themadcowtipper
Smells faintly of rancid stilton.
I believe this rumor much more then the ign rumor because it suits my agenda.
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Develop Rumor: Wii U 'twice as powerful as Xbox 360'
- Thread starter Solid warrior
- Start date
Though, if they heard it in December, that's a very short amount of time between the information for things to change this drastically.
AceBandage
Banned
Which means either (or likely both) Develop or IGN are lying through their teeth.
I suspect all these rumors are at least partially wrong for all platforms.
Freeza Under The Shower
Member
they could actually both be true. "5x more powerful" might be a theoretical limit on one component, whereas 2x might be the practical speed of the entire system put together.
Obviously, an improvement over the previous gen is 'required' but considering the additional heat and other problems that factor in on hardware design, a relatively "mild" improvement will always be more likely than "hey let's cram this supercomputer that needs water cooling and airco to remain stable inside a small box for consumer use".
Honestly, twice the Xbox360 would do for most functions, except that multiple tablets + the television screen (and the virtual overlap beyond the screen on the tablets) would require a lot more -I would imagine- than just that to run stable at HD and higher framerates.
I expect it to look good and run properly, I do not expect it to rival PC's. As far as I am aware, a PC from one year or two ago is a few times more powerful than a console, but not all that "power overwhelming" kind more powerful. That would be my guess of where the Wii U will end up in terms in specs. In particular because that setup can be miniaturized and still be cooled properly.
edit: which is actually vague as hell, now that I'm reading it. :')
(and rumors are indeed almost always wrong and everyone forgets about them when the reveal occurs. So useless really)
AceBandage
Banned
Well that's always the problem with rumors like this.
It's mostly hearsay and half truths.
Don't final dev kits typically include drastic changes? 2 weeks ago, final dev kits didn't exist. Now they do. I thought it was pretty straight forward that the statements made in the article aren't relevant. Hell, the ARTICLE ITSELF says it might not be.
herzogzwei1989
Banned
xbitlabs picked up the develop story:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multim...es_Performance_of_Xbox_360_Game_Designer.html
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multim...es_Performance_of_Xbox_360_Game_Designer.html
didn't the final dev kits just get released recently, and wasn't the rumor behind those being that they were a lot stronger than expected?
totally possible for the wii u to be weaker than desired in december and for the '5x' rumor from ign to also be true.
Thunder Monkey
Banned
One thing I'm still foggy on...are they talking entirety of the system?
Because I doubt that the WiiU has anything more than a 640 SPU part.
This rumor reminds me of some the stuff that came out right after E3 though, when we heard about dev kits with off the shelf parts, being underclocked, etc. Seems pretty strange that in December it would suddenly go backwards after all the small tidbits about the devkits improving over the months since E3, and now the more recent "new dev kits stronger than expected."
Perhaps their source was quoting much older info(assuming this rumor is at all legit)?
Perhaps their source was quoting much older info(assuming this rumor is at all legit)?
Yeah the info is questionable because the info we got on the earliest devkits pointed at minimum 3x increase on paper alone. Nintendo would have had to take steps backwards when all data points to the opposite with performance gains.
And maybe one dev is really good at getting performance out of the tech and the other isn't.
December is when Develop heard the rumor. There's no telling how long before that his source heard what he heard.
infinityBCRT
Member
This thread title is totally wrong. Develop is saying that their source says its now closer to what IGN is saying.
Jorok Goldblade
Member
The narrative I've read the past week was that the final dev kits released around CES featured a considerable jump in power over the previous kit.
Aizu_Itsuko
Member
That's a little one sided.
Remember you don't know Wii U's capabilities either so the ones you are mocking could actually be right. They could also be wrong but their opinion is as valid as yours.
herzogzwei1989
Banned
I just don't know what to think now.
Wii U is 2x the 360 in graphics
or
Wii U is 5x the 360 in graphics
I guess it'll fall somewhere inbetween.
We need more detailed GPU specs (duh).
