Wii U Speculation Thread of Brains Beware: Wii U Re-Unveiling At E3 2012

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StevieP said:
From what I recall, they're crashing a lot due to heat issues, right? As I said in an earlier post, I highly doubt a customized 4770-level GPU part would cause any cooking. More than likely it would be the CPU unless it is an SoC.

I'm not reading more into the overheating devkits than is necessary. According to wsippel's source, and I believe him, the SoC isn't even fully baked over in India yet. The componants in the dev kit are almost certainly early and unoptomized approxomations of the final unit.

I was reading up on the 476fp and it seems like a great candidate. Perhaps the difficulty is in Nintendo/IBM trying to double up the core clock from it's baseline of 1.6Ghz to the rumored 3+Ghz. I recall IBM getting a PPC core (er PPE) up to 3.2Ghz around 2005 was a pretty major task, but they magaged to pull it off by hook or by crook depending on how you value the PPE. Anyway, I still hold stock in the tri-core 3.5Ghz rumors. Nintendo must really want to make porting from the Xbox360 nearly effortless. A similar clock-rate/core count but more robust core would also explain some of the uncertainty expressed by developers regarding just how much more they can push the hardware beyond PS360 level.

The thing to remember is Nintendo spent ALOT or R&D money over the past few years. An extremely customized chip should be expected. Thus, something which contains elements of the 476fp and POWER7 seems reasonable considering the reports of both large amounts of eDRAM and an energy-saving design.
 
StevieP said:
The dev kits aren't in that case.
It doesn't matter unless they're planning on redesigning the unit.

I really want to see what Nintendo can do with a large console. Can you imagine?

Based on recent discussion and research, I predict these specs.

45nm PPC 476FP tri-core @ 1.8-2.0GHz w/8-16MB eDRAM
40nm or 32nm RV740-based GPU with 480 or 640SPs clocked at 600MHz on the core and 10-16MB eDRAM
1.5-2GB GDDR3 or GDDR5 RAM pool shared between CPU and GPU; clocked at 600-800MHz

Yes, that is very reasonable.
 
BurntPork said:
It doesn't matter unless they're planning on redesigning the unit.

I really want to see what Nintendo can do with a large console. Can you imagine?

Probably include built in storage for your controllers.
 
StevieP said:
From what I recall, they're crashing a lot due to heat issues, right? As I said in an earlier post, I highly doubt a customized 4770-level GPU part would cause any cooking. More than likely it would be the CPU unless it is an SoC.

No, the hangs comes via gpu side. You have to limit it some parameters to have a stable system.
 
BurntPork said:
It doesn't matter unless they're planning on redesigning the unit.

I really want to see what Nintendo can do with a large console. Can you imagine?

Based on recent discussion and research, I predict these specs.

45nm PPC 476FP tri-core @ 1.8-2.0GHz w/8-16MB eDRAM
40nm or 32nm RV740-based GPU with 640SPs clocked at 600-700MHz on the core
1.5-2GB GDDR3 or GDDR5 RAM pool shared between CPU and GPU; clocked at 600-800MHz

Yes, that is very reasonable.


What about eDRAM for the GPU--are you expecting any?
 
lherre said:
Difficult to say now to be honest because until they don't fix the problems-bugs, no one can measure with accuracy the performance of the system (well you can, until it hangs). But I think the kits won't change too much internally between revisions (at least the components there). But is too soon to say one thing or another or to be sure about it.

So we will see in the next revisions if the info changes or not. Now is the same in all the devkits launched.
Even though these are non final dev kits, shouldn't devs still know exactly the specs of the hardware in the kits e.g. the stream processor count, frequency, bus width etc? You shouldn't need a non buggy dev kit to be able to see what the performance of the system is.
 
BurntPork said:
It doesn't matter unless they're planning on redesigning the unit.

I really want to see what Nintendo can do with a large console. Can you imagine?

Based on recent discussion and research, I predict these specs.

45nm PPC 476FP tri-core @ 1.8-2.0GHz w/8-16MB eDRAM
40nm or 32nm RV740-based GPU with 640SPs clocked at 600-700MHz on the core
1.5-2GB GDDR3 or GDDR5 RAM pool shared between CPU and GPU; clocked at 600-800MHz

Yes, that is very reasonable.
You overshot the GPU and RAM. It's more likely to be closer to a 500MHz RV 730 at 40nm and 1GB of GDDR5.

