June 19, 2015 - The WAN Show Document

[LinusTech]

 

Soundcloud Link: https://soundcloud.com/thewanshow/the-wan-show-r9-fury-x-unveiled-did-xbox-win-e3-june-19-2015

 

Main News Topics

E3 news (focus on PC impact) [PC Gamer]

Source 1: linustechtips.com - pcgamer almost every game at e3 2015 and OP: Mec 777

Source 2: pcgamer.com/every-game-at-e3-2015-and-its-pc-outlook/

• Dishonored 2 - 15 years after the first game, 2 assassins available to play, whole new city, coming Spring 2016

• DOOM - gorier than ever, looks pretty awesome, coming Spring 2016

• The Elder Scrolls: Legends - collectible card game similar to Hearthstone, coming later this year, free to play (microtransactions for card packs and possibly game modes assumed)

• Fallout 4 - it’s like Fallout 3, but newer! Collector’s edition comes with a real-life pip boy release November 10, 2015 (also released a mobile game, Fallout Shelter)

• Dark Souls 3 - said to be the “final episode,” coming early 2016

• Ion - new game from Dean Hall (DayZ), MMO survival game about space colonization, release TBD

• Rise of the Tomb Raider - Xbone exclusive for a limited time, possibly PC version later, set to release Holiday season 2015

• Mass Effect Andromeda - new galaxy, long after the events of the original trilogy, coming Holiday season 2016

• Rainbow Six Siege - not new (closed alpha has already happened), coming out October 13, 2015

• Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst - open, seamless world, coming out February 23, 2016

• Star Wars Battlefront - gameplay was shown at E3 conferences, coming out November 17, 2015

• South Park: The Fractured But Whole - developed by Ubisoft rather than Obsidian (Stick of Truth developer), coming to PC, tons of butthole jokes, no release date set

• The Division - finally has a release date, March 8, 2016, coming to PC, not a whole lot of other news

• Ghost Recon Wildlands - I (Nick) think this game looks SICK, open world, follows the usual Ubisoft style like Fallout (except you’re battling a drug cartel) etc., no release date

• Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate - based in Britain, October 23, 2015 (though the PC version will probably come out later)

• No Man’s Sky - space exploration, can get out of your ship to explore planets and battle local inhabitants and guardians, “huge game,” coming to PC, no release date yet

• Hitman - coming to PC December 8, 2015, has been stated that all DLC will be FREE

• Firewatch - wilderness exploration game, looks like an interesting title, coming to PC, no release date yet

• The Last Guardian - successor to Shadow of the Collossus, long thought to be dead, confirmed this year that it isn’t. Graphics haven’t improved much since last showcase in 2009

• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - two years after the events of Human Revolution, coming out early 2016

• Gears of War: Ultimate Edition - coming to PC, will feature visual improvements, 4K support, DirectX 12 support, and no framerate locking

• Planet Coaster - spiritual successor to RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, being developed by Frontier Developments, the same guys that did Elite: Dangerous, no release date yet

• Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - coming out September 15, final Metal Gear Solid game with Kojima at the helm

• XCOM 2 - only available on PC, coming out in November

• Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void - Blizzard announced Whispers of Oblivion, a free three-mission mini-series designed to bridge the gap between HotS and Legacy of the Void, Whispers of Oblivion enters beta next month, no mention of Legacy of the Void release date

South Korea world’s fastest LTE

Source 1: linustechtips.com - south korea world%E2%80%99s fastest lte 1 OP: Ahhming

Source 2: koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20150615000893

• Announced by South Korea’s largest telecommunications firm, KT Corp.

• called the GiGA LTE

• combines the current Long Term Evolution networks with Wi-Fi connections.

• offers a maximum download speed of 1.17 Gbps --15 times faster than the existing LTE and four times faster than the tri-band LTE-Advanced

• upload speed 10 times faster than that of the tri-band broadband LTE-A.

• The GiGA LTE is expected to help gain a competitive edge in the race by bringing the 5G network first to the Korean market.

• S6 & S6 Edge already compatible - Around five to six more high-end and mid-end Samsung handsets, compatible with the GiGA LTE, will be released in the latter half of this year along with some LG Electronics handsets

Broadwell i7 5775C Gaming Performance on par with Haswell

Source 1: linustechtips.com - broadwell i7 5775c gaming performance on OP: Magetank

Source 2: maximumpc.com/intel-broadwell-dt-core-i7-5775c-review/

• Spec table in source 2.

