Rumor: Wii U 50% More Powerful Than PS3?

[Simalacrum]

Good for Nintendo, but I really fear that the Wii U is shaping up to become the Dreamcast of this generation - start off with a great bang, with shiny specs, cool games and first on the shelves, but then clobbered to death by late-coming but significantly more powerful and more capable machines designed for the next generation.

Nintendo shouldn't be looking to beat the current generation of consoles - they've already done that. Squarely. Theres no denying that, in terms of consoles shifted, the Wii has obliterated its competition.

What they should be doing, instead of saying "hey look we have HD graphics like the PS3/360 now!" is producing a console thats specifically designed to combat the PS4/Xbox720. Its a next gen console taking on current gen consoles - and it'll lose later on badly for it, unless it turns out the Wii U is merely a stop gap to properly contend with the current generation and theres already a new console in the works to take on the next generation of consoles (in which case Nintendo has taken an unprecedented move and risk in such a method, and I highly doubt this is the case!)

 

[Gigano]

Well, unless it's got games I'm 100 % more interested in than the current version do, I still won't look its way any time soon.

 

[GrimHeaper]

Good for Nintendo, but I really fear that the Wii U is shaping up to become the Dreamcast of this generation - start off with a great bang, with shiny specs, cool games and first on the shelves, but then clobbered to death by late-coming but significantly more powerful and more capable machines designed for the next generation.

Nintendo shouldn't be looking to beat the current generation of consoles - they've already done that. Squarely. Theres no denying that, in terms of consoles shifted, the Wii has obliterated its competition.

What they should be doing, instead of saying "hey look we have HD graphics like the PS3/360 now!" is producing a console thats specifically designed to combat the PS4/Xbox720. Its a next gen console taking on current gen consoles - and it'll lose later on badly for it, unless it turns out the Wii U is merely a stop gap to properly contend with the current generation and theres already a new console in the works to take on the next generation of consoles (in which case Nintendo has taken an unprecedented move and risk in such a method, and I highly doubt this is the case!)

Risk is Nintendo's middle name.

 

[munx13]

Well the GPU on it is 3 generations ahead then whats on PS3 so it would hardly be a surprise (GF 7800 vs Radeon 4800).

If it does, great. If it doesn't, Nintendo haven't moved an inch in the console market.

Also, how can you say; 50% more powerful than the PS3 and 360 when the PS3 already has the edge over the 360 in terms of Blu-ray processing power so which one is it 50% more power than? The PS3 or 360? Because that might make the difference to the specs.

Not to mention ps3 is true HD while 360 is upscaled. Due to the fact that it can only support Dual Layer Disks.

Both 360 and PS3 barely have any true HD games and are almost the same when it comes to power. Storage media has no impact on games resolutions btw.

 

[Simalacrum]

Good for Nintendo, but I really fear that the Wii U is shaping up to become the Dreamcast of this generation - start off with a great bang, with shiny specs, cool games and first on the shelves, but then clobbered to death by late-coming but significantly more powerful and more capable machines designed for the next generation.

Nintendo shouldn't be looking to beat the current generation of consoles - they've already done that. Squarely. Theres no denying that, in terms of consoles shifted, the Wii has obliterated its competition.

What they should be doing, instead of saying "hey look we have HD graphics like the PS3/360 now!" is producing a console thats specifically designed to combat the PS4/Xbox720. Its a next gen console taking on current gen consoles - and it'll lose later on badly for it, unless it turns out the Wii U is merely a stop gap to properly contend with the current generation and theres already a new console in the works to take on the next generation of consoles (in which case Nintendo has taken an unprecedented move and risk in such a method, and I highly doubt this is the case!)

Risk is Nintendo's middle name.

Its also been its downfall on more than one occasion.

 

[Mxrz]

Rumors aren't rumors if they only exist inside your head.

The WiiU is pegged at around 2007 with its GPU. Throw in the lack of a HD, etc. and I wouldn't get my hopes up. But arguing about specs is pointless, it all comes down to what games are developed for it, and as long as Nintendo and its user base keeps shitting on 3rd parties, it'll be stuck with Mario, Zelda and whatever casual shit gets drummed up.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Well the GPU on it is 3 generations ahead then whats on PS3 so it would hardly be a surprise (GF 7800 vs Radeon 4800).

2 generations. nVidia 9000 series and ATI 4000 series both launched in '08.

 

[ElectroJosh]

Good for Nintendo, but I really fear that the Wii U is shaping up to become the Dreamcast of this generation - start off with a great bang, with shiny specs, cool games and first on the shelves, but then clobbered to death by late-coming but significantly more powerful and more capable machines designed for the next generation.

