Is the Wii U underpowered?
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Umm we have the specs so umm yes is really underpowered for any kind of hd gaming
. GPU is ultra low end, not a ton of ram, cpu is anemic. GPU is a bit better than last gen but thats not saying anything.
edit:
To add more to this its not just that its underpowered its that its not even playing in the same ballpark. Having 5x less ram for game use, a cpu thats down 5 cores and in clock speed, and a gpu that is a HD 4xxx when we are past 5xxx 6xxx 7xxx and into r7 r9 gen amd gpus. I don't think you could do multiplat from ps4onepc and downscale it enough to fit on such tech.
. GPU is ultra low end, not a ton of ram, cpu is anemic. GPU is a bit better than last gen but thats not saying anything.
edit:
To add more to this its not just that its underpowered its that its not even playing in the same ballpark. Having 5x less ram for game use, a cpu thats down 5 cores and in clock speed, and a gpu that is a HD 4xxx when we are past 5xxx 6xxx 7xxx and into r7 r9 gen amd gpus. I don't think you could do multiplat from ps4onepc and downscale it enough to fit on such tech.
It is not underpowered, it is powered exactly as much as it is made to be.
If you're asking in comparison to the others (PS4 and Xbox One), then yes, but that's not where its strengths could lie. Developers have the opportunity to make some really interesting and fun games, and some have so far. It does HD fine at a good frame rate for all the games I have played thus far as well.
My question is why does it matter how powerful it is? When you can create some of the most awesome games for it gameplay wise and such without making them games for only powerhouse computers and it's cheaper then its competitors.
One other thing I will say, is that its competition doesn't seem to really do much in the way of local multiplayer at all, probably to sell more subscriptions and machines. The Wii U has quite a few games, both out already and coming soon that can be enjoyed by people in the same room.
If you're asking in comparison to the others (PS4 and Xbox One), then yes, but that's not where its strengths could lie. Developers have the opportunity to make some really interesting and fun games, and some have so far. It does HD fine at a good frame rate for all the games I have played thus far as well.
My question is why does it matter how powerful it is? When you can create some of the most awesome games for it gameplay wise and such without making them games for only powerhouse computers and it's cheaper then its competitors.
One other thing I will say, is that its competition doesn't seem to really do much in the way of local multiplayer at all, probably to sell more subscriptions and machines. The Wii U has quite a few games, both out already and coming soon that can be enjoyed by people in the same room.
Lower specs? well yeah, No contest
In terms of if it's going to turn off potential consumers? It wont make a difference, Buffing up the spec's is not going to "convert" sales from Ps4/Xbox and smashing up the hardware price is going to lose sales.
It's as powerful as it needs to be. Sure i would love to play Super smash brothers in 1080 but it;'s not going to stop me from buying one when it comes out
In terms of if it's going to turn off potential consumers? It wont make a difference, Buffing up the spec's is not going to "convert" sales from Ps4/Xbox and smashing up the hardware price is going to lose sales.
It's as powerful as it needs to be. Sure i would love to play Super smash brothers in 1080 but it;'s not going to stop me from buying one when it comes out
For this generations third party offerings? YES. I suspect when PS3 and 360 support are dropped the WiiU is going to slide off as well.
For the current direction Nintendo is heading? No, not really..
As to whether Nintendo should even head in that direction is another matter entirely and one I don't really care, mainly because I never got on that particular nostalgia train in the first place.
For the current direction Nintendo is heading? No, not really..
As to whether Nintendo should even head in that direction is another matter entirely and one I don't really care, mainly because I never got on that particular nostalgia train in the first place.
If you're talking graphics, let me ask you this. Can %50 more shader effects really change whether or not a game is crap? Can more anti-aliasing make up for a game's many bugs or if it's generally the same bland shit from the last generation?
Yes. GTA V is beautiful. But that's only one reason I like it. The others being mostly gameplay related.
We really need to stop with this obsession with graphics. Sure, we point and sneer at street racers for "Overcompensating", but when I see people brag about how much RAM their computer or console has or how powerful their graphics card is, I can't help but see some similarities.
What should matter is how good the games are. And lighting effects, in my opinion, can't disguise crap.
The thing is, while very dated and starting to repeat a lot, Nintendo's games are still good. Mario is still fun. So is donkey kong and kirby and smash brothers and metroid and all the rest of their colorful characters. And if we're really going to talk repetition, it sure beats story based zombie apocalypse game 97 and zombie apocalypse minecraft rip off 12.
Yes. GTA V is beautiful. But that's only one reason I like it. The others being mostly gameplay related.
We really need to stop with this obsession with graphics. Sure, we point and sneer at street racers for "Overcompensating", but when I see people brag about how much RAM their computer or console has or how powerful their graphics card is, I can't help but see some similarities.
What should matter is how good the games are. And lighting effects, in my opinion, can't disguise crap.
