36 replies to this topic

[Desert Punk]

Some of the frame rates on ps3/360 are sub 30fps for more ambitious games like Crysis 2 and Skyrim for example especially on ps3 which generally gets lower fps for multiformat games than 360. Eurogamer analysed some wii U videos and performance was comparable to 360/PS3 with 720p showing frame rates dipping below 30fps even at 720p and no anti-aliasing. Remember the cpu is only 3 core power pc and we don't know the speed. In the small form factor of the wii U case it may be running sub 3ghz like 2.4ghz. Clearly these games are not gold releases and may still require some optimisations to improve frame rates though.

However with 32meg of ultrafast dedicated video memory it should be able to do 1080p 2D games without problems.

Apart from more generous amount of memory the wii U so far clearly indicates a specification comparable to 360/PS3 in other areas.

I would of thought now with E3 over and the release of the devkit spec we can now be realistic about the spec of the wii U. Its Nintendo's entry into the current gen of ps3/360 and is not a next gen console in specification. Its still a very desirable console.

[MorbidGod]

I understand that a lot of people have been burned by Nintendo. That they just dont want to think Nintendo will make a powerful console. All I ask is dont act like that was Nintendo's policy. The NES was a powerful system, same with every home console until the Wii. People forget the GCN was close in power to the Xbox, and better than the PS2.

@Desert Punk We don't know if it.is a 3 or 4 core. Rumored specs aren't official. Stop saying its official. And I see laptops with smaller spaces and 3GHz speeds. So you can't say you know its sub 3GHz.

[Gamejunkie]

but i though some games were at 1080p?, pikmon(is that how you spell it) and another game i could of sworn were to run in HD (which should mean 1080p)

every day the wii u seems less and less powerful, hopefully theres some sort of declined economy/optimization to show for this, because it will be just plain sad to see another wii, even if it may not be that big of a gap.

You do know that anything which is 720p or above is in HD.

[Desert Punk]

Its not about being burned. Its about evidence and we have reached a stage now where we have got a pretty good picture of the wii U specification but I never said it was official because clearly Nintendo are hiding the specification from the public so it will never be official. The wii specification was leaked by a developer it was never officially announced. Clearly when Nintendo is selling a console with a relatively low specification its not in their interests to announce the spec offiicially. The gamecube was the last console to have its specification announced by Nintendo and was also the last Nintendo console that was ambitious technically for its time.

Consoles are made for relatively little money, they do not have the expensive fans or heatsink designs of gaming laptops and the cpu and gpus in consoles do not use the more advanced fabrication processes of state of the art pc cpu and gpus.

Its likely the wii U cpu and gpu will have a relatively small heatsink on top and a fairly simple low cost fan sucking out hot air. It will need to be able to do this in fairly cramped conditions for long sessions in summer months and the wii U is a small console. Its highly likely its cpu will be sub 3ghz if they are going to use the 45nm fabrication process as stated but if somehow they manage to get it down to 32nm then its likely it could be faster. The 3 cores is basically confirmed near enough I would of thought. That is what has been stated in the final dev kit before launch and its not the sort of thing you can muck about with easily this close to launch. You might be able to change the amount of system memory or the mhz figure of some chips but surely all the work has been done now on the cpu. For a november launch, the console will be ready to ship from china in september allowing for 28 days on the water and distribution throughout a countries distribution channels. Manufacturing a large number of consoles for launch will take some time perhaps all of august and a bit of september. Its likely the chips are being made very soon if not already being manufactured. Nintendo will try to give themselves some sort of time margin. It would be a massive disaster if they couldn't do a global launch before christmas in all regions.

Lets not forget though that even if the cpu is sub 3ghz it may have superior architecture to something like the 360 and still outperform it easily. I'm expecting the wii U to have huge memory bandwidth and still be a capable system. The information we are getting is 1.5-2x performance and that seems realistic. It doesn't mean the wii U is superior in all areas though. It will be a mixture of good and bad.

The idea that Nintendo is going to undersell a console and then release a much more powerful console at launch is so ridiculous its absurd. We are looking at a console of 1-2x current gen performance with extra memory being the main superior feature.

