"How powerful is the Wii U really? Is it less powerful than the PS3 and Xbox 360? Is it as powerful? More powerful? And how will it compare to the next generation? What quality of graphics will we see from Wii U games?

Answering these questions is impossible, given how abstract the idea of console power is in the first place. Is X twice as powerful as Y? Is Y 10 times as powerful than Z? And what does power mean anyway?

And yet, we want answers. Part of what makes us love games is what makes them look so good. Advancements in graphics technology have defined the game industry as new hardware comes and goes. Graphics, for so many, mean so much."

 

"The CPU: The Wii U's IBM-made CPU is made up of three Power PC cores. We've been unable to ascertain the clock speed of the CPU (more on this later), but we know out of order execution is supported.

RAM in the final retail unit: 1GB of RAM is available to games.

GPU: The Wii U's graphics processing unit is a custom AMD 7 series GPU. Clock speed and pipelines were not disclosed, but we do know it supports DirectX 10 and shader 4 type features. We also know that eDRAM is embedded in the GPU custom chip in a similar way to the Wii."

We asked Blitz Games Studios' design director John Nash the impossible to answer question: is the Wii U more powerful than the current generation? "It's comparable to the current generation and a bit more powerful than that," he replied. Pretty unscientific, eh?

First, the positives. Where the Wii U outdoes the current generation is in RAM and GPU. The Wii U has, effectively, twice the RAM available to games that the Xbox 360 and the PS3 each have. And we hear much praise of the GPU.

"The Wii U is a nice console to work with because it's got so much RAM in comparison [to the PS3 and Xbox 360]," another Wii U developer, who wished to remain anonymous, told us. "For E3 we simply dumped the whole game into memory and never once used the disc after the content was loaded from it."

It is the RAM in combination with the GPU that means Wii U games have the potential to outshine Xbox 360 and PS3 games. Indeed, according to one source, the Wii U version of his company's game will be "the smoothest console version".

"We're a GPU-heavy game," the source continued. "Wii U has a powerful GPU with more oomph than the rivals - and is more modern in architecture and shader support, which may come in handy later on.

"The CPU on the other hand is a different question. We are not limited by it but some other games might suffer from it. Still, because of the GPU, I expect most multi-platform games to look the best on Wii U, even if the difference might not be huge sometimes."

The mention of the Wii U's CPU raised our eyebrow - as it has done for many developers we've spoken to. While its clock speed remains private, most developers agree it is lower than the clock speed offered by the PS3 and Xbox 360's CPUs - disappointing for many.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-08-30-how-powerful-is-the-wii-u-really

There's a huge chunk more that I didn't copy paste here..so do give it a read if you are interested. 

It always shocks me just how little ram consoles have.

1.5, but i suppose 512 is reserved for the OS.

Supposedly the matter of the CPU is because the system is designed effectively to dump more processes off on other components, so that may be an issue of learning curve, because of the rumored out-of-order-execution, for instance.

Disappointing but expected. But I'm still interested in having a Nintendo HD system even if its basically just moderately better than the 360/PS3.

I wish they would ditch the requirement for their console to have to be ridiculously small. Unless you live in like a 50 square foot room (lol), what's the benefit of making a console even smaller than the SNES/NES if its going to limit the system so much? Even in Japan the PS2 is the best selling console, there's nothing wrong with a reasonably sized piece of kit.

They should have had no problem smoking the 360/PS3 CPUs for example but I bet they scrapped that to be able to get a small casing and save a couple of bucks per unit.

From what I've seen, and what most non-anonymous sources seem to agree, is that its between 1.5-2x the power of the current gen. I'd be surprised if the PS4/720 are much more powerful.

Remember, Ninety designed this with 3rd parties; it's their system.

frankly all i want it to is a powerfull enough console to stay relevant and not artistically restricting. But in return i want it for cheaps

Conegamer said: From what I've seen, and what most non-anonymous sources seem to agree, is that its between 1.5-2x the power of the current gen. I'd be surprised if the PS4/720 are much more powerful. Remember, Ninety designed this with 3rd parties; it's their system.

