Why you can't read too much into the Wii U's "slow" clock speed

ARS: Remember the days when your idiot friends would argue with you in the schoolyard about how "blast processing" made the Sega Genesis a better system than the Super Nintendo? Or how the Nintendo 64 was twice as good as the Sony PlayStation because it had twice as many "bits"? Or how the Wii's processor was no better than "two GameCubes stuck together"? Here in our new, enlightened age, I thought we had left such context-free numbers games behind like so many other childish arguments.

[lilbroRx]

The correct word is "low" not slow. It is precisely because of things like this that people are misinterpreting the information. That and the fact that most gaming journalist seem to be biased against Nintendo and favor reporting the worst news they can find in the worst way they can think of.

They are intentionally skewing all news to be as bad a they can. Just take this article and see how the writer adds in his discourteous 2 cents after every corrected fact. He throws his personal opinions in with the professional facts without clearly distinguishing them.

[Christopher]

First, you are absolutely correct, it should be "low" and not "slow".

Second, I gotta say, it's funny (and sad) seeing someone else get the Sony treatment. I'm not a Sony fanboy, though I do like my PS3 (and my 360 and my PC and my DS and my...), but I didn't expect this with Nintendo. I find it amusing that this starts right as soon as Nintendo puts out a console that competes with other HD consoles.

[RuperttheBear]

Why do you find it funny? Just wondering why it would amuse you.

[Christopher]

Because it's like history repeating itself. Because it assure's me that this cycle will never end. Because it's honestly the only thing I can do (laugh at it) to make me feel better about the future of gaming journalism.

It's a sad funny, but what am I going to do?

[Ben_Grimm]

We saw this with the 3DS when it launched. All sorts of doom articles for it.

There is no Sony treatment, there is only sensational headlines for the sake of reporting news and getting people to go their sites. It can be Sony, MS or Nintendo. No one is off limits.

[ronin4life]

They did it with the wii too. It didn't even matter that they were in "first" place.
And you obviously don't remember the "this is ps3's year/Why Sony will still be king" annual story pop-ups ever since the ps3's shakey start... or the "will this be the year of wiis downfall?" and of course "will 3ds make Nintendo exit the hardware business?"

The ps3/Sony have not received that much venom at all. Hell, Nintendo has not stopped receiving criticism since the wii, in particular on this site. The Vita, the most abused Sony system, didn't even take all that much until recently, with so many fans and sites covering its ass far more than anyone thought to do for the 3ds. Which, ironically has HELPED the 3ds and hurt the Vita.

But most people have tunnel vision, to be honest. I have been noticing this trend since the early years of this last gen from the pages of EGM to ign to, eventually, n4g. Sony is god, Nintendo is trash. And honestly, that's a pattern the industry appears wanting to hold onto no matter how one sided and ridiculous it is.

[Christopher]

***The ps3/Sony have not received that much venom at all.***

I have to disagree with that. The major focus over the last 6+ years has primarily been ePeen measuring of people who support 360 or PS3 over the other.

Yeah, everyone has gotten their share, but Nintendo is now getting heavily focused on with a console that is comparable to the PS3 and 360. Meaning, the journalists and gamers who play on the HD consoles, aka 'hardcore gamers', are typically the ones who have so much vitriol towards one another and the products they support.

[Ben_Grimm]

I agree with Ronin.

Look at past articles on N4G for Wii, and I swear it is probably the one place where 360/PS3 games hold hands in alliance.

There have been many articles about 3rd parties not selling on Wii, Nintendo leaving the hardware business, to Nintendo going broke. Not to mention the articles that state how Wii left the core and focused mainly on casuals which might be true but was painted in a negative light all the time in articles.

Lets count how many times in a Wii/Nintendo article that a comment says Nintendo rehashes the same IP's over and over again and not get marked down for trolling. Or lets do count the many trolls in a Nintendo article.

There is tunnel vision here on N4G. Each Sony doom article is heavy commented on and raises to such heat that it always makes the top spot in the heat categories. So those are mostly seen. Most if not ALL of the articles are regurgitated stories from the main source or blog sites with people's opinions taken from another source. Repeated and reported and submitted here over and over again.

