The 8th Generation of Gaming- Predict Your Specs For Project Cafe!!!

The eighth generation of gaming aproaches, as Nintendo gets ready to launch its successor to the Wii console next year. Codenamed Project Cafe, the system has been the source for many rumors and speculations, all of which peg it to have some rather outlandish features. Curiously enough, most of these rumors do nottalk about the system's specs or power all that much at all.

So let's fill the void- predict your specs for Project Cafe! We'll see which of us were able to anticipate the eighth generation of gaming best, when E3 rolls around and we know for sure!

It's more of a catch up to the current gen. Slightly more powerful then ps3/360.

From Kotaku:

• –GPUWii 2′s GPU will be a modified version of AMD's R700 architecture.

• –CPUThe CPU will be a custom-designed triple-core version of the IBM PowerPC chipset.

• –VisualsProject Cafe will run in 1080p, and may be able to utilise Stereoscopic 3D, though it hasn't been confirmed as a feature.

• –Size & DesignThe console will be around the same size as the first-gen Xbox 360, and may be designed to look like a futuristic looking Super Nintendo.

• –PriceSay goodbye to Nintendo having the "budget" console: Project Cafe may cost between 350 and 400 dollars.

• –Release DateSupposedly, the Cafe itself could be ready to ship from the manufacturer to retailers as soon as mid-to-late October, but in order to give developers more time with the new hardware, Nintendo may not launch the console until early 2012.

main source.

good enough for me to buy and play my favorite Nintendo franchises.

512 MHz Processor.

251MB RAM.

Voodoo 2 8MB Graphics Processing Unit.

So all in all, twice as powerful as this generation's consoles. :P

[spoiler] [/spoiler]

4gb of ram

1gb GPU

i5 processor

I'm not kidding.

perhaps something like this :P

Cafe wont be 8th gen system. Everyone knows that.

perhaps something like this :P

metal_zombie

Or in other words:

from what I've read it will have 2gb of sometype of RAM. dont know what exacty & 512mb of dedicated VRAM. Then u have all those R700 & tri core rumors aswell. idk. aslong as it is able to kinda keep up once the next xbox & PS come out ill be happy. Afterall how much more realistic can u make cartoon characters? i kid i kid :P

from what I've read it will have 2gb of sometype of RAM.painguy1

[QUOTE="painguy1"]from what I've read it will have 2gb of sometype of RAM.Cherokee_Jack

4GB would sound fake to me. 2GB is believable IMO. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw the other consoles have 8gb next gen.

[QUOTE="Cherokee_Jack"][QUOTE="painguy1"]from what I've read it will have 2gb of sometype of RAM.painguy1

4GB would sound fake to me. 2GB is believable IMO. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw the other consoles have 8gb next gen.

depends on the type of RAM. For instance 2GB of DDR3 is dirt cheap. Its 10 bucks for 1GB. But consoles never use the same RAM that PC does if I'm correct. No excuses to have less than 2GB.

Also 8th generation of gaming started in 2007 with Crysis :P

[QUOTE="painguy1"]

[QUOTE="Cherokee_Jack"] Oh Goddamn. That alone would make a huge difference. Sounds super fake.ChubbyGuy40

4GB would sound fake to me. 2GB is believable IMO. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw the other consoles have 8gb next gen.

depends on the type of RAM. For instance 2GB of DDR3 is dirt cheap. Its 10 bucks for 1GB. But consoles never use the same RAM that PC does if I'm correct. No excuses to have less than 2GB.

Also 8th generation of gaming started in 2007 with Crysis :P

"from what I've read it will have 2gb of sometype of RAM." kinda already pointed that out...still regardless of type, 8GB is 8GB & 2GB is 2GB.

[QUOTE="painguy1"]from what I've read it will have 2gb of sometype of RAM.Cherokee_Jack

I think it will be more powerful than many are assuming. I keep hearing people say that it will be no more powerful than the PS3 or 360. I predict this will not be the case.

My reasoning is this: if Nintendo is trying to win back the hardcore and get more 3rd party support, as the rumors suggest, then launching a console that is merely as powerful as the HD consoles would defeat the purpose. Sure, it would allow their new console to run the same multiplats as the 360 and PS3, but what happens when a year or two later the new Xbox and Playstation come out and are several times more powerful? Nintendo would end up exactly in the same position as they are now.