I think this is naive. I'm sure Wii U will be fine for Mario/DK/Kirby/etc. but what would be the reasoning for MS/Sony to make consoles just a tad more powerful than the 360/PS3 that they already make? 

Sony's already said there's no point in releasing a PS4 if it's not a big leap over PS3.

This is basically going to be the Wii-PS3-360 all over again. Nintendo needs the touchscreen controller concept to come up big for them. 

Soundwave said: Conegamer said: From what I've seen, and what most non-anonymous sources seem to agree, is that its between 1.5-2x the power of the current gen. I'd be surprised if the PS4/720 are much more powerful. Remember, Ninety designed this with 3rd parties; it's their system. I think this is naive. I'm sure Wii U will be fine for Mario/DK/Kirby/etc. but what would be the reasoning for MS/Sony to make consoles just a tad more powerful than the 360/PS3 that they already make?  Sony's already said there's no point in releasing a PS4 if it's not a big leap over PS3. This is basically going to be the Wii-PS3-360 all over again. Nintendo needs the touchscreen controller concept to come up big for them.

Its not naive, it's a cost issue. Sony cannot afford to release a console several times more powerful than the PS3, and if they do, most devs won't use most of it so you won't see the difference. 

 

Look at the rumour thread; all rumours price all consoles closely with all consoles similarly powered. Expecting a $600 beast is naive.

 

it'll be closer to PS2-Xbox-GC IMO.

Conegamer said: Soundwave said: Conegamer said: From what I've seen, and what most non-anonymous sources seem to agree, is that its between 1.5-2x the power of the current gen. I'd be surprised if the PS4/720 are much more powerful. Remember, Ninety designed this with 3rd parties; it's their system. I think this is naive. I'm sure Wii U will be fine for Mario/DK/Kirby/etc. but what would be the reasoning for MS/Sony to make consoles just a tad more powerful than the 360/PS3 that they already make?  Sony's already said there's no point in releasing a PS4 if it's not a big leap over PS3. This is basically going to be the Wii-PS3-360 all over again. Nintendo needs the touchscreen controller concept to come up big for them.  Its not naive, it's a cost issue. Sony cannot afford to release a console several times more powerful than the PS3, and if they do, most devs won't use most of it so you won't see the difference.    Look at the rumour thread; all rumours price all consoles closely with all consoles similarly powered. Expecting a $600 beast is naive.   it'll be closer to PS2-Xbox-GC IMO.

ughhh I'm no tech savvy guy...but I'm pretty sure the rumored spects for both Orbis and Durango pretty much tells a different story. You don't have to be $600 to be more pwoerful than a 6-7 year old hardware. I think this at this point is wishful thinking and I think by E3 next year lots of people are gonna be in for a surprise

Conegamer said: Soundwave said: Conegamer said: From what I've seen, and what most non-anonymous sources seem to agree, is that its between 1.5-2x the power of the current gen. I'd be surprised if the PS4/720 are much more powerful. Remember, Ninety designed this with 3rd parties; it's their system. I think this is naive. I'm sure Wii U will be fine for Mario/DK/Kirby/etc. but what would be the reasoning for MS/Sony to make consoles just a tad more powerful than the 360/PS3 that they already make?  Sony's already said there's no point in releasing a PS4 if it's not a big leap over PS3. This is basically going to be the Wii-PS3-360 all over again. Nintendo needs the touchscreen controller concept to come up big for them.  Its not naive, it's a cost issue. Sony cannot afford to release a console several times more powerful than the PS3, and if they do, most devs won't use most of it so you won't see the difference.    Look at the rumour thread; all rumours price all consoles closely with all consoles similarly powered. Expecting a $600 beast is naive.   it'll be closer to PS2-Xbox-GC IMO.

A modern $200 consumer priced GPU blows away a PS3/360, especially in a closed console environment. 

PS3/360 are nothing special, this is ancient tech nowadays, you don't need a $600 system to blow those away. The only reason the PS3 was $600 anyway was because of the Blu-Ray disc format. The 360 launched at $299/$399 seven years ago.