Of course it looks like Sony is getting crapped on over and over but this is not even the case.

[admiralvic]

Sony Treatment? More like New Console treatment. Most people have figured out (because it's not that hard) that using trivial data + new console = lots of post. Every console in the past had it and every console in the future will most likely have it. The only reason why it seems like "Sony" is that N4G is a predominately Sony based site, so the anti Sony ones get more defense, more hits and in turn are more common. With this being said, I put most of the blame on the reader though. While these articles should get down voted / banned from the site, most users take assumptions and come up with insane theories. Like if the console doesn't get a 10/10 within a few months, then it's because all game journalist are anti Sony / Vita.

[tiffac008]

Doom and gloom articles has been a common theme these days. Its sad really, its like some people wants the industry to fail with all the negativity.

[kevnb]

To be honest people shouldn't report on things they don't know anything about. I see it in mobile device reviews as well all the time. They just have no clue.

[rainslacker]

What's funny is that they're taken from the tweets of a hacker, who I would assume knows a lot more about this stuff than the people reporting on it. Of course they don't bother to verify it in any way and just take his word on it. But lets face it, these sites (and 99.99% of the people that do comment on them) don't have the first clue on how this hardware works.

In the end, the article description sums it up best, talking about bits and blast processing from back in the day. It just doesn't matter unless your actually making games. If all you do is play them, then let the developers worry about the hardware. Some will take advantage of it, others won't.

I don't think the Wii U is less powerful than the current gen, and there's no point comparing it to Sony/MS next gen because they haven't even been announced yet. If both those companies took a similar approach, which is possible given current technology and the need to make a profit, a lot of these sites/fanboys are going to have to do a lot of back-peddling.

[Norrison]

This, ignorants on this site think higher clock speed = faster CPU, which is wrong on so many levels.
I can underclock an i7 to 2ghz and still outperform a pentium at 5 ghz, it's all about the architecture.

I'm pretty sure all those retarded articles about the Wii U make those ignorants think they're right. Seriously some people here are just waiting for a Wii U article to pop up just to go spit the same bullshit.

And the GPGPU is at least an improvement over the archaic GPU in the xbox 360 and the PS3, if it can run unoptimized ports out of the box and I'm pretty sure it got decent hardware but everything is downclocked to save power and prevent overheating explaining the low clock speeds, I would take a console that doesn't overheat, saves power and doesn't make extremely high noise over a console that looks like it's better.

Also don't you guys remember when ps3 got launched? It was expensive as hell and all the games looked like shit on it, give the Wii U some time, it just got released.

[Ju]

I would agree with that if the two architectures would actually be different generations. But the WiiU CPU is an enhanced 750, nothing more. And sure, it might have OOP and a faster bus interface and uses EDRAM buffers. But it is nothing like an i7 to an i5. You basically compare an optimized 750 at half the clock frequency to the very same chip in the current gens. This is very disappointing IMO.

The WiiU has a leap in GPGPU performance and flexibility. All it's performance will come from there. But this is not a new generation. It is probably 1.5.

I like the device, but I might agree with Nintendo. The controller can make the difference but it won't help if the games won't support it fully. And I am curious why that very same (option) would not work with a say PS3/Vita combination.

Black Ops 2 strategy view on the controller, for example, or a permanent map in FarCry.

But what I am waiting for, really, is a faster machine. And WiiU ain't it. Really depends if Sony/MS can deliver and when. I'll give it some more time and then I compare. Even though the WiiU is tempting, but for me personally the performance issue is the one I won't jump on it just yet.

[Legion]

So basically you are just saying it is one massive conspiracy against Nintendo? hahaha

The reason people attack most any system is because system PR teams come out and spout total rubbish that is soon proven inaccurate.

And Wii U has came out and spouted basically the biggest lie of them all... that they are a next generation system. When in fact they are more like the Kinect... just a current generation add-on.

(yes we know the Wii-U is not an add-on... but it doesn't appear to have anything really next generation in it's bags... thus it gets an add-on tag in my books... just another skew)

[Slapshot82]

Wow! If you're going to write an article such as this, do a little reading first.

