japanese devs seemingly warming up to pc gaming and bringing the ports.

so far this seems like the best option for me, lets wait and see what happens
 
Have to agree with people saying 1 GB is not enough for a system that is supposed to last until at least 2018 to 2020.

The rest of the system is not going to get any more powerful no matter how many years you wait. If 2 GB are enough now they will be enough forever, even more so they manage to decrease the OS-overhead of 1 GB with time.

Textures and models of uber-quality are too big for the Wii U's GPU to handle, so it's natural that for the system to be a balanced one not so much memory is needed.
 
Is there anything official on that? We know info will be available on web based platforms probably via XML syndication, but that wouldn't necessarily mean the main OS will be webkit based would it?
The way I understand it, Miiverse is all HTML, on all platforms - including Wii U itself. That's the reason it'll be on any device that has a browser. It won't need platform specific apps or anything.
 
Funniest thing i've read today over on EUrogamer in the commenst section:

"Nintendo should've gone with a built in Hard drive; a quiet console doesn't sound as powerful as a loud one"

Couldn't agree more, in fact, MS and Sony should build in a mono speaker that makes the sound of a muscle car while booting and the sound of a telephone modem when loading.
 
"Uses up to 75 watts of electricity"

(some_image)

The electricity consumed is largely proportional to the price of the components (since the CPU and GPU area determine price as well as peak TDP).

If you think it uses too little power you're saying Nintendo should have gone for Five Hundred and Ninety Nine US dollars?
 
The way I understand it, Miiverse is all HTML, on all platforms - including Wii U itself. That's the reason it'll be on any device that has a browser. It won't need platform specific apps or anything.

I'm from a web background so I seen it as the data being web a based like XML. XML can be syndicated between differing environments and platforms which don't have to be web based, which is the beauty of something like that.

Or enclosed systems/environments (Nintendo's servers) could serve data from the DB in any way it wants if its more efficient for the WiiU hardware to receive in something other than XML.

XML is the future ;p

EDIT, basically saying Nintendo's data can be served as XML and understood by any device, no need for a webkit receiver.
 

That confirms that WiiU aims only to be marginally better than PS3 and X360. CPU is reportedly slower than in x360, ram is DDR3, and they picked the slowest 7xxx radon of them all.

At least, PS3 and x360 will continue to live for a long time, fueled bu the games that were built for very similarity powered WiiU.
 
That confirms that WiiU aims only to be marginally better than PS3 and X360. CPU is reportedly slower than in x360, ram is DDR3, and they picked the slowest 7xxx radon of them all.

At least, PS3 and x360 will continue to live for a long time, fueled bu the games that were built for very similarity powered WiiU.

ICE COLD!
 
You're wrong and probably talking out of your butt to boot.

You do realize the slowest 7xxx is less than half the GFLOPS of the Xenos, and has a TDP of 19 watts?

OK, what did they use that will fit in the 75W power envelope? 4X bluray, motherboard, DDR3 ram [lol 5w] and CPU will use significant chunk of those 75W.

And I did not mean total slowest one, i meant 75xx series [probably very underclocked].
 
OK, what did they use that will fit in the 75W power envelope? 4X bluray, motherboard, DDR3 ram [lol 5w] and CPU will use significant chunk of those 75W.

And I did not mean total slowest one, i meant 75xx series [probably very underclocked].

It's hard to say without knowing whether they used a 28nm or 40nm chip. Something like a HD 7570 shrunk to 28 nm looks within TDP, it would be almost 3x the Xenos's GFLOPS, with a more modern architecture too.
 
That confirms that WiiU aims only to be marginally better than PS3 and X360. CPU is reportedly slower than in x360, ram is DDR3, and they picked the slowest 7xxx radon of them all.

At least, PS3 and x360 will continue to live for a long time, fueled bu the games that were built for very similarity powered WiiU.
Good. By that same logic WiiU will benefit from Durango/Orbis' games built for 2x-3x GPU and mem.
 
It's hard to say without knowing whether they used a 28nm or 40nm chip. Something like a HD 7570 shrunk to 28 nm looks within TDP, it would be almost 3x the Xenos's GFLOPS, with a more modern architecture too.

Some rumors mentioned 32nm production for WiiU components... But nothing is confirmed.
 
You know it is not the same case ...
No, of course it's far from being that simple. That said, I also expect Orbis/Durango to not be able to do some things wiiU will, depending on edram availability and routing.
 
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