Author Topic: Wii Not as Powerful as the Xbox? (Read 7584 times)

WindyMan · « **on:** May 10, 2007, 04:46:53 PM »

Newsweek decided to find out, and the answer may surprise you.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=13442

Last week, Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division President Robbie Bach made some comments stating that the Wii wasn't really that much more powerful than the original Xbox. In fact, it was less powerful. Newsweek's tech expert and resident geek N'Gai Croal decided to investigate Bach's claim about the hardware differences.

The results may surprise some people. Talking to development sources on the condition of anonymity, Croal discovered that people from Nintendo's own development support group said the chipset powering the Wii is a "Gamecube 1.5 with some added memory." The developer who heard that said if Nintendo said it, "it must be true." The Wii lacks programmable shaders as did the original Xbox, and in fact another developer likened the Wii's graphic set to a seven-year old Nvida PC graphics card.

Such a comparison would seem to confirm the initial worry about the Wii being a vastly underpowered system. However, the two sources Croal tapped in his writeup indicate that the Wii is stronger than the Xbox in other areas, such as the faster clock speeds and extra memory over the GameCube. (Most people will agree that the GameCube and Xbox were neck-and-neck in terms of real-world performance.) One of the developers told Croal that the shader effects featured in the more powerful PS3 and Xbox 360 could be reproduced well enough on the Wii to get "very close results."

Croal concludes that Bach's initial claim about the Wii being underpowered compared to the Xbox wasn't unfounded, but not completely true. Still, for a "next gen" system to be so close in power to a console of the previous generation, one has to wonder how long Nintendo can keep up the "graphics don't mean anything" pitch without the gap starting to become too disadvantageous.

that Baby guy · « **Reply #1 on:** May 10, 2007, 05:00:16 PM »

They don't really compare it to the power of the Xbox, though.

Edit: "sigh"
Take that, Shecky!

Shecky · « **Reply #2 on:** May 10, 2007, 05:00:40 PM »

Can I be the second to post "sigh"

Thanks.

Edit: Two can play at this...

Kairon · « **Reply #3 on:** May 10, 2007, 05:03:18 PM »

The PS2 lacked hardware Anti-Aliasing, which the N64 had. That means that PS2 was weaker than the N64?

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

NinGurl69 *huggles · « **Reply #4 on:** May 10, 2007, 05:18:46 PM »

Wii is such a 3rd-rate system.

IT'S OVER, FOLKS.

Mario · « **Reply #5 on:** May 10, 2007, 05:20:15 PM »

NWR sinking to GoHobo type news

that Baby guy · « **Reply #6 on:** May 10, 2007, 05:28:09 PM »

Ian was right! The Wii does suck! Oh noes! What has my life gone to?

UERD · « **Reply #7 on:** May 10, 2007, 05:32:17 PM »

If I wanted to see PURTY PIKTURZ® while shooting alien humanoids with plasma rifles, I'd boot up my PC.

Blue Plant · « **Reply #8 on:** May 10, 2007, 05:38:12 PM »

Quote
and in fact another developer likened the Wii's graphic set to a seven-year old Nvida PC graphics card.

Bet that was Mark Rein. Le sigh...

Alfonse · « **Reply #9 on:** May 10, 2007, 05:53:02 PM »

Quote

Bet that was Mark Rein. Le sigh...

Regardless of who it was, it's not entirely inaccurate. Given that Wii is just an overclocked GC with 64MB of extra RAM, that means it's using the GC's GPU. Which means it was developed 7 years ago.

The problem is that you're reading into this, "OMG, Wii's gr4p1x r teh sux0rz!" Sure, 360 and PS3 can out-match it easily. Can the X-Box?

Probably not. GC was in many ways superior to the X-Box in actual performance, so a GC 1.5x should still be superior. There may still be some functionality differences on the GC/Wii (specific bits of X-Box hardware that GC/Wii can't emulate), but that's about it.

NWR_pap64 · « **Reply #10 on:** May 10, 2007, 05:55:47 PM »

We REALLY need a killer app with amazing graphics. Maybe then some people will shut up. I mean, the PS2 was weak as hell, but once the beautiful games were released everyone didn't seem to care anymore.

Kairon · « **Reply #11 on:** May 10, 2007, 06:00:45 PM »

I guess this is the part where we'd normally point to a Rare game, or a Factor 5 game. Barring those, we'd turn to a Capcom game, or even a Square game. But neith Capcom or Square seems to have jumped onto the Wii early enough for us to have a game by now... and... this is the scary part... maybe they STILL haven't jumped in yet!

~Carmine "Cai" M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

NWR_pap64 · « **Reply #12 on:** May 10, 2007, 06:02:38 PM »

Well, Square DID show a trailer for Crystal Chronicles Wii in its press event yesterday and supposedly it was VERY gorgeous.

We don't know for sure, though. Square forbid the taping of the trailer. But many people agreed that the game look really nice.

