Wii U horsepower

[amdforever2]

The system is well understood to be dramatically weaker than PS4 and Xbox One but I am curious if anyone thinks it would be possible, from a thermal perspective, for Nintendo to some day publish a firmware update that alters the clock settings of the processor. If it is determined that all of the CPUs made from day one can handle a setting higher than 1.24ghz might Nintendo just some day increase the clock settings?

At 2 ghz might the POWER based tri core be comparable to the PS4 jaguar in any sense? At 3ghz maybe?

 

[futurefields]

Probably not, I dont think those chips are designed to clock much higher. And I dont think a small clock boost would make much of a difference.

 

[Majcric]

The system is well understood to be dramatically weaker than PS4 and Xbox One but I am curious if anyone thinks it would be possible, from a thermal perspective, for Nintendo to some day publish a firmware update that alters the clock settings of the processor. If it is determined that all of the CPUs made from day one can handle a setting higher than 1.24ghz might Nintendo just some day increase the clock settings?

At 2 ghz might the POWER based tri core be comparable to the PS4 jaguar in any sense? At 3ghz maybe?

No Sorry, this won't happen. If it's worth anything I'd take the Wii U anyday over Xbone

 

[mmntech]

CPU clock speed doesn't matter as much as it used to. Jaguar isn't a powerful CPU, but it's matched with heavy hitting GPUs, where much of the grunt works takes place these days.

Simply overclocking the Wii U might not be an option either, because it's cooling system might not be able to handle it.

As far as the Wii U's performance goes, I've sort of changed my tune on this. As long as it gets good games and differentiates itself enough from what Sony and MS are doing, it should be fine. However, the tablet controller remains the issue. That's what's keeping the price high. I'd get rid of it and bundle it with the pro controller and a Wiimote instead. Would probably cut the price $50 and watch it sell like hot cakes.

 

[zerocool84]

Lol no of course not. Never would happen.

 

[Exophase]

I don't think it even runs on a programmable PLL, meaning you can't actually change the clock speed.

 

[Lil Frier]

I think if the thermals allowed a near-doubling of the clock speed, they wouldn't have bothered with the low clock to being with. If it could handle 2 GHz, it probably would have launch in the 1.7-1.8 GHz range.

 

[desura]

The one silver lining with with the Wii U's graphical capabilities is that it is capable of the same effects as the Big 2, just not on the same scale. They're all basically DX11 instruction set. So like a Wii U version of a game might have smaller levels and lower rez textures but it will have largely similar effects. Basically, take a game optimized for the PS4 and for the Wii U and the difference will be less than you think.

 

[Narse]

I don't think it's possible nor do I think it matters. For what its worth my Wii U gets tons more use than my other consoles. I also love the GamePad, it is super useful in being able to continue my game when my wife is watching TV, or I want to go and lie in bed a bit and play before falling asleep.

 

[zerocool84]

The one silver lining with with the Wii U's graphical capabilities is that it is capable of the same effects as the Big 2, just not on the same scale. They're all basically DX11 instruction set. So like a Wii U version of a game might have smaller levels and lower rez textures but it will have largely similar effects. Basically, take a game optimized for the PS4 and for the Wii U and the difference will be less than you think.

No it will not be less than what we think, there's a huuuuuuuge difference in power between them.

 

[desura]

No it will not be less than what we think, there's a huuuuuuuge difference in power between them.

See, I have to disagree here.

On my gaming PC, "Medium" is about 85% as good as "ultra" IMHO.

PS4/XB1 can output "ultra"

Wii U could likely do "medium"

You can definitely notice ultra, but medium is good enough to get the effect.

 

[Sword-of-Kings]

Overclocking the Wii U's CPU would be stupid. Wii U consoles would be causing house fires and Nintendo would have lawsuits up the ass.

 

[TheAdvocate]

No it will not be less than what we think, there's a huuuuuuuge difference in power between them.

Stop looking at mario titles and spec sheets.

Seriously, go look at the current WiiU build for Project C.A.R.S. and compare it to the xbone or ps4 versions. Maybe you can find some screen shot with better quality shadows or something, but to the untrained eye, the differences are negligible. And that game runs at 60fps on the WiiU, gorgeous graphics and all.

 

[desura]

Wow, I am impressed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gsq1O42OgM

 

[mmntech]

No it will not be less than what we think, there's a huuuuuuuge difference in power between them.

Yep, the Wii U is actually closer in performance to the Xbox 360. Has a similar CPU and a slightly faster GPU.

