Socalmuscle

What u "don't know" is that Nintendo originally designed the Wii U for "asymmetric gameplay" only. And the specs used to reflect that.

But people all over "Teh internetz" started immediately questioning why the Wii U was shown with only one pad, etc.

By then, launch games were pretty far along and were coded for a certain spec. It was too late to include support. Especially since the multiplayer capabilities of many games was built around the principle of asymmetric  Play.

Nintendo listened, bumped up the Wii U spec, and built it to seamlessly support TWO gamepads.

Games are now being coded for that (and all games have additional horsepower available as a result, whether they use two pads or one).

Next year, you will start to see support.

Orrrrr.... Just or.... they don't ever release detailed specs of their devices? Last I checked, they didn't do it with the Wii or Gamecube. Please correct me if I'm wrong here.

They are more protective now.  They like to keep secrets for a variety of reasons.  One is to not allow competitors to be privy to their R&D choices, therefore making it easier for competition to simply "one up."  they also corporately feel that talking specs is counterproductive to talking games.  I don't agree, but it has been that way ever since Iwata took over.  He is a really cool guy though.  Everyone likes him.  and he knows his stuff.  As a former developer himself, he appreciates horsepower as much as anyone.  Nintendo basically HAD to do the Wii like it did.  With the Wii U, they could do whatever they wanted.  They chose a very powerful, very next gen, but not necessarily "nuclear" specification for the U.  Probably pushing the envelope of what they feel is "wise."  Rather than argue specs, Nintendo will argue games and let the actual products speak for themselves.  Likely, the next systems from other companies will be hard pressed to distinguish themselves in the games arena.  

In the GCN era, Nintendo worked with an unknown company called ArtX that was developing amazing graphics tech.  The eventual GPU that resulted had less transistors than the Xbox GPU, but the GPUs both performed very similarly in the end result, sometimes the GCN graphics were even clearly superior.  but all people could talk about was transistor count.  People didn't understand specs.  they only understood big number vs. little number. that's why Intel, IBM etc. don't market by ghx ratings anymore.  People by and large didn't "get" why a Core CPU was "slower" than a P4.  What they didn't realize was that the Core was doing so much more than the P4 per cycle that it blew it out of the water, but once you start having to explain things, you lose marketing momentum.  That's what Nintendo knows and that's why they shy from it.  ArtX ended up impressing everyone with their GCN work.  So much so that ATI (now AMD) flat out bought them. and the 1TSRAM bit was genius.  It allowed the GCN to compete with and sometimes beat the XBOX while costing FAR less and using less transistors to do so.

Take a V12 engine and it will be fast.  Take a V8 engine, twin turbo charge it, and it will be faster while also being cheaper and getting better gas mileage.

The Wii U hardware is impressive.  The P7 architecture, the EDRAM, the highly programmable GPU, the RAM in tandem with the amount of data on a Blu-Ray tech drive, etc... It is a machine built to simply handle business.

Sony and MS HAVE to have more cores with their X86 CPUs to keep up.  They will also need more RAM to work with a less efficient architecture.  If they don't, they will have to seriously custom fab their tech so much that the cost will skyrocket.  And this is just to keep up.  Both companies know they will have to outpower the Wii U to be relevent since Nintendo is signing developers left and right and then have their own world class games to compete with.

Their hype will be things like number of cores, ghz ratings, ram amount, things like that.  Nintendo by the numbers will look like less than (just like the Gamecube did), but the actual games - not so much.  That is why they don't play that game.  they can simply point at their games and say "where is the difference?" or "are you really going to pay $200 more for such a small discrepancy?"

If you are a Nintendo fan, it is a good time to be one. Things don't always work out like this for a games console maker.

The wii u will be the next snes.

It's funny how Nintendo is entering into development agreements with new studios seemingly every day.

People are excited. When you are motivated, you create great things. People are motivated.

The wii u looked odd a couple years ago. Now, it seems like a no brainer. And you can bet ms and Sony will follow nintendos convention.

There wouldn't be such excitement if the console didn't look like a forward looking success.

Funny. I don't care about "winning" any gen; I just want good games.

Nintendo is in a great position with Wii U.

The specs of the console put it in Godzilla status.

The current gen
Consoles are like Bambi in comparison.

Some of you may know where I'm going with this...

So this is what will happen when wii u is in full swing:



Sony and ms will have to call on king kong and mechagodzilla to survive.