The thing that helps out the Wii U the MOST is its eDRAM, which in simple turns is a booster for the CPU that's directly embedded into it. Dynamic memory is never depleted and always there when in need and we still don't know how much is embedded into the Wii U's CPU - we know it's a "substantial" amount.

Secondly, it has a GPGPU, not a GPU. Well, a GPGPU is a GPU, but it's one that can double over and do "general processing" for the CPU when in need. A GPU is already less-efficient than a dedicated graphics card and pulling even more away from it, was another cheaper alternative to add to the CPU's power.

What does all of this mean? Well, it means that the consoles has a lot of ways to counter-balance power. It also means that Nintendo developed a consoles that on-par, to a little above par with current generation consoles very cheaply (it comes with an expensive tablet-like controller too!).

It's obvious that the "next generation" could be a little iffy for Wii U getting direct ports (if the next gen does indeed have a significant technology jump), but there's plenty of power in the Wii U and more than enough to keep people playing on it for the next 3-5 years.

[yewles1]

"The Wii U's CPU clock speed number is indeed lower than the Xbox 360's 3.2GHz clock (although the 360's gets halved to a functional 1.6GHz when multithreading) or the PS3's 4GHz clock."

*facepalm*

Xenon gets 1.6GHz WITHOUT multithreading and Cell is 3.2GHz...

[Christopher]

Xenon is recorded at 3.2GHz clock speed, but it constantly runs at half speed of 1.6GHz.

For those that disagree: http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

[Xenofex]

lol 1.6ghz is the speed of the L2 cache, not the core.

[Zhipp]

What? Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but are you saying that the Xenon is, essentially, a 1.6GHz processor? For gaming? What's this 3.2GHz business I've been hearing about for these past 7 years, then?

[yewles1]

Xenon essentially achieves 1.6GHz at core FSB, down to brass tacks, basic threading performance (it's also the speed of it's cache RAM). When multithreaded, it's read at 3.2GHz.

[fossilfern]

So even if theres only one thread going through the core it will still be clocked at 1.6ghz I assume? But is the cores on the WiiU CPU even multi-threaded ?

[mochachino]

Nintendo fans will buy a Wii U and love their nintendo games. I personally prefer 3rd party/MS/Sony games more than anything so I have no plans of buying one.

People telling happy Wii U owners that Wii U sucks may as well criticize people enjoying their McDonald's for not choosing Burger King.

Play the games you like on the systems that have them.

[jmc8888]

You still are assuming 3rd party devs won't put out Wii U games.

The rest I wholly agree with you.

Personally I have a 360/PS3/Wii U/i7 920@4ghz GTX 670 PC.

So I bought myself for xmas
Halo 3 for 360
Little Big Planet Racing for PS3
BLOPS2, Zombi U, NSMBU, Rabbidsland for Wii U
Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3, Assassin Creed 3, MoH Warfighter for PC. With Sleeping Dogs and X-COM Enemy Unknown a winter steam sale, and maybe Dishonored.

I see the Wii U putting out the strongest 3rd party games going forward until 720/PS4 come out. But it all depends on what track the developer takes, and they might just continue mostly on the 360.

Either way, there's nothing wrong with buying the games you want on the systems you want, which over time evolve and change, then again, and again.

[vortis]

wtf dude....that's the Christmas list of envy right there.

[SilentNegotiator]

"You still are assuming 3rd party devs won't put out Wii U games"

Ask the developers (not the insistent armchair experts using Wikipedia); they're not happy with the "leap" the Wii U took. As soon as the ps4/720 release, Wii U support will absolutely plummet.

[nunley33]

You have a 360 & PS3 but you bought Black Ops 2 for Wiiu, why ?

[MsmackyM]

@Samusfan I own multiple consoles but I bought Blops2 for the Wii U just for the Wiimote controls.

[mochachino]

Wii U is already lacking 3rd party support. Where's Far Cry 3, DMC, Dishonoured, GTA5 etc.

Thing is, nintendo consoles appeal to a different market of consumers - the one that love Nintendo games and don't care that much about visual fidelity, realistic physics, improving AI, huge game worlds.

