Hardware WiiU's CPU weaker than 360/PS3

phantastic91

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I thought this was interesting. This isn't the first time a developer has pointed out that the CPU is slow. Now we see that Koei Tecmo is having issues with the amount of characters they can place on screen before the performance takes a hit. I think it's kind of sad that Nintendo can't even match the CPU power of last gen tech. Hopefully developers are able to work around this once they get use to the hardware more.

On the brighter side it seems that the Wii U has a stronger GPU based on the developers statement.

Here's some quotes I copied and pasted from the link:
"One of the weaknesses of the Wii U compared to PS3 and Xbox 360 is the CPU power is a little bit less," he said. "So for games in the Warriors series, including Dynasty Warriors and Warriors Orochi, when you have a lot of enemies coming at you at once, the performance tends to be affected because of the CPU.
"Dealing with that is a challenge."
"Developing on new hardware in itself was a challenge, and also making that launch date was a challenge," he said. "But from a visual standpoint, based on the performance of the Wii U, we knew the game had the capability of having much better graphics than games on PS3 and Xbox 360. Make no mistake, from a visual standpoint, it is able to produce better graphics. So our challenge was to make a higher quality graphics. We were able to meet that."
"While the visuals are great, as is being able to improve them, we had to deal with the lower CPU power and how we can get around that issue"
"I expect that GPU focused games will benefit from smoother frame-rates and lower levels of screen-tear, but cross-platform titles highly dependent on CPU power could end up noticeably worse off."


Source: http://www.eurogamer...-u-launch-title
 

Eerpow

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Clockspeeds, the Wii U CPU is much newer and more efficient than last gen although boasting a lower clockspeed, as he said, it's new hardware and they have to learn and get used to how it works in order to optimize their games.

Nintendo could also easily up the clockspeed since it's underclocked.

There's old (as in very old) computers with higher clockspeeds than the PS3, but are they better at computing? Of course not.
 
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chris888222

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Well if the PS4/720 hits the market I think the Wii U will end up like the Wii again, but at a much smaller gap.
 
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Dork

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Well if the PS4/720 hits the market I think the Wii U will end up like the Wii again, but at a much smaller gap.

Then it won't end up like the Wii, the Wii was severely weak compared to the PS3 and Xbox, making it impossible to port games. If the gap is small enough for games to be multiplat on Wii U, it's good enough.
 
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chris888222

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Well if the PS4/720 hits the market I think the Wii U will end up like the Wii again, but at a much smaller gap.

Then it won't end up like the Wii, the Wii was severely weak compared to the PS3 and Xbox, making it impossible to port games. If the gap is small enough for games to be multiplat on Wii U, it's good enough.
It's really hard to say though. Next gen games will definitely be much more demanding in terms of power and graphics on a next gen device.
 
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Dork

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Well if the PS4/720 hits the market I think the Wii U will end up like the Wii again, but at a much smaller gap.

Then it won't end up like the Wii, the Wii was severely weak compared to the PS3 and Xbox, making it impossible to port games. If the gap is small enough for games to be multiplat on Wii U, it's good enough.
It's really hard to say though. Next gen games will definitely be much more demanding in terms of power and graphics on a next gen device.

The Wii U was built to compete with the 'Xbox 720' and the PS4 according to Nintendo.
 
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chris888222

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Well if the PS4/720 hits the market I think the Wii U will end up like the Wii again, but at a much smaller gap.

Then it won't end up like the Wii, the Wii was severely weak compared to the PS3 and Xbox, making it impossible to port games. If the gap is small enough for games to be multiplat on Wii U, it's good enough.
It's really hard to say though. Next gen games will definitely be much more demanding in terms of power and graphics on a next gen device.

The Wii U was built to compete with the 'Xbox 720' and the PS4 according to Nintendo.
I just hope that this "weak" is that the CPU is under clocked. Nintendo packed in a quality GPU with a whopping 1GB RAM dedicated to games (plus another 1GB on the OS), so I doubt they'll neglect the CPU that much.

According to Dynasty Warriors dev, they are also "not used" to the CPU system. I remember somewhere that some dev also said that (back when PS3 launched) they were not used to the PS3 architecture too.
 

heartgold

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Why is this even news, some devs can't get the best out of the newer architecture that the Wii U has.

At least include the full story behind these devs words.

"With the Wii U being new hardware, we're still getting used to developing for it, so there are still a lot of things we don't know yet to bring out the most of the processing power. There's a lot that still needs to be explored in that area."



Wii U CPU is out of order execution vs in-order, which beats the piss out of PS3/360, of course porting games ground up from in-order execution CPU to OoOE CPU isn't gonna work too well. Factor in Wii U has GPGPU functionality, straight porting isn't going to work without being properly optimised to a different architecture.

In saying that, AC3 looks and plays well for that a game that's ported over and is complex too.
 
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SixSenseEagle

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If this is weaker than the xbox 360 and ps3 Why does it look so good?

This looks pretty promising to me. When we all saw The Last of us on E3 nobody expect it to look that nice for the ps3, So I doubt Nintendo won't be that weak if they make a good graphic demo for the Wii u. We seen nintendo make all cartoon like games on wii, and previous consoles, but since we got another good system its Nintendo turn to show us good graphics, and Finally make all genre of games.
 

