11 replies to this topic

[BrosBeforeGardenTools]

Someone on Beyond3D called fourth storm is saying they think the TMUs of the Wii U GPU were incorrectly detected and that it actually has 8 TMUs. The experts also now believe it has 160 shaders. So it might be 8:8:160, less TMUs and shaders than the 360. They say the bandwidth is what puts it ahead.

If true, it might explain why the Wii U is, supposedly, hard to develop for.

Edited by Amnesia, 19 May 2013 - 03:22 PM.

[GAMER1984]

Its funny to me as the numbers just keep dropping and dropping from the so called experts. At this point number don't mean anything because they are all guessing. We don't have much longer to wait until E3... That's going to tell us much more about what this system can do.

[Cloud Windfoot Omega]

Forth Storm by his own admision is not an expert.

[Arkhandar]

It actually has 320 shaders since it's using the new (circa 2010) AMD architecture, which double the number of shaders per (i don't recall the name of the thing right now. will edit the post when i do though),

[tboss]

yet im going with asymmetric shaders. or other forms of speclization that the shaders have to do less work/do it much more effiencently. as for 160, very very doubtful. 320 actualy made some sense.

[djlewe78]

Does it mater, how ever many shaders it has its not enough to make developers want to programme for it.

[3Dude]

I dont think this is correct. Latte is just too big. Its a ver large die.

Remove the edram and you still have around a 100 mm square die full if logic at a dense 40nm process.

Highly unlikely to have so much space for.... Nothing. That is just a very small space for texture and shader units for such a large die on that process size.

Custom designs like this are often a mix of hand layout and computer design for effecient use of space. You usually arent able to eyeball much, particularly once the computer starts custom arranging logic.

There could be many more shader and texture units that were arranged by computer to make the most effecient use of space that just dont resemble the familiar layout thats being identified.

[Cloud Windfoot Omega]

Does it mater, how ever many shaders it has its not enough to make developers want to programme for it.

no its pretty much just ea who does not want to.

[SoldMyWiiUAndLeftTheForums]

I'm really sorry but my brain pooped when I read that, can someone explain.

[grahamf]

Basically the Wii U is not really that underpowered, so if the Xbox One is a nvidia 670 then the Wii U is a 650

[routerbad]

I dont think this is correct. Latte is just too big. Its a ver large die.

Remove the edram and you still have around a 100 mm square die full if logic at a dense 40nm process.

Highly unlikely to have so much space for.... Nothing. That is just a very small space for texture and shader units for such a large die on that process size.

Custom designs like this are often a mix of hand layout and computer design for effecient use of space. You usually arent able to eyeball much, particularly once the computer starts custom arranging logic.

There could be many more shader and texture units that were arranged by computer to make the most effecient use of space that just dont resemble the familiar layout thats being identified.

I think that is more likely than not, there was talk of asymmetric or unorthodox shader organization on it when the die was released. 

[Alex Atkin UK]

Basically the Wii U is not really that underpowered, so if the Xbox One is a nvidia 670 then the Wii U is a 650

 

Based on the rumoured specifications I would say the Wii U is a 630, Xbox One 650 and PS4 660.  (I am guesstimating that based on the fact the PS4 claims to be around the power of a 660 and rumour is that the Xbox One is less powerful by a fair bit)

 

Of course even that is not taking into account any custom logic on the above consoles which could make a difference.

 

For example if the PS4 relies on pure GPGPU to offset some load from the CPU but the Wii U has custom silicon for those things, it makes them a closer match.  This is one reason why its near impossible to compare one console to another, because there could be subtle differences on how they run the same game which makes a HUGE difference to the end result.