Frankly Nintendo games aren't for everyone. With comparable power to the other next-gen consoles Wii U could have appealed to everyone as 3rd party games would have looked more or less the same and complimented the Nintendo exclusives.

It seems again, the only reason to buy a Nintendo system is only for the Nintendo games.

Time will tell how well 3rd party games sell on Wii U. If they do poorly, 3rd party support will plummet from an already weak position.

[Thepcz]

nintendos goal was to produce a console with as low power consumption as possible. the wiiu obviously reflects that in its 'modest' spec sheet. doesnt mean its rubbish though. the numbers on the spec sheet are deceiving.

it was designed to be as efficient as possible, so the architecture is more important than high clock speeds etc.

proof of this truth can be found in all wiiu games out there on release day- they are either on par with, or outperform (albeit not by far) ps3/360 versions. so anybody who claims the clock speed is a handicap, is truly deluded, as the games prove at this early stage.

as time goes by, the gap between wiiu and ps3/360 games visually, will widen. wiiu will blow the ps3 and 360 away.

remember, all release date games were made quickly and on alien tech, so its amazing they were able to port them with such ease and to that high standard.

regardless of pointless, and frankly, pathetic bickering about 'da grafix,' wiius biggest selling point will be the inevitable AAA timeless classics that will come from nintendo and their 2nd party devs. EXCLUSIVELY.

nintendo are getting the third party support now, so ps3/360 fanboys can no longer use the argument that their fav franchises are not on nintendos console. wiiu will hve them, plus the added bonus of nintendos magic.

add to that the unique selling point of having a tablet style controller, and its very difficult to see how nintendo can fail.

[Dno]

not one game on wii u outperforms its 360 counter part. have you even played the system?

actually dont play it just read the reviews.

[ronin4life]

Well, Tekken Tag tournament.

Also, NONE of the multiplatform games come with Online passes on WiiU. That right there is a major improvement on the ps3/360 versions.

[AO1JMM]

Yes I have and you are 1 blind troll.

[chukamachine]

Your dreaming.

The wii u will never blow away the graphics on 360 or PS3.

You might get some textures that are better looking or a few things here and there. But nothing special.

Even with a top end pc maxed out, the only real difference is.

Textures/shadows/rez/aa.

If you don't care about those, does not matter.

PS4 / 720 are going to be stronger, by how much is anyone's guess.

I don't want PS4 games looking like pc games now.

I already have a decent pc.

Hopefully Something else will happen. But I doubt it.

[dennett316]

I think we've got to the point that graphics improvements are going to be more and more incremental. The next Xbox and Playstation aren't going to be these futuristic monoliths that so many Nintendo bashers have pictured them as lately.

All the talk of Black Ops 2 on 360 being "vastly superior" to the Wii U version is simply nonsense...a few scenes suffered from a couple of seconds of slowdown. That's it. I consider that really good considering the relatively quick port on an unfamiliar architecture - the WiiU CPU is quite unlike the 360 due to not being an in-order CPU.

[Spookshow]

Would love a Dark Souls port with the menus o the pad ... pvp would go to a whole new diff level with quick access to your weapons and stuff!!!

[ALLWRONG]

Funny how so many people can get something so wrong.

[lilbroRx]

Its not the first time(read, 3DS will be a failure and Vita will blow it away) and I doubt it will be the last.

[XboxInnovation]

I'm a former tech student and I can tell you looking at a weaker CPU and saying the console is weak overall is like looking at a truck with a V6 engine in comparison to a truck with a V8 and saying the truck with the V8 is faster and more powerful when you have no idea what the truck with the V6 is packing overall and how it performs together.

[ritsuka666]

Nintendo knows how to utilize every piece of hardware on WiiU.Some Wii games looks better than xbox360/ps3. So what in the heck you think Nintendo will do with 2 more cores, and a better gpu with more ram?

[Dno]

not one wii game looks better then a ps3 game.

[RuperttheBear]

Let's compare Wii U games to ps3 launch games and see which looks better. Compare any Wii U game to a ps3 launch game and see which looks better. Any takers?

My point is, these are launch games for the Wii U, it hasn't been given 6 years for games to show the benefits of the system.