Pong20302000

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If this is weaker than the xbox 360 and ps3 Why does it look so good?
[media]http://www.youtube.c...h?v=Shch7LNkVXw[/media]
This looks pretty promising to me. When we all saw The Last of us on E3 nobody expect it to look that nice for the ps3, So I doubt Nintendo won't be that weak if they make a good graphic demo and cartoony games. We seen nintendo make all cartoon like games on wii, and previous consoles, but since we got another good system its Nintendo turn to show us good graphics, and Finally make all genre of games.

its because next gen uses a complete different method, using GPU more

the reason he was saying its hard is because the current gen is higher CPU lower GPU
next gen (which the WiiU is) is Low CPU High GPU

so basically hes stating the WiiU is hard to run older Gen Games when its built for the newer
 
S

SixSenseEagle

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If this is weaker than the xbox 360 and ps3 Why does it look so good?
[media]http://www.youtube.c...h?v=Shch7LNkVXw[/media]
This looks pretty promising to me. When we all saw The Last of us on E3 nobody expect it to look that nice for the ps3, So I doubt Nintendo won't be that weak if they make a good graphic demo and cartoony games. We seen nintendo make all cartoon like games on wii, and previous consoles, but since we got another good system its Nintendo turn to show us good graphics, and Finally make all genre of games.

its because next gen uses a complete different method, using GPU more

the reason he was saying its hard is because the current gen is higher CPU lower GPU
next gen (which the WiiU is) is Low CPU High GPU

so basically hes stating the WiiU is hard to run older Gen Games when its built for the newer
Ok got ya.

Well I think the Wii started out late or not idk I really think that was meant for time around 04-05, But I guessing they had a problem with the technology back in the day.

Ps. Also What about ps vita? Can that run older Gen Games?. Can it at least run a ps2 game?.
 

MakiManPR

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If this is weaker than the xbox 360 and ps3 Why does it look so good?
[media]http://www.youtube.c...h?v=Shch7LNkVXw[/media]
This looks pretty promising to me. When we all saw The Last of us on E3 nobody expect it to look that nice for the ps3, So I doubt Nintendo won't be that weak if they make a good graphic demo and cartoony games. We seen nintendo make all cartoon like games on wii, and previous consoles, but since we got another good system its Nintendo turn to show us good graphics, and Finally make all genre of games.

its because next gen uses a complete different method, using GPU more

the reason he was saying its hard is because the current gen is higher CPU lower GPU
next gen (which the WiiU is) is Low CPU High GPU

so basically hes stating the WiiU is hard to run older Gen Games when its built for the newer
Ok got ya.

Well I think the Wii started out late or not idk I really think that was meant for time around 04-05, But I guessing they had a problem with the technology back in the day.

Ps. Also What about ps vita? Can that run older Gen Games?.

Where have you been?
 
S

SixSenseEagle

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If this is weaker than the xbox 360 and ps3 Why does it look so good?
[media]http://www.youtube.c...h?v=Shch7LNkVXw[/media]
This looks pretty promising to me. When we all saw The Last of us on E3 nobody expect it to look that nice for the ps3, So I doubt Nintendo won't be that weak if they make a good graphic demo and cartoony games. We seen nintendo make all cartoon like games on wii, and previous consoles, but since we got another good system its Nintendo turn to show us good graphics, and Finally make all genre of games.

its because next gen uses a complete different method, using GPU more

the reason he was saying its hard is because the current gen is higher CPU lower GPU
next gen (which the WiiU is) is Low CPU High GPU

so basically hes stating the WiiU is hard to run older Gen Games when its built for the newer
Ok got ya.

Well I think the Wii started out late or not idk I really think that was meant for time around 04-05, But I guessing they had a problem with the technology back in the day.

Ps. Also What about ps vita? Can that run older Gen Games?.

Where have you been?
I Don't have a Ps vita so idk nothing about the specs what so ever, but thats Because Everytime I use wiki to search this up it don't load, but I was just asking thats all.
 

KingVamp

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Factor in Wii U has GPGPU functionality,
its because next gen uses a complete different method, using GPU more
This is pretty much what I was going to point out. As far as I know, this will cause less heat as well.
Devs just getting use to it. Didn't worry too much.

I think I read somewhere that the wii u is capable of DX11.

As for me, I'm buying their game! :D
 
D

Deleted_171835

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I've read that the Wii U features an OoOE CPU so straight PS3/360 ports obv. won't work as well. I think we should be looking at the positive bit of this news where he says it can produce much better graphics.
 

spotanjo3

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Easy:

Stop guess and wait to see how well is Wii U against PS4 and 720 are doing for the next year. Then we will have our real answer, thats simple. :)

Therefore, I am not in the hurry to buy it because of two things:

3rd party must support Wii U fully for the next 5 years just like Sony and Microsoft.
Wii U can handle unreal engine 4 then it would be very easy to make new games just like Ps4 and 720. It would be great then I would buy it. I want to be wise this time. :)
 

chris888222

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If this is weaker than the xbox 360 and ps3 Why does it look so good?
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=Shch7LNkVXw
This looks pretty promising to me. When we all saw The Last of us on E3 nobody expect it to look that nice for the ps3, So I doubt Nintendo won't be that weak if they make a good graphic demo for the Wii u. We seen nintendo make all cartoon like games on wii, and previous consoles, but since we got another good system its Nintendo turn to show us good graphics, and Finally make all genre of games.
The Wii U has a terrific GPU (with GPGPU).

This 'news' is talking about CPU power.
 
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