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bonzobanana on 17 April 2015
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Samus Aran said:
bonzobanana said:


Yes the wii u gpu definitely has the superior feature set but ultimately getting a game to run even with reduced graphic quality is about memory and cpu performance. If the wii u had a  hard drive then fair enough you could give wii u the advantage but lack of hard drive means no fast streaming of data from hdd which on 360 and PS3 massively helps stream in textures and new graphic data which the wii u lacks. Lets not also forget while the wii u has that 32MB of very fast memory it is also hindered by main memory which is slower than that of 360 and PS3 and the 360 has 10MB of very fast memory itself. The ps3 splits its memory into 2 camps with one fast to the cell processor and one fast to the gpu. There is more cpu performance in its dual thread main powerpc cpu than the wii u and the ps3 still has 6 more cell processors on top.  

Your comment 'haphazardly ported to wii u' is a biased comment. A large number of developers have made games for the wii u now, it has a well established and dated cpu architecture and probably a mobile radeon gpu in addition to an older integrated wii gpu chip.  There is no reason to think all these developers have got lazy and have all failed to achieve good results on wii u. By far the most logical conclusion is the wii u spec is weak with poor performance. Lets also not forget the wii u is based on a dated 45/40nm fabrication process like 360 and PS3 yet uses far less power even allowing for the lack of hard drive. You simply can't expect such a console to have good performance. It is what it is a console that performs roughly in line with the last generation, weaker in some areas, stronger in others. The design is basically achieve last gen performance but with significant cost savings using low cost low bandwidth memory chips for example and no hard drive. If the wii u had sold well it would have been  hugely profitable for Nintendo on the hardware alone.

I'm a wii u owner myself as well as 360 and PS3 and its pretty clear the console is struggling to even match those consoles much of the time.

Nintendo must be working magic then as Super Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Yoshi's Woolly World, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Super Smash Bros. Wii U look far better than similar PS3 games.

Even gamecube remasters (Wind Waker HD) look better than similar games like Sly Cooper HD collection and Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (a game built from the ground up for the PS3). 

LittleBigPlanet 1-3 run at terrible framerates for a 2.5D platformer. Constant 60 fps should be a must for such games. 

Playstation All Stars Battle Royale runs at 720p and can't even hold a firm 60 fps while Super Smash Bros. Wii U runs at 1080p and 60 fps even when 8 characters are on screen at the same time. 

Modnation Racers looks a lot worse than Mario Kart 8 and runs at a meagre 30fps while Mario Kart 8 runs at a solid 60fps.

Ratchet and Clank into the Nexus is a 4 hour game that can't even hold 30fps most of the time... Super Mario 3D World looks a lot better with a perfect 60fps. 

Xenoblade Chronicles X has a much bigger overworld than any PS3 open world game and it looks much better than let's say Skyrim. Of course the PS3 has games with better graphics than XBX, but those aren't huge open world games. 

I don't think it will surprise anyone that cartoon graphics games that require low cpu resources look good on wii u and  beat ps3 much of the time. PS3 gpu is realtively weak, weaker than 360 and the only way it really punches above its weight is when cell processors are used to assist it and give it a boost which was only really viable for bigger budget games that were mature enough to use later development software. 

Xenoblade chronicles doesn't look as fluid or detailed as many ps3 and 360 open world games like skyrim and its physics engine looks very basic. As for open world games in general that isn't a wii u strength. Watchdogs really struggles on wii u. Not only low frame rates but constantly accessing the optical drive is horrible as well as noisy. Those sort of games are a bad fit for wii u. GTA V looks utterly amazing on ps3, truly breathtaking for last gen. I've seen nothing even close to it on wii u with as many processes going on simulating a huge world. Even the new X game looks like a game of much simpler mechanics even though its got some visual pluses. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apRqCP5RDDE

At the end of the day people believe what they want to believe. I've got a ps3, 360 and wii u and connect them to a projector where the graphics can be seen clearly. The wii u strengths are basically it's primary developer Nintendo and not much else. Why are we even having a debate about wii u vs 360 and PS3, its because its performance has been utterly compromised by low cost components that it can not even start to compete with modern designs like ps4 and xbone.

Lets not forget its not just the wii u performance in games where the frame rates are low but there are issues where the wii u version is slower to load and the wii u gamepad is missing features like analogue triggers these also erode heavily into the wii u gaming experience and you end up with the wii u version of games being inferior even if its a rare game like Need for Speed Most Wanted where they have managed to add some improved textures in the wii u version.

It's a real shame that Nintendo have released such weak, compromised hardware.