• 2 desktop options and 3 non-socketed desktop options (intended for pre-built systems).

• Skylake expected August of this year.

  • Will support DDR4

  • New motherboards

  • New socket (LGA1151)

• They are equipping Broadwell-DT with the best graphics solution that intel offers.

  • Iris Pro Graphics 6200

  • Adequate for 1080p medium settings in most but not all games

• Codenamed Crystal Well (Where the C in the name comes from)

  • Although the suffix has changed from K to C. The multiplier is still unlocked.

    • Multiplier is now locked on the ‘R’ skew.

• If you use a discrete GPU the 128mb of the graphics RAM is turned into L4 cache.

  • Chip layout in source 2

• TDP dropped from 84W to 65W

• With overclocking on Broadwell, effectively giving us similar clock speeds, the story changes a bit. Thanks to architectural improvements and the 128MB eDRAM cache, the 4.2GHz Broadwell chip manages to outperform the i7-4790K by an average of 12 percent across all the above benchmarks.

• Graphics performance has improved drastically.

AT&T hit with $100 Million fine after "Throttling" Unlimited Data Customers

Source 1: linustechtips.com - att hit with 100 million fine after throt OP: Kingcry

Source 2: washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2015/06

• FCC (Federal Communications Commission) assessed the fine on June 17

• AT&T being accused of “improperly slowing down internet speeds for customers who had signed up for ‘unlimited’ data plans.”

• fine has been assessed due to the lack of transparency shown in this action

• “AT&T should have been upfront about the throttled speeds since the implemented practice back in 2011.”

• in October of 2014 the FCC sued AT&T due to an estimated 3.5 Million users having their Internet service slowed to dial up speeds on an average of 12 days a month

GSM to be discontinued by 2017?

Source 1: linustechtips.com/main/topic/387512-gsm-to-be-discontinued-by-2017/ OP: Wcreek

Source 2: pcworld.com - gsm switch off good news for phone users not for conne

• GSM - Global System for Mobile Communications

• ending GSM will free up more bandwidth for faster 3G and 4G network technologies

• will force users of old devices that depend on GSM to upgrade them

• will happen between the end of 2016 and the middle of 2017, depending on location

• most users will be unaffected as 3G and 4G phones will not experience any negative effects from the end of GSM

• machine to machine connections may be at risk like links to vehicles, alarms, vending machines, and other connected devices

• not all regions will be affected, so it is in your best interest to research and understand what your local carrier plans to do with GSM

Skylake reportedly to be unveiled at Gamescom in August

Source 1: linustechtips.com - skylake reportedly to be unveiled at games OP: Bouzoo

Source 2: digitimes.com/news/a20150618PD203.html

• Intel will announce the Core i7-6700K and Core i5-6600K as well as Z170 chipsets are expected to be unveiled in early August at Gamescom in Germany, initially targeting gamers.

• Intel will unveil its Skylake i7-6700/6700T, i5-6600, 6500, 6400, 6600T, 6500T and 6400T, and H170 and B150 chipsets between August 30-September 5.

• The H110 chipsets are scheduled to be released between September 27-October 3

• Q170 and Q150 chipsets are set for October or November.

• Most motherboard players will start announcing their 100-series-based motherboards on August 5.

• Notebook versions of Skylake processors are planned for the fourth quarter of 2015 and

• Intel's notebook reference design for the Skylake platform includes support for USB 3.1 Type-C ports.

Radeon R9 300 Series

Source 1: linustechtips.com - radeon r9 fury series is based on gcn 12 so OP: Zmeul

Source 2: guru3d.com - amd releases radeon r9 fury x details exclusive photos

Source 3: anandtech.com/show/9387/amd-radeon-300-series

• 300 series spec list in source 3.

• There are a few gaps in the lineup that AMD is almost certainly purposely leaving in place to give them something to announce later this year.

• R9 260 -> R9 360

• HD 7850 -> R9 370

• R9 285 -> R9 380

• R9 290X -> R9 390X

• 390X now comes with 8GB of memory

• 390X increased memory bandwidth from 5 to 6Gbps

• AMD’s MSRPs for the 390 series is $329 for the R9 390 and $429 for the R9 390X.