Regardless, developers like Retro and EAD Tokyo will be able to work wonders with even twice the graphical power of the 360.
Wii U is 2x the 360 in graphics
or
Wii U is 5x the 360 in graphics
I guess it'll fall somewhere inbetween.
We need more detailed GPU specs (duh).
Regardless, developers like Retro and EAD Tokyo will be able to work wonders with even twice the graphical power of the 360.
walking fiend
Member
Nintendo god damn it, spit out some info before e3!
I thought they said 5x current gen 360
Must've missed the sarcasm lol
Fourth Storm
Member
HAHAHA, Well played.
If WiiU is still a quad-core PPC comparable to Xenon, I don't see how they get "twice as powerful". Maybe it's clocked up to 4Ghz, but then heat becomes a big factor. Even at 22nm, I find it hard to believe Nintendo can fit a 4Ghz quad into the chassis that's been shown with adequate cooling.
But easily double the ram to 1GB, an extra core (no matter the clock), and a more recent GPU chipset, maybe you can round up to "twice as powerful".
I still say that amounts to current-gen games with smoother framerate, not competitive with the next-gen platforms.
But easily double the ram to 1GB, an extra core (no matter the clock), and a more recent GPU chipset, maybe you can round up to "twice as powerful".
I still say that amounts to current-gen games with smoother framerate, not competitive with the next-gen platforms.
HyperBitHero
Member
So, the Wii U is twice the 720, but the PS4 is more powerful than the 720. But is the PS4 more powerful than the Wii U? Hmm, I thought the Wii U was suppose to be a generation behind again, but apparently it's the most powerful ever. If all of these silly rumors are to be believed.
Shogmaster
Sloppy seconds
Reading is fun! Try it!
WiiU is twice the 360, not the next Xbox.
Wii U was never even supposed to use a quad core CPU, but the CPU probably isn't comparable to Xenon, either. It's not about the number of cores or the clockspeed alone.
It's a 45nm chip (as of the initial dev kits, at least) and is not related to the 360/PS3's PPE. GHz won't mean a thing in this regard, as they haven't mattered for half a decade now anyway.
It will have more than 1GB of RAM, and less than 2GB of RAM according to the latest leaks in the Wii U thread.
You haven't been reading other next gen rumour threads, clearly.
Edit: partially beaten by wsippel
It would be pretty lame to only be comparable to Xenon at this point given shitty Core2duo laptop cpus from a few years ago easily outclass Xenon today.. :S
As a general purpose CPU, Xenon (and Cell by extension - considering it uses the same main core) were outclassed on their release dates. Depends on the criteria you look at, I guess.
herzogzwei1989
Banned
1.5 GB RAM would be really, really nice.
bgassassin
Member
Out-of-order execution > In-order execution
Not only that, Xenon also has very little cache and only six instruction units per core (integer, FP, branch, load/store and 2x VSX128). Power7 for example has twelve (2x integer, 4x FP, 1x DFP, 1x VSX, branch, 2x load/store, condition register), most of which in itself far more powerful than their Xenon equivalent.
You don't think the 3DS is double the power of the PSP?
Eh? That's like when the GameCube was underpowered because they were working on the Game Boy Advance as well.
Oh wait.
Thats true. Good point. Although at that time it seemed as if it was impossible to do anything affordable with mainstream handheld technology.
I think the PSP to 3DS leap is the same leap we can expect from 360 to WiiU.
lunchwithyuzo
Banned
DS/Wii diverged on hardware strategies, why wouldn't 3DS/WU?
We had comparable handhelds ten years earlier for only around $100 more (Atari Lynx, Turbo Express). A whole lot more definitely could have been done with GBA spec wise.
So well more than 2x? 24MB to 96MB? Baked Spots to Self Shadowing? Dithering to MSAA?
herzogzwei1989
Banned
okay then can we say significantly or slightly or much more powerful? too vague i know.
AceBandage
Banned
We can say Develop probably doesn't know anything.
Lord Ghirahim
Member
I recommend that people read the entire OP.