The thing is, while very dated and starting to repeat a lot, Nintendo's games are still good. Mario is still fun. So is donkey kong and kirby and smash brothers and metroid and all the rest of their colorful characters. And if we're really going to talk repetition, it sure beats story based zombie apocalypse game 97 and zombie apocalypse minecraft rip off 12.
The tech it has in it is 7 years old already,and if Nintendo is going to keep that thing in the market for another 5 years,gamers will be playing on a system with 12 year old technology at its closing days.
To say if this machine is underpowered or not,we would have to have something to compare it with.
If you compare it with PS3 and Xbox360,no it's not under-powered,it's fine. If Nintendo had released this console along with the other consoles of that generation back in 2005 or 2006,it would be considered competitive and would have a very slight edge. But look at the numbers of these years. We are almost a decade after than that.
Now if we were to compare it with more modern machines...
Well its quite under-powered in comparison with Xbox One and Playstation 4.
It's still more powerful than mobile phones though,but with the ratio phones are advancing,they will probably surpass WiiU in technical specs in 1 or 2 years.
To say if this machine is underpowered or not,we would have to have something to compare it with.
If you compare it with PS3 and Xbox360,no it's not under-powered,it's fine. If Nintendo had released this console along with the other consoles of that generation back in 2005 or 2006,it would be considered competitive and would have a very slight edge. But look at the numbers of these years. We are almost a decade after than that.
Now if we were to compare it with more modern machines...
Well its quite under-powered in comparison with Xbox One and Playstation 4.
It's still more powerful than mobile phones though,but with the ratio phones are advancing,they will probably surpass WiiU in technical specs in 1 or 2 years.
Hardware performance can't turn a badly made game to be good.Racecarlock said:
What it can do though is make games look better,be bigger,and do more things at a time.
And that can lead to interesting new experiences we haven't tried yet,assuming there is enough creativity from the standpoint of developers.
More performance on the processor means more drawcalls. It means you can put more characters on the screen at the same time,or more physics-enabled objects,or have deeper code running that calculates things more accurately.
More RAM means that more things can be loaded at each loading screen.It means worlds can be larger,or the characters might have more animations so there is one for every thing they do / do more things.Or it can be used so more things are loaded in the initial loading screen,so you can then seamlessly play the game without loading screens appearing that often. Make them appear once an hour instead of once per every 15 minutes for example.
More performance on the graphics card means more detail,less jagged edges,more natural feeling surfaces,better lighting and more realistic shadows etc.
The way a developer chooses to use that performance is of course what matters.
In other news, Pope revealed to follow some kind of Christian faith and bear poo found in wooded area.
Yes, the Wii U is underpowered. Is this a problem? Well that depends. Specifically it depends on whether the games for said console are any good, or whether they suffer because of the systems lack of power.
And there is the Wii U's main issue, there are no good games for it. One day maybe, if Nintendo stop arsing around re-releasing their glory days and buckles down to innovate one of their franchises or possibly come up with some kind of new IP (lol). But I wouldn't hold yer breath.
Yes, the Wii U is underpowered. Is this a problem? Well that depends. Specifically it depends on whether the games for said console are any good, or whether they suffer because of the systems lack of power.
And there is the Wii U's main issue, there are no good games for it. One day maybe, if Nintendo stop arsing around re-releasing their glory days and buckles down to innovate one of their franchises or possibly come up with some kind of new IP (lol). But I wouldn't hold yer breath.
Being someone who owns one I can very positively say no its not. The Wii U trades grunt for efficiency, a quick web search will point this out. The biggest problem lies in the lack of optimization in multiplat games. Most multiplats on the Wii U are build on a base of 360 code which does not take advantage of the many features present in the Wii U's architecture, again a quick web search will give you the answers you are looking for.
At the end of the day I feel that the Xbox and PS4 might be overpowered. As much as gamers want it the costs involved to develop in 1080p at 60 fps are very much higher then what they are currently. Capcom mentioned early on that it takes something close to 8x the resources to get a game to be that shiney. At the current price point of 60 dollars companies cant afford to hit those benchmarks, just look at tomb raider which at 5 million copies was not profitable. I think it was only recently that it started to turn a profit.Also remember back in its early life resolutions on the PS3 were high but as the generation advanced they actually slid back down. Its a cost factor that cannot be overlooked, the more you put into that digital world the more its going to cost you.
Currently AAA devs are creaming themselves over the specs and whats possible (which is a lot) but eventually the suits that run them are going to pull in the reigns and shrink budgets which will lead to lower resolutions and FPS.