BurntPork said:
Ah, I knew I forgot something. The 360 has 24MB, right? So... 24-32MB? Yeah, that sounds right.
Lolz? 360 has 10mb, nowhere near 24mb. eDRAM is super expensive so it's difficult to predict just how much it would have, were it to have any at all.
 
BurntPork said:
It doesn't matter unless they're planning on redesigning the unit.

I really want to see what Nintendo can do with a large console. Can you imagine?

Based on recent discussion and research, I predict these specs.

45nm PPC 476FP tri-core @ 1.8-2.0GHz w/8-16MB eDRAM
40nm or 32nm RV740-based GPU with 640SPs clocked at 600-700MHz on the core and 24-32MB eDRAM
1.5-2GB GDDR3 or GDDR5 RAM pool shared between CPU and GPU; clocked at 600-800MHz

Yes, that is very reasonable.


I predict these specs are way higher than reality.
 
So BurntPork is posting what seems to be specs that take in account factors like BC, size, price and efficiency ? What would be the decisive factor in comparision to the current twins that would allow the console to pull out 1080p as opposed to 720p ?

What overall benefits can we expect from such specs as opposed to the ones in the current consoles ?
 
Mr_Brit said:
You overshot the GPU and RAM. It's more likely to be closer to a 500MHz RV 730 at 40nm and 1GB of GDDR5.


Lolz? 360 has 10mb, nowhere near 24mb. eDRAM is super expensive so it's difficult to predict just how much it would have, were it to have any at all.
I get RV730, but 500MHz? No way.

And yeah. My bad.
 
ElectricBlanketFire said:
All I want is the ability to see who is knocking on your door in Animal Crossing by using the controller as a window.

THAT'S ALL I WANT.
Hahaha.

All I was in an Animal Crossing the isn't a COMPLETE REHASH of the last game.
 
ShockingAlberto said:
Do we actually know anything about Animal Crossing, much less enough to say it's going to be completely different or exactly the same

From the trailer we only know that they have yet to show something new that is not swimming. As they have released the same AC with only minor additions on now 4 consoles, there's no reason to believe that they add many new features or even a proper online mode - otherwise Nintendo would need to sell it for 90 €.
 
Shiggy said:
From the trailer we only know that they have yet to show something new that is not swimming. As they have released the same AC with only minor additions on now 4 consoles, there's no reason to believe that they add many new features or even a proper online mode - otherwise Nintendo would need to sell it for 90 €.

Bushes, Tent, Legs. There was also a part where a town person was following you around. the Developer talked about looking into online, a bit reassuring. =C
 
Shiggy said:
From the trailer we only know that they have yet to show something new that is not swimming. As they have released the same AC with only minor additions on now 4 consoles, there's no reason to believe that they add many new features or even a proper online mode - otherwise Nintendo would need to sell it for 90 €.
So, no.
 
ShockingAlberto said:
I asked about it since they had no playable demo and Nintendo of Europe said to me: "We had a chance to test it and be assured it's the Animal Crossing you know and love!"
 
[Nintex] said:
I asked about it since they had no playable demo and Nintendo of Europe said to me: "We had a chance to test it and be assured it's the Animal Crossing you know and love!"

Now that is just PR. They know no more than us, most likely.
 
Don't get me wrong, it likely is the total rehash we expect it to be.

They just haven't shown enough of the game for that to be any sort of conclusion rather than an expectation.
 
ShockingAlberto said:
Don't get me wrong, it likely is the total rehash we expect it to be.

They just haven't shown enough of the game for that to be any sort of conclusion rather than an expectation.

I wouldn't mind rehash too much if it has a good online infrastructure. What i wouldn't give to be able to build the houses pieces by piece, with different materials.
 
Truth101 said:
Now that is just PR. They know no more than us, most likely.
Yeah obviously NoE doesn't know shit, we played the Zelda demo and finished it and they were like: "How did you beat that boss?" and they also had the thing set up wrong. The settings on the Wii said: "Sensor bar below TV" and they had placed it on top of the TV. They luckily kept the 60hz setting from last time we visited, playing Monster Hunter without widescreen and on 50hz was painful.
 
ShockingAlberto said:
Don't get me wrong, it likely is the total rehash we expect it to be.

They just haven't shown enough of the game for that to be any sort of conclusion rather than an expectation.

