Well-known hacker Marcan, who played a part in hacking the PS3, has found out the clock speed of the Wii U. It’s surprising how slow it is, and I’m actually having troubles even thinking that Nintendo went with something like that. It’s a well known fact that the PS3’s Cell and Xbox 360’s Xenon run at 3.0 GHZ each per core, but the Wii U CPU runs at 1.243125 GHz per core.
“It’s a Three PowerPC 750 type cores (similar to Wii’s Broadway, but more cache),” tweeted Marcan.
One interesting thing he has revealed is that the Wii U is easier to hack, akin to the Wii. He tweeted that they are “calling the WiiU security processor the Starbuck (vs. Starlet on Wii). And it seems to be about equally vulnerable, too.”
He has also revealed the GPU speed of the Wii U, which runs at 549.999755MHz.
Now these are quite lower than the ones found in the PS3 and Xbox 360, and I honestly can’t believe what I’m reading here.
Most third-party games so far on the Wii U have been professionally examined to be running slower than their PS3 and Xbox 360 counterparts. Games like Black Ops 2, Mass Effect 3 and even Batman: Arkham City have problems when it comes to maintaining a steady frame rate.
@0xabad1dea we're calling the WiiU security processor the Starbuck (vs. Starlet on Wii). And it seems to be about equally vulnerable, too.
— Hector Martin (@marcan42) November 29, 2012
@digitalfoundry 1.243125GHz, exactly. 3 PowerPC 750 type cores (similar to Wii's Broadway, but more cache). GPU core at 549.999755MHz.
— Hector Martin (@marcan42) November 29, 2012
Last week we had reported that the Wii U’s RAM is a certain percentage lower than the PS3 and Xbox 360. You can read the article over here. Many developers like 4A Games have claimed that Wii U’s CPU is horrible (that’s got to hurt) whereas Tecmo believes that it is less powerful compared to the PS3 and Xbox 360.
What do you guys think? Will a slower CPU/GPU clock speed matter when you decide whether or not to purchase a Wii U or will you wait for other next generation consoles i.e. the PlayStation 4 or Xbox 720? Let us know in the comments section below.
We will keep you updated, stay tuned.