Nintendo: Wii U GPU “more pronounced” than CPU, but CPU not weak
The Wii U GPU was another item brought up by an investor at Nintendo’s financial results briefing earlier this week.
Developers have praised Wii U’s memory in the past, but some have wondered if the console’s architecture focuses too much on GPU. Shigeru Miyamoto, Satoru Iwata, and Genyo Takeda all responded to this topic at the Q&A session of Nintendo’s investors meeting.
Takeda’s comments were, perhaps, most enlightening. He admitted that the GPU is “more pronounced” than the Wii U’s CPU, but said those who claim the CPU is weak are incorrect.
Read on below for the full comments from Miyamoto, Iwata, and Takeda.
Miyamoto: For High End graphics there is a hurdle, since we have to reeducate our people. The development itself hasn’t changed but we are recruiting specialists that can become core members in each specialized area. External Developers are used to shader techniques and we are collaborating a lot with external companies nowadays so we have a very good development structure.
Iwata: Every gaming hardware has its specialties. There is a timing of hit and miss before the functions can be used fully. We were not able to provide development kits that get out all the power of Wii U until mid of last year. With other gaming consoles firms had 6 to 7 years to experiment but our console has a different balance so it is easy to see who has adapted and who hasn’t. However this is something time will heal so we are not too worried.
Takeda: Wii U is a machine that has a lot of performance compared to its power consumption. The GPU is definitely more pronounced than the CPU. There are people saying that the CPU is weak but that is not true. It is a trend that the cash memory is what’s getting bigger with CPUs, not the processing power. I do not think at the CPU is underpowered. Its just a design where the memory is more stressed.