Exact performance specs are tricky to find but here's the gist of what I got off Wikipedia. The "Latte" GPU has a pixel fill rate of 4.4 GP/s and a texel fill rate of 8.8GT/s. This puts it on par with the Radeon HD 5550, which wasn't exactly a heavy hitter even when it was new.

In fact the 360'x Xenos GPU clocks in at 4 GP/s and 8GT/s, so the Wii U is only 10% faster. Though these specs don't tell the whole story, they do give a rough idea of how well the GPU performs compared to others.

So overclocking it isn't going to make a hell of a lot of difference. Especially when you consider the HD 7870 in the PS4 is about 9 times faster.

Does it matter? Sort of. The Wii got by largely on gimmicky controls, despite having graphics half a generation behind it's contemporaries. The Wii U is a full generation behind it's contemporaries and looks rather lacklustre by comparison. Something that's only going to get worse as time goes on. Not to mention it's tablet controller hasn't exactly taken the world by storm. However, it is keeping the price high, which I think is the ultimate turn off. If the Wii U retailed for $250, it would sell. However, the controller is what's keeping the price high.

What Nintendo can do, and should be doing, is make games that differentiate the Wii U from what Microsoft and Sony are doing. Which means tapping in to their greatest strength. They have to really start pushing stuff that's both high quality, and just isn't available on any other platform. I think they can pull it off.

 

[desura]

Pure thoroughput is similar to a 360, I agree, but the featureset should be far more extensive since they have DX11 features to play with.

When I play games on the PC and then on the consoles, the biggest difference to me isn't texture resolution or framerate. It is DX9 vs DX11.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Stop looking at mario titles and spec sheets.

Seriously, go look at the current WiiU build for Project C.A.R.S. and compare it to the xbone or ps4 versions. Maybe you can find some screen shot with better quality shadows or something, but to the untrained eye, the differences are negligible. And that game runs at 60fps on the WiiU, gorgeous graphics and all.

Remember how they said Forza would look on XB1? How about all that Watch Dogs footage they showed. Then what did we get? Cardboard crowd in forza and fake, static, and low resolution reflections in Watch Dogs. Doesn't take away from the games fun but you know...they can show you anything they want and claim it will look exactly like that at 60fps. Then it doesn't.

 

[Lil Frier]

I don't think it's possible nor do I think it matters. For what its worth my Wii U gets tons more use than my other consoles. I also love the GamePad, it is super useful in being able to continue my game when my wife is watching TV, or I want to go and lie in bed a bit and play before falling asleep.

My concern for my Wii U is a lack of games long-term. We've just about beaten New Super Mario Bros. U, and Super Luigi U seems to be an almost-identical game with levels half the size. So I imagine that the two games will have run their course after about 3-4 weeks of ownership. Mario Kart 8 will probably be the next purchase, with Tropical Freeze also an option. Those two will likely be summer purchases, and last through the fall, if not the end of the year.

After that, it's Super Smash Bros. However, not sure how long it would last, we'll see. The problem is probably after that game, really. We don't have an announced Mario Party. Fire Emblem is similarly unannounced. Pokemon has one mediocre release I won't bother with. As someone who isn't into Zelda or Metroid, I kinda wonder what good the Wii U will be to me after about the halfway point in 2015. By then, my brother-in-law should have a One, and I'll question if the Wii U will ever get touched more than on the rare occasion afterwards.

When you're not big on replaying a campaign, the combined lack of online play and the lack of third-party support makes the Wii U a tricky investment. But, then again, it cost me about $150 for the console and 2 controllers, so not much to really complain about.

 

[TheAdvocate]

Remember how they said Forza would look on XB1? How about all that Watch Dogs footage they showed. Then what did we get? Cardboard crowd in forza and fake, static, and low resolution reflections in Watch Dogs. Doesn't take away from the games fun but you know...they can show you anything they want and claim it will look exactly like that at 60fps. Then it doesn't.

Except for the fact that the fact that Slightly Mad Studios (the development team behind Project CARS) are 1) extremely thorough; 2) showing video of actual WiiU builds. These guys aren't EA, etc.

I don't understand all the hate towards this machine. Yes, it is stipulated that the XBone and PS4 are more powerful machines. They are also newer and that is what they are trading on.

But if the game looks good and the gameplay is (just as) fun on the WiiU, who cares?

Here is footage from a more recent build: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj8f-G4ZNGw

I am eagerly awaiting this one.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Supposedly watch dogs at e3 was real footage too. Then it wasn't. My point stands.

See it is too easy for devs to show you one thing and say one thing and deliver something else and nobody realizes until they buy it. Like I said, it doesn't remove the fun from the game but it is simply a tool used for marketing hype these days, showing you screenshots and videos and telling people "this is the game". All I am saying is don't take it at face value. Unless you see someone actually playing it on the hardware somewhere.

