22 replies to this topic

[milky105p]

So we got the games, launch date, pricing etc, but what still bugs me is how they are sneakily not bothering to reveal the GPU or CPU. I'm sure it's using a Radeon like the wii and we know it has a speculated 3 "enhanced" broadway" cores which may or may not be underpowered as some say compared to what the current consoles have. I'm more interested in the GPU. some speculate it to have an R700 or comparable to a 4000 series Radeon card. I could believe it as the console is 300 bucks at its cheapest. thats a pretty low end 4 year old card and probably just makes it in terms of delivering 1080p. I hope the developers really can push this console for smooth gameplay and solid graphics. I honestly don't see much of an improvement graphically for the console already if this speculation is true. Any thoughts on the GPU or hardware?

Just to reiterate, I guarantee the new xbox and PS will be using GPUs that will run Dx 11 with open GL 4.3 or whatever its on, while the Wii u is stuck at Dx 10.1 with open GL 3.3. The other consoles will have a much bigger leap from their precedents as well as the wii u. not saying the wii u will be bad looking, but its hardly a step up from the current generation, compared to what i see in the future of the competition. I think they under thought the cpu/ gpu and have gone for a lot more RAM probably to overcompensate for the system features and connectivity with the controller.

[Auzzie Wingman]

Because the general consumer doesn't really care?

I honestly don't see the majority of potential Wii U buyers making these specs as part of their decision. And that's probably why they didn't bother releasing them. The presentation was aimed at the more important things, like what you can buy when you walk into whatever store you buy things from.

[Joshua]

Following Nintendo's track record with revealing specs.... they won't. Simple as that.

You'll have to wait until someone pops open it's hood and tells us.

[Press]

Another spec thread, I see.


Might I ask why is it important to know the exact GPU? The Wii U isn't a PC where you could just replace it if you don't like it.

[milky105p]

I understand where you are coming from, but just a morbid curiosity, I'd like to know WHAT exactly I'm buying you know. Why it is the price it is, is it a good investment long term etc.

It's exactly the very reason why I want to know. Is it really worth the long term investment if I can't swap out Gpus like my PC. Im stuck with that Gpu, and for that fact its going to already be half a decade old. Sure the IPs/ exclusives sell the console, but the whole idea is to press forward with hardware, to me it makes no sense why you wouldnt want to give the developers out there future proof hardware for work with longevity wise aka Dx 11. People will of course choose to buy multiplatform games only for a certain console. Much like those that only bought a Wii only complained and got made fun of for buying say COD on wii when theres obvious advantages to own the competitions versions. Just a pet peeve of mine to know what exactly I'm paying for in this 300 dollar package when a standalone gamepad cost almost 2/3 the price of the whole bundle.

[Socalmuscle]

I understand where you are coming from, but just a morbid curiosity, I'd like to know WHAT exactly I'm buying you know. Why it is the price it is, is it a good investment long term etc.

It's exactly the very reason why I want to know. Is it really worth the long term investment if I can't swap out Gpus like my PC. Im stuck with that Gpu, and for that fact its going to already be half a decade old. Sure the IPs/ exclusives sell the console, but the whole idea is to press forward with hardware, to me it makes no sense why you wouldnt want to give the developers out there future proof hardware for work with longevity wise aka Dx 11. People will of course choose to buy multiplatform games only for a certain console. Much like those that only bought a Wii only complained and got made fun of for buying say COD on wii when theres obvious advantages to own the competitions versions. Just a pet peeve of mine to know what exactly I'm paying for in this 300 dollar package when a standalone gamepad cost almost 2/3 the price of the whole bundle.

That pricing is an illusion. Nintendo is going to make money like crazy on people buying a second gamepad. It l

[milky105p]

While every other machine ps4 nextxbox pc etc will be showing off great engines with better graphics, physics etc, nintendo will be stuck with older software dx10 not that its bad by any means. It only just limits nintendo and their potential to make really great IPs. like they say, you don't need great physics to play mario. well you are only limiting yourself to make games on that playing field if you limit yourself hardware wise. it seems like they cant push any new boundaries but make games on par with whats already out there with what they are giving themselves. Dx11 will be much more capable compared to 10 obviously. Regardless, I plan on looking forward to the wii u despite whether it has super up to date or behind, im sure the games will be great using what they give!

from what they sound like with the internal storage, they dont seem to concerned with making a huge profit off consumers otherwise they would have included a massive HDD.

unless its that very reason peripherals like the gamepad make them so much money they dont care about the HDD and make them sound so much better that they arent trying to get that money from you

[Socalmuscle]

I understand where you are coming from, but just a morbid curiosity, I'd like to know WHAT exactly I'm buying you know. Why it is the price it is, is it a good investment long term etc.

