Wii graphics specs?

[TanisHalfElven]

Originally posted by: gersson
Probably has an x700 inside. I am so confused as to why people are so excited about this thing. They could have easily made the nunchaku controller an add on to the GCN. I agree with the next gen price. They also lied about that and changed it from 199 to 250 (understandably, however).

My little bro wants this thang bad but I'm trying to show him the light. Low res FTL. (BTW, I don't like xbox360 or ps3 either...)
NES FTW!

yeah right.

your source for your claim is WHAT ???????

stupid ppl who can't get further the fps on fps (one of the fps is first person shooter).
well MR. smarty mouth you can play repetitive fpss while all the Wii owners will have fun in ZELDA. (not to mention Wii sports, and sonic)

 

[mazeroth]

I'm a HUGE Nintendo fan and have owned every console (sans N64) they put out. I'm very excited about the Wii but I can't, for the life of me, understand how they couldn't have included at least 720p. I'm a huge video buff and have a new Hitachi HDTV CRT that I calibrated. I also have a theater room with an Infocus X1 on an 80" screen.

The Gamecube debuted around 4 years ago for $199 (right?). It is more than capable of supporting 480p in games, and it does a great job at it (Prince of Persia, Zelda, etc.) This is four years later and we're still going to be stuck with 480p graphics? Unbelievable. Look how far graphics cards have progressed in four years. Four years ago we just got ahold of the GeForce4 Ti4600. It came out at $399. Now, a card that comes out at $399 would be something along the lines of an X1900XT performance. The X1900XT is, at least, 5x as fast as a Ti4600, and that only goes up with resolution.

The rumors of the Wii debuted at $199 were great. Then we catch wind of $179. Fantastic! Now, it's scheduled to release at $249. Hmmm. You mean to tell me they couldn't have invested an extra $10-$20 per system to allow 720p, which would extend the life of the Wii, in my opinion, by at least another 1-2 years? 1280x720 really isn't that hard to pull off these days.

As others have said, why are we paying $249 for a system that is going to perform almost identically to the Gamecube when they could have just released the controller for $30-$50? Crazy, if you ask me, but I sure as hell hope they know what they're doing.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: mazeroth
I'm a HUGE Nintendo fan and have owned every console (sans N64) they put out. I'm very excited about the Wii but I can't, for the life of me, understand how they couldn't have included at least 720p. I'm a huge video buff and have a new Hitachi HDTV CRT that I calibrated. I also have a theater room with an Infocus X1 on an 80" screen.

The Gamecube debuted around 4 years ago for $199 (right?). It is more than capable of supporting 480p in games, and it does a great job at it (Prince of Persia, Zelda, etc.) This is four years later and we're still going to be stuck with 480p graphics? Unbelievable. Look how far graphics cards have progressed in four years. Four years ago we just got ahold of the GeForce4 Ti4600. It came out at $399. Now, a card that comes out at $399 would be something along the lines of an X1900XT performance. The X1900XT is, at least, 5x as fast as a Ti4600, and that only goes up with resolution.

The rumors of the Wii debuted at $199 were great. Then we catch wind of $179. Fantastic! Now, it's scheduled to release at $249. Hmmm. You mean to tell me they couldn't have invested an extra $10-$20 per system to allow 720p, which would extend the life of the Wii, in my opinion, by at least another 1-2 years? 1280x720 really isn't that hard to pull off these days.

As others have said, why are we paying $249 for a system that is going to perform almost identically to the Gamecube when they could have just released the controller for $30-$50? Crazy, if you ask me, but I sure as hell hope they know what they're doing.

It's not "720p support" that Wii lacks, it's the processing power to pull off that resolution and expect playable results.

The Gamecube had a 485MHz CPU, rudimentary ~DX7 style GPU, and a mix of 24MB of 1T-SRAM and 16MB of DRAM for system memory.

The Wii will have ~1 GHz IBM processor, an improved GPU with pixel shader support (X700 performance is a good guess), and is looking to double or triple the system memory; in the neighbourhood of 90MB combined. This is not enough memory (since it needs to be used for both system memory and GPU memory) to do high resolution processing. Plus the CPU and GPU aren't exactly built to do high res rendering.

From what I've heard, Wii's GPU runs around 240 MHz.

It's a compromise -- Wii should still have many games which push the limit well past Gamecube levels, but the system is primarily about the control experience, not graphics.

--------------

Xbox360 and PS3 are in a whole new class compared to Wii; Xbox360 has three 3.2 GHz CPU's and a R500 GPU (between R480 - X1900 series, and R600, ATI's next gen GPU); PS3 has the Cell with a 3.2 GHz main processor and 7 functional "SPE" 3.2 GHz slave processors, and an Nvidia GPU similar to the 7900GTX. Both systems have 512MB of super fast GDDR3 memory. Both GPU's run in the order of 500 MHz and have quite a few pixel shader pipelines.