• The R9 390 lines up perfectly with the 970.

• The R9 390X undercuts the 980 by some $70

• R9 Fury will be about $650 (In line with the 980ti.)

Radeon R9 Fury Details

Source 1: linustechtips.com - amd blocksdisables overclocking the m OP: Big Stroonz

Source 2: legitreviews.com - amd fiji arrives radeon r9 fury x details 166515#

• The performance of any card running the new Fiji GPU is still under NDA until the AMD Radeon R9 Fury X is released on June 24th

• Skews:

  • AMD Radeon R9 Fury X2

    • (Unofficial Placeholder name for the Dual-GPU Fiji GPU)

    • Coming out this Fall.

    • only slightly longer than the regular AMD Radeon R9 Fury X

  • AMD Radeon R9 Fury X – $649

    • 4096 Stream Processors running @ 1050MHz.

    • 64 Compute Units

    • 2565 Texture Units

    • 64 ROPs.

    • Compute: 8.6 TFLOPS

    • Texture fill-rate is 268.8 GT/s

    • Pixel-fill rate is 67.2 GP/s

    • Averages 54 FPS on Far Cry 4 with ultra settings at 4K Ultra HD settings

      • Min: 43 fps

    • 194mm in length or 7.64-inches in length

    • Includes a 120mm radiator and Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120mm Fan.

    • The anti-kink plastic water tubing is 400mm long and has been individually sleeved

    • The thermal limits of this GPU are at 75C

    • Appears to have a full coverage waterblock right from the factory

    • 275W card with a 500W water cooler

  • R9 Fury:

    • Does not have a reference design and from what we gather it will have fewer cores enabled than the AMD Radeon R9 Fury X

• AMD Fiji GPU took nearly seven years to develop

• AMD is thinking about releasing all the data needed to 3D print your own side covers for the card shroud.

• AMD soldered down nine LEDs on the back of the card that allow you to see the GPU load level.

  • There are two DIP switches on the backplate that allow you to enable or disable the GPU Tach and allows you to change the color of the LEDs between red and blue to go with your case theme better.

  • Eight of the LEDs are for the GPU load level and can be red or blue. The ninth LED light is green and when it is lit up it visually lets you know that the GPU is in AMD’s ZeroCore power mode.

• Fiji GPU does not support HDMI 2.0 and it is running HDMI 1.4a

• There are eight memory controllers in Fiji with two connecting to each of the four 1GB HBM memory chips.

• AMD feels that the memory technology is too new and there is more than enough bandwidth, so they are locking down the ability to overclock the memory in AMD Overdrive.

• This might change down the road, but for the time being only the core clock can be overclocked by end users.

Radeon R9 Fury series doesn’t have HDMI 2.0

Source 1: linustechtips.com/radeon-r9-fury-series-doesnt… OP: zMuel

Source 2: forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost…

• “AMDMatt,” at AMD rep on overclockers.co.uk confirmed there will be no HDMI 2.0

• “AMD recommends and uses DisplayPort 1.2a for 4K60 content”

[RUMOR] Radeon Fury X outperforms GeForce GTX Titan X @ $650

Source 1: linustechtips.com/radeon-fury-x-outperforms… OP: Danielm888

Source 2: techpowerup.com/radeon-fury-x-outperforms-geforce-gtx-titan-x-fury…

• leaked results come from Korean tech publication ITCM.co.kr

• shows the Fury X outperforming the Titan X across the board in 3DMark 11/Sky Diver and 3DMark Fire Strike

• also shows the $550 Radeon Fury closely trailing the GTX 980 Ti in most benchmarks

• maintain victories over the Nvidia options even on Fire Strike Ultra (4K), but buckle under 5K due to their memory limitations

• R9 Nano is not yet circulated among industry partners according to techpowerup

[iOS 9] Features Apple Didn't Tell You About at WWDC

Source 1: linustechtips.com - ios 9 features apple didnt tell you about OP: Jaybird

Source 2: redmondpie.com - the hidden ios 9 features apple didnt tell you abou

• top 25 new features

• detailed battery settings (detailed breakdown of battery usage for last 24 & last 72 hours)

