jake_the_fake1 said:
The title is right, PS4 and xbox 3 won' be cutting edge, cutting edge as in exotic hardware which sells at a loss. Yes both PS3 and xbox360 had exotic hardware, PS3 with cell, and the 360 with its first generation unified pixel/vertex sharers which even included a primitive tessellation unit. Tech which was pretty much created for consoles first, of course such loses and exotic hardware is no longer a viable solution for either company, having said this, this will not stop Sony and Microsoft from making the best performing console at the given budget with standardised parts.
People need to keep in mind that both the PS4 and xbox3 will have a much better CPU than the Wii U, remember that the Wii U is in effect an extremely over clocked gamecube CPU multiplied by 3, but this tri core CPU architecture is old and in its age is less efficient per clock when compared to the much newer 8 core jaguar processor. This is a clear fact when you have developers who are known for pushing graphics like the guys from metro2033 saying that the Wii U CPU is very slow, this will be more problematic as time goes on. So in the end was keeping binary comparability with the Wii worth it? Backwards capability could have been achieved through software emulation with a stronger CPU the only extra cost would be in creating the software emulation...but I guess Nintendo took the easy way out by keeping binary compatibility.
As for the GPU, despite the Wii U being slightly more capable than the PS3 and xbox360 it means nothing at the end because Nintendo has only caught up to the 6/7 year old hardware, the PS4 and Xbox3 have a much more capable GPU providing dx11.1+ feature set, while the Wii U GPU is only Dx10. Why is this an issue, because DX11 is way more efficient in how it does tessellation, and this will be a key feature being used more and more as time goes on. Now the Wii U can do tessellation, but it is less efficient and the penalty on performance will be much greater so much so that like the xbox360 it will be a feature which won't be used. keep in mind that the PS4 and xbox 3 GPU is running on a more advanced architecture than the Wii U, which means that it can render allot more pixels and geometry on screen than the Wii U, which is important for IQ.
Now I’ll comment on the ram situation, I'm not going to say anything about the speed of ram. The biggest issue is the amount of ram. 1GB of ram for games is what will make the Wii U be in the same situation as the Wii. When games are designed for 3.5GB of ram for the PS4 and xbox3 (multiplatform) how is this supposed to fit on Wii U ram? Developers will have to cut out 2.5GB of games assets to make it fit on the Wii U ram, the Wii U version will simply look inferior.
Nintendo left the graphics power house a generation ago, so this comes as no surprise. The Wii U’s selling point is it's unique controller, will this catch on like the Wii controls? No one really knows for sure, however, time will tell. I will say Nintendo will face an uphill fight against proper tablets. I know, and we know that the Wii U controllers not a tablet but tell that to the masses who can't tell the difference. The danger with this is that the Ipad and now the android tabs dominate the tablet market, customer confusion and comparison will make the Wii U look inferior in their eyes. Nintendo never had this issue with the Wii, but they now need to do a hell of a job educating customers and clearly showing that the Wii U is not a tablet, but a console with the benefits of a tablet....how well Nintendo does and how well the Wii U does when the competition launches we don't know, but again time will tell.
anyways, that's my two cents :)
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