WiiU Has Last Gen Radeon Inside

[Hadrian]

Slowly, but surely, we're starting to piece together what's going on inside that mysterious white box known as the Wii U. IBM was a little coy about the multi-core CPU it was providing, but did tantalize us by mentioning the name "Watson" in describing some of its underlying tech. Now details about the custom Radeon GPU are starting to surface and, while certainly capable, it's not exactly cutting edge. At its heart is a chip similar to the R770 found in AMD's last-gen cards like the 4890 and, before you dismiss the it, remember the PS3 and Xbox 360 are still capable of pumping out impressive visuals while packing five-year-old silicon (The 360 is essentially running a souped up ATI X1900). The custom core also supports Direct X 10.1 (Microsoft runs out of steam with Direct X 9) and Eyefinity-like multi-display tech for up to four SD video streams -- though it'll be up to Nintendo and developers to put that to good use. In case you're still not convinced of the Wii U's graphical prowess, Crytek has said its advanced CryEngine is "pretty much" up and running on Nintendo's upcoming console -- and, if it's good enough for Crysis, it should be good enough for you.

Of course WiiU specs probably still haven't even been finalised.

Source

 

[Master Mo]

Wow, tbh I don`t understand anything I`m reading there...

I guess for me it counts what the end-result is and not how they achieve it. Though I don`t see much room when I look at games like Uncharted 2, GoW III or Battlefield 3 to look that much better so you actually could notice it... Doesn`t it end at photorealism?! Maybe the scale of games could change?

Honestly the only thing that I dislike about the Wiis graphical abilities is that it is not in 1080p and maybe that it cannot process open-worlds like other consols. The graphics however very quickly become something that I kind of blend out when the gameplay is gripping.

I would take the SkywardsSword artstyle anyday over the "one" from LANoire if it would be in 1080p but I guess it has to suit the gameplay and setting so it is kind of wrong to generalize this.

 

[Foxi4]

Why of course it's a last-gen chip, what'd you expect?

A current-gen chip would cost 75% of the final console's price, they have to go cheapo, but "well" performance-wise. It's silly to even compare the performance of said chip in PC's and in consoles - a console doesn't have to "carry" a buffy and resource-monging OS. It will use its raw power, and it will most likely be amazing to look at.

 

[KingVamp]

Last-gen doesn't really even sound bad.


Inb4PS4720willhavecurrentgen...

 

[shakirmoledina]

thts quite nice to hear but if the gameplay is not "like a true game", the games will be less hardcore in their playability which was the fear for most ppl. crytek says graphics are great but can u make what u always make on the wiiu

 

[Foxi4]

Yes, PS4 and the 720 will have "current-gen" GFX chips... in five years time, when they're no longer "current".

There isn't a company that uses the latest chips at their disposal in consoles or other electronics, the components are always tested for several years beforehand and they may not reach a certain maximum price tag to be included, otherwise your device would cost you more than a hardcore PC.

 

[Deleted member 473940]

Why of course it's a last-gen chip, what'd you expect?

A current-gen chip would cost 75% of the final console's price, they have to go cheapo, but "well" performance-wise. It's silly to even compare the performance of said chip in PC's and in consoles - a console doesn't have to "carry" a buffy and resource-monging OS. It will use its raw power, and it will most likely be amazing to look at.

This.

If they had a current high-end graphics card in the console, it would pretty much be more than a current consoles price and much more..

 

[Foxi4]

Why of course it's a last-gen chip, what'd you expect?

A current-gen chip would cost 75% of the final console's price, they have to go cheapo, but "well" performance-wise. It's silly to even compare the performance of said chip in PC's and in consoles - a console doesn't have to "carry" a buffy and resource-monging OS. It will use its raw power, and it will most likely be amazing to look at.

This.

If they had a current high-end graphics card in the console, it would pretty much be more than a current consoles price and much more..

Not only that - think about the heatsink issues. The chips included have to use very little energy and have to emmit as little heat as possible. Using a contemporary high-end chip would make the system HUGE. Bigger than the old XBox. The power adapter would be massive aswell. Do you want another ugly, huge "box" like this sitting under your TV, humming with at least three fans like it's a rocket about to lift off?

The chip has to be refined, miniaturised, fairly easy to keep cool (otherwise, Red Rings of Death revisited) and first and foremost cheap for the console to sell.

 

[spotanjo3]

I dont trust them. I will wait for Nintendo to say about WiiU specs.. Too many rumors and gossip. They are annoying. *FACEPALM*. Just wait for Nintendo's reveal about it. Save your breath.

 

[Hadrian]

Yes, PS4 and the 720 will have "current-gen" GFX chips... in five years time, when they're no longer "current".

There isn't a company that uses the latest chips at their disposal in consoles or other electronics, the components are always tested for several years beforehand and they may not reach a certain maximum price tag to be included, otherwise your device would cost you more than a hardcore PC.

Yup and would cost even more than what the PS3 did when that was launched and Sony lost so much on each sale. They've only just started to make profit off the console sales now.

 

[KingVamp]

Do you want another ugly, huge "box" like this sitting under your TV, humming with at least three fans like it's a rocket about to lift off?

QUOTE(RockmanForte @ Jun 14 2011, 03:21 PM) I dont trust them. I will wait for Nintendo to say about WiiU specs.. Too many rumors and gossip. They are annoying. *FACEPALM*. Just wait for Nintendo's reveal about it. Save your breath.

I might be wrong,but I doubt they will be that detailed.

 

[Rydian]

Sounds a little high to me, but I'll speculate as if it was true...

