48 replies to this topic

[Desert Punk]

At least we have a performance figure for the optical drive which is good. That speed increase and the extra memory should really compensate for lack of standard hard drive. Sadly no performance figures for gpu and cpu so we are still left guessing. Nothing here tells us the performance of the wii u. It could still be sub current gen, the same or much better. We don't know the speed of either the gpu or cpu or what performance level each can reach. We don't know how much cpu resources the background operating system takes. Maybe the console is superior to current gen but Nintendo don't want to announce those figures because they will look bad when the next playstation and xbox arrive or maybe its already a bit below current gen in gpu or cpu terms. Its clear we aren't going to get that information from Nintendo though. So it will require a wii u being x-rayed to see its silicon architecture and also see its real world performance. We will probably still be guessing and debating its performance long into 2013 until hackers conquer it and can run various performance tests. I'm sure numerous reviews will point out the differences in each version of the same game running on the 3 consoles and PC.

I personally think anyone expecting 1080p 60fps wii u versions of ps3/360 games are going to be massively disappointed.

[uh20]

Nintendo Network Premium announced, 10% of Download Software a year.
Only for 32 GB Bundle Owners, Free until December 2014

what does this mean exactly, explain?, anyone?

does it mean network fee?

[LaserSWE]

what does this mean exactly, explain?, anyone?

does it mean network fee?

As I understand it it means that the discount will apply until 2014. After that you will have a regular account.

[Keviin]

Last chance for some people to grab some common sense.

The machine draws 75 watts under max load. You aren't getting a generation jump like ps2 to ps3.

360 draws a 175 watts.

Improving technology will make more effecient parts per watt, but as a general rule of thumb, if you are going to keep the same performance RATIO, you end up with power draw roughly in the same ball park.... Not less than half.

IE NOT a double gpu, its a general purpose gpu. Something that's actually been known for a while now, and I mentioned before in older posts.

I swear to gunpei if I see any moronic over hyped lunatics break down trolling when complete specs are released I'm going to be so freaking pissed.

Oh, and for the happening, abnormal power draw variability pretty much again confirms power 7.

Power 7 cores are completely coherent cores, they can, dynamically at will increase clock speed..... And power draw as needed to meet demand.

Which is why you have a power draw of 40 watts on average, which can shoot up to a ceiling of 75 watts.

Should have read the official documentation I posted.

So you're saying.. no big leap, BUT there is the powerful Power7?

[3Dude]

So you're saying.. no big leap, BUT there is the powerful Power7?

Power 7 yeah. Powerful? yes.... for what its designed for. Power 7 technology gets great performance per watt, and its performance scales linearly with power draw and frequency.

So... take those p7 specs I posted and scale the performance down to around 30 watts or less. It will likely be better than that, because its a custom design, but its in the ballpark.

Its not the traditional definition of power, its not going to be specifically fast and powerful in one area, and subsequently suck everywhere else (xenon/cell). it prioritizes performance over speed, which means its a very likely victim of amdahls law for those without the proper mind
set for it.

Yeah, p7 will be powerful, for doing lots of stuff, not one specific thing like running games.... That's where the gpgpu comes in.

Reminds me of an old analogy back when people were debating whether multi threading and multicore were viable persuits or not. (lol, for real, this was a thing).

The denouncers would say that concurrency offered no speed advantadge, and got smoked by a simply, more powerful single core....

The analogy was, you can't take 9 women and have a baby in 1 month.

To which we replied, no, you can't, but you are looking at the problem wrong. 9 women CAN have 9 babies in 9 months.

Can you think of any large, pervasive, sophisticated program nintendo may have talked about that would always be running and need cpu power?

I know the two main things I talk about are p7, and that the wii u is only going to be a modest improvement over last gen... But they aren't at odds with each other.

Power 7 is a chip USED in a super powerful super computer.... That doesn't mean that processor HAS to be a super fast, super hot, watt guzzler....

The wii u will be a smart, solid, balanced system....

And quite frankly. No ones ever seen quality like what nintendo will show at this power level.

Retros going to blow minds. You know its true. Logical thought will come to a screeching halt.

Edited by 3Dude, 13 September 2012 - 06:20 AM.

[Nollog]

GPGPU is not dual GPU, iwata saying it's a GPGPU isn't really saying much well considering this tech has been in PC graphics cards for years (Intel Quick Sync, Nvidia Cuda, AMD APP and OpenCL). I don't know if it impacts games or not, but what GPGPU does it's a feature of the GPU that allows it to compute things that normal a CPU would do. It puts less strain on the CPU and in somecases the work being done gets done faster. This is common in Video encoding programs and video editting suites that allow rendering and encoding to be done on the GPU.

It's similar to what Nvidia Physx does, normally Phsyx is done on the CPU but if you have an Nvidia card that is Physx capable (which is properietary tech but uses the GPGPU model) it will also be able to do the calculations on the GPU putting less strain on the CPU.

you sure?
Back in my day gpgpu meant two processors on the same chip.

[3Dude]

you sure?
Back in my day gpgpu meant two processors on the same chip.

positive. The things max power draw is 75 watts.

Not 2 gpus.

General p
Purpose gpu.

[Noonabites]

what does this mean exactly, explain?, anyone?

does it mean network fee?

I was wondering the same thing. Since Reggie made that comment on not adding any additional prices for services, I'm inclined to believe that Nintendo Network will be free.

[uh20]

^ kai