Friday, April 22, 2011

Wii 2 (Project Cafe) - more powerful than expected & revamped SNES design?




Here is the post from IGN about the SNES design and the hardware power (subject to change):


"IGN has learned that the system will be based on a revamped version of AMD's R700 GPU architecture, not AMD's Fusion technology as previously believed, which will, as previously reported, out perform the PlayStation 3's NVIDIA 7800GTX-based processor. Like the Xbox 360, the system's CPU will be a custom-built triple-core IBM PowerPC chipset, but the clocking speeds will be faster. The system will support 1080p output with the potential for stereoscopic 3D as well, though it has not been determined whether that will be a staple feature.

In terms of the design of the console itself, the overall size will be comparable to that of the original Xbox 360 and the system is likely to resemble a modernized version of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)."



Link


The bottom picture of "Project Cafe" is in no way proven to be real but I'm posting it because.....well it looks kinda cool even if it's a mock up. So did they mean it would look like the redesigned SNES from the '90s or the original?


From what I've been reading and researching, the AMD R700 graphics card architecture (4000 series) would be at the very least 3 times as powerful as the Xbox 360 graphics card without it being modified and optimized to run for a console like Nintendo is doing. With it being optimized a great deal I'd say that number is going to be higher than that. 


The guys at NeoGAF agree with me as well:


"From what little I know about R700 architecture, it would be difficult for the GPU not to outperform Xenos and RSX by a considerable margin. They would likely take a mid-range GPU and modify it a bit, and revamped implies improvement rather than underclocking.

The CPU bit could mean anything really. All they're doing is stating that they think it's a similar architecture to 360, so that it's familiar to developers. I don't think their intent was to give any indication of performance beyond that. Again, beating Xbox 360 in terms of processing power shouldn't be much of a challenge for Nintendo in 2011.

At the moment, I'm inclined to believe that it will be "significantly" more powerful than the current competition, but talking about specs is boring.
"



I'm just basing this stuff off of how the GPU performs on a PC and not on a console. The Xbox 360's GPU the "Xenos" is based off the ATi Radeon X1950 GT Link and when you compare the PC game performance of that card with the Xenos on modern games, the Xenos runs them so much better since it was custom made for a console and not a PC. The X1950 is completely outdated by todays standards (by PC standards), strange how that works isn't it?

If the rumors are true (looking like they might be) then Project Cafe's graphics card will be very close to an ATi Radeon HD 4850 or higher. Take a look at this and read: Link  the R700 series comprised of the HD 4850x2 & HD 4870x2 (both having dual graphics cards). It's probably not likely that Nintendo is going the dual GPU route but I think they picked a good model to work with. Take a look at Crysis 1 on PC running on a single 4850:





The first Crysis on PC was probably the least optimized game in history and that GPU actually runs the game "ok" on max settings. Putting all this together will give you some ideas of what kind of performance to expect from Nintendo's next console. I would say that it should be able to run a game like Crysis at maximum settings (pun intended) at 1080p and a good frame rate considering that the graphics card would be completely customized to work only for Project Cafe.


I'm leaning to the "significantly more powerful" camp guys. Finally a graphics debate Nintendo can win! LOL



12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Imagine Wave race or Mario Galaxy in them graphics WOW not to imagine Zelda

S. A. Sterkenburg said...

This is very exciting!! Thanks for the analysis! Man this system is looking phenomenal. Great graphics, great functionality from the sound of it. Not too expensive either! Can't wait for e333333

Metaldave said...

Yes indeed, after getting some more understanding about just how powerful this thing will be I think it's safe to get even more excited for this.

S. A. Sterkenburg said...

Do you thing this system will have good online functionality, like the 360 or better? Think it'll cost money this time?

Anonymous said...

better by far than 360 and free

Metaldave said...

Knowing Nintendo, there is no way that they are going to charge for online like Microsoft does. A friend of mine has Xbox live for his 360 and he really isn't very happy with needing to pay for it since it has issues every now and then like timed out crashes and disconnection errors. Nintendo wouldn't charge for the online and as far as achievements are concerned, I think the "coin" system in the 3DS would actually be better than achievements since you'll earning the coins to buy/unlock more game content or even possible get a downloadable game by trading in coins. I think Nintendo is on the right track with their online service.

S. A. Sterkenburg said...

Sounds good, thanks for the info.

Anonymous said...

nintendo love efficiency they will build a system that really sucks every bit of blood from the cpu and gpu... and use fast ram and i expect high bandwidth maybe EDram on the GPU.. i hope for a multi cpu or multi core cpu based on broadway in wii

X360 USES A POOR INLINE ATOM LIKE DESIGN CPU VERY BASIC

broadway is a true out of order exaction unit pc desk top cpu with gamecentric upgrades a multi core or multi cpu at high clock speeds would rape x30s cpu....

r700 cards in a pc with gdrr ram will beat a x30 gpu a r700 in a console running super efficient will destroy a x360 im expecting visuals that out do ps3 and x360 combined EASY......

by holding back on resolution to say600p/720p the fillrate and bandwidth would own and graphics will be amassing


people stop thinking and quoting ONLINE

this is NINTENDO they will go much further than simple ONLINE it will be full conected wifi streaming experiances

think online you think inside a box THINK connectivity off line and on

nintendo will go in a COOL GAMING FUN ACCESSIBLE experience not a mear online thing

the controllers/the 3DS /the wii what do these systems teach us xbox live is already going to be owned by 3DS wii 2 will go even further

MULTI TASKING CONSOLE 4 PEOPLE SURFING THE WEB ON 4 SCREEN CONTROLLERS than kinda thing

Anonymous said...

im hoping for wii games in a upgraded HD mode i dont see why not black ops wii in 1080p

galaxy 2 in 1080p PLEASE if the gpu has a big EDram it can render wii games at HD

Anonymous said...

triple Broadway 2 at 1.8 ghz ,r700 custom gpu at 900mhz with 24mb EDram buffer/catch 512mb fast ram and 512mb gddr 3 ram

customised blura drive for very fast loading BRING IT NINTENDO

Kawsar said...

It would be acting like a home console "handheld". You could play it anywhere within some radius of the console. wii 2
wii
nintendowii 2
nintendo
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