It's easy to jump on the bandwagon that Wii U is slower than Xbox 360 / PS3. The problem with that theory is that Frozenbyte, developers behind Trine 2, said they couldn't deliver the same level of graphics quality on PS360 consoles as they could on the Wii U. Furthermore, they also confirmed that there is dynamic resolution scaling on PS3 and 360 to sustain frame-rate vs. locked native resolution on Wii U. To make matters even more complicated, Frozenbyte had to use NVIDIA'S FXAA "cheapest" implementation on PS3, which causes the screen to be covered by a heavy smudging that robs the game's artwork of fine detail and softens the look of foliage dramatically.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-trine-2-face-off
I mean the difference is not even close. Wii U > Xbox 360 > PS3
Wii U
http://images.eurogamer.net/2012/articles//a/1/5/3/3/0/6/4/WiiU_012.png
Xbox 360
http://images.eurogamer.net/2012/articles//a/1/5/3/3/0/6/4/360_012.png
PS3
http://images.eurogamer.net/2012/articles//a/1/5/3/3/0/6/4/PS3_012.png
If the Wii U is less powerful than PS360, how can at least some games like Trine 2 look better on it? And this is before developers even learned the ins and outs of the Wii U. Apparently, Nintendo was not able to provide Wii U development kits to developers until mid of last year and that unlike PS360 consoles, the GPU is more "pronounced than the CPU, but it doesn't mean the CPU is weak":
We won't really know what the full capabilities of the Wii U are until 3-4 years into the console's life. Hopefully Wii U can at least run cross-platform titles that will appear on PS4/720.
Granted, I do not believe that the Wii U 1st party games will be able to keep up with PS4/Xbox 720 1st party games on a graphical level. The 35W max power consumption is a sure giveaway that it simply cannot be a high-end console. Even if the Wii U is fully utilized, I believe the PSU is only rated at 70-75W? I still believe that long-term, the best looking Wii U games will top the best looking PS360 games. The greatest challenge around the Wii U will lie in its 3rd party support. Even if the Wii U were "x times" more powerful than PS360, it seems right now developers are not that interested in developing for it due to its low userbase; and perhaps other barriers to entry that exist between Nintendo and 3rd parties.
Essay Pro