29 replies to this topic

[Plutonas]

the cpu is really strong, nothing to worry about, the gpu is the mystery. Most of the articles out there, speak about GPU equal to 4890 with r770 chip (thats fake), because 4890 is not using r770 chip, but r790 instead.The only certain thing Wii U is using one of this cards. Anyway, this are the cards that use r770 chipset.

Radeon HD 4870 RV770XT
Radeon HD 4850 RV770PRO
Radeon HD 4830 RV770LE
Radeon HD 4730 RV770CE

Now if the card is anything except 4730 and 4830, then its a power chipset!! Also we have to consider how many stream processing units Nintendo cut off from this chipset! The basic we can get from this chipset is 320 SPU's, if its 320 for low cost, its much more powerful than xbox360 and ps3, but it will not be powerful enough for xbox720 - ps4 systems. If its 400, then it will be powerful enough even for the next gen consoles! Here is the foggy part of the story!!

There is no specific information about the GPU, they speak about r700 4xxx series card, but most of the net speaks about r770 and nothing else. If someone can get at least how many SPU the wii U gpu got, it would be perfect to know!! Because from this little detail, we will know, how much powerful wii U is!!! The cpu is pointless, all system will come, with about the same cpu power (Even if ps4 or 720 have better cpu, this will not effect our games and compete between them) because games do not require better cpu than that (core speed yes).. The GPU and core speed matters. So we must focus, to find out, how many SPU wii U got and video ram (gddr3? or gddr5)..!! nothing else! All the rest are pointless, because its really powerfull in all other aspects..

this are the cards that use r700 chipset (this are the pc cards, when a console company gets one of this cards, they tweak it, they cut off SPU, they add/remove features for low cost and low heat/power consuption).

http://en.wikipedia....iki/Radeon_R700

If anybody knows how much Mhz the gpu speed is, then we may find which card is it.. If its more than 500mhz (gpu core speed), then its a 4870 @ 7xxmhz (tweaked), if its less than 550 or 500 mhz.. then the graphic card is 4850 and lower.. Alao many leaks speak about a 40nm GPU, and this is a faulty information, as all 4xxx series are 55nm (except if wii U got 5xxx series and they hide it!!!)

Edited by Orion, 01 February 2012 - 06:08 PM.

[NovusRex]

Let me start by saying I don't know anything about hardware, specs, etc.. However, I've looked up some benchmarks from the cards you mentioned and compared them with the Xbox360 card (well, a similar card actually) and the Ps3 Card.

GeForce 7900 GT: 623
Radeon HD 4870: 1,740
Radeon HD 4850: 1,333
Radeon HD 4830: 1,254
All-in-Wonder X1800XL: 700 (same architecture was used for the Xbox cards, so I'm guessing it's roughly the same. if anyone knows a better card to compare, please share)

When comparing, it's noticable that the mentioned cards for the WiiU will be roughly 2 times as strong as the ones used in the Ps3 and Xbox (except the 4830, which isn't close to being twice as strong). If the rumours are true (WiiU twice as powerfull as the Xbox 360), the only logical option would be a card like the HD 4870. It's the only card that is actually twice as strong as the Xbox-similar card and the prices between the mentioned HD cards don't vary much at all. The production costs (especially in large orders) should be roughly the same, so to me that's another reason why the 4870 card is the most obvious choice to make. Anyway, that's just my non-professional input lol. Also, the 4870 is the only card that supports 256 bit DDR5, something I bet game developers would prefer over DDR3.

Orion, care to explain what stream processing units actually does/mean? And what do you think is roughly the difference between the 4870 and the 4850 (the cards I think stand the most chance)?

[Terrabyte20xx]

Let me start by saying I don't know anything about hardware, specs, etc.. However, I've looked up some benchmarks from the cards you mentioned and compared them with the Xbox360 card (well, a similar card actually) and the Ps3 Card.

GeForce 7900 GT: 623
Radeon HD 4870: 1,740
Radeon HD 4850: 1,333
Radeon HD 4830: 1,254
All-in-Wonder X1800XL: 700 (same architecture was used for the Xbox cards, so I'm guessing it's roughly the same. if anyone knows a better card to compare, please share)

When comparing, it's noticable that the mentioned cards for the WiiU will be roughly 2 times as strong as the ones used in the Ps3 and Xbox (except the 4830, which isn't close to being twice as strong). If the rumours are true (WiiU twice as powerfull as the Xbox 360), the only logical option would be a card like the HD 4870. It's the only card that is actually twice as strong as the Xbox-similar card and the prices between the mentioned HD cards don't vary much at all. The production costs (especially in large orders) should be roughly the same, so to me that's another reason why the 4870 card is the most obvious choice to make. Anyway, that's just my non-professional input lol. Also, the 4870 is the only card that supports 256 bit DDR5, something I bet game developers would prefer over DDR3.

Orion, care to explain what stream processing units actually does/mean? And what do you think is roughly the difference between the 4870 and the 4850 (the cards I think stand the most chance)?

I would like to point out that the card that the Wii U is using is modified version, for all we know it's 4 times as powerful.

[Plutonas]

take this link to compare graphic cards, http://www.hwcompare...on-hd-6670-oem/ (at the top there is the drop box selection of the cards).

Please not as TERABYTE20XX stated, the console companies, modify the cards.. They tweak them to be console compatible.. less power consumption/heat, more (open GL, DirectX) features, less gpu cores (SPU for amd and CUDA cores for Nvidia). Thats why, we need to see the SPU's of the wii U gpu, not the original 4850 or 4870...