Khushrenada · « **Reply #13 on:** May 10, 2007, 06:09:34 PM »

The Crystal Chronicles game is for the DS. Trust me, I know. I'm a staff writer and have to keep track of these things. The full title is Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates. This job is a lock.

that Baby guy · « **Reply #14 on:** May 10, 2007, 06:11:34 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Khushrenada
The Crystal Chronicles game is for the DS. Trust me, I know. I'm a staff writer and have to keep track of these things. The full title is Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates. This job is a lock.

Are you saying the video was for the DS version? There is a Wii Crystal Chronicles in production, too, though there's been less information about it available.

Kairon · « **Reply #15 on:** May 10, 2007, 06:16:56 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Khushrenada
The Crystal Chronicles game is for the DS. Trust me, I know. I'm a staff writer and have to keep track of these things. The full title is Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates. This job is a lock.

Sorry Khush, but you're not going to get that job after all. Square DID show FF:CB Wii real time footage at the conference, they just asked EVERYBODY not to take pictures or anything.

Who'll end up getting that job after all? Hmm... I say GoldenPhoenix!

Khushrenada · « **Reply #16 on:** May 10, 2007, 06:32:41 PM »

Ha ha ha. Good for me. I only read about the DS version being shown on video. Did some checking and see that you are correct. Some brief footage of the Wii version was shown also. I didn't realize there were two seperate CC videos shown.

Oh well. Not to worry. Golden Phoenix is relying on Smash_Brother and Pap64 to support her and I don't see that happening. Too much review fighting.

Kairon · « **Reply #17 on:** May 10, 2007, 06:34:31 PM »

Darn! Khush owned up to his own mistake! I wasn't expecting that!

Hmm... what OTHER accusations can I sling at him? How else can I get someone who'll support my right to sign all my posts manually into office?

WuTangTurtle · « **Reply #18 on:** May 10, 2007, 06:41:02 PM »

Crystal Chronicles.....who cares it was probably running on an xbox.

(Edit) Nice jab Kairon, lol. Good luck Khush, I'm pullin for ya.

Khushrenada · « **Reply #19 on:** May 10, 2007, 06:49:10 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Kairon
Darn! Khush owned up to his own mistake! I wasn't expecting that!

Hmm... what OTHER accusations can I sling at him? How else can I get someone who'll support my right to sign all my posts manually into office?

Yeah, I'm not really a stuck-up arrogant jerk. I only play one on TV and in the Funhouse. Type-casting. What can you do?

But you bring up a very interesting point. You've stopped typing your signiture at the end of your posts. What happened? I can't believe I didn't even notice. This election has been taking up a lot of my time. Also, I don't care if you manually sign at the end of your posts or not.

Actually, I could use someone to sign a whole bunch of autographs for me. The public. They just can't stop loving me. Since you seem to be pretty handy with your fingers, maybe you'd like to join my party. The fact that you are trying so hard to think of some OTHER accusation just shows the squeaky clean record I have. So why waste time?

EDIT: Thanks for the support WuTangTurtle.

Kairon · « **Reply #20 on:** May 10, 2007, 06:57:06 PM »

Then you can be sure for my support Khush!

sycomonkey · « **Reply #21 on:** May 10, 2007, 07:24:24 PM »

The Wii is only as powerful as the developers are at using it. This argument is moot as long as the Wii doesn't have the equivelant of what Rogue Leader was on the Cube: A game that took full advantage of the hardware. It's further complicated by the fact that everyone who reviews the graphics in a XBox, 360, or PS3 title is using an HDTV to play the game, while the majority of Wii owners don't even own an HDTV. Further on in the Wii's life I'm sure a Resident Evil 4 level of craftsmanship (in graphics) will show up and dazzle everyone with what 480x is really capable of. At that point you can compare the graphics with those of a 360 running at the same resolution, and while you're at it, divide by price...

In the end, nobody cares. No game gets funner the more polies it has.

NeoThunder · « **Reply #22 on:** May 10, 2007, 07:50:25 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: pap64
We REALLY need a killer app with amazing graphics. Maybe then some people will shut up. I mean, the PS2 was weak as hell, but once the beautiful games were released everyone didn't seem to care anymore.

This is a really good point that people fail to remember. Last generation the PS2 was the weakest of the three hardwares. Even so, it was widely popular and therefor developers worked with what people have.

These types of articles make me sick. It's like saying software designed for the xbox wouldn't run as good on a wii, and of course it wouldn't cause you have to develop games specifically for systems. It should be important to note that some original xbox games run better on xbox than the emulation on a xbox 360. So if the 360 is supposed to be 20 times more powerful (or whatever they say), I would ask them how come their original xbox games are that way.

It's not the hardware....it's the games. Your $600 PS3 is just a 10 pound rock if their isn't any good games on it.

NinGurl69 *huggles · « **Reply #23 on:** May 10, 2007, 08:47:56 PM »

But but but.... Lair.

GoldenPhoenix · « **Reply #24 on:** May 10, 2007, 09:15:38 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Kairon
Then you can be sure for my support Khush!

You traitor.

News:

Author Topic: Wii Not as Powerful as the Xbox? (Read 7584 times)