[Fudzilla] New Nintendo Wii2 for 2012 using AMD R700 GPU

[Grooveriding]

http://www.fudzilla.com/games/item/22484-wii2-specs-seem-to-becoming-clear


Per the fud article, if accurate, the new Wii2 will be using an AMD R700. Which would give the Wii2 a 4870/4890 level of performance.


As we've heard Nintendo is releasing a new Wii2 next year and it's said to be coming in more powerful than the Xbox 360 or PS3

http://uk.videogames.games.yahoo.com/blog/article/25467/powerful-new-wii-for-2012.html

 

[Lonyo]

Wouldn't be too surprising, since ATI with previous (purchased) technologies has been what's powering the Wii and what was in the Gamecube (ArtX GPU), so they probably have a nice relationships.
There aren't all that many options for dedicated high performance chips, since most of what people like PowerVR put out is aimed at the low end.

Also something like the Wii would probably have more use for an efficient GPU rather than something complex and better at 'unnecessary' (for a games console) things like the GPGPU oriented NV products. The smaller the better.

 

[Medu]

http://www.fudzilla.com/games/item/22484-wii2-specs-seem-to-becoming-clear

Per the fud article, if accurate, the new Wii2 will be using an AMD R700. Which would give the Wii2 a 4870/4890 level of performance.


As we've heard Nintendo is releasing a new Wii2 next year and it's said to be coming in more powerful than the Xbox 360 or PS3

http://uk.videogames.games.yahoo.com/blog/article/25467/powerful-new-wii-for-2012.html

The R700 covers the entire 4000 series, so it could be anything from 4350 to 4890- my guess would be something in the middle- 4670. I would assume that 200SP at 600mhz would give similar performance to the current Xbox GPU.

 

[SickBeast]

What I read about the new Wii is that it will be about as powerful as the PS3 and Xbox 360, perhaps a little more depending on the final clockspeeds.

This all seems like a dumb move on Nintendo's part IMO. They need to go big or go home at this point. The only thing differentiating them from Sony will be software. They might as well develop games for the PS3 if they're making a system that is for all intents and purposes equal to it.

It shouldn't be hard for them to bring out something that can crush a PS3 for very little money.

 

[tincart]

One cannot discount the possibility of a new chip based on the R700 architecture or a die-shrink of an existing chip.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

What I read about the new Wii is that it will be about as powerful as the PS3 and Xbox 360, perhaps a little more depending on the final clockspeeds.

This all seems like a dumb move on Nintendo's part IMO. They need to go big or go home at this point. The only thing differentiating them from Sony will be software. They might as well develop games for the PS3 if they're making a system that is for all intents and purposes equal to it.

It shouldn't be hard for them to bring out something that can crush a PS3 for very little money.

It would be a dumb move. But I think, and the rumors say, it will be significantly more powerful. In console generations, it would probably be a half gen jump.

 

[Lonyo]

Considering the Gamecube to Wii leap wasn't particularly significant at all, even a leap to something not that much better than the Xbox 360/PS3 would be a bigger leap, and once you can do 1080p give or take, what more do you really need at the moment, especially if you are planning on differentiating by having more unique control options over pure hardware/graphics?

Also anything above the Xbox 360/PS3 will be fine for at least a couple of years, since it will be easy enough (in theory) to do ports to the Wii 2 since it will be faster than the competitors.

The only reasons to go towards the boundaries of tech are because they either want to have it stick around for a looooooong time (e.g. 10 years) or because they want to compete against the other consoles based on pure hardware power (they don't seem to want to).

 

[Grooveriding]

One cannot discount the possibility of a new chip based on the R700 architecture or a die-shrink of an existing chip.

Very true. We could see a 4870 on 40nm. Would run much cooler and consume much less power.

 

[Lonyo]

5770 is close to 4870 on 40nm and... 'runs cooler' (meaningless statement) and uses less power.
If they do the GPU on 32nm though (or even 28, which would make more sense since the hardware isn't scheduled until 2012) then it would be even smaller.

 

[videoclone]

a 4870 on 28nm would still be a bad move because they would still be on DX10.1
DX11 5770 but in 28nm, simple core type would be a much better option.

 

[-Slacker-]

If the new wii doesn't support dx11 I'm going to fly to japan and torch their headquarters. No joke.

