Wii U specs revealed; slower than X360, PS3.

Mkilbride

Ok, so, the Wii was basically double Gamecubes, right?

Well, the Wii U, is TRIPLE GAMECUBES.

<a href="http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-wii-hacker-reveals-wii-u-cpu-secrets" target="_blank">http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalf...i-u-cpu-secrets</a>

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Barely held back by non-disclosure agreements, game developers have expressed some disappointment with the Wii U CPU architecture but have yet to go on the record with firm information on exactly why performance is apparently so lacklustre...Today, a post from Wii and PS3 hacker Marcan puts a firm figure on that, precise to six decimal places no less:

"1.243125GHz, exactly. 3 PowerPC 750 type cores (similar to Wii's Broadway, but more cache). GPU core at 549.999755MHz."

Marcan's comments corroborate earlier stories about the provenance of the CPU, which suggested that the cores are indeed very similar to the Broadway architecture found in the Wii, which in itself harks back to IBM's PowerPC 750 core which first debuted way back in 1997...For the transition to Wii U, clock speed has almost doubled, core count has tripled and according to Marcan, there is more on-board cache. Other sources have previously suggested further enhancements to the technology, such as out of order execution - a feature that isn't present in the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 CPUs.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

I'm actually happy about this, means the Wii U will be emulated in no time. The Wii was emulated incredibly quickly, so this should as well.

Talesin

Er, from that snip it appears to be three Wiis, and each at twice the speed. Not just three gamecubes.

So if my math is right and one Wii is two Gamecubes... (2x GC) * 3 (Wiis) * ~2 (clockspeed) = ~12 Gamecubes

Daeica

<!--quoteo(post=2037771:date=Nov 30 2012, 08:36 AM:name=Talesin)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Talesin @ Nov 30 2012, 08:36 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2037771"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->So if my math is right and one Wii is two Gamecubes... (2x GC) * 3 (Wiis) * ~2 (clockspeed) = ~12 Gamecubes<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Hmm... Needs more cowbell!

Kouji_San

Well with their lineup and target audience, I think they will be more then fine. It's not like they need a real powerhouse for their best sellers :)

Geminosity

I had a lil Wii-U launch party at my place with some folk with work and people came away fairly impressed regardless of whatever's under the hood :3

The biggest 'holy fibble!' moment was when we played 'zelda battle course' in Nintendoland the first time and I went the archer with the screen. At first i thought "this is kinda cool" but as we went around the course in a circle and i found myself slowly turning in the spinning chair i was sitting in to keep myself facing forward it gave me the greatest sense of 'being' in a virtual place i've had to date. If this is even a tenth of what the oculus rift is like then I want one, NOW :P
After that i declared that everyone in the room had to have a go at being archer and pretty much everyone seemed to love it during and after their shot.

I've not had much time to play with it on my own yet but as a party machine, armed with Nintendoland, it's a rip-roaring success :D

~tilts head thoughtfully~
Didn't they say somewhere that it was only the CPU that was the bottleneck and that the GPU and amount of RAM were quite a bit better than the 360 and PS3?

Doesn't matter really anyway, I'm sure it'll be crushed under foot by the tech specs of the two other next gen machines in 2013 and 2014. I'm just curious to see if they make more of the screen pad as it's easily my favourite thing and surprisingly accurate and lag free so far. Never had it get out of sync/calibration either so far :o

Talesin

My biggest annoyance is that it isn't compatible with Gamecube games or controllers. It seems like an obvious thing to include, given the almost identical architecture, and comes across as a blatant cash-grab with having GCN games available as digital copies. I'd rather just have ONE system taking up space, and still be able to play SSBM or Mario Sunshine. Then again, I have the same complaint about the PS3 and 2/1 compatibility.