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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - EuroGamer: How Powerful is the WiiU Really?

Conegamer on 30 August 2012
Soundwave said:
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 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. 


Whilst true, I think the battle will come from the UI as opposed to the graphics. There's not far to go with affordable technology currently, whereas options for innovative control schemes are massive.

 

To make the consoles a winner next-gen, graphics will likely improve slightly, but control options significantly.



 

Here lies the dearly departed Nintendomination Thread.

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Khuutra on 30 August 2012

It's powerful enough, I think.



Viper1 on 30 August 2012
Mr Khan said:
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.

512 MB for a console OS is insane.   The PS3's OS is just 46 MB.    I can run all of Win 7 on 512 MB.  Can put most of it on 256 MB stable.



The rEVOLution is not being televised

Soundwave on 30 August 2012
Conegamer said:
Soundwave said:
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 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. 


Whilst true, I think the battle will come from the UI as opposed to the graphics. There's not far to go with affordable technology currently, whereas options for innovative control schemes are massive.

 

To make the consoles a winner next-gen, graphics will likely improve slightly, but control options significantly.


There will be PS4/720 games by their mid-cycle that demolish current gen games, its just a matter of whether or not that's a big deal to the individual user. 

As for UI, honestly I think Nintendo is in for a rude awakening if they think running back to the traditional controller and slapping a touchscreen on it will have the same impact as the Wiimote. That's nothing people are going to be that surprised with and its probably something easily copied by Sony/MS as well. 

I actually think Kinect 2 probably will be the bigger step forward in UI for motion gaming as Nintendo basically has capped off the Wiimote (seemingly anyway).

I still love Nintendo software, but the Wii philosophy on hardware just isn't my cup of tea. The days of the SNES/N64/GCN are long gone I guess. Still looking forward to Mario Galaxy/3D on Wii U very much. 



Corey on 30 August 2012

I would expect the next generation consoles by sony and ms to be more powerful than the wiiu, for a few reasons.

1. Bundling the wiiu touch screen controller to fit there intended price point means that they have to sacrifice money spent on gpu or cpu to accommodate for the controller, which will likely be expensive. PS/Xbox is not likely to have this issue.

2. For the wiiu to remain competitive with the current generation of consoles it needs to have a very similar or even cheaper price than the 360/PS3 which again means less money on hardware whilst the PS4/Xbox720 won't have to worry so much about meeting a low price point.

3. The next consoles won't launch until at least 1 year after the wiiu, during this time hardware components will be cheaper and a more powerful console can be built for a cheaper price.



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Train wreck on 30 August 2012

When a nintendo system is synonymous with tech specs, its doomed to fail.



Dgc1808 on 30 August 2012
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.


Horsepower wasn't the main reason for PS3's crazy price tag. It was the BR drive. When the PS3 released it was not only one of the best BR players, it was also the cheapest. Others were 800$+.

BR is much cheaper now. A 400$ system by SONY today would easily wipe the floor with the PS3 which was released in 2006.



4 ≈ One

Soundwave on 30 August 2012
Train wreck said:
When a nintendo system is synonymous with tech specs, its doomed to fail.


Super NES did pretty well last time I checked. N64's problem wasn't its specs, it's that they didn't compromise on the CD-ROM issue. If the N64 was a cart/CD system (heck, Sega Saturn was) it would've wiped the floor with the Playstation as it would've had the Nintendo stuff (Mario 64, GoldenEye, Zelda: OoT, etc.) along with third party support (Resident Evil, probably Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, etc.). 



Conegamer on 30 August 2012
Soundwave said:
Conegamer said:
Soundwave said:

A modern $200 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. 


Whilst true, I think the battle will come from the UI as opposed to the graphics. There's not far to go with affordable technology currently, whereas options for innovative control schemes are massive.

 

To make the consoles a winner next-gen, graphics will likely improve slightly, but control options significantly.


There will be PS4/720 games by their mid-cycle that demolish current gen games, its just a matter of whether or not that's a big deal to the individual user. 

As for UI, honestly I think Nintendo is in for a rude awakening if they think running back to the traditional controller and slapping a touchscreen on it will have the same impact as the Wiimote. That's nothing people are going to be that surprised with and its probably something easily copied by Sony/MS as well. 

I still love Nintendo software, but the Wii philosophy on hardware just isn't my cup of tea. The days of the SNES/N64/GCN are long gone I guess. Still looking forward to Mario Galaxy/3D on Wii U very much. 

Yes, there will be games next-gen which destroy games from this-gen, but I don't think we'll see games looking any better than what we currently find on PC's, which is more of an improvement than a leap. If the WiiU struggles, it'll have the same game, but ported down with fewer lighting features, or detail, for example. It's whether or not after this gen, devs give Nintendo another chance...that's the bit I doubt.

Also, the Gamepad won't have the immediate impact of the Wii, correct. But it has more potential over its lifetime, just as the DS' touchscreen did. You can do so much more with an extra screen in your hands than a motion controlled wand. It may not take off, and it may be copied, but there's far more possibilities with it, which I look forward to. The issue, again, is whether or not devs jump on board. At least for now, that seems to be the case.



 

Here lies the dearly departed Nintendomination Thread.

Conegamer on 30 August 2012
Dgc1808 said:
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.


Horsepower wasn't the main reason for PS3's crazy price tag. It was the BR drive. When the PS3 released it was not only one of the best BR players, it was also the cheapest. Others were 800$+.

BR is much cheaper now. A 400$ system by SONY today would easily wipe the floor with the PS3 which was released in 2006.

That's true. But the point is more that Sony can't afford to just jack up the power-and the price- without any justification again. I doubt it will happen though. And anyway, I'm sure the battle will be on the controls rather than the horsepower.

Really, Sony just can't go crazy and make the same mistakes they made with the Vita's launch. I love the system, but it needs to have its features supported in order for the features being justified, if that makes sense.



 

Here lies the dearly departed Nintendomination Thread.