So I see only three possibilities:

1. The rumors about Nintendo wanting to win back the hardcore gamers and get more 3rd party support are false.

2. Project Cafe will in fact be quite a bit more powerful than the PS3 or 360.

3. Nintendo is really dumb and can't forsee the most obvious outcomes.

The first option doesn't seem very likely because Nintendo has been very successful with the casual gamers this generation and it seems very reasonable that they would want to win back the core gamers to create a more well rounded platform. The third option is absurd because Nintendo have been in this business for a long time and you don't get to that level of success without foresight and being business savvy. That leaves possibility number 2 as the most likely.

Then again, maybe Nintendo is banking on the idea that Microsft and Sony won't release a new console for several more years, in which case releasing an HD Wii might be seen as a valid strategy. For awhile, at least, the Wii HD probably would win back some hardcore gamers. Being able to play Super Mario Galaxy 3 and Modern Warfare 3 on the same console would probably be pretty attractive for a lot of gamers.

Another thing to consider is the fact that both Sony and Microsoft have expressed intentions to keep their current consoles on the market well after their successors have launched. The interesting thing about this is that if Project Cafe does turn out to be merely as powerful as the HD twins it would mean that there would be 3 viable lower-spec platforms in the market alongside the more advanced next gen consoles from Sony and Microsoft. 3 platforms with large install bases would be too much for developers to ignore and they would likely release scaled down versions of their multiplatform games on those 3 platforms. The PS4 and Xbox 3 might get the much nicer looking versions, but at least the Nintendo console wouldn't be missing out on so many multiplatform games as the Wii did this generation.

It's simply not worth it for most developers to totally restructure their games in order for them to function on the much weaker Wii hardware. Especially since 3rd party games haven't sold particularly well on the Wii in most cases. But if there are 3 viable platforms at that level of performance it would clearly be worthwhile for developers to create scaled down versions of next gen multiplats for those platforms.

As a PC gamer I sincerly hope this doesn't happen, since it would mean that games would likely be held back even further. The only hope would be that the PS4 and Xbox 3 were so much more powerful than the curent systems that developers would instead opt to make completely different versions for the lower-powered consoles and therefor hopefully it wouldn't impact the game design of the more advanced versions. But if they try to use the same geometry and level design on all versions, and only use better textures, effects and lighting on the advanced versions then those lower-powered consoles would still be holding the games back.

Nevertheless, even though I hope that scenario doesn't come to pass, there are many reasons that I suspect it may.

This is why I hope that Nintendo are taking this 'win back the hardcore' thing seriously and Project Cafe turns out to be a good jump above the current HD consoles. While it almost certainly won't be as powerful as the next consoles from Sony and Microsoft, I hope that it will at least be significantly more powerful than any console out now.

What I assume it will be (practically speaking):

CPU - IBM Tri-Core PowerPC (probably Power6 derived) with 2 MB L2 Cache, two threads per core @ 3.2 GHz - Basically instant code portability between 360 and Wii 2, though the Wii 2's processor is much more powerful, especially with larger cache and out of order processing capability.

GPU - AMD RV730 (Radeon 4650/4670) @ 500 MHz w/ 320 Stream Units, 32 TMUs, 8 ROPs (320 GFLOPS Shader Array, 16 GTexels, 4 GPixels), 32 nm process. I can see the clock speed going much higher though. 65 nm Radeon 4670s were 750 MHz standard, giving them twice shader capability (480 GFLOPS) and thrice the texturing capability (24 GTexels) as the Xbox 360's Xenos. Pixel throughput would be 50% higher. At 32 nm, the power consumption would probably be under half at the same clock speeds. OpenCL capable if a developer really wants to do GPGPU functions.

RAM - 1 GB GDDR5 system RAM @ 1000 MHz (4 GHz effective) on 128 bit unified memory architecture. Plenty of bandwidth for the GPU and CPU (roughly 64 GB/s). While that amount would be ideal for just the GPU, it's still almost three times as much bandwidth as the 360's memory, so I think it would be an appropriate speed and amount of memory for a system made to be similar to the 360 and running games normally at 720p, but retaining 1080p capability, which the RV730 is pretty decently good at doing, especially the 4670.

Using similar graphics assets as the 360, there is no reason for my configuration to not run even the most graphically comprehensive 360 games at 60 FPS constant at 720p.

My ideal (within reason):

CPU - AMD Llano APU with 4 x86 cores @ ~2.4 GHz, 400 Radeon Stream Processors @ 500 MHz - Instant code portability between PC and Wii 2 being x86 and Radeon based. GPU core in the APU can be used for low power states and GPGPU functions via OpenCL. Would make an interesting comparison to general + specialized processors like Cell BE, though Llano should be considerably stronger in many areas, especially for general tasks. Things learned here can be directly implemented on the PC on AMD APUs.