 

[busydude]

If the new wii doesn't support dx11 I'm going to fly to japan and torch their headquarters. No joke.

I seriously doubt it. I also don't think the GPU will be manufactured on 28nm.

 

[pcm81]

They need to cram 2x 6990s at 22nm onto WII-2, but ofcourse that will never happen.

 

[happy medium]

I here it will be 40nm 4770 level of performance?

 

[Grooveriding]

I see this as being very, very interesting for console gaming. Up until now many of the big non exclusive console titles only were available on the 360 and PS3. Now that the Wii is getting a successor wth a much needed hardware upgrade, this is going to pave the way for all those titles to me made available on Nintendo's platform. Not just future titles, but we could see titles from the past five years re-released for the new Wii2.

Game development houses must be looking forward to increased revenues with this release. As well, now the Wii will no longer be the mainstay of people who want to play party games or the mario franchise games. It will suddenly become viable for your Call of Duty, Mass Effect and NBA2K11 gamers as well. MS & Sony must not be looking forward to this. The Wii already outsells either of their consoles.

And if the Wii2 presents with more horsepower than a 360 or PS3 it could become the platform of choice if developers improve visuals to take advantage of the better hardware in the Wii2.

A further to this is it could galvanize MS and Sony to get some new consoles out to replace the ancient beaters they are still selling now. Which would help PC gamers because we're getting abominations like Cryport 2 because of lack of progression in the console world.

 

[happy medium]

What I read about the new Wii is that it will be about as powerful as the PS3 and Xbox 360, perhaps a little more depending on the final clockspeeds.

Thats what I read also, a 4770 like gpu, with a 3 core cpu just like the xbox 360.

What does it matter? It will have Mario cart remakes for games anyhow.

 

[tviceman]

A 4770 GPU would make it more powerful than the 7800GTX-ish GPU in the PS3, but it's still nothing at all to get excited about.

 

[A5]

The R700 covers the entire 4000 series, so it could be anything from 4350 to 4890- my guess would be something in the middle- 4670. I would assume that 200SP at 600mhz would give similar performance to the current Xbox GPU.

Current XBox GPU is 48 vector processors (pretty much acting like 240SP or 480SP for most operations) at 500MHz, based on the X1900 series.

Also, Nintendo doesn't care about DX11 support because their middleware doesn't use it.

 

[RussianSensation]

Very true. We could see a 4870 on 40nm. Would run much cooler and consume much less power.

And if the Wii2 presents with more horsepower than a 360 or PS3 it could become the platform of choice if developers improve visuals to take advantage of the better hardware in the Wii2.

DX11-capable GPU would have been better for a console with another 5 year lifespan. If they do ship an HD4870-like GPU, then we are looking at 4-5x the GPU performance increase compared to the PS3 (which has a 7950GT with half the memory bandwidth of the desktop version, which actually makes it slower than a 7900GS). We still don't know if a full fledged HD4870 will be included in Wii2.

This is still somewhat disappointing considering Wii2 is likely slated for April 2012 release. By then we'll have mid-range HD7xxx series and Kepler. Surely they could have at least squeezed a HD6870 on 28nm in there?

I doubt that a 2 year head start for Wii2 will be sufficient to seriously change the graphical landscape of console gaming. The Wii2 will be the most powerful console, but all by itself. Developers will still be stuck with increased console costs for that 1 system. Dreamcast was a lot more powerful than any other console at the time and that didn't really work out for them.

 

[nonameo]

a 4870 on 28nm would still be a bad move because they would still be on DX10.1
DX11 5770 but in 28nm, simple core type would be a much better option.

DirectX is just an API. Just as OpenGL is an api and QuickDraw3D is an api, nintendo probably has something of their own or something they license. In any case, the shaders are fully programmable anyway.

 

[Blitzvogel]

The R700 series rumor hasn't been confirmed, nor any of the specs. Even still devkits could ship with such a GPU with production systems running a 28 nm Southern Islands (Something in the Juniper range of capability) once it's ready from AMD. I think AMD would prefer that course of action, since those GPUs are founded on 28 nm, R700 was founded on 55 nm (accept 4770 on 40 nm). A simple node reduction is not that simple with a chip and usually means teething and yield problems until it is matured and the kinks are worked out. Chips are typically designed to use a specific process in mind, so I think using a 40 nm 4770 for devkits would be a good idea to get development going until they can get a S. Islands chip in later devkits and all production systems.

