With the Wii U now out in the US, a number of people have been tearing the unit apart to figure out what makes it tick. The comparisons, however, seem to be centered on the CPU. While Nintendo will not talk about the clock speed of its CPU, it is becoming apparent that while this CPU is stronger and more powerful than what was in the Wii, it simply is slower when compared to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

What we don’t know yet is how much the slower CPU will hamper the development of software for the platform, or if it is possible to dynamically control the CPU clock speed as some have suggested, which could yield better on-demand performance, but we doubt it.

The decision is clearly a money saving move by Nintendo, and so far we have not seen anything that makes us think that the system is hampered by the choice in a very negative way. So far, the CPU appears to be up to the task, but long term evidence suggests it could struggle.