This could be true in the end but don't forget that the Dreamcast followed a lackluster showing by the Saturn while the WiiU is actually the biggest selling console of this generation (yeah, yeah, is it this generation when its running on the previous generation's hardware? yadda yadda blah blah). My point is that it may well do what you said but Nintendo aren't in Sega's position where they needed to come out earlier than their competitors to try and stay in the game.

Nintendo have done well and are now comfortable with moving up (or past) the current gen. If anything this could be their Sega Saturn. The system that fades fast once their competitors arrive but not quick enough for them to be concerned.

 

[YunikoYokai5]

I couldn't care about specs. As a few people have said, it's all about the games. But for me its also about playability. The controller looks a tad awkward to use, and I'm not a huge touchscreen fan (anymore. Okamiden saw an end to that with it's fickle 'No, no no! That wasn't right on the line! And you aren't pressing hard enough so the line gets broken up!' - 'But I don't want to risk break my scre-' - 'Don't care dammit!' attitude). Guess I'm too used to my touch sensitive Graphics Tablet.

I'm also getting sick of the same old Nintendo faces. Yes, Legend of Zelda is good, but they need to come up with a new series for crying out loud! Same with Mario. Heck, I'm beginning to get annoyed with Pokemon as well. I can't muster the will to keep going with Black and White, and I've been playing since Blue. Well, I'm getting my PC upgraded so between that and my PS3 I'm set for gaming me thinks.

 

[Retronana]

"Wii U will be HD, supporting up to 1080p resolution just like Xbox 360 and PS3, but beyond that it's unclear how powerful the hardware will ultimately be when it ships sometime next year. Nintendo never provides a full breakdown, although the company did say that the form factor is "near final." While many assumed Wii U would be on par with the current HD consoles, word is coming in from developers that it's quite a bit more powerful.
Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia commented today, "Some of the developers we spoke to indicated to us that the console will have 50% more processing power compared to the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360. This is yet to be confirmed by Nintendo.""

mh... If this is true its technically not really good news, but oh well, its around the same boost as from Gamecube to Wii(50%), which was not bad.I suppose Sony and Microsoft will include again 7 to 10 times better Hardware, than last Generation.

1080p support is not 1080p resolution, I'd only really consider it a jump forward if it actually used 1080p res rather than stetching 1200x760 (roughly) on a 1080p TV/Moniter like all current console do, the fact they advertise 1080p support in the first place is misleading.

Of course if some awesome exclusives come out I couldn't really care less

 

[Aerograt]

I just want the Wii U to have good components for its gameplay. Huge environments, bigger player counts with no lag (I'm looking at you, Brawl...), new nifty mechanics.

 

[theultimateend]

Good for Nintendo, but I really fear that the Wii U is shaping up to become the Dreamcast of this generation - start off with a great bang, with shiny specs, cool games and first on the shelves, but then clobbered to death by late-coming but significantly more powerful and more capable machines designed for the next generation.

Nintendo shouldn't be looking to beat the current generation of consoles - they've already done that. Squarely. Theres no denying that, in terms of consoles shifted, the Wii has obliterated its competition.

What they should be doing, instead of saying "hey look we have HD graphics like the PS3/360 now!" is producing a console thats specifically designed to combat the PS4/Xbox720. Its a next gen console taking on current gen consoles - and it'll lose later on badly for it, unless it turns out the Wii U is merely a stop gap to properly contend with the current generation and theres already a new console in the works to take on the next generation of consoles (in which case Nintendo has taken an unprecedented move and risk in such a method, and I highly doubt this is the case!)

Risk is Nintendo's middle name.

Its also been its downfall on more than one occasion.

Virtua Boy and Gamecube?

 

[pyrrhic victory]

...the WiiU is actually the biggest selling console of this generation...

wat

OT: Nintendo could probably make a console much, much more powerful than the PS3. Would it be cost effective? Unlikely. But this is a rather lackluster upgrade, and it's possible Nintendo will pay for it.

 

[scar_47]

I just don't see it doing well casual gamers bought most of the wii's they don't care about hd or the console being powerful or they wouldn't have bought the wii wheres the drive for them to plop down the lets go cheap with 400 on the wii u when it offers nothing new for them, hardcore gamers have mostly moved on and as stated by many here aren't going to be impressed that your beating a 5 year old system and even by 50% that a relatively small amount. I don't see there being much of a market for the wii u regardless of actual performance casual gamers don't care, hardcore gamers aren't impressed and in a few years we'll be seeing the next gen playstation and xbox that will make the wii u look like the wii. Nintendo took a big risk going this route and I don't think its going to pay off.

 

[Cowabungaa]

And still way less powerful then an average PC.

Well they are getting some kind of special CPU, and from what I've heard they're the fastest in existence right now, even faster than a top-of-the-line i7 core. If that's true, that'd really be something.

