WiiGeePeeYou (Hollywood) what IS it ?

[Shifty Geezer]

The line about Wii being "formidable for 640x480 rendering" really makes a lot of sense, when you consider what X360 can do at 720p.

Isn't every X360 game rendered at 720p and downscaled for SDTV?

Nope. At the moment it seems games on SDTV are rendered at SD resolution with no benefits at all.

I'm not sure I go with Wii being 'formidable for 640x480 rendering' either. If we consider G70 class is formidable for 720p, a formidable for 480p GPU would need to be 1/3rd the power to have the same performance per pixel. Either G70 is 'gobsmackingly awesome for 720p' and formidable is a much lower rating, or Wii's GPU, GC 1.5 according to Eggbreicht, is 1/3rd the power of G70...or the idea of Wii's graphics being formidable for SDTV is just wrong (or the GC 1.5 is just wrong! So many variables!)

 

[pc999]

Nope. At the moment it seems games on SDTV are rendered at SD resolution with no benefits at all.

I'm not sure I go with Wii being 'formidable for 640x480 rendering' either. If we consider G70 class is formidable for 720p, a formidable for 480p GPU would need to be 1/3rd the power to have the same performance per pixel. Either G70 is 'gobsmackingly awesome for 720p' and formidable is a much lower rating, or Wii's GPU, GC 1.5 according to Eggbreicht, is 1/3rd the power of G70...or the idea of Wii's graphics being formidable for SDTV is just wrong (or the GC 1.5 is just wrong! So many variables!)

He (almost certainly) mean compared to GC (or last gen) which should at least indicate a good jump compared to GC (which I personally still hopes to see), even if you just can put all the (best) last gen features in one game, that would be a nice jump.

 

[swaaye]

Well if it's still a 4 pixel pipe design with no programmable vertex shaders, archaic pixel shaders, and only ~240 MHz, it is less than 1/3 the speed of G70/C1. It's been quite thoroughly eclipsed on every front.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

The Wii is designed to run at a maximum of 480p, so those with SDTVs (or EDTVs) won't see as much of a difference. (i.e. most people)

I think HDTVs will be rather popular among HD-console owners, they already are and still long way to go before we see the next consoles.

 

[Oblivion]

Wii GPU ~ 1/2 360's GPU
Wii CPU~ 1/10 360's CPU
Wii RAM ~ 1/5 360 RAM.

Well, the GPU don't seem that bad at least. Course, they're different architechtures..

 

[PeterT]

Wii GPU ~ 1/2 360's GPU

Whatever gave you that quaint idea? Not even darkblu would come anywhere near claiming that

Pretty much the only metric I can think of that's somewhat close is the amount of ROPs, and even there you have to disregard clock speed to get to that number. In short, the part of your post that I quoted is just completely and utterly wrong.

Unless all our expectations are far off the mark and all the developers who produced screenshots of Wii games so far are horrendously incompetent, this is more like it:

It's been quite thoroughly eclipsed on every front.

 

[Oblivion]

Whatever gave you that quaint idea? Not even darkblu would come anywhere near claiming that

Pretty much the only metric I can think of that's somewhat close is the amount of ROPs, and even there you have to disregard clock speed to get to that number. In short, the part of your post that I quoted is just completely and utterly wrong.

Unless all our expectations are far off the mark and all the developers who produced screenshots of Wii games so far are horrendously incompetent, this is more like it:

I was just going by the clockspeeds.

Hollywood: 243 MGhz
Xenos: 500 Mhz

Right?

 

[TurnDragoZeroV2G]

I was just going by the clockspeeds.

Hollywood: 243 MGhz
Xenos: 500 Mhz

Right?

What are you comparing the clockspeeds for? For a GPU, more than anything else, it's utterly meaningless without knowing the width of the chip.

 

[pc999]

Just something I just saw (page 6)

Several graphics features had been added as well

I hope the features could used in others things too (or that they use it in broad sence, that almost (physics, animation, particles...) is gfx).

I think it is safe to say that the GPU would have been upgraded too.

