Well the fact that the Wii U could technically support 2 gamepads alone gives more credance to the fact that it is using something higher than the 4xxx series. The 5xxx series not only match the Wii U's rumoured specs, size but also Full HD playback,  and HDMI 1.4 support; it also includes the Eye Infinity for 3 displays at the same time.  The 4xxx while great could only support two displays at the same time.

link:

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-hd-5000/hd-5550/Pages/hd-5550-overview.aspx#2

http://www.amd.com/us/products/notebook/graphics/ati-mobility-hd-4000/hd-4600/Pages/hd-4600-specs.aspx

I think at this point everyone agrees that the wii u is a stop gap. Some more graphic serious people (aka hardcore graphics whores), don't even consider the ps4 to be the true next gen leap, PC is, and quite by a large mile this time.

But diminishing returns and the  glorious mobile master race are putting the studios resources to proof.

This gen shall be interesting ;)

Well according to my recent thread it's somewhere in between in terms of hardware specs. The poll had it closer to next-gen (not my doing it's what was voted) than current-gen.  Having a diffrence like DC to PS2 or up to GCN vs original Xbox compared to XB-One and PS4.  I liken it to PSP (PS360) vs 3DS (Wii U) and Vita (PS4/XB-One) actually in terms of probable capabilities. I'm still happy with what my X360s does; so the Wii U's hardware potential doesn't bother me at all. Anyways the Wii U is really next-gen for the fact that it IS the successor of the Wii and only hateful fanboys would like to omit that fact!!!

Agreed, we are already seeing how the Wii U is able to churn up nice visuals with 3D World, Bayo2, DK:TF, MK8 and X so I don't understand what all the hate is for the hardware?  Wii U games can look very beautiful and Nintendo games finally in HD cannot be/shouldn't be a bad thing!!!

LOL. It's been confirmed that Wii U run Direct X 11 eqivalent already. Check out some of the stuff Shin'en has said and the game Candle by Teku Studios (kickstarter, confirmed for Wii U).

Not a graphics whore (actually, replaying Banjo with my kid these last few days, and still loving those visuals), but PS4 does fall a bit short of what 3rd parties wanted (by some 700GFLOPS). ;)

As for people wondering about WiiU...DX11 capabilities have nothing to do with raw power, you can have it on 5450 which is 2x weaker than PS360...but not really gonna go into that, again...there are still lot of people around here who believe that such a small silicon with such a low TDP and 40/45nm fab can produce miracles on order of 3-4x PS360 (for reference, 5550 GDDR5 is some 2x360, which, imo, might be fair assessment of WiiU-PS360 gap, if it actually is 320SPU part).

Let's call it 7.5th gen and everybody's happy!