Quite curious about the GPU myself at the moment, they haven't made any details about it available.

The power of the computers is negligible when there are no games to make full use of it.

Fair enough, but lets not judge about that before the console is released shall we? We're halfway through 2011, this console is due to somewhere in 2012, my guess is the holiday season. It'll be a long while before we see what developers are going to do with the available horsepower. I just hope it's easy to develop for, not PS3-like.

all of the gaming consoles got a "special" CPU and it's not very good, the "cell" chip was the only thing that reached above sub-par.

when a "special" CPU is mention, the first thing that comes to my mind is a defunct quad-core CPU otherwise known as a Tri-core.

Could be, I sure hope not. The Wiki article says, and according to the Nintendo website, this is the CPU:

IBM Power Architecture-based multi-core 45 nm microprocessor[3]

That's sadly all we know. Honestly, I don't understand why they're waiting so long to release technical details.

 

[GrimHeaper]

And still way less powerful then an average PC.

Well they are getting some kind of special CPU, and from what I've heard they're the fastest in existence right now, even faster than a top-of-the-line i7 core. If that's true, that'd really be something.

Quite curious about the GPU myself at the moment, they haven't made any details about it available.

The power of the computers is negligible when there are no games to make full use of it.

Fair enough, but lets not judge about that before the console is released shall we? We're halfway through 2011, this console is due to somewhere in 2012, my guess is the holiday season. It'll be a long while before we see what developers are going to do with the available horsepower. I just hope it's easy to develop for, not PS3-like.

all of the gaming consoles got a "special" CPU and it's not very good, the "cell" chip was the only thing that reached above sub-par.

when a "special" CPU is mention, the first thing that comes to my mind is a defunct quad-core CPU otherwise known as a Tri-core.

Could be, I sure hope not. The Wiki article says, and according to the Nintendo website, this is the CPU:

IBM Power Architecture-based multi-core 45 nm microprocessor[3]

That's sadly all we know. Honestly, I don't understand why they're waiting so long to release technical details.

So the competition has a harder time I would say.

 

[the_dancy_vagrant]

So the competition has a harder time I would say.

Sort of, kind of. It probably has more to do with the economics of making a console, ie if they wait and don't make a final decision then IBM may come up with a better offer. So either a CPU with better performance for the same price or the one they're currently looking at but at a reduced price.

Nintendo is very savvy about making sure that they don't lose anywhere near as much money as their competitors per console sold. I think they're going with the same tactic again because it has served them quite well in the past.

 

[rmb1983]

the PS3 already has the edge over the 360 in terms of Blu-ray processing power

Blu-ray has nothing to do with processing power, it's an optical storage medium... and no optical storage medium has a data transfer rate that compares to HDDs or SSDs.

True, but you need a better processor to... well process the sheer amount of Blu-ray data don't you? Compared to xbox's DVDs.

Nope. Both have full HDD capabilty so if they don't choke on a HDDs data transfer speeds they're not going to be troubled by any optical storage system around today.

The PS3 does have a better CPU but not because Blu-ray demands it. The 360 could have easily supported HD-DVD but Microsoft didn't want to get caught up in a format war it had no vested interest in... and they didn't want to go Blu-ray because they charge licensing on a per-disc basis and it takes a few DVDs to hold the same data as a BRD.

Didn't they? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_HD_DVD_Player]
Still, though, they did discontinue it two years after the fact, once the format died off. I can't really blame them for thinking the idea stood a good chance, given that the porn industry had initially adopted HD-DVD as their medium of choice, and they tend to pick themselves the winners. We don't really need to get into that, but it typically revolves around cost and access.
On the other hand, I know you were referring to the core unit's processor, but even if that had been the case, the laser didn't support it, hence their development of an external drive.

OT: It really doesn't matter if WiiU is a monolithic powerhouse that even the next Sony/Microsoft gen can't compare to, or is just a Wii refitted with controllers, Nintendo's success comes from their ability to target such a wide breadth of the market.
That being said, if they release another console gen that revolves around a gimmick and continue to treat third-party developers/publishers as they've been in the past decade, they're going to sink off the console market forever. Barring some sort of divine intervention, though, no one's ever going to pry their claws off the handheld market, though, so it's likely that dropping off the console radar would be a wash for them.

 

[squballs1234]

Actually the Wii-U will have 50% more power than the CURRENT PlayStation. So that's not saying much when we get new gen Xbox's and PlayStation.

 

[ElectroJosh]

...the WiiU is actually the biggest selling console of this generation...

wat

Let that be lesson to everyone... don't copy and paste stuff around when re-writing parts of a post. Will I go back and edit it though? Nah.