The certain thing is, that xbox720, will not underclock the 6670 because it is allready a crappy card. So, they will OC it instead like they did in 7900gt /1900xt in the past (they OC it) and 6670 got 480 SPU΄s

Edited by Orion, 02 February 2012 - 01:54 AM.

[NovusRex]

I do know that they will use a modified card, but this was all the material I had to compare one with another ^^, Hopefully they will release some more info on the hardware soon, don't want to wait till the E3.

[stupidvillager]

Its been stated that the early dev kits had a 4850 in them and that the GPU was being targeted at over 1000 gflops. I dont think that the MHZ has anything to do with find out which gpu it is. They could take a 4870 and clock it lower. Xenos is actually clocked lower than an x1900, they did not OC it. I personally believe it will combine 4xxx and 5xxx series components, being able to do 3 displays and all.

[Plutonas]

are you certain about 4850 and 1000 gflops??? Because if thats true, Wii U will bit even xbox1440 (kiding)

Its crazy number the 1000Gflops and I hope its true!! I mean.. 1000gflops = more than 800 shader units!!! Its a beast! and surelly bigger than 4850. Maybe the rumors about 4890 are true then.. I will give you a website that speculates (does not create rumors).. it says.. if its 320 shaders. then blablalbla... if its 400 shaders.. then blablablalba... happy reading.. To find out about the Gflops, go to "shader core" page 4.

http://www.beyond3d..../articles/118/1


as for the xbox.. xbox does not have xenos for a long time now.. it is a 45nm chip cpu and gpu combined (corina, something like that)..

PS: If the wii U gpu gives 1000 gflops, is going to be the console of my dreams.. lol I personally hoped about 500 average gflops.. but if its double.. thats news, because it will translate, that nintendo decides to compete xbox720 and ps4 directly, not xbox360 and ps3!!!..

Edited by Orion, 03 February 2012 - 04:03 AM.

[stupidvillager]

Its hard to be certain at this point, but that is what people that have seen dev kits and target specs have said. Actually I go to that site quiet often. A 4850 comes in right at 1000 gflops so it wouldnt have to be a 4890, even the 4770 is almost 1000 gflops. Plus like I said before I think it is a combination of 4xxx and 5xxx series tech, on a smaller process. As for the 4850 rumor even that is a lot of conjecture. Supposedly the dev kit that this person/company had actually had next to no information regarding the series of gpu just one small bit that one might get r7xx from. Then there was this article, http://translate.goo...611_452478.html, that came out areound E3. Its kinda hard to follow but it mentions the Wii U according to AMD being around 1000 gflops. So with that info people started saying it had a 4850 in it. As for the 360 cpu, even though its all on a single chip and a smaller process it still runs the same as the original, just with less power and its cooler.

[Plutonas]

I believe its hard to use a 4xxx card and also 1000gflops, as it needs up to 800-850 shader cores (power and heat).. (stream processing units). If they move in a different chipset, newer version of the chip, for instance.. Yes it is possible, because this chips are better for power consumption and heat also smallerI If Nintendo give us wii U with 1000+ gflops.. It is very welcome and surely a machine to last!! Also nintendo seems to be very suprising this year, and we all know that the hardware is in many versions and they check stability.. So we may be surprised, indeed.

after all there is no oficial anouncements or interviews about the code of the chip that Wii U got, just AMD and Power7.. (is it?) I wish it to be 1000+ gflops..

Edited by Orion, 03 February 2012 - 04:22 PM.

[Xilefian]

Nope. Steaming multiple screens is hardly different than playing a simple splitscreen game. Also, the Wii's rumored GPU (4670) actually supports the streaming of up to 4 SD images. In other words, the Wii U will be BUILT for this. They anticipated this and that is why they decided to go with a powerful GPU that was made for this

Also, look at the 3DS. Much of the power is actually locked away because some of the resources have to go to rendering 2 screens. If the 3DS had no 3D, it'd look much better, but I still looks VERY good (look at Revelations, and it's only a first-gen 3DS title.) So if the 3DS doesn't have a problem with this then I doubt the Wii U will.

I think it is unfair to say these things so definitely, splitscreen isn't that similar to playing splitscreen as a splitscreen game renders to buffers that are 25% the size of the full screen or 50% if it's 2 player, it takes the rendering onto seperate buffer like the Wii U streaming does, but those buffers are reduced in size, the Wii U aims to have a full sized buffer rendering on the TV at the same time as rendering a buffer that is the size of the new controller, so it's a lot more GPU intensive to stream it that it is to do splitscreen, especially across multiple tablets.

After writing all that though, the old issue with being unable to handle more than one tablet I once read was rumoured to be down to the CPU not being able to stream fast enough as opposed to it being a GPU hit, if that rumour is true then Nintendo is confident their graphics processor can handle rendering to a TV and more than one tablet at the same time, increasing the number of CPU cores that simultaniously run and dedicating each one to each controller would solve the multiple tablet issue IF that was the reason why they didn't show more than one tablet.

The power issue with the 3DS is all down to the GPU too, the 3DS is actually doing something similar to the Wii U, it's rendering two screen buffers, one for each eye, the way this has been described is "effectively double the resolution", which is all down to GPU pixel-filling power, the team behind Resident Evil Revelations stated in one of their videos that the depth of field effect turns off when the 3D is on and the framerate drops to 30fps (Half the speed of rendering), so the problem with the 3DS is if you go for amazing graphics, you lose the 3D ability, most amazing graphic games run at 30fps on consoles.


If you want to know about the difference between console GPU performance and PC GPU performance just ask me and I'll make an indepth thread about it.