But all Wii U has is ports besides ZombiU and that game still looks bad graphically.

Not an accurate statement, but I hear you on zombi u. The part where it's visual get confusing is that the game is a wii u exclusive. But here's the kicker: the code wasn't built from the ground up for wii u. People get confused and automatically think exclusive = specially coded for. Most of the time that's true. But not here. Adding to the mess is the fact that one year ago, it was a totally fifteenth game. Zombie u has been a bit rushed. It still comes out great. But it could nearly classify as a hurried port.

Man that Fox engine is impressive. It looks like full motion video all the time. Seamless effects and transitions. The lighting blows everything else away. Cryengine and unreal have both been put on notice.

These specs, while not as erroneous as previous, are incorrect.

The CPU will be limiting in no way whatsoever (a huge understatement) and 3 core...

The GPU (an enhanced AMD 7xxx) is actually capable of Direct X 11, should something happen to where a developer could actually license it for Nintendo hardware.

Who are these developers again?

LOL

its not for me, I want it to compete against PS4 and nextbox, and I'm not sure I this will cut it.

How accurate a this, because the latter article expects Sony and Microsoft to release a superpower console again. I'm gonna wait for Nintendo to reveal the specs, cause I jus don't buy this.

And you shouldn't.  it is more "wolf in sheeps clothing" bologna from the ever popular "unnamed developer."

That depends on your interpretation of far more powerful.

Its just not in the cards to have an uber leap in power again at this point in time... For so many reasons. The most damning, has been the fact that the reliance on, or rather, the full on abuse of Moores law has finally reached its consequences, as Dennard scaling hits the inevitable wall of physical limits. As of right now, we can't simply continue advancing in power the same easy way we did from 1970-2005/6. Don't mistake what I'm saying. This is very much a NOW problem, silicon integrated circuitry, as we've been using it for the past 30+ years has hit its physical limits for the easy power upgrades so many are SO very used to enjoying. Its been going on so long that people just seem to take it for granted.

Once we overcome the silicon problem (graphene? optical?), we will be back on track, with a performance rate growth similar to what we enjoyed with dennard scaling.
Maybe even in time for the next consoles!

(Personally, I'm expecting a 350 wii u price point.)

I refer to the hardware.  In which case, the Wii U is demonstrably far more powerful than the current generation.  As it should be.

Will that translate to seeing an enormously obvious leap in terms of what we see on screen? No.  but it will still be quite a bit better and obviously so.

"Moore's 'law'" was more a theory than anything else, though it played out very well for a long time. It should have been "Moore's observed trend" instead. LOL

and it relied on people working on chips to make it happen.  Obviously the fallibility of man combined with varying talent levels, resources, economies, market, etc. would see to it that it would not be a perfect law.

Still, from the technology at hand now, the Wii U is far more powerful in every way.  Will it be reveal in a leap forward the likes of which were seen by the 360 vs original xbox? Doubtful.  But I wouldn't put it past GCN from N64 type of leap considering the hardware.  Sure, the GamePad has to cost the hardware while it's doing its thing (despite what AMD would say), but there are ways for creative types to go full throttle on the graphics with minimal gamepad parasitic drag.

In other words, I agree with where you are coming from, but at the same time, I believe "far more powerful" to be accurate, though by far, I mean from California to Texas.  Not from California to Israel, if you get my drift.

Really interested to see what the Crytek folks are doing with Wii U.  If there is an engine looking for hardware to let loose on, that's it.

nice im glad....seeing as your being a smart ass for no reason maybe..just maybe you should stop wasting everyones time with your dumb posts that no one cares about You have a good day babe



Really ?? no evidence? Have you not seen ANY of the screen shots or gameplay of any games being released on the wii u? I dont think anyone needs to come out and say that. Most games will just be ports of the ps3/360 version. Plus, when you have nintendo saying over and over again that their main focus is gameplay and not "whats inside the system" I think it says it all. If it had more power...dont you think they would have advertised that as a sellng point by now?

I think the problem was the way you stated it, like "on par" was all there is to it.

The system will have much better graphics, but at launch, most of the games will have started life on wii, 360, and will be ports.

The Wii U is a next gen system with specs that wipe out the 360 and PS3.

Like the 360 at launch, where a lot of games looked like Xbox or GCN games (even exclusive titles like Kameo, Halo 3, etc.), the Wii U will have to endure a similar start. but like the 360 before it, the Wii U will distinguish itself and shine brightly a year after launch and onward.

