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Rumor: Wii U final specs

Ushojax

Should probably not trust the 7-11 security cameras quite so much
With that logic,how do you explain the N64 and Gamecube then?

Why would modern buying habits explain console sales from 5-15 years ago? Those consoles didn't even have a 2D Mario.

Anyway, this is an HD Nintendo console and that's fine for me. It makes no sense to go cutting edge in the current climate (not that Nintendo would ever have done that).
 
In the end, it doesn't really matter how much more powerful the Wii U is compared to Xbox 360 and PS3. Devs will probably use the increased power so they can be more lazy while porting. I doubt they will invest in any special optimization / effects. And while it is certainly possible to port games from PS4 / Xbox 3 to the Wii U, those games will look very bad. Devs will make heavy use of modern graphic effects in nextgen games, and they would have to remove most of them when porting the game to the Wii U, or try to fake them, which costs a lot of money. And I don't think they want to invest that much.

Unreal Engine 3 still runs poorly on PS3, don't know if that's due to the split ram architecture or the poor GPU, but all the the latest UE3 PS3 games run poorly and look the worst on PS3.

Oh really? Batman: Arkham City runs just fine on the PS3 in 3D.
 

Sid

Member
fake Kaz really loves the WiiU..

K2BOE.jpg
He REALLY does http://twitter.com/KazHiraiCEO/status/245144553336762369 lol
 
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

I was thinking 1 gig for apps meant 1 gig for apps shared memory. 512mb(?) reserved for OS.
 

Effect

Member
1. Denial

2. Anger

3. Bargaining

4. Depression

5. Acceptance

Which stage are you guys? Because, it's all a broken record.

Straight to acceptance. It is what it is and it is a gaming console. People need to put this in proper prospective. I'm more concern about what games are on the system and how they look. I could care less what the vague specs are. Games like Skyward Sword, Xenoblade, Red Steel 2, Monster Hunter, etc have been amazing experiences on the Wii for me. Games I rank above many 360 and PS3 and PC games I've played in recent years in terms of enjoyment. They aren't on the same graphics level but I've found many Wii games to ve pretty and visually enjoyable.

What does "enhanced" Broadway even mean? It could mean anything from a very tiny change to a complete reworking but still having older tech for backwards compatibility thus the reason for keeping the game. If the rumored specs say one thing but at the same time we get games that look and play better then current games once pure Wii U titles come out no one is going to care what the numbers are. What matters is the game and what is done with the system.
 
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.

You've got a point there. But as a side note: R700 does have a tesselation unit.
 

elsk

Banned
We all knew Wii U was like a little improved version of Xbox 360, just as Wii was an improved version of GameCube.

Something something Ps3/vita has no games something something.

PS3 has more (good) games than any other console right now...
 

Spinluck

Member
fake Kaz really loves the WiiU..

K2BOE.jpg


What if it's real Kaz posing as a fake him?

:-O

Anyways, I'm not a spec guy(I know a little, but most of it flies over my head lol), but I remember being on another gaming forum about a month ago where a crazy Wii U argument was going among fanboys. And one PC gamer said, "The GPU in consoles matter a bit more than the CPU". Would any GAF'ers agree with that??

And also, how does this GPU stack up to the Cell and 360?

I didn't expect too much from Nintendo, but whatever, at $250, if Nintendo kicks ass Thursday it'll still be the first console I buy at launch.

Luckily that 8gb of flash won't mean nothing since I have a 320GB HDD sitting around, I used it to back up my PS3, but fuck it. If I get a Wii U, it'll be me Wii U HDD.

No Ethernet port? Why Nintendo? Why you do this?

EDIT: I meant CPU.
 

Ridley327

Member
Internal HDD, I understand, but I asked about external HDD connected via USB.

Again, I ask why you wouldn't be able to play games off an external HDD? They've already demonstrated that they don't have problems with running games off of external memory; why would that change now, especially when there will be retail games on the eShop that will exceed the 8 gigs of internal memory?
 

jerd

Member
I was thinking 1 gig for apps meant 1 gig for apps shared memory. 512mb(?) reserved for OS.

Yes and IdeaMan implied earlier that much of the OS and other console features/functions are still unknown even to devs. He said that (and I'm paraphrasing here) there are a lot of things still blocked to devs, and they will be finding out about them at the same time we are on Thursday. Hopefully Nintendo really has something great to hide, but more likely that they just think they do.
 
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.

Not really. And CPU/GPU tech is advancing pretty fast. We pretty much already have 6x Wii U on the market and being sold.

To run games at an acceptable clip, minimum requirements are a Core 2 Duo @1.6+ GHz and Radeon HD4550. Even Intel Integrated Graphics are far and beyond this spec.

If the Wii U gets reverse engineered this year, I could see it being the new "it" system for emulation.
 

i-Lo

Member
Again, I ask why you wouldn't be able to play games off an external HDD? They've already demonstrated that they don't have problems with running games off of external memory; why would that change now, especially when there will be retail games on the eShop that will exceed the 8 gigs of internal memory?

