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dahuman on 04 December 2012
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HoloDust said:
dahuman said:

This basically happens when a game is more GPU bound as a port: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-trine-2-face-off

It's just that a lot of devs had to use the CPU to assist the GPU in gen 7 since the CPUs are the parts of the PS360 that were not the bottlenecks hence the engines were made that way, it's working with what you have, and Wii U simply hasn't had that time yet but is still able to run those games without too many problems is where it's impressive. I've said this before in another thread too, you can look up Saints Row 2 on PC, or the original Halo CE, that's what happens when you have ports that are not optimized even on hardwares 3X to 10X+ more powerful

Yes, Trine looks better on WiiU than on PS360 (specially than on PS3) - it has locked 720p for start, unlike PS360 versions (in user comments, one of devs is explaining that). It's a good example of game that is by design GPU only heavy - therefore, WiiU's GPU (which is some 1.5-2x Xenos) is shining there (though not nearly bright enough to provide 1080p and SSAA of PC version), and WiiU's CPU is never bottlenecked.

But there ARE lot of games that are bot GPU and CPU demanding, physics or no physics. "If" next-gen 3rd party developers start using GPUs for physics (and I'd say that's still a big if, considering they will once again have more than capable CPUs to do that), porting to WiiU will most certainly be bit easier than without it. But there are other CPU heavy tasks which are either not possible or very hard to achieve on current GPUs - for that you still need strong CPU. In those cases, WiiU's CPU and low memory bandwith will be bottleneck, and I'm afraid no magical GPGPU coding will be able to compensate for that.

In my opinion, Nintendo did miss the chance to make just enough powerful system that will be fully 3rd party friendly - as with PS3, 1st parties will have no problem to reach it's full potential, but I believe lot of 3rd parties (specially AAA) might have quite a few headaches with it in years to come.

Oh I'm aware, power is the reason I remain a PC gamer, in my opinion, 8th gen consoles won't rival a PC anyways. My true stance doesn't change, if a good game I want is on a console with no hidden cost, I will get it, I just want games that interest me, console power is irrelevant. My argument here is that the Wii U is not 3 Wiis taped together, that very notion is ridiculous.