The Wii U has a CPU that wipes the floor with Cell and Xenon.  It is a very, very nice processor.

The GPU does as well. People have been lowballing this aspect of the system for a while.  It is quite the performer.

The RAM allows both to work with a lot more resources and will allow for greater variation in textures, animations, larger assets, higher texture res, etc.  this will be the first time a videogame system can actually truly benefit from the greater storage capacity of Blu-ray derived media as the RAM allows for larger chunks of that media to be in play.

The Wii U is quite a bit more powerful than the 360 and PS3.

Old dev kits from last year featured a quad core Power chip clocked at 3 ghz.

Today, the chip has been upgraded (not clocked higher).

The GPU used to be from 2010. It now has the foundation of a card released in early 2011 that has been enhanced and tailored to the console.

I wouldn't rule out a 10x performance jump from current systems when the overall hardware is factored in (in this case, the performance of the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts).  And it will be noticeable.  Not like the 360 from the PS2, but similar to the GCN from the N64. There will be some small similarities - especially at first - then there will be major differentiators. We won't see this until about a year after launch however due to political games and development time with final kit.

At launch, the Wii U will look slightly better than 360 and PS3.  A year later, it will look far better.

The Wii U is a dedicated console.  It is designed by Nintendo to be very powerful, but also very efficient.

consider the new Macbook Pro with Retina Display.  The laptop is nearly as thin as an iPad, but it has a quad core i7 CPU, an Nvidia Kepler GPU, 16GB RAM and solid state storage.

It is in a case which is many square inches smaller than the Wii U.

Apple keeps it cool.  cool enough to be a pro level machine to last for a decade or more.

Nintendo will have no cooling issues with Wii U.

Nintendo systems don't overheat.  If they ever did, it's extremely rare.

Wii U has massive venting in place, has internal fans and new manufacturing processes.

It will be extremely powerful and run plenty cool.

Zero worries here.

This is a company that takes great care to make quality products.

Not Microsoft, who wants to cram it together, make a few bucks and let the consumers work out their kinks for them.

You ever open up your N64 or Gamecube? They're a thing of beauty on the inside.  Try doing that with peer systems like PSX or Xbox. Yuck (although the Wii itself is somewhat of a backwards step here).

GCN:


N64:


Take a look at MBP with RD:

and most of that is battery - something the Wii U doesn't have to deal with (PSU another matter).

With the advances in manufacturing and Nintendo's penchant for efficiency, there will be no cooling issues.

It's a non-issue. HUGE Vents on top on back, side...

This thing is made to breathe:

I just hope the thermal design is good, and it doesn't raise the temperature in my room 10 degrees.

Nintendo has probably tested to make sure that it won't overheat unless you leave it on, and doing stuff, for like a week strait. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

That is built into the Power architecture.  It will underclock, go to sleep and even shut cores down as needed to save power and in turn run even cooler.

There will be zero cooling issues here, out side of the few freaks of nature that happen to any hardware manufacturer.

but it won't be a cobbled together Xbox 360 that fry's itself to death within a few months.

I did see the fifa cover at Gamestop.

oboy.

The design stinks.

There is no way around it. And yes, the competition does have one tiny thing to gloat about.

but let's not pretend it's great, just to avoid the one criticism anyone can legitimately have of the console or it's products - because this actually doesn't relate to those - but it does relate to the message it sends. And the message it sends is "cheap toy."

Sure, what really matters is the content in the box.

But people are wired to appreciate art.

This is an example of what not to do in design school nowadays.

It dates the product quickly.  It makes it look old and somewhat childish.

Even children want their stuff to look "cool."

Hopefully, it isn't final.

So much wrong with it. From the colors that are off and have nothing to do with the Wii U motif, to the style and severe roundedness of the swoop (even if they are trying to allow more box art through, their are better ways - like what the Wii does).  

Nintendo needs to hire forward thinking graphic designers like the folks who put together the Wii U gamepad demo for e3.  that was true beauty in design.

Lots of folks like to have their DVD, bluray, and game collections exposed as a way to enhance decor in some ways.  I am pretty sure these will go in the section of the entertainment center that has doors you can close.

And that yellow (not gold)...
Nothing nice or appealing about it at all.  someone took color theory and made it throw up on the page.

The graphic elements and logo are weighted nicely and placed properly, so it was made by someone who knows what they are doing.  But it just looks bad.

I hope they change it.