-------------

 

[mazeroth]

It's not "720p support" that Wii lacks, it's the processing power to pull off that resolution and expect playable results.

Ummm...that's exactly what I was referring to. An ATI 9000 can do 720p no problem, but at only a few frames per second. I really, really wanted the Wii to have more horsepower.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: mazeroth
It's not "720p support" that Wii lacks, it's the processing power to pull off that resolution and expect playable results.

Ummm...that's exactly what I was referring to. An ATI 9000 can do 720p no problem, but at only a few frames per second. I really, really wanted the Wii to have more horsepower.

Well, that would require a redesign from top to bottom, and wouldn't be what the Wii is aiming for (a low power, slim and silent console to hide itself in your A/V case). I've heard that Wii consumes somewhere in the order of 20-40W when on, and ~2-5W in "low power mode" where it can still download updates online (though not in Europe, where Wii's low power mode was banned due to their strict power guidelines).

It would cost a lot more to make a fully fledged 720p supporting Wii because Nintendo has always had a business model that allows them to make money on the console from day 1 (unlike Sony, MS and even Sega at times). It would also mean a bigger console, a hotter running console.

---------

The games will still look better since DX9 effects will now be possible on Wii (if you take a look at the lighting effects in the Metroid Prime 3 videos, you can see that it's a cut above Prime 1 and 2, for example).

Plus games will be native widescreen off the bat, which not only looks better but is higher resolution. About 90% of Nintendo first party games on Gamecube were 480p enabled, but they were 4:3 games; 640X480 resolution. Wii requires games to support 16:9 widescreen, meaning all games will be 852X480 resolution. It will make a difference, and Wii games will look good on HDTV's.

Just don't expect PS3/Xbox360 level resolution and you'll be fine. Nintendo and Japanese developers have always found ways to make the seemingly impossible possible, such as Resident Evil 4 on Gamecube. Games with graphics like RE4 will be possible with ease on Wii, and won't need to run in fake widescreen (RE4 on Gamecube runs at 640X360, and while it looks great on a regular TV, HDTV's expose the game's crap resolution for what it is...).

 

[Childs]

Originally posted by: videogames101

Originally posted by: Ulfhednar

Originally posted by: videogames101
Spoiled? I don't actually watch TV much anymore, it's given way to my computer obssesion. I just think the general population is misinformed on how highly defined high definition is.

I'm sure 1080i is amazing but unfortunately I won't get to experience it for a few years I imagine. To me 720p looks worlds better than PAL, but I guess it's personal taste really.

to tell you the truth 720p looks amazing, going from standerd definition. But when your used to a computer monitor, and haven't turned the tv on for at least 3 days, 720p seems normal.

The merits of 720p has nothing to do with the screen resolution, its the resolution of the source that matters. Just because you're monitor is greater than 720 pixels vert doesn't mean you're looking at movies or videos greater than 720p. If your source files are of lower resolution, then all you're doing is a zoom. 720p zoomed will look significantly better than 480p/i zoomed on the same monitor. To say HD isnt HD is absurd. Anyone who has seen 720p broadcast of say, Lost, vs the 480i version, can clearly see the difference. 1080i (Smallville, Supernatural, any of the CSI's) is also clearly superior.

Gaming is different, as the source is generated on the fly to meet the resolution you specify. Thats nothing new, but as far as video content, the best source you could get was 480p, and 720p/1080i is a significant upgrade, as its 3x the resolution of DVD.

 

[frostedflakes]

Sorry to revive this thread, but any speculation on how Wii will look on a 720p/1080i LCD? I recently came by a 26" HDTV on the cheap, so I figured why not. Am not too worried about graphics, but I'm hoping it won't look like complete crap. DVDs are 480p and look pretty darn good, so I'm hopeful.

 

[tuteja1986]

Originally posted by: mazeroth
I was wondering if there's any hard facts about what the Wii will have under its cover as far as its graphics performance is concerned? I've heard it won't support HDTV, which is a huge bummer in my book. Anyone know what kind of chip they're using and how it compares to some of the PC graphics cards?

Thanks!

it does support HD TV in 480p :! widescreen aspect res so don't worry about being looking all crap on Widescreen HD TV.

Now games they look a little better than XBOX games but the system isn't going for Looks. I played zelda @ e3 and it was had shocking controls but i think they fixed with pro mode or something. I am still not sure that i should buy Zelda for the Wii or Gamecube...