[Tre]

Launch titles will be 720p with 60fps for Nintendo. ACIII will be at 1080p with 30/60 fps. How is anything doing launch relevant. Well it isn't. Here is the examples.

http://www.neogaf.co...24&postcount=22

just look at the comparisons and it should become clear. Gamers are so picky that I don't think they know what they really want.

[JaylisJayP]

I've been an enthusiast of HD as soon as HD DVD launched many years ago (which was before blu-ray), I've owned all kinds of HDTVs ranging from DLP to LCD and Plasma (ranging in size from 32-62") and I will still fiercely defend the argument that there's just no way to tell the difference between 1080p and 720p unless the TV is bigger than 50 inches and you're standing 2 feet in front of it. 1080p won biggest marketing scam this side of Monster HDMI cables.

That said, I don't get the heavy defenders of Nintendo after what we saw at E3. I'm all about giving the benefit of the doubt, but Nintendo just keeps feeding that doubt on its own right now. It sucks, I was so hyped up for the power of the Wii U, but everything we've seen and about half of what we've heard is pointing in the other direction.

I would almost guarantee you won't see anything close to "next gen" visuals anytime remotely close to the launch window, probably all of next year (no third-party title is going to be developed to the Wii U's maximum power and then ported to 360 and PS3 - not going to happen), and by the time you do see a bump in that direction, my gut tells me those visuals will be dated by what Sony and Microsoft put out. Obviously not as noticeable a difference between Wii and the PS3/360, but enough to keep Nintendo with the stigma of the console with the worst graphics for another generation.

[KartRacer]

Yeah, the launch games will be at 720p.
Does that mean that we won't have 1080p sometime later in the Wii U's life?

[The Lonely Koopa]

Yeah, the launch games will be at 720p.
Does that mean that we won't have 1080p sometime later in the Wii U's life?

Well it is hard to say it really depends it could mean the devs were forced to use a low hd resolution for whatever reason and later they will be able to use 1080p but it could also mean the wiiu is not too powerful and like the xbox 360 and ps3 this gen may have to go lower than 720p to play games its really hard to say at the moment.

[MorbidGod]

@Jay My point is we don't know. The launch titles are never impressive. Maybe a few, but.for the most part all generally looks last gen. The leaked specs contradict what we know to be true (POWER vs PowerPC, or a 4xxx card instead of a 6xxx). And people completely ignore rumors that match with what we k.ow just because its too powerful.

Honestly, at this point, lets just wait for someone to take it apart. That's what we need to do.

[JaylisJayP]

@Jay My point is we don't know. The launch titles are never impressive. Maybe a few, but.for the most part all generally looks last gen. The leaked specs contradict what we know to be true (POWER vs PowerPC, or a 4xxx card instead of a 6xxx). And people completely ignore rumors that match with what we k.ow just because its too powerful.

Honestly, at this point, lets just wait for someone to take it apart. That's what we need to do.

Yes, I am eagerly awaiting some actual confirmation of what's inside this thing. Like many others, I'm hopeful it'll be powerful.

[MorbidGod]

I just hope it will have unreal 4. Thats all that matters really.

[Auzzie Wingman]

I just hope it will have unreal 4. Thats all that matters really.

> Wii U has Unreal Engine 4.
> Wii U has no games.
> MorbidGod satisfied.

[MorbidGod]

@Non Specific Action Figure lol okay its one of the things that matters, because if it can run UE4 then developers wont have to spend more money on making Wii u games. They can just use the same engine snd not have to spend time on a new, inferior engine.

[Auzzie Wingman]

lol

Of course, not every developer wants to submit to the whim of Unreal Technology.

I'd be very surprised, shocked, butthurt and unable to dance if a game by Nintendo used Unreal Engine 4.

[Andy]

lol

Of course, not every developer wants to submit to the whim of Unreal Technology.

I'd be very surprised, shocked, butthurt and unable to dance if a game by Nintendo used Unreal Engine 4.

Well, the Metroid prime games ran on a heavily modified Unreal Engine 2, so it could happen.

[MorbidGod]

@Andy really? I didn't know that.

[Link707]

@Andy really? I didn't know that.

http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?31067-Metroid-Prime-Development-Tools-Plugins

Look at the bottom post