On a computer, I know it works. What I am asking is whether Nintendo have mentioned anything about them supporting playing downloaded games off of external HDD?
 

mclem

Member
Going to save this thread. The bitching about internal storage is going to be awesome when sony and microsoft talk about their first party storage that costs an arm and a leg.
To be fair, the PS3 was very reasonable with the storage setup. But then the Vita was... less so. So we'll see.

Huh? I'm confused. Are you saying you don't think the 720/PS4 will have large HDDs?
He's saying that they'll have large HDs - and we'll pay a vastly inflated price for that. Depends on if they go all-out proprietary or allow generic ones to be used, I'd say.
 

Ridley327

Member
On a computer, I know it works. What I am asking is whether Nintendo have mentioned anything about them supporting playing downloaded games off of external HDD?

Why on earth would they support external HDD if they didn't? Again, I'm going to point out that there will be games that exceed 8 gigs.
 

hodgy100

Member
Also, another thing that no one seems to be questioning. The site says


How would information with no specifics or clock speeds be of use to developers? How would simply claiming the CPU uses enhanced Broadway cores be useful? Wouldn't developers need much more specific info?

Also why would it only support up to 32GB SDHC cards when the 3DS supports up to 128GB?

devs will most likely just ramp up the graphics quality till it hits sub 30fps then bring it back :)

knowing what type of hardware is much more useful as then you know what tricks and effects you can pull off. clock speed has been a largely useless measure of speed / power since the p4 days.
 
Yes and IdeaMan implied earlier that much of the OS and other console features/functions are still unknown even to devs. He said that (and I'm paraphrasing here) there are a lot of things still blocked to devs, and they will be finding out about them at the same time we are on Thursday. Hopefully Nintendo really has something great to hide, but more likely that they just think they do.

It's going to be interesting. Could just be a big browser and nothing else.
 
devs will most likely just ramp up the graphics quality till it hits sub 30fps then bring it back :)

knowing what type of hardware is much more useful as then you know what tricks and effects you can pull off. clock speed has been a largely useless measure of speed / power since the p4 days.

But saying it's an enhanced Broadway doesn't tell them anything that anyone on the internet that can use Google don't already know. We all know the Broadway hardware inside and out. If that's literally what the site said, then it's completely useless, especially considering it comes from the official dev site
 

Anth0ny

Member
You have to wonder if the Wii ___ series and Mario will still be selling 20 million+ copies a pop this gen. Because Wii U sure as hell won't be getting any real third party support with those specs.

I can see a repeat of this current gen in a sense. The Nintendo console will start off strong as the price will be low, the controller will be unique and interesting at first, and the graphics won't look too bad against its competition.

Eventually, Sony and Microsoft will drop the price on their consoles, third parties will get a hang of the new hardware and start cranking out the AAAA games (that Wii U may or may not get nerfed ports of), and suddenly the Nintendo console looks kinda awful graphically when compared to its competition.

The question is... can the Wii U replicate that astronomical initial success of the Wii?
 

i-Lo

Member
Why on earth would they support external HDD if they didn't? Again, I'm going to point out that there will be games that exceed 8 gigs.

..... the PS3 supports FAT32 external HDD plugged via USB but it sure as hell doesn't support downloading PSN games onto it and using it the primary HDD to play the games from.

Sometimes, it's amazing to see how fucking hard one has to try to get a straight "yes" or "no". It's like some people here have a huge ass chip on their shoulders when it comes to Nintendo.
 

Conor 419

Banned
There's bitching about internal storage?

lol

I'm not interested in the specs until I discover how they compare with the other two systems.
 

Ydahs

Member
Gemüsepizza;41988682 said:
In the end, it doesn't really matter how much more powerful the Wii U is compared to Xbox 360 and PS3. Devs will probably use the increased power so they can be more lazy while porting. I doubt they will invest in any special optimization / effects. And while it is certainly possible to port games from PS4 / Xbox 3 to the Wii U, those games will look very bad. Devs will make heavy use of modern graphic effects in nextgen games, and they would have to remove most of them when porting the game to the Wii U, or try to fake them, which costs a lot of money. And I don't think they want to invest that much.
The majority of modern effects will be possible on the Wii U. It's not a Wii/PS360 situation where the Wii's GPU was incredibly outdated at the time of release. The Wii GPU is able to support every game out on the market today (well, nearly).

It's also not difficult to 'swap' out some funky pixel shader for more something more simple. The engines they'll be using will make it a trivial task anyway, since most engines going forward will likely have PC support where scalable graphics are a necessity.

If Wii U does get ports, I doubt it it'll look 'bad'. It'll look worse relatively speaking, but on its own it'll still look decent.
 

Ridley327

Member
..... the PS3 supports FAT32 external HDD plugged via USB but it sure as hell doesn't support downloading PSN games onto it and using it the primary HDD to play the games from.

Sometimes, it's amazing to see how fucking hard one has to try to get a straight "yes" or "no". It's like some people here have a huge ass chip on their shoulders when it comes to Nintendo.

