Shinz Kicker said:.if a new wii is released in 2010. preproduction would proabably be using the new 4870 and gt200 architecture for their gpu. it they continue using ati and go with the new dual core 4870X2 the graphics on the wii will be much more than double. i would be think graphically it would closer 3-5 the prowess of the current machines. the current 8800gt and gtx walk away from these machines without breaking a sweat. nintendo is going to be jumping 2 and half generations graphically with their new console. it would be like going from playstation to 360 in one jump since the stuff thats in the wii is less than 2 gamecubes bootstapped together. i dont see nintendo every needing an upgrade past that within conventional console means.
It remains to be seen how Nintendo will manage to do backwards compatibility with the Wii in the next gen. BC with the gamecube really held the Wii back; they used a gpu design pretty dated, without even standard pixel shader technology, just so developers could stick to the technology developed for the gamecube. Same thing with the CPU.
If the technology jump is big enough, they could emulate it, but until now, every nintendo solution for BC has been including the original hardware in the machine (GBA to GBC, DS to GBA, Wii to GC).