How does the Wii U Stack up to the Wii and GameCube?

By Jorge Ba-oh 30.10.2012 14

How does the Wii U Stack up to the Wii and GameCube? on Nintendo gaming news, videos and discussion

How does Nintendo's Wii U size up to the original Wii and GameCube in terms of size? A comparison video tells the story.

ONM were given access to the Wii U console and GamePad and during a lengthy hands-on/caressing process, stacked up the original Wii and GameCube to give an idea of just how big the final retail version of the Wii U would be.

The Wii U is slightly wider (from the front) and a fit bit longer, yet maintains a compact and efficient shell as seen in the Iwata Asks roundtable on the console's architecture.


 

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Martin_ is offline. Martin_ 31.10.2012#1

Does it play GameCube games?

 
Azuardo is online! Azuardo 31.10.2012#2

Martin_ said:
Does it play GameCube games?

Nope.

 
is offline. 31.10.2012#3

I really hope the swishy "Wii U" logo shown at 5:52 and earlier is what you see every time you turn on the console. It's brilliant!   

 
TAG is offline. TAG 31.10.2012#4

Nice video. I thought it was smaller for some reason, but I actually feel better knowing that it's bigger. Hopefully that means it's a good bit more powerful than the Wii. That might just be wishful thinking on my part, though.

TAG: That American Guy

"If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." Romans 12:18
 
Phoenom is offline. Phoenom 31.10.2012#5

Nice. I wonder how it looks vertically on the stand from the Deluxe Pack.

 
Mush is offline. Mush 31.10.2012#6

TAG said:
Nice video. I thought it was smaller for some reason, but I actually feel better knowing that it's bigger. Hopefully that means it's a good bit more powerful than the Wii. That might just be wishful thinking on my part, though.
You only need to look at some of the games and read comments from some of the developers to know it's MUCH more powerful than the Wii. It's on par with the PS3, at least. Once developers get to grips with it, I'm sure we'll get some really great looking games.

Oh and size doesn't really say anything about power/technical performance. Components are constantly getting smaller and smaller, though that does come at a cost. So, Nintendo made a wise move in making everything bigger.

( Edited 31.10.2012 09:40 by Mush )

 
Entity (guest) 31.10.2012#7

Mush said:
TAG said:
Nice video. I thought it was smaller for some reason, but I actually feel better knowing that it's bigger. Hopefully that means it's a good bit more powerful than the Wii. That might just be wishful thinking on my part, though.
You only need to look at some of the games and read comments from some of the developers to know it's MUCH more powerful than the Wii. It's on par with the PS3, at least. Once developers get to grips with it, I'm sure we'll get some really great looking games.

Oh and size doesn't really say anything about power/technical performance. Components are constantly getting smaller and smaller, though that does come at a cost. So, Nintendo made a wise move in making everything bigger.

Ehm... On par? The PS3 has 256 MB of RAM and the 360 has 516 MB og RAM... Thw Wii U has 2GB of RAM. It can run games in native 1080P unlike the two others. It is said it has a way better GPU also. It is NOT on par, it is a good deal stronger than the two others.

WP-Final is offline. WP-Final 31.10.2012#8

Whoever filmed this needs shooting. Terrible video. Smilie

 
TAG is offline. TAG 31.10.2012#9

Entity (guest) said:
Mush said: You only need to look at some of the games and read comments from some of the developers to know it's MUCH more powerful than the Wii. It's on par with the PS3, at least. Once developers get to grips with it, I'm sure we'll get some really great looking games.

Oh and size doesn't really say anything about power/technical performance. Components are constantly getting smaller and smaller, though that does come at a cost. So, Nintendo made a wise move in making everything bigger.

Ehm... On par? The PS3 has 256 MB of RAM and the 360 has 516 MB og RAM... Thw Wii U has 2GB of RAM. It can run games in native 1080P unlike the two others. It is said it has a way better GPU also. It is NOT on par, it is a good deal stronger than the two others.


I guess I was speaking vaguely, but being "on par with the PS3" isn't what I had in mine with "good bit more powerful." Being as powerful as the PS3 isn't all that impressive when you remember that the PS3 came out six years ago. Technology moves a lot in six years. One notable advancement has been how much RAM has dropped in price. 2GB of RAM is significantly better than the RAM used last gen, but it's still not all that great by today's standards. My two year old laptop had 4GB and you can get gaming PCs now with 12GB or 16GB of RAM. Sony and Microsoft's consoles will almost certainly have at least 4GB of RAM, and I wouldn't surprised if they have as much as 8GB.


Oh and size doesn't really say anything about power/technical performance. Components are constantly getting smaller and smaller, though that does come at a cost. So, Nintendo made a wise move in making everything bigger.

That's why I got my hopes up! Technology has had six years to decrease in size/in price, but we get a console that is noticeably bigger. Hopefully that means there are some goodies under the hood.

( Edited 31.10.2012 18:42 by TAG )

TAG: That American Guy

"If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." Romans 12:18
 
Steelm2 is offline. Steelm2 31.10.2012#10

Coool!

