Wii U - Nintendo's Next Console

[KingBroly]

Yeah, there are. In that same thread. Those people are called out by name. Stop Cherry Picking.

There's one guy who says 'oh yeah, our dev kit has at least 2gb of ram because you need double that for bug testing in dev units. The target for retail is usually half of what's in the dev kit, but the kit has more than 2gb.' That guy has the latest development kit. Meaning more than 1gb of ram, which is what the other guy rumored. Happy?

[ddddd]

I remember that, and the vague statements keep me wanting more info.

[KingBroly]

Well, you can keep reading the information I provided a few pages back.

Then again, in regards to games, we still know nothing of what's coming other than Pikmin 3. But that really can't be the only thing Nintendo is planning for launch, is it?

[Broken_Cartridge]

Well, you can keep reading the information I provided a few pages back.

Then again, in regards to games, we still know nothing of what's coming other than Pikmin 3. But that really can't be the only thing Nintendo is planning for launch, is it?

They gave the 3DS Nintendogs, Pilotwings, and Steel Diver....so I'm going to assume they at least have one more game planned for the launch of Wii U.

[KingBroly]

Well, like I put together before...

Nintendo 64: Super Mario 64, Wave Race 64
GameCube: Wave Race Blue Storm, Luigi's Mansion (Melee & Pikmin in Launch Window)
Wii: Wii Sports, Excite Truck and Twilight Princess

We know Mario, Zelda and Smash Bros. won't be at launch, and while Pikmin 3 is probably a guarantee at least for the window, it's not a name to sell the system. Other than that, it's up in the air. I've speculated that a racing game is coming because or prior history, but that's it. It really comes down to either Kirby, Donkey Kong, or Metroid. But I doubt Kirby will be there since Kirby has had like 5 games in the past 3 years.

[LegendofZelda1996]

I hear that the 5th and 6th versions of this development kit are pretty powerful, and Frostbite 2 has been seen running on the Wii U with very smooth results and a higher frame rate than the 360 version of Battlefield 3, that are superior to any PS3/360 game running Frostbite 2.

http://game0n.net/2012/02/25/dead-space ... litters-4/

Does this signify any good news for the Wii U?

[ddddd]

http://game0n.net/2012/02/25/dead-space ... litters-4/

Does this signify any good news for the Wii U?

Well, that cant possibly mean anything bad. Running CryEngine, Frostbite2, Unreal Engine 3, etc better than any other console is good enough as marketing hype alone. Developers would not need to rework anytying to get their games running on WiiU

[LegendofZelda1996]

Well, that cant possibly mean anything bad. Running CryEngine, Frostbite2, Unreal Engine 3, etc better than any other console is good enough as marketing hype alone. Developers would not need to rework anytying to get their games running on WiiU

Here's more information regarding the Wii U development kits:

The way I saw things (from a completely individual perspective, and considering the information I've heard over the past year):

The first dev kits were slightly more powerful than the current generation leaders - and they were the ones used to make the E3 demos.
The second revision fixed some Upad problems and added better functionality
The third to fourth revisions saw an increase in power/better efficiency, with other lsight alterations.
The fifth revision added multiple Upad support.
The sixth and seemingly final development kit saw a large and considerable increase in power, following requests from developers. This apparently meant a more capable GPU revision/tweak and a greater amount of RAM.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread. ... 6&page=219

[KingBroly]

I'll get out in front of this one:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.ph ... ount=11487

He's pretty specific about his information, but his wording is a little weird, but I assume that's because English isn't his primary language.

[Jack_Atlas]

I'll get out in front of this one:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.ph ... ount=11487

He's pretty specific about his information, but his wording is a little weird, but I assume that's because English isn't his primary language.

holy Jesus, that's some really good news right there

[Serpent_Seed]

I've seen some 39" 1080 TV for $300. Nice but I want lower. If they get to $200 like around black Friday I'll get one or wait until next year.

[KingBroly]

It's amazing to me that sizable HDTV's are so cheap nowadays. The next HDTV I get will most certainly have an OLED screen.

But the guy who posted that info yesterday just wanted to end speculation that Wii U was weaker than 360/PS3. Although it sounds like someone's current gen engine is having trouble performance wise (I think it's Frostbite 2.0, given Crytek said they're engine was running fine on it and Gearbox has Aliens running on it, which uses Unreal. For those not in the know, Frostbite 2.0 doesn't run so hot on consoles anyway).

[Serpent_Seed]

They keep getting cheaper. Soon I'll have a big HDTV cheap.

[gtt]

I've seen some 39" 1080 TV for $300. Nice but I want lower. If they get to $200 like around black Friday I'll get one or wait until next year.

I got a 47" led lcd for around 650$ right after xmas this year, I'm sure by the time the wiiu launches I could get the same for around 300$. I'm waiting till big oled screens are reasonable before I upgrade tvs again.

[Serpent_Seed]

Right now i have a 19". The most I want to spend for a new TV is $250. I really am looking for around 40". I feel that's big enough. Of course one day I'll go even bigger. But around 40" is what I'm aiming for now.

[gtt]

Right now i have a 19". The most I want to spend for a new TV is $250. I really am looking for around 40". I feel that's big enough. Of course one day I'll go even bigger. But around 40" is what I'm aiming for now.

yea, you might have to wait a year til black friday to get a deal that good.