GPU - AMD RV740 GPU (Radeon 4770) @ 500 MHz w/ 640 Stream Units, 32 TMUs, 16 ROPs (640 GLOPS Shader Array, 16 GTexels, 8 GPixels), 32 nm process. Real PC version of this GPU was clocked 750 MHz (960 GFLOPS, 24 GTexels, 12 GPixels) which effectively is three times as powerful as Xenos in shader array, texturing and 2.5 times in pixel pushing power on the back end. This is my dream GPU for the Wii 2, it's so comprehensively more powerful and is completely reasonable to expect this GPU to push even better graphics than the 360 does, get 2x MSAA and real 1080p output while staying close to 60 FPS.

RAM - Split pool memory system with dedicated 1 GB of GDDR5 @ 1000 MHz on a 128 bit bus to the GPU (64 GB/s) and 1 GB of GDDR5 @ 1000 MHz to the APU. 1 GB is a right amount for the RV740 at 1080p resolution, and at 64 GB/s, a good speed to take good advantage of it's capability. Upwards of 80 GB/s would be the ideal, but 64 is perfectly reasonable. I split the memory pools to keep the CPU and GPU from fighting for bandwidth. The APU would benefit from it's very fast 64 GB/s connection since the APU possesses two 64 bit memory controllers. Reason for going with 1 + 1 GB of GDDR5 instead of using 1 GB GDDR5 for VRAM, and let's say 1 GB DDR3 for SRAM, was 1) for bandwidth purposes (especially when the APU's graphics core + 4 x86 cores is of concern) 2) using the same memory across the entire system for bulk pricing, commonality for parts (for reducing specialization about what goes where). I'm almost wanting to double the system memory to 2 GB ( for 3 GB total), but considering 1 GB VRAM is overkill (arguably) for the RV740, the extra space can be used to store more visual data instead of storing it in system memory only to load it into VRAM a bit later.

*huge wall of text*

kalipekona

Good post Kalipekona. ^^ I agree. Nintendo needs to release a powerhorse if they want to stay competetive when Sony and Microsoft release their new systems.

if nintendo are smart they are gonna go with AMD's APU. Leaked specs about those apu's indicate among others a quad core CPU with 400stream processors which means something in the lines of a 6550/6570 when comes to the GPU and a decent quad core CPU and all that within 65W TDP. This machine will allow them 720p and in some less demanding games maybe even 1080p ( unreal engine games )adamosmaki

I predict the next Nintendo won't be very impressive in terms of hardware and barely a half step towards the next generation (similar to the Dreamcast).KC_Hokie

I agree with you that the next Nintendo will be similar to Dreamcast for its generation in terms of specs. But remember that Dreamcast was regular 6th gen console that surpassed N64 and PS1 by a HUGE margin while PS2 wasnt that much more powerful.

And thats exactly what Nintendo will be. I really dont understand the people posting its rumored specs (particulary R700 gpu) and than stating that it will be only slightly more powerfull. Come on, its ATI RADEON HD 4850 vs GeForce 7800 GT basically, and thats a HUGE difference.

GPU: AMD Moblie GPU (similar to the R700 architecture)
CPU: ARM Mobile Quad-Core Processor
RAM: 1 GB to 2 GB
Memory: 8 GB built-in Flash Memory (with options for additional SD and USB Flash storage)
Disc: 25 GB blue laser disc (will not be compatible with Blu-Ray discs)

Reasoning: Shigeru Miyamoto stated that the next console would be smaller than the Wii. With these specs, Nintendo would be able to make a system with comparable specs to the 360 and PS3 while at the same time create a console that is cheap to produce and less power-hungry than competing platforms.

I predict the next Nintendo won't be very impressive in terms of hardware and barely a half step towards the next generation (similar to the Dreamcast).KC_Hokie

Actually the Dreamcast was a pretty big step up from PS1 and N64. If the new console will be anything like the Dreamcast that's good news (except it shouldn't flop like the DC did :P ).

[QUOTE="KC_Hokie"]I predict the next Nintendo won't be very impressive in terms of hardware and barely a half step towards the next generation (similar to the Dreamcast).BlbecekBobecek

I agree with you that the next Nintendo will be similar to Dreamcast for its generation in terms of specs. But remember that Dreamcast was regular 6th gen console that surpassed N64 and PS1 by a HUGE margin while PS2 wasnt that much more powerful.

