-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Rumor: Wii U final specs
- Thread starter EatChildren
- Start date
RPGCrazied
Member
Long as it looks better than the Wii on a HDTV, I don't care. Most games look horrible on one. I laugh at the 8gb storage though. Why do I have a feeling they will end up selling some sort of external HD. No GC BC, so they need to sell some games on the Wii U shop channel.
I was talking about the SM 5.0 features which open new rendering techniques, like tessellation and random data write access. Those use significant silicon and run terribly on cheaper/smaller GPUs. Such silicon would sit unused in the Wii U, all for a slightly better SM4.0 performance.
Many other DX11 features (and even some DX10 and DX10.1 features) are meaningless in the context of a console, since the CPU and the GPU can freely access each other's data. For example, DX10.1 adds support to using depth buffers directly as textures, so you don't need an additional (and very expensive) render pass to generate a depth map. This is something consoles have been doing since the PS2.
It's the most likely reason, yes. I wouldn't be surprised if it also makes it easier for them to do GCN BC, if they get to selling those on the eShop.
SniperHunter
Banned
Wii U should be easy to emulate on PC like Wii and Gamecube. We will probably see a Dolphin 2.0.
One thing that saddens me, is the lack of hard drive. If Nintendo wants to compete with Steam, PSN or XBLA they need to have a HDD. 8 gigs is nothing...
One thing that saddens me, is the lack of hard drive. If Nintendo wants to compete with Steam, PSN or XBLA they need to have a HDD. 8 gigs is nothing...
Wow, I thought that WIiU was going to have a modified low end AMD 7XXX . Now it's 3 generations behind. I hope there are power or cost saving or manufacturing conveniences with it.
It's not about graphics whoring...it's about content access, or potential limits therein.
Unfortunately PCs haven't been treated in a first-class way wrt either. But maybe that'll change next-gen, it would be nice.
Don't you need a pretty beefy x86 CPU to emulate the Wii's CPU? This one could easily be 6x as fast, in which case it wouldn't be easy.
What's the highest clock on this thing again?
NeoGAF? I'm more surprised when rumoured specs aren't taken as indisputable fact here.
Edit: Though these aren't far off what we were mostly guessing at and have accepted for a while. It's the CPU that's throwing most people off.
It will. Part of Wii's problem and it's lower resolution cap is it had to be sent through the TV's scaler to be converted to 720/1080p which in a lot of cases just introduced a ton of artifacts and smudging. On Wii U it's going to be able to send a signal native to the TV in those resolutions.
And it's compatible with any external hard drive.
Besides which... is there anything fundamentally *wrong* with the Broadway architecture? The only thing I can think of is that I seem to recall it had a different endianness to the other two, requiring a bit of tinkering when we did games on the Wii - but it never struck me as a fundamentally flawed CPU despite that.
Specs always OK by me, I don't care if Nintendo releases a console with N64 graphics, I'd buy it any way. But they may repel some major western developers. We know that guys like Bethesda, Epic, Infinity Ward, Rockstar have had a stance against Wii because of graphics. I hope it won't have any effect and we will play some actual western games on this console. Ubi and Warner aren't enough to save Wii U from becoming Wii 2.
why does it matter? There are already PC games that look great because of a great GPU, but don't take advantage of multicore CPUs. So maybe Nintendo looked at what was needed, and concluded that they only needed that level of CPU for that GPU?
With these specs and a potential low price - they could sell + 10 million consoles in the first year. Hope it pays off, because with those specs they will need a high installed base if they want to be included in future multiplattform titles....
Lol are 360 and ps3 gonna be easy to emulate on PC as well?
Also, I'm sure it's been stated several times but wii u supports external HDDs and SD cards.
MadeInBeats
Banned
That's something I've always thought. Anyone who REALLY has an appreciation of specs/performance and architecture design, would always be excited for new Nintendo hardware! Anyone who isn't is just looking for something to make up for a small penis; Exposed!
Brapp.
Yeah, I agree. It's of no use to use, so imagine how useless this is to actual developers. It's more like something you'd read on the official Nintendo site.
RUMOUR
Why would you think that?
fake Kaz really loves the WiiU..
Ice burn...
If the Wii U is a hit and major developers want to ignore a large userbase again by convincing themselves with self-fulfilling prophecies ("let's not make good Wii games, they won't sell anyway... see, our bad games don't sell"), fine. Instead of having fun playing their games we can have fun reading news about their continued bankruptcies instead.
TheBioLover
Member
fake Kaz really loves the WiiU..
Heh.
