[FAKE] Wii U CPU and GPU speeds significantly increased after latest update

[Hielkenator]

Voltage can be fixed, but current is directly related to clock speed. High clock speed means high amperage.

Wattage (power consumption) = voltage x current.

This must be measured from within the Wiiu housing.
Measuring at the socket won''t work remember there''s a Transformer.
Power consumption will be the same at the socket.

 

[Veho]

Power consumption will be the same at the socket.

No, it will increase. If the power consumption at the socket remained the same, that would mean the device is drawing full power even when in low mode, and that the difference in power disappears somewhere.

Try measuring yourself, measure the consumption while playing a game and while it's idling on the home screen.

 

[PityOnU]

Nope.

This is quite literally impossible on for the hardware. Perhaps they changed the power management firmware so that whatever tool is being used to report the clock speed now sees a different one, but that's about it.

Otherwise, my i7 would be at 15GHz right now.

 

[Fat D]

You are seriously overestimating the capabilities of a transformer. Input power equals output power plus losses, and the losses are not big enough to mask such a huge clock speed difference by their variance. A transformer just scales the voltage by a certain factor and the current by the inverse one.

 

[JoostinOnline]

This is quite literally impossible on for the hardware.

Why is it impossible to stop underclocking?

 

[Eerpow]

Why is it impossible to stop underclocking?

I think he means that the numbers mentioned are impossible.

 

[JoostinOnline]

I think he means that the numbers mentioned are impossible.

I don't think he knows that for sure.

 

[Veho]

This is quite literally impossible on for the hardware. Perhaps they changed the power management firmware so that whatever tool is being used to report the clock speed now sees a different one, but that's about it.

It is entirely possible it's been underclocked to reduce power consumption. It happened with the PSP too. It makes less sense on a home console but it's not impossible.

However, what's the point of giving devs and users the impression of a drastically slower machine if they could have at least hinted at the possibility of unlocking more power later on in the console life.

And the almost triple increase in speed is very suspect. 50% increase? Plausible. 160% increase? Doubtful.

 

[Maxternal]

Well, I can see where the rumor comes from. The clock speed is obviously settable in software to some degree since it can drop down to Wii speed (just like the Wii proc could be dropped down to GC speed) and people saw so much of a loading time performance increase in the last update that some thought a clock speed increase would have made sense.

I would attribute this more to a lot of code cleanup and optimization more than anything, though. Nintendo had plenty of time to find the best clock speed without it burning up or crashing before launch. Suddenly deciding it can be doubled or tripled at this point is not realistic. At this point it's no longer about heat. It's about the time it takes for the transistors on the die to react to a new signal. Much faster and it will no longer function no matter how much you cool it. Also, I remember tueidj making a comment pre-launch that on a processor that's backwards compatible with Wii software it's simply not going to be able to go faster than somewhere in the 1.X GHz range.

 

[Gahars]

What is this, voodoo electronics?

 

[gamefan5]

Voltage can be fixed, but current is directly related to clock speed. High clock speed means high amperage.

Wattage (power consumption) = voltage x current.

Thx for giving me a brief of my physics electricity class. XD No srsly!

 

[Taleweaver]

And the almost triple increase in speed is very suspect. 50% increase? Plausible. 160% increase? Doubtful.

Quoted for truth. By the sounds of it, someone looked at the difference in loading speed of the wiiu menus and drew a retarded conclusion on it.

 

[DiscostewSM]

More than likely, the update improved efficiency of the hardware without having to change the clock speed, but the people who don't know better assume that if something runs faster, then they must have OCed it. 3Ghz is too much of a stretch for the Wii U in any case.

But, I wonder whether the system was purposefully underclocked, and if they would bring up the clock speed at some later point in time?

 

[Hop2089]

The update came too little too late, I doubt this will convince developers to flock to the WiiU. Hopefully the OCing won't result in overheating systems.

 

[p1ngpong]

Amazing! I knew we would win!

I can't wait to play Frostbite engine 4 games on my Wii U now!

 

[Taleweaver]

Here's a fragment of a rumored interview with Iwata*:

reporter: so...with sony and microsoft coming up with more powerful consoles, aren't you afraid it will leave the wiiu underpowered?
Iwata: naah...we'll just release a couple firmware updates that will download extra clockspeed, memory and graphical power from the internet.
reporter: wow...you guys can do that?
Iwata: sure...if you have enough disk space available. That's why the basic version will have an extra update to download and install more disk space before starting the actual firmware update.



*source: I pulled it out of my ass. And while that may not sound like much, it's still above average when it comes to gaming news.

 

[weavile001]

That's why the basic version will have an extra update to download and install more disk space

That's why the basic version will have an extra update to download and install more disk space

WTF?

 

[Rockhoundhigh]

Personally I'm at least glad to know that that means they've actually been spending all these months optimizing the software rather than just bumping up the clock speed. Either way a nearly 200% overclocking sounds like it would just eat through any normal processor.

 

[DiscostewSM]

WTF?

Read the small print.

 

[loco365]

GREAT!

All we need is more ram for 3DS.

Better go download some then.