And thats exactly what Nintendo will be. I really dont understand the people posting its rumored specs (particulary R700 gpu) and than stating that it will be only slightly more powerfull. Come on, its ATI RADEON HD 4850 vs GeForce 7800 GT basically, and thats a HUGE difference.

[QUOTE="BlbecekBobecek"]

[QUOTE="KC_Hokie"]I predict the next Nintendo won't be very impressive in terms of hardware and barely a half step towards the next generation (similar to the Dreamcast).osan0

I agree with you that the next Nintendo will be similar to Dreamcast for its generation in terms of specs. But remember that Dreamcast was regular 6th gen console that surpassed N64 and PS1 by a HUGE margin while PS2 wasnt that much more powerful.

And thats exactly what Nintendo will be. I really dont understand the people posting its rumored specs (particulary R700 gpu) and than stating that it will be only slightly more powerfull. Come on, its ATI RADEON HD 4850 vs GeForce 7800 GT basically, and thats a HUGE difference.

IGNs "trusted sources" said it will be around Radeon HD 4850 in performance (that means top notch). It wouldnt surprise me at all since using a bit older proven architecture with high end specs was exactly what Sony and Microsoft did when they released 360 and PS3 back in 2005/6.

As far as I know Nintendo's next console is just a souped up 360 with about 512mb - 1gig of Ram. To be successful I believe that Nintendo needs to add at least 2gigs of Ram to this new beast and offer a more plausible solution than current for an on-line network. In my opinion they should consider looking at XBL for stimulus like Sony did, I believe that without a decent on-line network Nintendo's new console won't be able to compete with the 360 or PS3 and won't be taken too seriously.

As far as I know Nintendo's next console is just a souped up 360 with about 512mb - 1gig of Ram. To be successful I believe that Nintendo needs to add at least 2gigs of Ram to this new beast and offer a more plausible solution than current for an on-line network. In my opinion they should consider looking at XBL for stimulus like Sony did, I believe that without a decent on-line network Nintendo's new console won't be able to compete with the 360 or PS3 and won't be taken too seriously.

AnxietyAttack

Link or something? Because you clearly know it wrong.

[QUOTE="AnxietyAttack"]

As far as I know Nintendo's next console is just a souped up 360with about 512mb - 1gig of Ram. To be successful I believe that Nintendo needs to add at least 2gigs of Ram to this new beast and offer a more plausible solution than current for an on-line network. In my opinion they should consider looking at XBL for stimulus like Sony did, I believe that without a decent on-line network Nintendo's new console won't be able to compete with the 360 or PS3 and won't be taken too seriously.

BlbecekBobecek

Link or something? Because you clearly know it wrong.

[QUOTE="BlbecekBobecek"]

[QUOTE="AnxietyAttack"]

As far as I know Nintendo's next console is just a souped up 360with about 512mb - 1gig of Ram. To be successful I believe that Nintendo needs to add at least 2gigs of Ram to this new beast and offer a more plausible solution than current for an on-line network. In my opinion they should consider looking at XBL for stimulus like Sony did, I believe that without a decent on-line network Nintendo's new console won't be able to compete with the 360 or PS3 and won't be taken too seriously.

AnxietyAttack

Link or something? Because you clearly know it wrong.

I did, thats why I know you are wrong with the "souped up 360" part. ;)

I agree with the online part though - and there is no doubt Nintendo will work on its online in 8th gen.

[QUOTE="osan0"][QUOTE="BlbecekBobecek"]

I agree with you that the next Nintendo will be similar to Dreamcast for its generation in terms of specs. But remember that Dreamcast was regular 6th gen console that surpassed N64 and PS1 by a HUGE margin while PS2 wasnt that much more powerful.

And thats exactly what Nintendo will be. I really dont understand the people posting its rumored specs (particulary R700 gpu) and than stating that it will be only slightly more powerfull. Come on, its ATI RADEON HD 4850 vs GeForce 7800 GT basically, and thats a HUGE difference.

BlbecekBobecek

IGNs "trusted sources" said it will be around Radeon HD 4850 in performance (that means top notch). It wouldnt surprise me at all since using a bit older proven architecture with high end specs was exactly what Sony and Microsoft did when they released 360 and PS3 back in 2005/6.

Pentium 3 800mhz

256 SD RAM

64MB graphic card

[QUOTE="BlbecekBobecek"]

[QUOTE="KC_Hokie"]I predict the next Nintendo won't be very impressive in terms of hardware and barely a half step towards the next generation (similar to the Dreamcast).osan0

I agree with you that the next Nintendo will be similar to Dreamcast for its generation in terms of specs. But remember that Dreamcast was regular 6th gen console that surpassed N64 and PS1 by a HUGE margin while PS2 wasnt that much more powerful.

