150°

A speculative look on the Wii U GPU

"As lovable as the Wii might have been, and as nice to Nintendo’s pockets as it certainly was, it would be quite a stretch to call it a rider of the bleeding edge of technology. Indeed, lacking even basic Vertex Shaders, relying only on DX7-era Transform and Lighting (TnL), the little console that could was, at most, frown-worthy for the Beyond3D denizen. So why exactly are we talking about the Wii’s successor then? Well, this round there’s a decent chance that the lords of the Wii remote will try being somewhat more daring on the tech front – or at least we hope so!

This article’s goal is to set some reference frames for what we can reasonably expect from Nintendo Wii U graphics capability. For this speculation to be called educated it has be to be grounded in reason; and all sound reasons have a source. Therefore, this article will rely on three bases: the facts, the rumours and what we will call Nintendo’s current approach to hardware. The facts and rumours are self explanatory, the ”Nintendo current approach to hardware” on the other hand requires some definition. With the exception of some non committal claims, such as “1080p graphics! Check that box!”, with all what Nintendo said and shown about Wii U, it has openly set expectations for graphics at a minimum level. No outrageous claim about huge silicon costs, bleeding edge rendering capabilities, living lucid dreams or jacking-up into the matrix. This, coupled with the graphical outputs of the last few Nintendo machines (DS, Wii, 3DS), will colour the speculation of this article.", writes Beyond3D.

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beyond3d.com
Rrobba5068d ago

Microsoft owns DirectX, so I doubt Nintendo will use it.

handheldwars25068d ago (Edited 5068d ago )

I'm guessing they'll go with OpenGL 4.0 or 4.1, both of which are great choices. Wii U's graphics compared with PS4/Xbox3 will probably look like PS2's in comparison to GCN/Xbox, but hey PS2 was the best console of the 6th gen.

@KING_KAI http://img32.imageshack.us/...

jacen1005068d ago

ps3 and 360 are still great machines and there will definatly be no real gpu or cpu technological breakthroughs in the next few years so if we can get something superior to this gen for the same price or even cheaper that would be great and surley would sell

qwertyz5068d ago

@jacen100

what are you talking about. the power of gpus and cpus already shot by ps3 and 360 in 2006 with the launch of core 2 cpus as well as the geforce 8 series gpus. If there has been no real tech breakthrough since the last gen consoles launched why can't these consoles match crysis 1 running MEDIUM(not even high or highest or with mods) with 8xAA and 16xAF @1080p. nothing on consoles even looks as good as bulletstorm on pc which can run maxed out on 2006 hardware. consoles have been holding back pc since 2006.

metro 2033, crysis 1,crysis 1 with mods, crysis warhead, crysis 2,crysis 2 with directx 11 patch, witcher 2, shogun 2 total war, napoleon total war, empire total war, gta4 with mods, bad company 2 all on pc are a GENERATION ahead of what you have on consoles.

http://www.computerandvideo...

http://www.computerandvideo...

http://www.computerandvideo...

jacen1005067d ago (Edited 5067d ago )

did u read my statment properly before u write a pile of bullcrap, i said in the next couple years you are not going to see any massive technological breakthroughs, i dident say from 2006 because it has all hapened from then to now do u think u are gonna see that kind of progression in the next couple of years that happened between 2006 and now> DOOOOFF read before u write fool . o yea by the way i own an 8 series and an i7 EX set in a p6td delux with 16gig of ram so show your vids and talk your crap to someone else ,and the article is about console hardware not pc's there is no way in hell your gettin 8 series or i7's in consoles

bligmerk5067d ago

Actually, the recent Nvidia GPU roadmap shows Maxwell in 2014 at 16 times the performance of Kepler, a die shrink of Fermi which isn't expected until later this year or early next year.
http://i1-news.softpedia-st...

Fanbot5068d ago ShowReplies(2)
BlmThug5068d ago

This console has just entered gen 7

Thoreau5067d ago

i am a little sad that my son will ask for the wiiu, i will buy it, only to turn around and ask for a ps4/xbox720, because the wiiu may look outdated compared to sony and micro's new systems.

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40°

XBLA Classic 'A World of Keflings' Is Coming to Steam, and There's a Demo

"Back in the innocent days of 2010, A World of Keflings was a fairly popular successor to A Kingdom for Keflings. I even wrote about it a few times in 2012! But the world of humans moved on, and NinjaBee's city-building/adventure game was last seen on the ill-fated Wii U in 2014. Fast-forward to the dark year of 2025, and not only is A World of Keflings coming to Steam, but there's already a playable demo! Perhaps the cheerful, no pressure gameplay that the Keflings bring is just what we need nowadays," says Co-Optimus.

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co-optimus.com
50°

Bayonetta creator told Sakurai "to do whatever he wanted" when bringing the character to Smash Bros.

Game developer Hideki Kamiya talks about Bayonetta in the Smash Bros. games.

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nintendoeverything.com
80°

Pure Arts Reveals Borderlands Collectible

Pure Arts Reveals Borderlands Collectible that fans should l8ve.