At least some new activities and a real online mode would be great. But that's probably asking too much. The AC games just got boring when they are always the same, they need some gameplay innovations, maybe a real world to discover.
 
lherre said:
No, the hangs comes via gpu side. You have to limit it some parameters to have a stable system.
Bodes well with the rumor the gpu silicon is nowhere near final.

But at least the devkit is not a G5 mac ; )
 
blu said:
Bodes well with the rumor the gpu silicon is nowhere near final.

But at least the devkit is not a G5 mac ; )

What I find particularly interesting is that what we're getting is probably some kind of SoC/APU similar to what 360S has in its innards, with a modified RV7xx that's likely in the range of 4-500SPUs, and developers have to downclock it to keep the box running. Maybe I'm a pessimist like BurntPork, but that seems a bit shameful on Nintendo/AMD's part, even if it is highly customized silicon.
 
lherre said:
Difficult to say now to be honest because until they don't fix the problems-bugs, no one can measure with accuracy the performance of the system (well you can, until it hangs). But I think the kits won't change too much internally between revisions (at least the components there). But is too soon to say one thing or another or to be sure about it.

So we will see in the next revisions if the info changes or not. Now is the same in all the devkits launched.

lherre said:
No, the hangs comes via gpu side. You have to limit it some parameters to have a stable system.

Cool. Even though you obviously can't give us specifics, I feel that I'm at least getting a better idea of the situation being presented to you.

Are you still on the first version of the dev kit that was talked about before or are you on the second version we've heard about recently like from Vigil? I ask this because you mention you will see in the next revision if the info changes, meaning that you would possibly be getting a third version sooner or later. Also again in your opinion could it be argued that it's not an RV770 (or R700 for that matter) as much as it can be argued that it is one due to the lack of complete information you have? I hope how that sounded in my brain translated properly to this post for you to understand that question. With the problems of the GPU that you mention, I'd kind of gather that you wouldn't be able to firmly say that it is a variant of an R700 and that the ones who said it before were speculating almost as much as some of us are.
 
Hm. I'm beginning to think that the GPU uses the R700 architecture only for the SPs, but is for the most part a new chip designed from the ground-up. So, time for a slight revision to my estimations.

45nm PPC 476FP tri-core @ 1.8-2.0GHz w/8-16MB eDRAM
40nm or 32nm loosely R700-based GPU with 400, 480, or 640SPs clocked at 550-650MHz on the core and 10-16MB eDRAM
1-2GB GDDR3 or GDDR5 RAM pool shared between CPU and GPU; clocked at 600-800MHz
 
I think it's safe to assume they are going for at least 20 ounces of Nintendo Magic total, between the console and the controller. Dividing that by the five (confirmed) Funs gives you 4oz per Fun, which is frankly kind of difficult for me to wrap my head around. Even if I'm wrong and it's more like 3oz/Fun, that's still more than I think most people are expecting. Just imagine if they can pull that off at a consistent frame rate... wow.
 
Final Wii U revision is going to have the following specs:
8gb flash memory
ATI Radeon 6790
POWER7 @ 4.0ghz
4gigs shared pool of GDDR5 ram @ 800mhz
1TB Hologram Discs

Make it so, Nintendo.
 
lednerg said:
I think it's safe to assume they are going for at least 20 ounces of Nintendo Magic total, between the console and the controller. Dividing that by the five (confirmed) Funs gives you 4oz per Fun, which is frankly kind of difficult for me to wrap my head around. Even if I'm wrong and it's more like 3oz/Fun, that's still more than I think most people are expecting. Just imagine if they can pull that off at a consistent frame rate... wow.
Well... that's one way to bump a thread.

phosphor112 said:
Final Wii U revision is going to have the following specs:
8gb flash memory
ATI Radeon 6790
POWER7 @ 4.0ghz
4gigs shared pool of GDDR5 ram @ 800mhz
1TB Hologram Discs

Make it so, Nintendo.
Are you making fun of me? :p
 
BurntPork said:
Are you making fun of me? :p
No, just the wild speculation in this thread. I think it's even pushing it to have a POWER7 in that tiny ass box. I think it would be cheaper to have something not as powerful, clocked higher, instead of something like POWER but underclocked. What do I know though?
 
phosphor112 said:
No, just the wild speculation in this thread. I think it's even pushing it to have a POWER7 in that tiny ass box. I think it would be cheaper to have something not as powerful, clocked higher, instead of something like POWER but underclocked. What do I know though?