[dennett316]

Several of the ports perform better on a technical level - Black Ops 2, Tekken, Mass Effect 3, etc - and these are quick ports to unfamiliar hardware.

The PS3 took a few years to fully hit it's stride - 360 too - the WiiU will be the same.

[nunley33]

The only Wii game i can think of that has graphics like a 360 or a low end PS3 game would be Mario Galaxy 2. That game is amazing and deserved its GOTY nods over so many mediocre multiplats that make up those lists.

[Shadowstar]

Are people really saying that they couldn't tell the difference between ps2 games an ps3/360 games at launch? Launch titles are never the peak of the system, but they should still be more impressive than last gen titles, IMO.

[Dno]

guys guys! wii vs ps3. not wii u.

[MEsoJD]

"Wii games looks better than xbox360/ps3." What are you smoking?

[deafdani]

@RuperttheBear:

He didn't say Wii U games, he said Wii games. Read again.

[RuperttheBear]

All this speculation on the Wii U chips are just that - speculation. It is capable of having great games made for it, and that is all that matters.

PS. Why was ape007 marked down as trolling? What the hell made his post so bad that people thought it was trolling? Seriously, can anyone tell me what exactly he said that counted as trolling?

[ALLWRONG]

Happens all the time.

For example it's okay to praise GT5 in news about Forza, but you can't praise Forza with GT5 in the comment or it gets marked for trolling. You can diss Forza all you want in Forza articles as long as you praise GT5. Don't even think of mentioning Forza in anything GT5.

ape007 said "wiiu is more powerful than ps3 and 360" It's Because he said "PS3" is why it got marked. Had he just said "360" it would have been fine. What is sad is it's true, Wii U is a bit more powerful than both 360/PS3.

Welcome to N4G

[herbs]

Because the Sony Gustapo didn't like the Nintendo propaganda (logic) that ape007 wrote. Welcome to N4G where Sony is Jesus and anything else gaming related is blaspheme ;]

[Ippiki Okami]

Because everything Ape007 is BS. Nintendo devs have had time to use the dev kits before anyone else and yet I see no launch games that use its supposed "power". New Super Mario Bros was supposed to be native 1080p @ 60fps and its not. Also consider that most inhouse nintendo devs are rubbish with tech so I highly doubt any inhouse games will be able to push the graphics evolope. Add the fact that no 3rd party launch games are in native 1080p @ 60fps right off the bat means either, they don't care for optimizing on the wii u or that the wii u simply can't do it like the present systems.

[feeter]

And when PS3 and 360 released developers had kits for sometime too but games dont look as good as they do now... it takes time to get accustomed to the architecture... and few games on PS3 or 360 are native 1080 ( i dont think 360 has one, i can be wrong).... Nintendo stated that future games will start to be 1080 native but i bet everyone rushed to meet the launch (and most developers only ported to save $ and time but for exclusives i bet they will look great)... i bet given a few years most games on WiiU will be 1080... its also a given the next psx and xbox will be better than the WiiU(its a given since they are still being tweaked)...

[ape007]

i came to a conclusion that some people here are in desperate need of psychotherapy

[feeter]

Gave u a bubble... some on here are more childish then some who i deal with online ( yes both PS3 and 360).... they get pissed off for the stupidest reasons(guess it happens when they miss their naps)

[5eriously]

@ the article writer. Just tell me what CPU/GPU you have installed in your PC and WHY?

Just clock speed, memory size and speed as well as GPU etc will do!

[rainslacker]

When I upgraded to an i5, it was, i believe, 800 MHZ slower than my previous quad core (can't remember exactly what it was, but was one generation behind), and it smoked the old processor in every way. Memory size stayed the same, though went up in speed, and I kept the same GPU.

The point the article was making, and even the hacker who reported these numbers, was that efficiency and overall performance mean more than the clock speed.

[5eriously]

Sure, I agree fully but claiming that a performance GPGPU/CPU/GPU is not important is just .....well ...... double standards as when it comes to the the same posters PC's I am 100% sure they will sing a different "double standard" song.

We already know that devs called the WII U as slow and the Metro port were canceled because of it, so whatever else posters claim here differently is not gonna make it better and I am sure we will hear more about it in future.

