| snowdog said: You've made a few errors there bozobanana: 2) Contrary to popular belief Expresso is not 3 x Broadways duct-taped together. Despite being a PowerPC derived chip it isn't outdated, it's a brand new CPU and completely custom built. And if you're talking about the architecture it's based on being outdated then the X86 CPUs in the PS4 and One aredeven 'older'. 3) As for the GPU where are you getting anything at all about the GPU being 'well documented' and being 'low end'. I've seen nothing but praise for Latte from developers, it's a new chip which again is custom designed, has a shedload of eDRAM on-die and also has a DX11-equivalent feature set. 5) If you have any doubts about the capability of the Wii U's hardware then you need to take a closer look at Super Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Bayonetta 2, X and SSBU |
2. Each core is still PowerPC 7XX based. The entire CPU has seen some updates and modernisations, but there's only so much they can do with an aged architecture. It's not just about the difference between X86 and PowerPC. Every few years CPUs go through a major architectural change (e.g. AMD going from the K10 architecture (late Athlon/Phenom) range to the newer Bulldozer architecture (newer FX range). The sheer amount of investment on X86 completely dwarfs that of PowerPC so there's only so much modernisation of the old architecture Nintendo can do.
3. Again, the basic architecture is known and a general performance range can be drawn as well as a more detailed picture of the features developers have at their disposal. The unknown parts may well be beneficial to performance, but with the die size, manufacturing process and the power draw, there are some significant physical limitations.
5. The problem is people have seen these and some are still not convinced it's a significant step up. On a tech level they do appear to be a step up from the PS3/360, but it's minor enough for a lot of people to not notice. Previous generations have always seen a clear and significant improvement in graphical fidelity. The only exception seems to tbe the two Wii consoles.