It's exactly the very reason why I want to know. Is it really worth the long term investment if I can't swap out Gpus like my PC. Im stuck with that Gpu, and for that fact its going to already be half a decade old. Sure the IPs/ exclusives sell the console, but the whole idea is to press forward with hardware, to me it makes no sense why you wouldnt want to give the developers out there future proof hardware for work with longevity wise aka Dx 11. People will of course choose to buy multiplatform games only for a certain console. Much like those that only bought a Wii only complained and got made fun of for buying say COD on wii when theres obvious advantages to own the competitions versions. Just a pet peeve of mine to know what exactly I'm paying for in this 300 dollar package when a standalone gamepad cost almost 2/3 the price of the whole bundle.

That pricing is an illusion. Nintendo is going to make money like crazy on people buying a second gamepad. Looking at Japanese pricing (equivalent to $400 and $350), it would appear Nintendo is taking a $50 hit on USA consoles. And the gamepad costs perhaps $50 -70 for them to produce. Factoring in the powerful CPU and a top notch gpu along with the ram would put the system in that ballpark (with the massive bulk deals, amortization, and sweetheart deals -ESP from IBM who will be missing out on Sony and ms this time, and creating a true next gen console with gamepad at this price is about right. Nintendo also won't be repeating thei 3ds mistake regarding pricing as they know people want power but have trouble paying for it (explains the many who wanted the wii u to be as powerful ad it is, but only wanting to pay less than $200 for it -get real.

It's a great system that pretty much maxes out what a console maker can put in the system without going over the $400 mark.

Nintendo may well be selling these at a loss in the US for a year or so.

But it looks like they'll make It up in accessory and massive game sales.

They are pulling every trick in the book to sell this thing, from multiple conferences, to color schemes, to actual game content, to packed in items, social interaction hooks, etc.

This thing is ready to fly. I'm actually surprised by how well featured it is and how polished.

They clearly invested much here and made wise moves to prep it for success

The wii u has great hardware and is future proofed. And it certainly has dx 11 features available. If a dev wants dx11, they can spring for it. Otherwise, it will use ogl equiv.

This isn't the wii 2.

[thehappening]

NINTENDIO DOESNT MARKET PROMOTE VIA SPECS IN CASE YOU HADNT NOTICED THE COMPANYS THAT DID FAILED HARD END OF ARGUMENT TO ANY WATCHING SONY /MS FAN


little break down to help those not in the know get a picture in there heads 1GB ram and 32mb edram for games (let alone any other type of use of the second 1gb ram that might be there ACCESS RAM SOUND MAYBE) LET JUST LOOK AT WHAT IWATA SAID

1gb ram and 32mb edram for games as all the CURRECT LEAKS (3x broadway type cores FACT) are saying would be more ram/memory for games than ps3 x360 and wii combined

x360 512mb plus 10mb edram - OS ram
ps3 256mb x2 no edram -OS ram
wii 88mb ram 3mb edram

- OS around 80mb plus total the wiiu would have more ram overal than ps3 x360 and wii all put together for GAMES just a little numbers break down so you can decide for yourself

Edited by thehappening, 14 September 2012 - 12:01 AM.

[Keviin]

It doesn't matter for Nintendos own games as they will look fantastic as always. It matters for third party multiplatform games however. Nintendo should really try to make it at least the Dreamcast of its generation, if they want to keep their hardcore audience.

[Tricky Sonic]

If you care that much about specs and hardware then you should build a PC or wait for the next Sony or Microsoft console. Nintendo most likely isn't for you. Your buying an experience and great games that only Nintendo can give, not another system with top graphics and all the same games rehashed over and over again.

[Zonark]

I'm not gonna lie but specs aren't really released by company's ever its the devs. And yes I preordered wiiu at 10am cst

[Desert Punk]

Nintendo happily released specs for the N64 and Gamecube because they were good specs and they have released specific bits of information regarding the wii u like its optical drive speed and memory capacity. It wasn't in their interests to release details on the wii console because it was just a gamecube speeded up with a bit more memory bolted on. It would have damaged its sales to release that information. Going by Nintendo's past policy its likely the wii u cpu and gpu isn't that great and its simply not in their interest to release that information. If it was worth shouting about they would do it. From what I've seen so far the wii u does look a bit underpowered and certainly isn't producing games that couldn't easily be produced on ps3 and 360. I'm certain the wii u will have fantastic games that will justify its purchase though.