And thats exactly what Nintendo will be. I really dont understand the people posting its rumored specs (particulary R700 gpu) and than stating that it will be only slightly more powerfull. Come on, its ATI RADEON HD 4850 vs GeForce 7800 GT basically, and thats a HUGE difference.

no one siad anything about a faster version of the PowerPC in the 360. They just siad a custom tricore PowerPC. That could mean anything

Pentium 3 800mhz

256 SD RAM

64MB graphic card

EZs

Sounds more like what the next Xbox will have ;)

[QUOTE="osan0"][QUOTE="BlbecekBobecek"] the R700 scales from a 4890 with 800 stream processors to the 4350 with just 80. dont assume ninty are going to go with the best version of the r700. this is unlikely. my speculation on specs. - well rumours say a faster version of the 360 CPU so..well a 360 CPU with a bit more cache running at around 3.7GHz. - 1GB of unified ram. hard to say the type though...ninty always find the craziest ram :P. they will be looking for somethign with low latency and high bandwidth. - roughly a 4650 in terms of GPU. 320 stream processors. however i think ninty may request the DX11 tesselator to be added rather than the one in the standard 4750 (which is basically the 360s tesselator). there may also be some optimisations added for ATI stream so that devs can use GPGPU for stuff also in their games. clocked at around 600MHz -12X blu-ray based drive with 25GB discs as standard. i dont think blu-ray movie playback will be supported out of the box though. there may be a codec pack released on the wii2store however for those who do want it. -8Gb internal storage. im hoping for a HDD as standard also but i dont think its going to happen. there will be support for SD cards though. lets just hope its not like on the wii :S. - if there really is a screen on every controller then its going to need some serious wireless networking kit to get up to 4 video streams out flawlessly. itll probably be a custom system..not using much in the way of standard wireless protocols. - 802.11g for connecting to wireless networks also. not N for cost reasons. hopefully itll also have an ethernet port. - in terms of its size i dont think its going to be as big as the first 360. what kotaku are talking about may well be development kits rather than retail hardware. the final version i think will be roughly as big as a GC. maybe it bit wider to accomodate full sized discs. thats roughly is what i think were looking at for the wii2. the GPU may have even fewer stream processors so dont be surprised at that (though i dont think itll go down to 80) and ram may also be down to around 768MB. assuming those specs are about right i would like it to sell at 300 at launch (being realistic here...ninty like profit on the hardware) but i think around 350 is more likely.painguy1

no one siad anything about a faster version of the PowerPC in the 360. They just siad a custom tricore PowerPC. That could mean anything

Like the Xbox 360, the system's CPU will be a custom-built triple-core IBM PowerPC chipset, but the clocking speeds will be faster.IGN

Everyone believes that Nintendo will likely use GDDR5 memory for Cafe. It fits Nintendo's style, certainly, but what about using improved GDDR3 memory? It could be faster than the 360's memory, and there would likely be more of it in the system than there would be if GDDR5 RAM was used.

I know very little about RAM, and I'm sure Nintendo would rather use 1gb of GDDR5 memory, but could it bea possibility that a GDDR3 piece is used again?

-1.5 gb ram ddr3 @ ~800 (consoles keep ram slow for heat reasons)

-768 mb vram gdrr3 (lowers cost and ram size on the chip)

-quad core @ 3.2 (its gonna be good at doing a single process and not multitasking like a pcs)

-Relative gpu performance to a 5770 (all i can say is they better have dx11 support)

I Heard fromsearching aroundthat it has better graphics how much better im unsure, Cost around $350-$400, its gonna be based around/off of a revamped version of AMD's R700, it also might also represent a modernized Super Nintendo... BEST PART we see it at E3, 2nd best part theres a rumor that Super Smash Bros is coming out for it

-1.5 gb ram ddr3 @ ~800 (consoles keep ram slow for heat reasons)

-768 mb vram gdrr3 (lowers cost and ram size on the chip)

-quad core @ 3.2 (its gonna be good at doing a single process and not multitasking like a pcs)

-Relative gpu performance to a 5770 (all i can say is they better have dx11 support)

edinsftw

If they are smart....

4 core CPU 2MB of cache

Hybrid Radeon HD 6970 from a laptop.

2GB of RAM

Standard HDD