Those look nasty.

The art for the games looks great.

The Wii U differentiator graphics looks like super old photoshop designs from the 90's.

No thanks.

Get rid of the ugly yellow and whatever color underlines the yellow.

Even the "swoop" style is so overplayed.

Nintendo did themselves a favor at retail by making their box art consistent with their Wii console.  the nice aesthetic of the logo, colors, etc. gives you a high view of the product just by looking at it.

Nintendo should go with a motif that matches their console and logo.

swoop style:

non-swoop:

Obviously rquick and rough work here, but if you can look for potential, the color usage lends itself to higher perceived quality than the "wal-mart special" look of the fisher price looking designs.

If the iPhone, iPad, and overrall success of the dedicated gaming console model have taught us anything, it's that people buy hardware that enables special experiences.

Those that make hardware and software get to define the entire experience. That's nintendos niche. That's why the 3DS is so popular and why the Wii U will be as well.

You take powerful hardware, focus it toward certain tasks and write software to give it life.

Nintendo would not want to be dictated to by a hardware companies lack of vision. They've always been about the total experience. And they've got the virtual boy failure to prove it. That's what makes them great. They have vision, take risks, and move the entire industry forward each time. This is done with hardware every bit as much as with software.

hehe
silverismoney's reasoning actually matches processor with a rumor not long ago, funny coincidence, neat find? who knows
i do have expectations on this thing though, and the mass amount of developers saying things is starting to contridict each other
but i do have to agree, how the masses are talking, it seems to be only slightly above current generation consoles, and it better not be

Let's just say this.

Nintendo has learned a lot from IBM working with their tech. Some of that Is applied to the custom power based CPU. The Watson paths and algorithms built for the power architecture are a huge gain as well. The CPU itself is much more powerful than anything available in a console currently. no doubt the power pc capabilities inherent to a power CPU are greatly enhanced and will be utilized heavily. But there is more...

I'm thinking IBM had to have given Nintendo a sweetheart deal for them to have what they have. IBM has lost Microsoft this time and Sony is going x86 as well. Can see them wanting to make a fight of it.

The GPU is very nice as well. For those thinking they can simply buy the same gpu or an upgrade of it are missing the point. The wii u does not use a stock PC gpu. Also, because of the efficiency inherent to a console package and due to nintendos relentless focus on efficiency and refinement, the Wii U handily outperforms any PC with comparable specifications.

My prediction/hypothesis/whatever:

The wii U wil look marginally better than current systems at launch. The many ports are limited by default as those games began life on lesser systems and were built around those limitations.

About a year after launch, the real gods become available. Games written specifically to take advantage of the superior firepower running on engines built/modified/enhanced to run on said hardware.

They will be ready to face off against the launch hype of Microsoft and Sony new consoles.

There is a reason why so many are excited about what the wii u allows us to make. But for those looking to sell soon, they have had to deal with the lowest common denominator dev kits for performance budgeting, current game engines, porting from older architectures, etc.

Nintendo isn't coming up with a 360+ type system. They ate ushering in the next generation.

Just like microsoft did with the 360-and it's games looked like Xbox 1 games until a year after launch as well.

Hahaha

This guy is good.  A bit off with the earlier dev kit spec, but most of it was right on.

The GPU was always going to be a 67xx...

they had to in order to have more than one Wii U GamePad available.

the consumer wins.

Not only will the Wii U have awesome looking multi GamePad games, but the single GamePad games are going to blow people away.

The Wii U has the CPU, the GPU, the RAM, and the overall architectural efficiency to be a killer.  Specs wise, it's already a beast, but Nintendo knows how to organize everything to make it better than the sum of its parts.  very smart company.  Much respect.  Gotta love it when the game designers have major input on hardware customization.  That's when you see great things happen. The Wii U resembles the Wii in name only, but will resemble the GCN, N64, SNES in its power levels for each consoles respective time periods.

Now if they can just get rid of Reggie and get someone to market this console properly...

http://hothardware.c...OpenCL-Support/

Of note:

Can drive up to 6 displays, but 3 would be just fine, no?

resolutions up to 4096x2160

Note where Nintendo got their "Stream" codename...

Open GL 4.1 support (DX11 also but Nintendo won't be doing that.  We would have to license that in a separate manner and there are many hurdles to such an undertaking).

That's the stock embedded format of the GPU.  Nintendo has customized its GPU (6760 or 6770...) and it will outperform the stock chip.