 

[fearsomepirate]

I think what Eggebrecht is getting at is that at 640x480, the kinds of graphical improvements offered by DX9ish hardware aren't terribly noticable. For example, parallax mapping would almost be a waste, since at 640x480, you'd only notice it if you were pretty close to the wall. Even in Rebel Strike, which had a fantastic water effect, you only could really see just how cool it truly was if you got pretty danged close to it in your X-wing or walked right up near it in an AT-ST and looked straight down. Or realtime soft-shadowing looks great and all, but at 640x480, it doesn't look much different than what Flipper could already do with shadow maps. So I think that's what he means by Flipper being a "formidable" chipset at 640x480.

pc999, do we know yet that the PPC 750 CL is the Broadway, or is that just everyone's best educated guess?

 

[pc999]

pc999, do we know yet that the PPC 750 CL is the Broadway, or is that just everyone's best educated guess?

On IGN (the article they pulled off) they said something like, it is from the family of the 750CL (at the time many find that is some error), it is also our best educated guess and why would they put several gfx features in this kind of CPU?

This does not prove it is indeed a 750CL (like) that it is in the Wii, but it makes it very probably to be it, IMO.

BTW, I also agree with you about the rest of the post, althought I think that is only true for some kind of fxs and features.

Also good news

In a recent press release concerning Ubisoft's 2006-2007 fiscal first semester sales (encompassing quarters 1 and 2 ending September 30), the French publisher revealed seven titles will be available for Wii's launch, with seven additional titles to appear by March 2007.

Ubisoft did not provide details regarding the seven non-launch titles, though the press release mentioned that one game would be an unannounced new brand.

 

[Ty]

Just something I just saw (page 6)



I hope the features could used in others things too (or that they use it in broad sence, that almost (physics, animation, particles...) is gfx).

I think it is safe to say that the GPU would have been upgraded too.

If physics or some other large and broad features were added, don't you think those would have been mentioned? Those are some pretty HUGE features to just gloss over by using that phrase.

 

[fearsomepirate]

When they say "graphics," for all we know they added something to make JPEG decompression go a little faster.

 

[London Geezer]

Sorry but after 70-odd pages of thread, i'm still asking myself...

...Shouldn't it be WiiGiiPiiOo?

 

[crystall]

On IGN (the article they pulled off) they said something like, it is from the family of the 750CL (at the time many find that is some error), it is also our best educated guess and why would they put several gfx features in this kind of CPU?

What IBM calls 'graphics features' are just the extra instruction which were already present in the Gekko (paired SPFP ops and int-to-float / float-to-int conversions in the L/S pipe). From the 750CL datasheet those are the only significant differences from the other processors in the 750 family. The 750CL basically looks like a commercial version of the Gekko shrinked to 90nm. However we don't know if the Wii's CPU is a 750CL though it sounds likely.

 

[Teasy]

Wii CPU~ 1/10 360's CPU

360's CPU isn't that powerful.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

This thread has >100,000 visits. Doesn't that warrant special recognition? Shouldn't it be protected like listed buidings or World Heritage sites? Shouldn't it be added to the FAQ in the Tourism section as a thread that all visitors to B3D should visit?

 

[Gubbi]

Shouldn't it be added to the FAQ in the Tourism section as a thread that all visitors to B3D should visit?

I agree. It's a testament to the futility of the internet. 100,000 views, 73 pages of posts from people not knowing what will be in Wii.

Cheers

 

[darkblu]

What IBM calls 'graphics features' are just the extra instruction which were already present in the Gekko (paired SPFP ops and int-to-float / float-to-int conversions in the L/S pipe).

yep, i think so too. still, that extra sauce sounds like something that could have nice impact on the cpu-gpu collaboration, so i'd say mentioning that as 'graphics features' is not unjustified. i mean, console vendors have been know to brag about such features in their systems, so let's acknowledge IBM their right to boast a little too, after all they made it. neither is that document necessarily targetted at cube aficionados : )

However we don't know if the Wii's CPU is a 750CL though it sounds likely.

well, we just need some really good image reconstruction algorithms and run them over that part of the 'IBM shows the broadway' poststamp video where they show the package up-close ; )

 

[GwymWeepa]

Well if it's still a 4 pixel pipe design with no programmable vertex shaders, archaic pixel shaders, and only ~240 MHz, it is less than 1/3 the speed of G70/C1. It's been quite thoroughly eclipsed on every front.

5 years in the computer world is a long time, Wii is essentially a dinosaur. A small one sure but still a dinosaur lol. Real shame.