So, as I have no PS3 or Xbox360 figures, I benchmarked the only Windows machine I had access to: my HTPC. It's a custom built AMD A6-3500. I used the same Wwise version (2012.2) and the built in profiler (average over 60 samples). I tested the exact same effects using the default settings. Baseline is 0.2785%.
Mono delay, default settings: 0.2825% (0.04% increase)
Peak limiter, default settings: 0.3572% (0.08% increase)
So this is what I came up with:
Code:
Wwise 2012.2 CPU Load (lower is better)
| Wii U | A6-3500 |
------------------------------------
Peak Limiter | 0.20% | 0.08% |
Delay | 0.07% | 0.04% |
It seems a mid range 2011 PC CPU is roughly twice as fast as the Wii U CPU. Not exactly surprising, considering the A6 chip alone draws more power than the whole Wii U. Maybe I should make a new thread with instructions on how to replicate the results? More data would help.
While i appreciate you going to so much effort to put the the Wii U's Wwise performance into context. I don't believe it's wise (pun intended
) to use it as any form of indication of the Wii U's CPU performance.
Ultimately the performance of an application is not just dependant on how powerful the hardware it's running on is, but a whole host of othe factors. These factors would include things like firmware, devleopment kit maturity, APIs, hardawre documentation, compiler and debug tools, developer talent and resources, etc etc.
This is the very reason why i've taken almost everything people have said about the Wii U's performance with a grain of salt, especially the CPU. When i heard the negative comments a well known member made on Beyond3D about the CPU being weak, i wanted to ask the following questions:
Is this engine a port from PS360 or developed for the Wii U?
How mature are Nintendo and IBM's development kits/compilers?
How long has the game/engine been in development on the Wii U?
When was the last time hardware or APIs were changed by Nintendo, and did these changes effect your devleopment?
How mature are the Wii U's APIs?
How mature is the firmware on the Wii U?
Have Nintendo, IBM, and ATi provided suitable documentation about the hardware's achitecture and performance?
Has the developer had any experince devleoping games on other platforms that feature similar hardware architecture and instruction sets to the Wii U?
End of the day raw processing power doesn't mean much if developers can't harness it. IMHO the Wii U's processor is likely radically different from the Xenos/Cell, and due to shitty documentation, development kits, and lazy developers doing quick ports, the processor is not being used right now to its potential.