They haven't mentioned anything about it, no, but I don't see why Nintendo would tout it if they weren't going to use it for its intended purpose. You don't honestly expect them to require a large SD card to go along with an HDD to make it work, do you?
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Dude is gold. No wonder why Yoshida RT's his stuff all the time.

The specs are what they are, not surprised in the slightest.

8 gb is awful but I will give them credit for 4 USB ports. Sony taking out USB ports with ps3 upgrades was the most petty shit ever.

1 for charging Wiipad
1 for USB HDD
1 for ethernet
 
You have to wonder if the Wii ___ series and Mario will still be selling 20 million+ copies a pop this gen. Because Wii U sure as hell won't be getting any real third party support with those specs.

I can see a repeat of this current gen in a sense. The Nintendo console will start off strong as the price will be low, the controller will be unique and interesting at first, and the graphics won't look too bad against its competition.

Eventually, Sony and Microsoft will drop the price on their consoles, third parties will get a hang of the new hardware and start cranking out the AAAA games (that Wii U may or may not get nerfed ports of), and suddenly the Nintendo console looks kinda awful graphically when compared to its competition.

The question is... can the Wii U replicate that astronomical initial success of the Wii?

If it ends up being a repeat of the Gamecube's history, Iwata will start talking about the successor in 2 and a half years from now. So at least we won't be short on things to talk about.
The industry is crawling along at the moment, it's too early to tell if that will benefit Nintendo or if it will be swept up in the apathy.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
You have to wonder if the Wii ___ series and Mario will still be selling 20 million+ copies a pop this gen. Because Wii U sure as hell won't be getting any real third party support with those specs.

I can see a repeat of this current gen in a sense. The Nintendo console will start off strong as the price will be low, the controller will be unique and interesting at first, and the graphics won't look too bad against its competition.

Eventually, Sony and Microsoft will drop the price on their consoles, third parties will get a hang of the new hardware and start cranking out the AAAA games (that Wii U may or may not get nerfed ports of), and suddenly the Nintendo console looks kinda awful graphically when compared to its competition.

The question is... can the Wii U replicate that astronomical initial success of the Wii?

I don't see it. The gamepad thing has nowhere near the instant accessibility of the wiimote - Nintendo have had two E3s to try and show its value and have failed so far IMO.
 

Jocchan

Ὁ μεμβερος -ου
Espresso


Wii+U+CPU.jpg




Even if this guy was wrong about something he knew something because no way his name was just going to happen to be the same as the CPU.

http://gamenmotion.blogspot.com/2012/06/rumor-wii-u-cpu-is-3-wii-cpu-cores.html



Edit: Now I would like an apology from everyone who called me crazy for believing in this person & treated me like I was a troll every time I brought this up.
It's not like guessing that name was hard in the first place...
http://m.neogaf.com/showpost.php?p=35525641
 

royalan

Member
You have to wonder if the Wii ___ series and Mario will still be selling 20 million+ copies a pop this gen. Because Wii U sure as hell won't be getting any real third party support with those specs.

I can see a repeat of this current gen in a sense. The Nintendo console will start off strong as the price will be low, the controller will be unique and interesting at first, and the graphics won't look too bad against its competition.

Eventually, Sony and Microsoft will drop the price on their consoles, third parties will get a hang of the new hardware and start cranking out the AAAA games (that Wii U may or may not get nerfed ports of), and suddenly the Nintendo console looks kinda awful graphically when compared to its competition.

The question is... can the Wii U replicate that astronomical initial success of the Wii?

Maybe if this were 4-5 years ago the Wiipad would have had a similar reception as the Wiimote. But smartphones and tablets have long since taken the wind out of that sail. Especially with their quicker access to cheaper games.
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
Honestly, i dont care about the real specs. If the Wii U can really give us a Zelda or Metroid or Star Fox or whatever Nintendo franchise that looks as good as the Zelda demo from last year, i'll be perfectly fine with it.
 
...They're still using Broadway?

A bit of a surprise if true. But not really shocking. Obviously they are doing this for Wii legacy support. Dare I say it?
three Wii's duct taped together :p
.

...No DirectX 11 support?

...1GB RAM?

Since the Wii-U won't be using Direct X API's, does it really need Direct 11? DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 3.3 like functionality will probably be fine for this machine.

The 32MB Mem2 sounds like more legacy Wii hardware too me. Though I am probably wrong.

As for the RAM, 1GB is a bit low. I was expecting it to be the rumored 1.5. Could there be an additional 512MB's in the controller itself?



After 6 years of waiting to enter the HD market, the Cafee is getting served rather cold.

In true Nintendo fashion.... would you expect anything less from post Wii Nintendo?
 

deadhorse32

Bad Art ™
I don't see it. The gamepad thing has nowhere near the instant accessibility of the wiimote - Nintendo have had two E3s to try and show its value and have failed so far IMO.

Yep. It's gonna be a tough generation for Nintendo. But as always, it's about the games. Right now, nothing has really caught my eyes :\
 
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