[Serpent_Seed]

I'll wait. Get my Wii U this year and next year get the 1080 TV I want. They might be $250 for a 39" regularly by then. $200 or lower on sale.

[ddddd]

But the guy who posted that info yesterday just wanted to end speculation that Wii U was weaker than 360/PS3. Although it sounds like someone's current gen engine is having trouble performance wise (I think it's Frostbite 2.0, given Crytek said they're engine was running fine on it and Gearbox has Aliens running on it, which uses Unreal. For those not in the know, Frostbite 2.0 doesn't run so hot on consoles anyway).

The thing is that this current engine is not doing much better than last gen. With the best kits in nintendo's labs the people got only slight better framerate. Then the guy clarified that it may need more optimisation and may end up working like he wants.

[KingBroly]

Well that would indicate to me it's Frostbite 2.0 since on PS3/360 it does 30 with dips, which doesn't have any confirmed games on the way, although I'd bet a Battlefield 3 'Shooter of the Year' edition comes out for it. You've also got rumored stuff like Dead Space 3 which might use it as well. Of course there's always Mirror's Edge 2, which was a thing, but now no longer is.

[Devil_Rising]

This doesn't really need to be stated, I suppose, but people also need to keep in mind that the jump from PS2 to PS3, or even from Xbox to Xbox360, was MUCH bigger than, say, the jump from N64 to GC, or PS1 to PS2. With the PS3 especially, when it's specs were first announced, it honestly seemed like massive overkill. And to this day, the thing is still more powerful than anything else out there (save PCs). And no developer has STILL to this day really tapped into all of PS3's power, so it was actually kind of a waste. Having said that, it's much easier to believe that the PS4 and XboxWhatever will only be (comparatively) minimal jumps in power, because neither company wants to lose the the kind of money they did early on, and because it just doesn't make a lot of fiscal sense to pay out the a$$ when at this point graphics can't get all THAT much shinier anyway.

The leap from Wii to Wii U will SEEM much more massive, because the Wii is only 1.5-2x the GC's power, so leaping from THAT to "more powerful than the PS3" is something to be seen. However, at the end of the day, when all things even out, Wii U and the other two next gen consoles will most likely wind up being more or less on par with each other, I'd imagine.

[LegendofZelda1996]

A user named Fourth Storm believes that the statement below is referring to the GPU of the Wii U. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.ph ... ount=12666

IBM unveiled a 32 nm SOI embedded DRAM, and will provide details at the upcoming IEDM in December. Gary Patton, vice president for IBM’s SRDC, said the SOI eDRAM has latency and cycle times of <2 ns, uses 4× less standby power, and has “up to a 1000x lower soft-error rate (SER), better power savings, and reliability comparable to a similar SRAM.”

IBM Corp.’s Semiconductor Research and Development Center (SRDC, East Fishkill, N.Y.) has fabricated a 16-Mb embedded DRAM (eDRAM) test chip in 32 nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology. The eDRAM has a <2 ns access time, and is 4× as dense as “any comparable 32 nm embedded SRAM in the industry,” IBM said.

The eDRAM is fully compatible with logic transistors, with no degradation in logic performance. It incorporates a deep trench capacitor structure, with a high-k dielectric and metal liner capacitor technology. IBM will detail the 32 nm eDRAM at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), planned for Dec. 7-9 in Baltimore.

[gtt]

A user named Fourth Storm believes that the statement below is referring to the GPU of the Wii U. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.ph ... ount=12666

IBM unveiled a 32 nm SOI embedded DRAM, and will provide details at the upcoming IEDM in December. Gary Patton, vice president for IBM’s SRDC, said the SOI eDRAM has latency and cycle times of <2 ns, uses 4× less standby power, and has “up to a 1000x lower soft-error rate (SER), better power savings, and reliability comparable to a similar SRAM.”

IBM Corp.’s Semiconductor Research and Development Center (SRDC, East Fishkill, N.Y.) has fabricated a 16-Mb embedded DRAM (eDRAM) test chip in 32 nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology. The eDRAM has a <2 ns access time, and is 4× as dense as “any comparable 32 nm embedded SRAM in the industry,” IBM said.

The eDRAM is fully compatible with logic transistors, with no degradation in logic performance. It incorporates a deep trench capacitor structure, with a high-k dielectric and metal liner capacitor technology. IBM will detail the 32 nm eDRAM at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), planned for Dec. 7-9 in Baltimore.

I doubt it, since the wiiu is gonna be using a radeon chip. made by amd.

[ddddd]

That thread is a gold mine seriously:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.ph ... ount=12918

My guesstimates were in the 1GB, maybe a bit more, range. And it's more than that, for the moment.

Ofcourse, he is talking about the RAM the retail console will have

[KingBroly]

It's either 1.5gb or 2gb. I hope it's 2gb.

[Irritating Stick]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that the 360 had 512MB of RAM in it, putting the Wii U at 4x the RAM. This would fall in line with what he was saying about the system having some specs being 4-5x more powerful on paper.

Like he also said though, this doesn't translate in to that big of a leap in visual quality.