It won't be a Power7, because they suck for gaming.
It'll be similar though, because it shares the large amounts of EDRAM.
 
phosphor112 said:
Final Wii U revision is going to have the following specs:
8gb flash memory
ATI Radeon 6790
POWER7 @ 4.0ghz
4gigs shared pool of GDDR5 ram @ 800mhz
1TB Hologram Discs

Make it so, Nintendo.


I think you meant 6970...
 
phosphor112 said:
No, just the wild speculation in this thread. I think it's even pushing it to have a POWER7 in that tiny ass box. I think it would be cheaper to have something not as powerful, clocked higher, instead of something like POWER but underclocked. What do I know though?
What I posted wasn't a Power7, though, and I think most of us are past that.
 
BurntPork said:
Hm. I'm beginning to think that the GPU uses the R700 architecture only for the SPs, but is for the most part a new chip designed from the ground-up. So, time for a slight revision to my estimations.

45nm PPC 476FP tri-core @ 1.8-2.0GHz w/8-16MB eDRAM
40nm or 32nm loosely R700-based GPU with 400, 480, or 640SPs clocked at 550-650MHz on the core and 10-16MB eDRAM
1-2GB GDDR3 or GDDR5 RAM pool shared between CPU and GPU; clocked at 600-800MHz


Still too high.

Too much EDRAM

RAM is 768 or 1Gb imo.

Still think it's straight RV730 GPU, but RV740 possible

Clocks could be high-ish (600+mhz) if RV730, lower if RV740 (400-500 mhz)

Nothing will be 32nm to start.
 
LOL everytime i come into this thread, i see new WiiU spec info that i'm pretty sure did not come from anywhere but GAF. Please confirm this so i can Lmao some more. GAF makes my day, every day. You guys are a riot keep up the good work! :)
 
Axkil aka StabMasterArson said:
LOL everytime i come into this thread, i see new WiiU spec info that i'm pretty sure did not come from anywhere but GAF. Please confirm this so i can Lmao some more. GAF makes my day, every day. You guys are a riot keep up the good work! :)


This is a speculation thread...
If we had actual specs, it would have it's own topic.
 
specialguy said:
Still too high.

Too much EDRAM

RAM is 768 or 1Gb imo.

Still think it's straight RV730 GPU, but RV740 possible

Clocks could be high-ish (600+mhz) if RV730, lower if RV740 (400-500 mhz)

Nothing will be 32nm to start.
IBM said "a lot" of eDRAM, and the GPU probably has at least as much as the 360.

No way Nintendo's dumb enough to have less than 1GB of RAM. Nintendo doesn't skimp on RAM amounts. However, I guess you're in the "on par with 360" camp.
 
^ Exactly Ace. So sometime next year we'll have a legitimate thread about the hardware. :P

BurntPork said:
Hm. I'm beginning to think that the GPU uses the R700 architecture only for the SPs, but is for the most part a new chip designed from the ground-up. So, time for a slight revision to my estimations.

45nm PPC 476FP tri-core @ 1.8-2.0GHz w/8-16MB eDRAM
40nm or 32nm loosely R700-based GPU with 400, 480, or 640SPs clocked at 550-650MHz on the core and 10-16MB eDRAM
1-2GB GDDR3 or GDDR5 RAM pool shared between CPU and GPU; clocked at 600-800MHz

Only other plausible idea I can think of at this point is that the GPU is based on a Juniper like some have posed before.
 
bgassassin said:
^ Exactly Ace. So sometime next year we'll have a legitimate thread about the hardware. :P



Only other plausible idea I can think of at this point is that the GPU is based on a Juniper like some have posed before.
What I mean is that it's so heavily customized that it's very different from any existing R700 chips. It's probably some type of Frankenstein monster of a chip, taking various elements of R700 and Evergreen; perhaps even something from Northern Islands. Something is making it hard for devs to determine its power, and the only thing I can think of is that it's a chip that can't be compared to anything else on the market without testing.
 
lednerg said:
In this thread, "specs" is short for speculations.

It's kind of a shame really, considering the possibilities of the device and games... But I guess that goes to show where the main interest of "enthusiast gamers" like us lies. Maybe Nintendo really should focus on what people want, and less on being "creative or surprising".

Anyway, I'm fairly sure the GPU is based mainly on a ground up structure, but it'll take a lot from the R700 family (and above imo). It'll be interesting to see if it's a SoC aswell, at 40nm.
 
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