[Arkhandar]

NINTENDIO DOESNT MARKET PROMOTE VIA SPECS IN CASE YOU HADNT NOTICED THE COMPANYS THAT DID FAILED HARD END OF ARGUMENT TO ANY WATCHING SONY /MS FAN


little break down to help those not in the know get a picture in there heads 1GB ram and 32mb edram for games (let alone any other type of use of the second 1gb ram that might be there ACCESS RAM SOUND MAYBE) LET JUST LOOK AT WHAT IWATA SAID

1gb ram and 32mb edram for games as all the CURRECT LEAKS (3x broadway type cores FACT) are saying would be more ram/memory for games than ps3 x360 and wii combined

x360 512mb plus 10mb edram - OS ram
ps3 256mb x2 no edram -OS ram
wii 88mb ram 3mb edram

- OS around 80mb plus total the wiiu would have more ram overal than ps3 x360 and wii all put together for GAMES just a little numbers break down so you can decide for yourself

1. That rumor said that the Wii U would have two memory pools one of 1GB and another of 32MB. It turns out it has one memory pool of 2GB shared between games and OS. And if you still think that those where the specs in which games would run you're wrong again because I seriously doubt that those supposed 32MB of edram would be completely available to games and game developers. In a nutshell, it's another fake rumor.

2. 3x broadway type cores is not a "FACT", as much you would love it to be. It's a rumor (a very probably fake one). IBM Power-based multicore processor is a fact atm.

3. XBOX 360 is similar to the Wii U. It has a 512MB of RAM shared between games and OS, but only 256MB are available to games unlike you said, so does PS3.

Edited by Arkhandar, 14 September 2012 - 11:21 AM.

[Nintendustin]

Remember today's lesson, kids; graphics and specs are more important than software and gameplay.

Enjoy the sarcasm, d00dz.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Erm no, Xbox 360 has 512MB and ANY amount can be assigned to GPU or Game. The only memory pool which is static is the 32MB reserved for the OS.

Nintendo on the other hand specifically said that 1GB is for OS and 1GB is for game use. Granted, unless the OS uses its own CPU then its all from a 2GB memory pool so CAN be changed at a later date, if they decide they do not need all that for the OS.

What Nintendo did NOT say that I am aware of, is how much memory is assigned to the GPU. The edram (which I haven't seen any official confirmation of it) is not general purpose GPU RAM, its something along the lines of a framebuffer that can be used to finish the scene (eg upscaling to 1080p from 720p) ready for dumping out of HDMI.

Considering the 2GB of RAM though, I wouldn't be surprised if part of the OS RAM is actually used on the GPU.

[3Dude]

A few peices of info here.

Vgleaks 'official specs' being touted here were 'leaked' by neo gaf poster 'arkham'. Who self admitted he was an asset artist and not a programmer, and laughed at the leak as he could have very well misinterpereted a lot of things.

All Power line processors still in use are referred to as power pc architecture, because the modern instruction architecture was created for power pc processors, and then adopted by the power line.

The official power 7 documentation I attached to this site calls power 7 a power pc architecture.

Power 7 uses ppc version 2.06 iirc.

Its more likely the processors arent enhanced broadways, but broadway enhanced.

Meaning they brought back instructions to the instruction core that broadway relied on that modern ppc no longer uses, like paired singles.

This would enable wii backwards compatability without requiring shrunk down broadways inflating cost, or having to software emulate the missing instructions.

If this were the case, gamecube games would not be bc in this method, as broadway was a superset of gekko, and acheived bc by 'turning off' everything it has over gekko, essentially turning the wii into a cube.

Edited by 3Dude, 14 September 2012 - 11:57 AM.

[Socalmuscle]

Erm no, Xbox 360 has 512MB and ANY amount can be assigned to GPU or Game. The only memory pool which is static is the 32MB reserved for the OS.

Nintendo on the other hand specifically said that 1GB is for OS and 1GB is for game use. Granted, unless the OS uses its own CPU then its all from a 2GB memory pool so CAN be changed at a later date, if they decide they do not need all that for the OS.

What Nintendo did NOT say that I am aware of, is how much memory is assigned to the GPU. The edram (which I haven't seen any official confirmation of it) is not general purpose GPU RAM, its something along the lines of a framebuffer that can be used to finish the scene (eg upscaling to 1080p from 720p) ready for dumping out of HDMI.

Considering the 2GB of RAM though, I wouldn't be surprised if part of the OS RAM is actually used on the GPU.

The other Satoru (shibata) did in fact mention 1 GB was dedicated to games. So games have at least 1 full GB to work with.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Which is what I said.

But, as the OS and Game both run on the same hardware that 1GB is an artificial barrier that can be changed at any time with a software update. So if Nintendo decided the OS doesn't need all that 1GB after all, they could allow future games to use more.

The PS3 did the opposite in fact, games which wanted to use certain OS features had to leave more RAM available for OS use.

[Socalmuscle]

Which is what I said.

But, as the OS and Game both run on the same hardware that 1GB is an artificial barrier that can be changed at any time with a software update. So if Nintendo decided the OS doesn't need all that 1GB after all, they could allow future games to use more.

The PS3 did the opposite in fact, games which wanted to use certain OS features had to leave more RAM available for OS use.

hmmm... even after re-reading your post, that much was difficult to discern.

But apologies for missing it.