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Nintendo Wii U console shown off in its bright, minimalistic entirety
Nintendo hasn't been too keen on letting us mere mortals stroke the Wii U, as no amount of coins could unlock the console's cabinet at E3. Surprisingly though, Inside Games managed to get up close and personal to this white box outside its little cave, and then came home alive with a few clear shots. Mind you, there's hardly anything exciting here: we're just gazing at some air vents on the side and back, plus a few ports -- including HDMI -- on the latter. As pointed out by our brethren over at Joystiq, only time will tell whether this curvy Wii U will come with an attachment to imitate its predecessor's vertical standing. Check out the backside after the break.
Wii U has last-gen Radeon inside, still more advanced than PS3 and Xbox 360
Slowly, but surely, we're starting to piece together what's going on inside that mysterious white box known as the Wii U. IBM was a little coy about the multi-core CPU it was providing, but did tantalize us by mentioning the name "Watson" in describing some of its underlying tech. Now details about the custom Radeon GPU are starting to surface and, while certainly capable, it's not exactly cutting edge. At its heart is a chip similar to the R770 found in AMD's last-gen cards like the 4890 and, before you dismiss it, remember the PS3 and Xbox 360 are still capable of pumping out impressive visuals while packing five-year-old silicon (The 360 is essentially running a souped up ATI X1900). The custom core also supports Direct X 10.1 (Microsoft runs out of steam with Direct X 9) and Eyefinity-like multi-display tech for up to four SD video streams -- though it'll be up to Nintendo and developers to put that to good use. In case you're still not convinced of the Wii U's graphical prowess, Crytek has said its advanced CryEngine is "pretty much" up and running on Nintendo's upcoming console -- and, if it's good enough for Crysis, it should be good enough for you.
AMD announces ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 series graphics chips
NVIDIA has already given its laptop graphics offerings a bit of a boost at CES, and now AMD has followed suit, with it taking the wraps off its new ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4000 series chips. As you may have guessed, these are based on the same core architecture as AMD's 4000 series of desktop graphics cards, and they promise to be as much as twice as fast as their 3000 series predecessors. Helping out significantly on that front is the use of GDDR5 memory, a first for laptop graphics, as well as an increase in the number of stream processing units (800 on the top end HD 4870 and 4850), and a new, cooler 55nm manufacturing process. In addition to those top end graphics options, AMD will also introduce a couple of new 4600 series cards, which use the same GDDR3 memory and 320 stream processing units as before, but are able to fit in tighter enclosures and use less power. Look for the first laptops equipped with the graphics to start rolling out by the end of March.
Legion Hardware offers advice for building the best Crossfire rig
Choosing the right graphics card / chipset combo to give you the most bang for the buck is always tricky business, and even moreso when you're looking to get the most out of some brand new hardware like AMD's Radeon HD 4000 series cards. Thankfully, the folks at Legion Hardware have now stepped in to help out a bit, although, as is often the case, it's not entirely a clear cut choice. If it's a bargain you're looking for though (relatively speaking), it seems like pairing an ASUS P45 motherboard with a couple of Radeon HD 4850 graphics cards (for a total of about $550) will give you enough performance to impress all but the most demanding gamer. If you want to push those benchmarks as far as possible, however, you'll have to go up to an ASUS X48 board, although even the folks at Legion Hardware question whether the mere 5% performance gain is worth the extra cost. If you want to make your own decision though, you can hit up the link below and dig through the numbers yourself.[Via PC Perspective]
ATI Radeon HD 4870 graphics card gets official
Just five days after ATI fessed up with an official release of its Radeon HD 4850, along comes a similar announcement for the just-leaked Radeon HD 4870. This dual-slot beast is finally being outed on the record, and at the very least, Diamond Multimedia's version will come stocked with 512MB of DDR5 memory, a clock speed of 725 MHz, 900MHz memory speed and 800 stream processors. The unit also provides CrossFireX upgradeability and should be available here soon from your favorite online retailer.
RV770-based AMD Radeon HD 4850 gets benchmarked
Judging by the fact that AMD tipped the whole world off to its upcoming RV770-based GPUs earlier this week, we don't suppose it'll be too upset that a 512MB MSI Radeon HD 4850 happened to land a little early in the PC Perspective labs. Design wise, there's nothing too out of the ordinary -- a single-slot cooler design, twin dual-link DVI ports, single 6-pin PCIe power connector and one goofy looking monster that you'll never see again once this thing gets installed. Care to see how it fared when facing the pressures of modern day gaming? You know where to look.
