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Eye_Of-Core

Member Since 19 Sep 2013
Offline Last Active Oct 13 2013 07:26 AM

Topics I've Started

Wii U hardware; bits and pieces connected together...

19 September 2013 - 07:59 AM

Wii U CPU:
- Tri Core IBM 45nm PowerPC750CL/G3/Power7 Hybrid
- Core 0; 512KB Core 1; 2MB Core 2; 512KB L2 Cache
- Clocked at 1.24Ghz
- 4 stage pipeline/not Xenon-Cell CPU-GPU hybrid
- Produced at IBM advanced CMOS fabrication facility
- Can use eDRAM as cache(!? Power7 memory implementation)
- Dual Core ARM for background OS tasks clocked at 1Ghz with 64KB L1 cache per core

Wii U Memory:
- DDR3 2GB, 1GB for OS, 1GB for Games (12.8/Gbps is speculation)
- eDRAM 32MB+4MB Memory/VRAM/Cache(UNIFIED!?, 4MB for gamepad)
- Clocked at 550Mhz
- CPU for Cache and GPU for VRAM use eDRAM
- eDRAM acts as unified memory, similar to AMD’s hUMA/HSA by function/behaviour(?! not similar in terms of architecture)
- Little to no latency between CPU and GPU with eDRAM Cache/Memory/VRAM(?! Power7 memory implementation)

Wii U GPU:
- VLIW 5/VLIW4 Radeon HD 5000/6000 40nm
- DirectX 11/Open GL 4.3/Open CL 1.2/Shader Model 5.0
- Supports GPGPU compute/offload
- Customized, Using custom Nintendo API codenamed GX2(GX1 Gamecube)
- Clocked at 550Mhz
- Produced at TSMC
- Uses eDRAM as VRAM
- Silicon/features involving DirectX 11 is replaced by more transistors and still maintaining Open GL 4.3/Open CL 1.2/Shader Model 5.0 compatibility
- rumors; 320 shader units w/ 352 Gflops performance or based around Radeon HD e6850

Wii U Note;
- Can’t use DirectX 11 because of OS, only Open GL 4.3/Nintendo API GX2 that is ahead of DX11
- Easier to program, no bottlenecks causing trouble like on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3
- more efficient hardware with no bandwidth bottlenecks
- Most early ports and even now use 2 cores and 3rd is barely used #fact
- Wii U CPU has much higher operations per cycle than Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 though it is unknown if it is faster
- It is maybe in fact most efficient performance per watt in the world in terms of 45/40nm chips
- Minor Power7 architecture implementation allows shave off 10% of texture size without loss of quality(special compression)
- Wii U power consumption at full system load is 40 watts, Wii U's power brick is rated 75 watts
- Wii U's Flash storage, RAM, USB ports, motherboard, fan and small secondary chips consume around 10 to 15 watts in total
- Wii U's SoC(CPU and GPU) estimated maximum power consumption is 25 to 30 watts
- Supports 4k displays, native 4k(possible 2D 4k games?)

It is ahead of 7th generation, developers will learn to handle and optimize for Wii U properly. I was digging on the internet for various information’s for a month and all you read is what I compiled and gathered. It can handle 1080p because it has 3.5 times more eDRAM than Xbox 360 also has no severe memory/bandwidth bottlenecks that Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 have all over the system with their FSB that is choking. Xbox 360′s GDDR3 that has theoretical 22-28Gbps is reduced to 10Gbps thanks to piss poor FSB.

Wii U has same amount of eDRAM as Xbox One, remember that and also Wii U’s CPU utilizes Power7 architecture a bit so maybe just maybe Wii U’s CPU can use eDRAM as CPU cache as GPU uses it as VRAM so in a way something alike AMD’s hUMA/HSA is maybe possible on Wii U.

If Grand Theft Auto 5 was on Wii U then you can only expect better visuals/details, less pop ups, higher framerate that would be 60 fps most likely since Wii U is light years ahead of current generation and that is factual and you can be in denial but I did one whole month of dedicated digging on the internet in search of all sort of information’s related to Wii U’s hardware.

It can run it harder, better, faster, stronger and more sexier than 7th generation consoles by far.

In case you are wondering why some games run on Wiii U worser than on 7th generation consoles then I have simple explanation. Wii U hardware is noticeably different than Xbox 360's or PlayStation 3's, Xbox 360 Xenon and PlayStation 3's Cell are processors and not true CPU's since they can operate GPU related tasks well compared to Wii U that is primarily a CPU. Another reason is that developers don't put too much resources on porting the game to the Wii U thus it lacks proper optimizations and adaptions of their game engines to Wii U's hardware. Even though some ports perform lower than on 7th generation consoles, in most cases run on higher resolution and/or at Native 720p/HD.

Most if not all 3rd party launch games were made on older Wii U development kits that had 20 to 40% lower clocks than final development kit that Nintendo released near the launch so developers did not had much time to adapt their games to the final devkit thus games were running poorly also games like Darksiders 2, Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper, Batman Arkham City and other were using only two cores while third was not used at all or was barely used to aid performance of the game involving CPU related tasks. Since most ports are from Xbox 360 and/or PlayStation 3 versions of the games there are sure to be incompatibilities since Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 Processors do CPU and also GPU tasks plus GPU's, RAM/Memory, Latency and other factors are different than on Wii U thus optimizations and adaptations is needed though cheap ports as always tend to be a train wreck. Don't you agree? :)

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