It's silly to even compare the performance of said chip in PC's and in consoles - a console doesn't have to "carry" a buffy and resource-monging OS. It will use its raw power, and it will most likely be amazing to look at.

This. Even when games do run under an "OS", it's often just a light "virtual" layer that can link back to the main OS if needed. Consoles have always been able to pump out way better visuals than PCs on the same hardware (I swear to god if anybody responds to this without paying attention to the italics I'm going to smack them), so I'm actually surprised to hear it's something that recent.

It'll likely not be clocked nearly as high (or have nearly as many shaders) as something like the 4870 (as mentioned heat is an issue), but what is there will hopefully be used properly. It's likely a recent chip so that some of the current technologies will be made useful. Directx 10 is more efficient then 9 for example (most people think otherwise because Crysis didn't actually have a DX10 mode, it just pushed DX10 shaders on top of DX9, making things slower and giving people a bad impression when they were able to hack the options to on (even though some of the DX10 effects didn't show up, they didn't notice them)), and with consoles it's all about efficiency. Each console has the exact same hardware so you don't need to program in a bunch of fallbacks, so you can use everything that's there properly... but it's a lower level than PCs so you need to be a bit more careful.

 

[Foxi4]

I'm actually not entirely convinced by this news post anyways, Nintendo's known to utilize custom GPU/CPU's built for them per-order.

AMD's official statement is already well-known:

AMD (..) will provide the GPU for the upcoming console. It will feature the firms 'custom AMD Radeon HD GPU' which promises to provide the best characteristics of AMD's graphics technology solutions: high-definition graphics support; rich multimedia acceleration and playback; and multiple display support.

"We greatly value our synergistic relationship with the AMD design team. The AMD custom graphics processor delivers the best of AMD's world-class graphics expertise. AMD will support our vision of innovating play through unique entertainment experiences," said Genyo Takeda, senior managing director, Integrated Research & Development of Nintendo Co. Ltd.

"AMD shares Nintendo's excitement for the new HD entertainment experience planned for the Wii U console," said David Wang, corporate vice president of Silicon Engineering, AMD. "We're proud to provide our leading-edge HD multimedia graphics engine to power the new entertainment features of the console. Nintendo is a highly-valued customer and we look forward to the launch in 2012."

~qj.net

Nothing in this quote even remotely points at the specific architecture that's going to be used, all we really know is that it's going to be custom-built.

 

[chartube12]

I'm actually not entirely convinced by this news post anyways, Nintendo's known to utilize custom GPU/CPU's built for them per-order.

AMD's official statement is already well-known:

AMD (..) will provide the GPU for the upcoming console. It will feature the firms 'custom AMD Radeon HD GPU' which promises to provide the best characteristics of AMD's graphics technology solutions: high-definition graphics support; rich multimedia acceleration and playback; and multiple display support.

"We greatly value our synergistic relationship with the AMD design team. The AMD custom graphics processor delivers the best of AMD's world-class graphics expertise. AMD will support our vision of innovating play through unique entertainment experiences," said Genyo Takeda, senior managing director, Integrated Research & Development of Nintendo Co. Ltd.

"AMD shares Nintendo's excitement for the new HD entertainment experience planned for the Wii U console," said David Wang, corporate vice president of Silicon Engineering, AMD. "We're proud to provide our leading-edge HD multimedia graphics engine to power the new entertainment features of the console. Nintendo is a highly-valued customer and we look forward to the launch in 2012."

~qj.net

Nothing in this quote even remotely points at the specific architecture that's going to use, all we really know is that it's going to be custom-built.

FACEPALM. There other articles out there saying they heavily customized the old RADEON with special optimizations including extra ram. This altered last Radeon is more than likely what AMD was talking about. It also supports 4 video out signals, Nintendo is clearly experimenting to use that for the rumored 4 umotes being "connected"

 

[Foxi4]

FACEPALM. There other articles out there saying they heavily customized the old RADEON with special optimizations including extra ram. This altered last Radeon is more than likely what AMD was talking about. It also supports 4 video out signals, Nintendo is clearly experimenting to use that for the rumored 4 umotes being "connected"

Why are you facepalming? You just proved what I said yourself - that they took an older RADEON design and customized it for Nintendo's specific wishes. All I said is that the article does not specify which series it was exactly. R700 is a very loose term, there were several types of R7xx chips with different capabilities. Actually, it's a bit early to pin-point the chip as R7xx.

 

[Yu-Gi-Oh 100]

troll alert

 

[Midna]

Yeah Yugi, YOU.

Anyway, this is actually better than i expected. The word was is was going to use the same gfx chip as the 360 I believe. Which would be a tragedy in 2011.

 

[Nathan Drake]

Yeah Yugi, YOU.

Anyway, this is actually better than i expected. The word was is was going to use the same gfx chip as the 360 I believe. Which would be a tragedy in 2011.

Rumor is, you're believing this rumor to be fact over the other rumor. Aren't rumors fun!

Things that aren't confirmed fact really need to have "Rumor" placed in the subject line. Otherwise people come running in thinking it's fact, more so then if it was just labeled as so. Unless the information comes straight from Nintendo, we really need to remember to take everything with a grain of salt at this point.

 

[DeMoN]

It might be the latest now, but when the Wii U is actually released it will be outdated like crap.

So this is pointless, and I agree with Foxi4 who says that all companies use the latest technology available.

 

[Midna]

It might be the latest now, but when the Wii U is actually released it will be outdated like crap.

So this is pointless, and I agree with Foxi4 who says that all companies use the latest technology available.

It's slated for release in one year or just over a year. If they're using graphics from 2008 or so, it won't become much more outdated in 1 year. Certainly not "outdated like crap".