I feel I got duped a bit with watch dogs but I still like the game. Maybe this game will be different in terms of developer honesty.

 

[mmntech]

Remember how they said Forza would look on XB1? How about all that Watch Dogs footage they showed. Then what did we get? Cardboard crowd in forza and fake, static, and low resolution reflections in Watch Dogs. Doesn't take away from the games fun but you know...they can show you anything they want and claim it will look exactly like that at 60fps. Then it doesn't.

Yep, that old trick has been going on for years. I used to do this back in the day when I wanted to show off screen shots of FS2002. I had a GeForce FX5200 at the time. Could render some beautiful vistas but at nowhere near a playable frame rate.

If the Wii U was half as powerful as the PS4/Xbone, I doubt anybody but the most hard nosed fanboys would really care. However, since it's only 10% faster than the 360, you're really boxing in developers. Even with the new tools provided by DirectX 11. It makes porting multiplatform games very difficult. You first off have to recompile x86-64 code to PowerPC 32-bit. Then you have to cut down graphics and detail to accommodate for the much slower GPU and a quarter the amount of RAM. It costs a lot of time and money to do that. For many third parties, it's simply not worth it since the install base is growing at such a slow rate. This issue is only going to get worse as developers begin abandoning the 360 & PS3.

Which is why Nintendo has to step up to the plate. The Wii U is starting to get some really good games now. Which brings me back to my statement that the console absolutely has to provide an experience that's not available on Sony of Microsoft's systems. That experience has to be baked into almost every game available on it, and it has to be meaningful. The tablet controller isn't it. It's the design of the games themselves.

 

[zerocool84]

Yep, that old trick has been going on for years. I used to do this back in the day when I wanted to show off screen shots of FS2002. I had a GeForce FX5200 at the time. Could render some beautiful vistas but at nowhere near a playable frame rate.

If the Wii U was half as powerful as the PS4/Xbone, I doubt anybody but the most hard nosed fanboys would really care. However, since it's only 10% faster than the 360, you're really boxing in developers. Even with the new tools provided by DirectX 11. It makes porting multiplatform games very difficult. You first off have to recompile x86-64 code to PowerPC 32-bit. Then you have to cut down graphics and detail to accommodate for the much slower GPU and a quarter the amount of RAM. It costs a lot of time and money to do that. For many third parties, it's simply not worth it since the install base is growing at such a slow rate. This issue is only going to get worse as developers begin abandoning the 360 & PS3.

Which is why Nintendo has to step up to the plate. The Wii U is starting to get some really good games now. Which brings me back to my statement that the console absolutely has to provide an experience that's not available on Sony of Microsoft's systems. That experience has to be baked into almost every game available on it, and it has to be meaningful. The tablet controller isn't it. It's the design of the games themselves.

Yes but that's a huge problem because it makes the WiiU someone's second choice console in their home, not the first choice since it will only play Nintendo games and not multi platform games. They are not shooting for first place this generation and it shows.

 

[TheAdvocate]

Hasn't stopped activision either - Call of Duty: Advance Warfighter coming to WiiU.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/is-call-of-duty-advanced-warfare-coming-to-wii-u/1100-6420020/

Considering the last two made it to the WiiU, this is highly likely.

FWIW, I have gotten several news feeds on the high probability of the announcement of the next Zelda game at E3, and several new 3P games. I dont really know much about them. One was based on that TV show Falling Skies. Another was a Sonic franchise game.

 

[zerocool84]

Hasn't stopped activision either - Call of Duty: Advance Warfighter coming to WiiU.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/is-call-of-duty-advanced-warfare-coming-to-wii-u/1100-6420020/

Considering the last two made it to the WiiU, this is highly likely.

FWIW, I have gotten several news feeds on the high probability of the announcement of the next Zelda game at E3, and several new 3P games. I dont really know much about them. One was based on that TV show Falling Skies. Another was a Sonic franchise game.

Considering how the last two CoD games were on the WiiU, it's still not a good thing. Nintendo doesn't help with its horrible online system.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Yes but that's a huge problem because it makes the WiiU someone's second choice console in their home, not the first choice since it will only play Nintendo games and not multi platform games. They are not shooting for first place this generation and it shows.

I would argue they didn't try for first place with the Wii generation, they got lucky. The Wii never got many of the major cross-platform games that defined the generation.

Last console where Nintendo tried a traditional strategy (Gamecube) was a failure.

They can make money being "your other console" but they need to be priced like a secondary console.