Wii U CPU and GPU Reportedly Overclocked by Latest System Firmware Update

Edelweiss

Edelweiss

New member
So with the recent release of the Wii U firmware update 3.0.0 on May 21st. There has been a major hubbub in internet circles that this update may have massively increased the clock speeds of both the CPU and GPU.
The CPU frequency has a reported increased from the stock 1.24Ghz to a beastly 3.24Ghz
GPU frequency reportedly increased from 550Mhz to 800Mhz
How is this even possible?? A 2Ghz increase in CPU frequency?! If one were to look at the Wii U under the hood it would reveal a paltry little fan and heatsink not even remotely capable to sustain such an increase. People have been speculating that Nintendo purposefully underclocked the GPGPU combo to ensure launch hardware stability and planned to increase the power of the chip in incremental system updates. Well that makes a tiny bit of sense to my reasoning... but why severely gimp the system and let the first impression of the system take an unfavourable hit?
To make things even more interesting Wii U owners have also reported much more smoother gameplay in games like Batman: AC and AC3...placebo effect of some kind? Can any of you guys here confirm this?
Nintendo fanboys are probably clutching at straws here and spinning rumours after the unveiling of the XboxOne this week and the looming E3 event to make the Wii U seem more desirable.
Would be sneaky awesome though!
wiiu-hardware-heatsinkfan.jpg
sauce: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/article_history.php?article=Main.WiiU
 
It would be actually impossible to achieve those clocks with such a puny cooling system. 2ghz is nearly unheard of in overclocking without liquid or LN2 cooling.
 
jasong said:
It would be actually impossible to achieve those clocks with such a puny cooling system. 2ghz is nearly unheard of in overclocking without liquid or LN2 cooling.
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Who said anything about overclocking? It might have been underclocked until now. But I would also be surprised if that was truly the case.
 
Wyzak said:
Who said anything about overclocking? It might have been underclocked until now. But I would also be surprised if that was truly the case.
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Honestly, knowing Nintendo's given track record over all the years in the industry. They have NEVER pulled something so sneaky/devious like this in the past. Does this N64DD count?
All I'm saying is I don't think Nintendo have the capacity to have employed sneaky pre-emptive countermeasures to deviously obtain the upperhand against the competition. So it is HIGHLY unlikely even though I'd like it to be true.
Anyone own a Wii U here to clarify this?
 
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Glordit said:
Forgetting that Nintendo is all about gameplay and not graphics.
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For the discrepancy in graphics between the Wii U and PS4/Xbone this argument holds true I guess BUT the discrepancy in graphical power Nintendo allowed between the Wii and PS360 was totally unacceptable for me. It would've been okay if the Wii was capable of 720p resolution but 480p?? I was really bummed out by it.
What I'm trying to say is you can go on and say "it's all about the gameplay/mechanics and not graphics" that argument to an extent doesn't hold true for me. I expect Nintendo consoles to at least have acceptable (industry standard) graphical power and focus on gameplay.
(P.S some new. maybe mature IP wouldn't hurt as well)
 
Edelweiss said:
For the discrepancy in graphics between the Wii U and PS4/Xbone this argument holds true I guess BUT the discrepancy in graphical power Nintendo allowed between the Wii and PS360 was totally unacceptable for me. It would've been okay if the Wii was capable of 720p resolution but 480p?? I was really bummed out by it.
What I'm trying to say is you can go on and say "it's all about the gameplay/mechanics and not graphics" that argument to an extent doesn't hold true for me. I expect Nintendo consoles to at least have acceptable (industry standard) graphical power and focus on gameplay.
(P.S some new. maybe mature IP wouldn't hurt as well)
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I didn't care about the graphics for the Wii, and I assume 99.84 million other people did not bother either. Looking at launch prices the Wii was $249.99 where the PS3 was US$499, that shows that Nintendo wanted to put less powerful hardware in from the start to make it a affordable home entertainment system that people could buy, Nintendo never wanted to compete with the PS3 and XB360, on graphics capability, that was also a little obvious from the start.

As for the WiiU, the hardware looks unimpressive - but thats not to say that it can't hold it's own.

video_994.jpg


I just think developers need to work with the tools they have. They have a workshop to make awesome games they just need to know the limits of the WiiU and work around them.

As for Mature titles; Mad World, Metroid, Conduit, Red Steel, No More Hero's just off the top of my head, that had mature ratings, there are others as well that held a 15-18 Age restriction.
 
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I think its possible to clock up the CPU from 1.24GHz to 2.24Ghz, because it uses a IBM Power PC triple-core, same as the Xbox 360 and is manufactured by IBM. When you look at the chip itself, its puny compared to the GPU.

240px-Nintendo-Wii-U-MCM.jpg


The processor is the main chip on the lower right, the GPU is the massive one on the top left. Assuming that both are manufactured on the 45nm process with low leakage and high efficiency, a 1GHz overclock is possible. Going up to 3.0Ghz is a bit much but the PS3 and Xbox 360 both have PowerPC cores running above 3.0GHz. The 360 Slim actually runs pretty cool now after all the die shrinks and efficiency improvements.