[rainslacker]

I'm not really sure what your trying to get at with that first paragraph. People will sing the song that gets the point they're trying to make across though. Facts seem to have very little to do with anything on a majority of these articles, regardless of system.

As to what devs are saying, I wouldn't put too much stock into that. It's PR, whether it be for advertising or excuses. They may have some merit to a degree, but taking a sound bite of an overall topic is not telling of the actual situation.

What I have seen so far is that the Wii U is at least up to par with current generation titles, so for the time being it's not really an issue. It's hard to say how hard the hardware can be pushed before someone tries to do so, especially since everyone seems to be focusing on a small portion of the overall package, and not the entirety of the machine.

[JonnyBigBoss]

About time someone said this.

[Vickistheman]

As a Sony supporter, I don't understand the negativity towards the Wii U's supposed "lack of power".

Let's wait 3-4 more years before writing off it's capabilities. I'm pretty sure there will be awesome looking games once devs get used to the system.

[MrBuffalo]

I'm no computer programmer or engineer but I do know what I see with my eyes. Played AC3 earlier today and to my mind it looked the same as on PS3. If it does have a 1.2ghz cpu (as read on eg)and it can do that at launch I'm impressed. The prospect of a future zelda has me most excited. If it can do that now then surely things will improve down the line as it did with ps3, 360. Not so long ago I put on Perfect Dark Zero and the difference between that and later 360 games is huge. Got mine today with Nintendo land, Zombi U and Mario. Mario is excellent and looks great.

[360ICE]

Wii U power discourse summed up:

News reveal Wii is not that powerful
Opinion piece contradicts it, makes fairly good points.

I've played Nintendoland, and I must say that I feel like it did things I haven't seen on PS3/360 yet. On the other side, it's not close to as impressive as Uncharted 3, for instance. Or 2.

[MsmackyM]

Was Uncharted 2 or 3 (great games by the way) launch titles? Give the Wii U some time you won't be disappointed.

[360ICE]

360 and PS3 were able to slap Gears of War and Motorstorm on the table very early on, so I'm not too patient with the Wii U. PS3 was also a bit of a special case, and so difficult to develop for that several launch titles were pushed back.
Wii U may be difficult, but I don't think anything indicates that it'll make the leap PS3 did.

[TemplarDante]

The Wii U launched being severly underpowered. What I dont understand is, Nintendo's Miyamoto himself said
1) its not built for high specs.
2) finding a balance is important between specs/tablet with regard to cost.

SO, why are the fanboys in full force to defend what Miyamoto said was weak hardware?
Did you really expect to see alien technology in the Wii U?
If you're this defensive now, cant wait to read the comments during next years E3 :P

[PopRocks359]

Because he didn't say it was weak hardware. He said it was important to balance power with the controller functionality.

A few website analyses of the specs does not prove much to me. The games will ultimately show what this thing is made of.

I have no fantasies that the Wii U is some mystery megaconsole. It's a small leap above its competition (games like Nano Assault proved that to me) but a leap nonetheless.

[FinalomegaS]

hehe I know a lot about computing and the amount of negative things sent out so early is really sad because it always happen...

I will accept all the negative news/ rumors/ bashing of the wiiu specs.

SLOW, WEAK, NOT NEXT GEN, IT'S CRAP, GPGPU IS GARBAGE.

Good, with all that said... i don't know about you guys but these half ass ports running on an optimized system for XBOX360 Coding run nearly as smooths with what.... few months of devs using a new architecture? wouldn't say there is more to it than whats being said?

People of this site love to trash talk ( can imagine they sound like the same ppl when I use XB Live), you don't own the system, just read negative reviews and make your own assumption.If you do own it and say it's crap and the games look the same then you know the game was optimized for an other system.

Ok, I can say from personal experience that the wiiu feels solid, and it has a very interesting online community that I haven't seen on Live ( think i'm at 5 years with Live, 2 with PSN) Once you jump in and have direct access to the official game community, it's easy to see this is a killer app. Miiverse... Posting, gamer reviews, picture attachements to posting, help me pics, user art works, make friends, add them directly, get "Yeahs" and become popular so the rest of other communities can see what you posted.