Finally as a side note the Wii U currently has more stuff running at 1080p then the XB1 =P
At the end of the day I feel that the Xbox and PS4 might be overpowered. As much as gamers want it the costs involved to develop in 1080p at 60 fps are very much higher then what they are currently. Capcom mentioned early on that it takes something close to 8x the resources to get a game to be that shiney. At the current price point of 60 dollars companies cant afford to hit those benchmarks, just look at tomb raider which at 5 million copies was not profitable. I think it was only recently that it started to turn a profit.Also remember back in its early life resolutions on the PS3 were high but as the generation advanced they actually slid back down. Its a cost factor that cannot be overlooked, the more you put into that digital world the more its going to cost you.
Currently AAA devs are creaming themselves over the specs and whats possible (which is a lot) but eventually the suits that run them are going to pull in the reigns and shrink budgets which will lead to lower resolutions and FPS.
Finally as a side note the Wii U currently has more stuff running at 1080p then the XB1 =P
is the Wii U underpowered?
-Its more powerful than 360/PS3/DS/Vita.
-It's less powerful than PS4/Xbone.
-Xbone/PS4/Wii U are "next gen", and my year old gaming rig can beat them on paper. Many "gaming PC's" will probably beat them, as straight away I can think of 3 friends rigs who would destroy the PS4/Xbone, my next rig probably will too.
-The Wii U has several games outputting in 1080p, the Xbone so far has one (does the PS4 have any that are released?)
At the end of the day, its all relative. "Does it play recently released, fun games?" should be the main question that matters to us gamers.
-Its more powerful than 360/PS3/DS/Vita.
-It's less powerful than PS4/Xbone.
-Xbone/PS4/Wii U are "next gen", and my year old gaming rig can beat them on paper. Many "gaming PC's" will probably beat them, as straight away I can think of 3 friends rigs who would destroy the PS4/Xbone, my next rig probably will too.
-The Wii U has several games outputting in 1080p, the Xbone so far has one (does the PS4 have any that are released?)
At the end of the day, its all relative. "Does it play recently released, fun games?" should be the main question that matters to us gamers.
Well its less powerful than its competitors...but the systems power isn't its biggest problem.
Lack of interest and third party support are what makes me not want a WiiU for the foreseeable future, though I might get one towards the end of the console cycle when there cheap and theres enough 1st party games i'm interested in to justify it.
Lack of interest and third party support are what makes me not want a WiiU for the foreseeable future, though I might get one towards the end of the console cycle when there cheap and theres enough 1st party games i'm interested in to justify it.
Oh, wait, I recognize this person...
Is the Wii U underpowered? Yes. Compared to their direct competitors on the market.
Could those games be done on the PS3 or 360? Maybe. I can't say for certain. They could definitely be done on PS4 or Xbox One, though. That's not even in question.
Look, I love plenty of games that don't have top notch graphics. Graphics aren't everything. But the fact is that it will hinder it's third party development down the line, if not immediately. It was always a bad sign when half the games on the Wii were PS2 ports.
Under performing is not just having a few less polygons or whatever. This can affect other things. Like the size and scope of the games. Enemy AI.
As an example, the N64 was far more powerful than the Playstation. But the Playstation sold over twice as many units. One of the N64's weaknesses was that it still used cartridges and thus couldn't contain as much data. Playstation games could also switch discs if necessary. In that way, the N64 underperformed.
Is the Wii U underpowered? Yes. Compared to their direct competitors on the market.
Could those games be done on the PS3 or 360? Maybe. I can't say for certain. They could definitely be done on PS4 or Xbox One, though. That's not even in question.
Look, I love plenty of games that don't have top notch graphics. Graphics aren't everything. But the fact is that it will hinder it's third party development down the line, if not immediately. It was always a bad sign when half the games on the Wii were PS2 ports.
Under performing is not just having a few less polygons or whatever. This can affect other things. Like the size and scope of the games. Enemy AI.
As an example, the N64 was far more powerful than the Playstation. But the Playstation sold over twice as many units. One of the N64's weaknesses was that it still used cartridges and thus couldn't contain as much data. Playstation games could also switch discs if necessary. In that way, the N64 underperformed.
Bingo, slick! And how many games are out so far on the consoles aren't garbage like ryse or knack or sequels like shadow fall or dead rising 3?Stavros Dimou said:
Watch Dogs looks interesting, but it isn't out yet. I do admit that nintendo is using that same strategy with their franchises. But we'll see. I do know that there is a game that showed up in the e3 presentation that had dinosaurs and robots that turn into tanks. Looks more unique than order 1886 anyways.
I also like nintendo because they still make kid friendly (ok, old man who supports censorship friendly) games. And before you mention knack, kid friendly games that aren't fried garbage.
yepp exactly, couldn't agree more with this. It's not about the graphics (unless the dev insists on focusing on that), and especially when it comes to 3rd party games (multiplatform specifically) they will suffer.Saltyk said:
In terms of first party games? probably not, nintendo games usually don't have a TON going on at the same time(including atmosphere/graphics), but they are very polished, which doesn't require much in terms of hardware.