As for the GPU a 250MHz improvement is also plausible, but given that its related to the Radeon HD6570/HD6670 I'm not actually that surprised. The HD6570 runs at 650MHz for reference designs and the HD6670 starts at 800MHz. Both are cool-running chips consuming relatively small amounts of power. I believe the Wii U is capable of some fantastic graphics, but its up to the developers to actually make use of the hardware and give us the games we want.

Edit: I just looked up some efficiency and heat numbers for the HD6570 and HD6670 done by Tom's Hardware.

Power.png

Temp.png


Yeah, 1.24Ghz and 550MHz to 2.24GHz and 800MHz is plausible without increasing heat to an unmanageable level. The only physical advantage the HD6670 had was the better cooler.
 
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Wesley said:
I think its possible to clock up the CPU from 1.24GHz to 2.24Ghz, because it uses a IBM Power PC triple-core, same as the Xbox 360 and is manufactured by IBM. When you look at the chip itself, its puny compared to the GPU.

240px-Nintendo-Wii-U-MCM.jpg


The processor is the main chip on the lower right, the GPU is the massive one on the top left. Assuming that both are manufactured on the 45nm process with low leakage and high efficiency, a 1GHz overclock is possible. Going up to 3.0Ghz is a bit much but the PS3 and Xbox 360 both have PowerPC cores running above 3.0GHz. The 360 Slim actually runs pretty cool now after all the die shrinks and efficiency improvements.

As for the GPU a 250MHz improvement is also plausible, but given that its related to the Radeon HD6570/HD6670 I'm not actually that surprised. The HD6570 runs at 650MHz for reference designs and the HD6670 starts at 800MHz. Both are cool-running chips consuming relatively small amounts of power. I believe the Wii U is capable of some fantastic graphics, but its up to the developers to actually make use of the hardware and give us the games we want.

Edit: I just looked up some efficiency and heat numbers for the HD6570 and HD6670 done by Tom's Hardware.

Power.png

Temp.png


Yeah, 1.24Ghz and 550MHz to 2.24GHz and 800MHz is plausible without increasing heat to an unmanageable level. The only physical advantage the HD6670 had was the better cooler.
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were the ps360 cpu + gpu on the same die though? Surely with the cpu + gpu being on the same die it's just gonna produce that much more heat? Will that heatsink and fan be able to cope with that localised heat?
 
1GHZ is doable. 2ghz is stretching it a bit though. It still seems like an odd kind of strategy, deliberately crippling the console at launch when it had the latent ability to clock much higher.
 
Edelweiss said:
were the ps360 cpu + gpu on the same die though? Surely with the cpu + gpu being on the same die it's just gonna produce that much more heat? Will that heatsink and fan be able to cope with that localised heat?
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Yes, the Xenon CPU and Xenos GPU were integrated into the "Trinity" revision of the 360 back in 2010, creating the first commercially shipping APU partly designed by AMD. The PS3's CPU and GPU are still separate even after many revisions. Having to dissipate heat off an APU isn't that hard if its not as concentrated as Ivy Bridge, which packs everything together so tightly that heat production is higher than Sandy Bridge.
 
Edelweiss said:
Honestly, knowing Nintendo's given track record over all the years in the industry. They have NEVER pulled something so sneaky/devious like this in the past. Does this N64DD count?
All I'm saying is I don't think Nintendo have the capacity to have employed sneaky pre-emptive countermeasures to deviously obtain the upperhand against the competition. So it is HIGHLY unlikely even though I'd like it to be true.
Anyone own a Wii U here to clarify this?
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I have a Wii U and it's already been updated, but I haven't been able to play anything to actually see if I notice a difference. I also haven't played anything with a bad frame rate either to test...
 
http://www.mweb.co.za/games/ViewNew...72/WiiU-UK-sales-up-post-Xbox-One-Reveal.aspx

WiiU sales have seen a massive bump in purchases on Amazon.co.uk following the disappointing Xbox One reveal.

The online retail giant's "Movers & Shakers" page, which tracks and ranks items according to how well they're selling, had the Wii U ranked at number 390 before the reveal. Since the Xbox One's outing, Nintendo's lasted game console has - at the time of writing - moved to number 9 for items labeled under PC & Video Games.
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Dragonic said:
Holy crap... that jump... hope the rank translates as well as it sounds.
Time will tell.
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The only thing wrong with the WiiU is the games they don't have at the moment, I would buy one tomorrow but there is nothing that is catching my eye.

The eShop seems to have nice N64 and Wii titles but I want WiiU titles too.
 
Glordit said:
The only thing wrong with the WiiU is the games they don't have at the moment, I would buy one tomorrow but there is nothing that is catching my eye.

The eShop seems to have nice N64 and Wii titles but I want WiiU titles too.
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Yeah same... The only games standing out is ZombiU and Nintendo Land(I dunno but this looks fun as hell)
dunno what's currently in the eShop will have to have a look. Coz I know the 3DS eShop is full of awesomeness.

Edit: upon a quick glance I see Nano Assault Neo, Mighty Switch Force and maybe Bit Trip Runner that I would be interested in.
 
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The next game that I will pick-up will be Nintendo land in all likelihood, but I'm just not willing to spend R499 or R599 on that at the moment. Fortunately for me I have all of my Wii games to keep me busy until then.
 
Wii U upcoming games I like:

Pikmin3
Wind Waker HD <3
New Smash Bros
RE: Revelations
New Super Luigi U
Bayonetta 2
 
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