Not entirely, but it helps. Really, I want to know how fast the cores are. The Architecture of Broadway is fine for today, but the Wii's CPU only clocked at 740 MHz. If there are three cores running at say 1.5 GHz, it should be find for most gaming applications, which usually aren't that dependent on the CPU.
fake Kaz really loves the WiiU..
Flawless.
I have a 500GB external HD - the storage isn't a problem for me.
1GB RAM and the CPU sound underwhelming, however - though hopefully the GPU holds up and devs can push the hardware to the limits.
Without clock speeds etc. it's hard to tell, but right now this is pretty much what I expected and I'm fine with it. Maybe not a day one purchase, but as soon as we see RETRO's project/a new Mario/Zelda, I'll be on board.
1GB RAM and the CPU sound underwhelming, however - though hopefully the GPU holds up and devs can push the hardware to the limits.
Without clock speeds etc. it's hard to tell, but right now this is pretty much what I expected and I'm fine with it. Maybe not a day one purchase, but as soon as we see RETRO's project/a new Mario/Zelda, I'll be on board.
The specs don't mean anything because they don't say much. The CPU could be 3x the Wii or 10x the Wii depending on the enhancements and clock rate. The GPU is even more uncertain as the OP contains no info at all on its performance.
evilromero
Member
Hell, those specs sound good enough to me. I was perfectly happy with my Wii on a 42" plasma for the last six years. Definitely excited to see this confirmed on Thursday.
So basically the CPU is pretty much the one we expected (power PC 476fp is most likely). The GPU is the one most people suspected. The memory is mentioned as 1 gig FOR APPLICATIONS i.e there's a separate pool for the GPU (most likely 512meg) and the 8 gig we knew about already.
All in all what we found out today was....nothing we didn't already know
All in all what we found out today was....nothing we didn't already know
Will the WiiU allow for downloadable games to be stored in external HDD and/or be used as a primary route to play those games? Will the WiiU even have a way to upgrade its internal storage capacity?
Foliorum Viridum
Banned
I've accepted a Nintendo machine will never have the specs I'd truly want and will always be at least a gen behind. For the last few months I've stopped viewing the Wii U as a "next gen" console, as sensitive as some people are about that opinion. As long as it can provide decent-ish visuals, which it which, I'll be happy with it as Nintendo games are worth putting up with the shortcomings of the hardware.
8gb fucking sucks if true for storage though. Though I'm not convinced Nintendo will provide enough worth filling that yet, at the same time.
Basically, this doesn't change my view of the console at all. Still day 1.
8gb fucking sucks if true for storage though. Though I'm not convinced Nintendo will provide enough worth filling that yet, at the same time.
Basically, this doesn't change my view of the console at all. Still day 1.
Why wouldn't they be able to be played off of the HDD? You already have to play eShop games on the 3DS off of the SD card.
With that logic,how do you explain the N64 and Gamecube then?
Canis lupus
Member
fake Kaz really loves the WiiU..
That guy always delivers.
SniperHunter
Banned
I was just thinking out loud about the PC emulation. I don't know anything about emulation.
Psychological Intellect
Banned
lololololololol
if you really wanted to ether the wii u you could have posted a pic of yamcha
Internal HDD, I understand, but I asked about external HDD connected via USB.
deadhorse32
Bad Art
Ahahahah Nintendo .... :|
fake Kaz really loves the WiiU..
lmao.
Nintendo is already far ahead of Sony and MS in terms of external storage. The Wii and 3DS both support standard SD cards, and you can store and play virtual console games off of them on the Wii, so it seems safe to assume the Wii-U will support external drives in similar fashion.
I really don't get people who think that paying 5x normal pricing for branded hard drives is somehow better than paying market rate for them.
more likely for OS.
fake Kaz really loves the WiiU..
Something something Ps3/vita has no games something something.
shinobi602
Member
Huh? I'm confused. Are you saying you don't think the 720/PS4 will have large HDDs?
So the all of this info is still extremely vague correct? Outside of the memory obviously. Nothing shown is too surprising outside of the "enhanced" broadways, but even then we don't really know how enhanced they've been.
All in all it will be fantastic for a Nintendo console. Zelda will look amazing, Mario will look amazing, Metroid will look drop dead gorgeous. My 3D Donkey Kong U
will look great. Off-TV play will be really cool and convenient. I have a PC for everything else.
All in all it will be fantastic for a Nintendo console. Zelda will look amazing, Mario will look amazing, Metroid will look drop dead gorgeous. My 3D Donkey Kong U
Please Nintendo!!!