You wanna go here if you likes Prons. [url]
 
Mush is offline. Mush 01.11.2012#11

Entity (guest) said:
Mush said:
TAG said:
Nice video. I thought it was smaller for some reason, but I actually feel better knowing that it's bigger. Hopefully that means it's a good bit more powerful than the Wii. That might just be wishful thinking on my part, though.
You only need to look at some of the games and read comments from some of the developers to know it's MUCH more powerful than the Wii. It's on par with the PS3, at least. Once developers get to grips with it, I'm sure we'll get some really great looking games.

Oh and size doesn't really say anything about power/technical performance. Components are constantly getting smaller and smaller, though that does come at a cost. So, Nintendo made a wise move in making everything bigger.

Ehm... On par? The PS3 has 256 MB of RAM and the 360 has 516 MB og RAM... Thw Wii U has 2GB of RAM. It can run games in native 1080P unlike the two others. It is said it has a way better GPU also. It is NOT on par, it is a good deal stronger than the two others.

Sorry if that came out a bit wrong, I was meant to say that the graphics are currently on par, if not better than 360/PS3. I'm aware it has 2GB of RAM, but according to developers the  CPU isn't as good as the 360/PS3. Though I just think that developers need to spend more time with the hardware. Once they have gotten to grips with it, then they will be able to unleash the full power of the system.

Once again, I'm sorry if my comment seemed a bit misleading.



( Edited 01.11.2012 00:55 by Mush )

 
Smurfman256 (guest) 01.11.2012#12

Entity (guest) said:
Mush said:
TAG said:
Nice video. I thought it was smaller for some reason, but I actually feel better knowing that it's bigger. Hopefully that means it's a good bit more powerful than the Wii. That might just be wishful thinking on my part, though.
You only need to look at some of the games and read comments from some of the developers to know it's MUCH more powerful than the Wii. It's on par with the PS3, at least. Once developers get to grips with it, I'm sure we'll get some really great looking games.

Oh and size doesn't really say anything about power/technical performance. Components are constantly getting smaller and smaller, though that does come at a cost. So, Nintendo made a wise move in making everything bigger.

Ehm... On par? The PS3 has 256 MB of RAM and the 360 has 516 MB og RAM... Thw Wii U has 2GB of RAM. It can run games in native 1080P unlike the two others. It is said it has a way better GPU also. It is NOT on par, it is a good deal stronger than the two others.

Umm...Devs can only use 1GB of that.  But, knowing Nintendo, It's probably some reeeeeealy fast RAM to compensate. 

Mush is offline. Mush 02.11.2012#13

Smurfman256 (guest) said:
Umm...Devs can only use 1GB of that.  But, knowing Nintendo, It's probably some reeeeeealy fast RAM to compensate. 

The Operating System can use up to 1GB of RAM, that's not to say that if given permission, developers can disable certain features and make use of more RAM, if they wish. Even so, 1GB of RAM for games on a console is a lot. People seem to think that consoles need more than 4GB of RAM, just because a lot of PCs have upwards of 8-12GB of RAM nowadays.

What they probably don't know though, is that the Operating System on their PC makes constant use of that RAM, since it is always running in the background. For example, Windows 7 uses at least 1-2GB depending on whether you have 32-bit or 64-bit.

Not only that, but any programs you have running in the background, such as anti virus software also takes up some of your RAM. Not a whole lot, but the reason people have so much RAM is so that they can do a lot more with their CPU. I mean, there's no point in having a top of the range CPU with only 1GB of RAM. Plus a lot of games nowadays need at least 2GB of free RAM to be able to run them.

So yeah, a lot of RAM needed for consoles? Nah, I wouldn't say so. It's not like you're gonna have a game running, internet browser open, IM/VOIP software such as Skype and stuff open. All the RAM is used for is to be able to go back into the Operating System to say, check who's online or check something out on the internet browser if you don't have a laptop or any other device handy.

Another thing I forgot to mention, is that if console RAM is anything like PC RAM, the type of RAM available now would be a lot more efficient than the RAM available back then. Now, don't call me out if I'm wrong on this one, as I have no idea if the Wii U will be using a better type of RAM than the 360 which uses GDDR3. Whereas the Wii U should be using GDDR5 RAM, again this is purely speculation as I'm not sure the type of RAM has been confirmed or anything as of yet.

EDIT: Just realised the Wii U will be using dedicated RAM rather than shared, so it will most certainly be a lot more efficient than the RAM used in the 360/PS3.

( Edited 02.11.2012 06:56 by Mush )

 
Martin_ is offline. Martin_ 04.11.2012#14

Entity (guest) said:
Ehm... On par? The PS3 has 256 MB of RAM and the 360 has 516 MB og RAM... Thw Wii U has 2GB of RAM. It can run games in native 1080P unlike the two others. It is said it has a way better GPU also. It is NOT on par, it is a good deal stronger than the two others.

LOL. Wrong on all counts.

PS3 has 512MB of RAM, split into two 256MB pools, one of which is extremely-fast XDR RAM. 360 has 512MB in one pool. Both PS3 and 360 can run games natively in 1080p.

Why do you think they've been able to last so long? Have fun with your U'.. until it looks really old in a year or two Smilie

 

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