E3 Rumor: Powerful Wii HD with HD Controller

[old_newbie]

[citation][nom]4745454b[/nom]Why would I want a screen on the controller? I need to be looking at the screen, not my hands. [/citation]

I disagree about needing to only look at the big screen.

Imagine playing a driving game where you actually check your location on a live map/gps on your controller...while your car is still being chased. Or you have to manually reload your "weapon" by dragging and dropping bullets on the controller touchscreen, but the zombies are still attacking you. Or even in-game characters sending information, clues, and pictures to your controller which is acting as a portable data device in the game (ala Doom III).

IMHO All these could possibly add MORE interaction/realizm to a game...that is, if the rumor is true.

 

[nottheking]

[citation][nom]alextheblue[/nom]Anyway, nottheking, I think that's a rather odd combination of CPU and GPU. 4-8 relatively powerful PPC cores, with a 320 shader-equipped GPU? Even a 6570 has 480 shaders.[/citation]
Keep in mind that PC GPUs are geared toward a wide range of possible resolutions, with high-end ones by now assumed to be spanning multiple displays. Consoles, on the other hand, need never pass 1920x1080.

This works well, as one must also remember that the traditional bottleneck for graphics performance on a console comes from its memory bandwidth: both the 360 and PS3 had to stick with a 128-bit interface, both to keep the number of chips down, as well as to keep the motherboard from being overly complex. Remember that while a graphics card is only part of a PC's PCB surface, if you need extra layers in a console, that covers the entire motherboard, and hence jacks up the cost in ways that will never go down.