I can go on but it's hard to just say it. This is like pieces of XB Live, PSN ,Tweeter, Facebook and nintendos touch put into one.

I really just want to be able to play VC games on the gamepad.
Save other user screenshots.
group video chat (ala skype) 1 on 1 is super clear and fluid

think that's all i want for now.

Interested in adding me on NN, look me up. PM me

[kesvalk]

xbox self-combusted, PS3 had no games, Wii was a gimmick, PC is dead and wii-U has a slow processor

i wonder what they will find to nag about on the next sony and microsoft consoles.

[WitWolfy]

No backwards compatibility sounds about right.

[madjedi]

Right may not out and out horrible, but it's not anything appealing for alot of ps3/360 gamers. We have been playing this same generations games for 7-8 yrs, we want a generational leap in hardware for our next gen consoles.

Not current gen tech in a box claiming to be next gen. Can nintendo make a amazing next gen( for nintendo) metroid or zelda sure. Will they spend the money in development to really showcase the game is another story.

If the more overzealous nintendo fans, hadn't run their mouths and overhype the wii u to shits all over the current gen consoles, it wouldn't be getting as badly savaged as it currently is.

It's not just the clock speeds, people take issue with for a underpowered next gen system, it's 1 in a series of bad decision to gamers that don't put nintendo on a pedastool.

Can't wait to hear how innovative nintendo is for coping apple ect or finally becoming on par with consoles released 7-8 yrs ago.

Still waiting to hear a logical reason why a "innovator" is 5-6 yrs behind the competition, but isn't called out on it.

For nintendo faithful the wiiu is perfect, for some of us ps3/360 guys that like some nintendo franchises but don't think the gaming world revolves around nintendo. A 3-5 yr wait or 10-15 exclusive games you actually are interested in(ie not crappy party/mini) is the most reasonable solution.

The sony supporter claiming we should give the wiiu 3-4 yrs before writing it off, bullshit both sony and ms's console started displaying it's potential within yr 2 of it's lifespan.

If nintendo can't make it's games look dramatically better by then, that is more than enough time, unfortunately for nintendo neither sony or ms shares nintendo's meh attitude to graphics and online gaming.

[OneAboveAll]

Who gives shit? Just play the damn thing. From what i'v seen the games look good.

[Bolts]

I don't give a shit about specs. Either you show me PC quality 1080p native BF 3 with 64 players and Planetside 2 or you're not nextgen. These two games are the CPU and GPU benchmarks of this generation and rendering them well say volumes more about a console than anything else.

[pennywhyz]

All console specs this gen and next are weak compared to PC's.So what is every1 bitchen about.Just enjoy it and the 1st party games on consoles.I'M having fun.But if ya buying consoles for specs instead of games you must be very young and a virgin to the industry.If you want power get a PC.

[Ck1x]

Well something that is sorely missed in all of this speculation about the CPU and the over all output of the WiiU, is that Iwata himself said during a Nintendo Direct that the WiiU will under full load use 75 watts of power.(NSMBU uses 33w) and WiiU will use 40 watts under non gaming situations such as Miiverse and menu functions. So either Nintendo is under clocking the hardware through software like they've done on the 3ds. Or this hacker failed to test the system under full load, which what game at the systems launch is using the WiiU to full capacity? If NSMBU uses less than what is expected that Miiverse does, an extra 42watts of power to achieve max capacity could only be a significant amount of processing from either the CPU, GPU or both combined but something isn't adding up with these rumors. As well, With most chip designs in consoles these companies seek a balance by having the CPU being a multiple over the GPU. The Wii before it had a CPU(729mhz) that was exactly 3x the clock speed of the GPU(243mhz). So this hackers claims don't add up! If the GPU being at 550mhz is accurate, then why wouldn't the CPU under full load be 1.65ghz or 2.2ghz? Those numbers are a closer parity being a multiple to what the GPU is out putting...

[MYSTERIO360]

The things is the PS3 and 360 are still quite powerful machines only let down by the RAM and GPU. If these were upgradeable we would see a huge difference in the performance compared to the Wii U.