I'm still holding out for a Fusion APU for the central processor + dedicated GPU like RV770, Juniper, or S Island equivalent. A triple core PPC doesn't interest me at all. Yes, it means easier code porting between all the consoles, but unless it's Power6 or 7 based, it won't be anything ground breaking. Llano is only 45W TDP, 4 x86 cores, and GPGPU capable. It would certainly benefit the PC side of things too, as the code developed for running GPGPU processes on the Llano in the Wii 2 could be ported over to PC titles when ran on AMD hardware.

 

[Grooveriding]

HD6870 on 28nm would have been a better choice imo. DX11 would have been better for a console with another 5 year lifespan. If they do ship an HD4870-like GPU, then we are looking at 4-5x the GPU performance increase compared to the PS3 (which has a 7950GT with half the memory bandwidth of the desktop version, which actually makes it slower than a 7900GS). Although if a full fledged HD4870 will be included in Wii2 hasn't been confirmed.

This is still somewhat disappointing considering Wii2 is likely slated for April 2012 release, at the earliest. By then we'll have mid-range HD7xxx series and Kepler.

I certainly don't see Nintendo breaking some new ground here. They have always put less focus on graphics than their Xbox & PS3 counterparts. It just happens that they are going to be releasing in a vacuum of nothing new from MS or Sony.

I have a strong suspicion with the rate that GPUs have over-stepped game demands that even when we see a new Xbox or Playstation, they too will release with hardware inferior to anything available on the PC at that point in time. We've already hit the point now with multi-gpu where we have even the most intensive games licked at high resolutions on maximum settings. And most games can be run on a single-gpu card totally maxed. Once the HD7000 comes out late this year, we most likely are going to see the single-gpu situation seen in most games seen in all games.

This is in no way going to be exciting for a PC gamer, but I see it being a game changer for console gamers. A Nintendo console with all the same releases seen on the 360 and PS3 as well as their own Nintendo exclusives.

I doubt that a 2 year head start for Wii2 will be sufficient to seriously change the graphical landscape of console gaming. The Wii2 will be the most powerful console, but all by itself. Developers will still be stuck with increased console costs for that 1 system. Dreamcast was a lot more powerful than any other console and the time and that didn't really work out for them.

True but the Dreamcast was a niche product for the few years you could buy one here. It was going up against the N64 and Playstation which were already entrenched and strong sellers.

The Wii is already the best selling console out there, Wii2 will only build on that foundation. I agree that it will not revolutionize console graphics, but until Sony and MS get out a new console I see the Wii2 being the console of choice. With upgraded hardware and the ability to run all the games that usually were only available on the 360 and PS3 due to the Wii's hardware limitations, the Wii2 will be an easy sell.

 

[happy medium]

How long is it gonna take for these console makers to wake up and smell the coffee?

Just give us a console with a 6 core Tegra 4 like chip, with a mouse and a keyboard, some type of integrated operating system to be on the internet like IE9/Firefox/Chrome, so we can email, go on You Tube, Facebook ect. ect. ect. Then add a decent gamepad and/or motion type controller. Add some AAA gaming titles with a terabye of storage, blueray RW drive and they can make a boat load of cash.

I'd pay 600$ for that, anyone else?

 

[soccerballtux]

http://www.fudzilla.com/games/item/22484-wii2-specs-seem-to-becoming-clear


Per the fud article, if accurate, the new Wii2 will be using an AMD R700. Which would give the Wii2 a 4870/4890 level of performance.


As we've heard Nintendo is releasing a new Wii2 next year and it's said to be coming in more powerful than the Xbox 360 or PS3

http://uk.videogames.games.yahoo.com/blog/article/25467/powerful-new-wii-for-2012.html

meh charlie was wrong about g100 or whatever it was supply issues and this sort of article seems garnered to drumming up fuss that Nintendo is making yet another underpowered console, so my money is on "no".

 

[Soccerman06]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2158119&page=5

repost kinda, hes just reiterating what IGN was told.