Wii U vs PS4 vs Xbox One FULL SPECS (January 24, 2014)

[ZyroXZ2]

I posted this in another forum, and though it's not a perfect comparison, it's something to think about:

"The Wii U has never been about power, but efficiency. The Wii U pulls off its HD graphics at a meager 35 watts. Not only does the system temperature remain cool at full load, but for some of us who are more keen on utility costs, this IS a factor! Much like Japanese cars, the power-per-unit-cost is absolutely phenomenal. While my car could blow the doors off of a Civic, there is NO denying that the Civic gets better horsepower-per-liter than my car, hands down. The Wii U is this EXACT principal in action. The performance-per-watt of the Wii U is absolutely phenomenal. Looking at Super Mario 3D World, and looking at Killzone: Shadow Fall may be a real stupid comparison graphically, but all I can say is that the PS4 operates around 150 watts, but I don't see 4 times the graphical power. Though this comparison isn't direct, it's interesting to note that 720p is 921,600 pixels, while 1080p is 2,073,600 pixels: 2.25 times the pixels. Each frame at 1080p costs 2.25 times more power to render than each frame at 720p, HOWEVER, Killzone: Shadow Fall hovers around 30-40 FPS (we'll use 35 to average it out), while Super Mario 3D World stays a rock solid 60 FPS. Doing some basic math for 1 minute of rendering: KZ:SF has rendered 72,576,000 pixels; SM3DW has rendered 55,296,000 pixels. As you can see, the rendering power of the Wii U just by resolution and framerate is NOT that far behind the PS4, and at a FRACTION of the energy cost.

By the FLOP numbers against the PS4, we could say that the PS4's performance-per-watt is better (supposing the Wii U is really only in the low GFLOPS range), but we have already seen how that can be totally spun around in ways that turn out to mean nothing in actual gameplay graphics performance (PS3 was touted to have the same teraflops as the much more modern and "more powerful" PS4!). The PS4 clearly pulls off better graphics than the PS3 while maintaining the same 2 TFLOP numbers; the PS3 and PS4 are the exact same power.

Having explained that, I see the Wii U being an overall winner in efficiency, but not in power. And I have to say, as kind of a "green" guy when it comes to energy consumption, I give the Wii U props for delivering a full HD experience at the energy cost of a light bulb. How great is it to be playing Super Mario 3D World knowing that it's only costing you the same as flipping on the light in your room? ^_^"

Again, there are other factors in rendering, especially considering the highly complex nature of modern technology, BUT, it's still something to consider in terms of raw power...