• new iCloud drive app

• search bar in settings

• quickly jump back to previous app

• pinch to zoom in/out on a video

• add any attachment type in mail

• access wallet from lock screen

• save attachments directly to iCloud drive from mail

• email more than 5 photos at once

• new side switch control option

• group notifications by app

• quick suggestion options in maps

• turn off all vibrations

• new stock battery/find my friends widget

• call/message contacts directly from search

• disable shake to undo

• bulk actions in mail

• new video recording resolution settings

• new “reproductive health” settings in health app

• touch ID protected passwords in Safari

• upload content to Safari from iCloud drive

• in-app screen recording

• new stock apps

• contact thumbnails in messages app on all iPhones

• quick reply for all apps

Xbox One New Elite Controller - Swappable parts included - Updated

Source 1: linustechtips.com - xbox one new elite controller swapable OP: Goodbytes

Source 2: xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/accessories/controllers/elite-wireless-controller

Source 3: engadget.com - microsoft new xbox elite wireless controller

Source 4: theverge.com - microsoft xbox one elite wireless controller announce

• described by Xbox boss Phil Spencer as "an elite controller for the elite gamer."

• Features:

  • four interchangeable paddles around back,

  • Hair Trigger Locks for precise control in shooters,

  • remappable buttons,

  • completely swappable components.

  • The stainless steel paddles are fully removable, but when they're attached, they allow you to keep your fingers on the thumbsticks at all times.

  • Full customization of thumbstick sensitivity and minimum/max levels for the controller's top triggers.

• These settings, along with button mapping, are handled through a standalone app that will be released for Xbox One and Windows 10.

• your controller preferences are stored in the cloud, and the gamepad itself can carry around two user profiles.

• The Xbox One Elite Wireless Controller will be priced at $149.99 when it hits retail stores in October.

Intel plans job cuts across the company, internal memo says and reduce R&D spending

Source 1: linustechtips.com - intel plans job cuts across the company inter OP: Jos

Source 2: oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2015/06/intel_facing_disappointing_sal

• A confidential, internal memo indicates that Intel wants to keep expenses flat to match the company's reduced revenue outlook for 2015, citing plans it announced in April to cut its research and administrative budget by $300 million this year.

• The memo doesn't specify how many people will lose their jobs, but said the cuts will begin June 15 and conclude one month later.

• It indicates Intel has already identified employees who will lose their jobs, but hasn't notified them.

• Laid-off employees will receive a minimum of two months' pay, according to the memo, plus extended health insurance and additional payments -- based on their time with Intel -- in exchange for release of any claims against the company.

 

Rapid Fire News Topics

 

AMD 390X rumouored tessellation performance improvements
Source 1: linustechtips  OP: zMeul Fairly self-explanatory. AMD released a driver that significantly improved 390X tessellation performance, but it was haxxorred to run on 290X and it looks like the suspicons of it being the same chip are correct
  Microsoft Announces Xbox one Backwards Compatibility, Even Servers

Source 1: linustechtips.com - microsoft announces xbox one backward OP: Uwillparish

Source 2: xbox.com/xbox-on-backward-compatibility

Source 3: youtube.com/e3?feature=etp-se-e3

• backwards compatibility with 360 games

• over 100 titles available this Fall when the program goes live, hundreds more added every month

• will work with both disc-based and digital games

Sony Explains Why PS4 Will Not Get Backward Compatibility

Source 1: linustechtips.com - sony explains why ps4 will not get b OP: Jaggysnake57

Source 2: gadgets.ndtv.com - sony explains why ps4 will not get backward compa

• Sony will invest in software updates like SharePlay, Play as you Download, and Suspend/ Resume features instead.

• They do not have enough software engineers to do both; the above, and backwards compatibility.

• According to Sony, it will give more choice for customers. They can choose backwards compatibility on Xbox, or the above features on PS4.

• “The earliest PS3 model was backwards compatible with PS2, and it is a much requested feature... but actually it's not so greatly used... “ - Sony

Final Fantasy VII Remake won't a c/p of FFVII, says Tetsuya Nomura

Source 1: linustechtips.com - final fantasy vii remake wont a cp of ffvi OP: Bouzoo

• this will be an actual remake rather than a visual update

• also bringing an HD port version of the original game to PS4

• “You’ll have this extremely, very, very pretty FFVII existing on the same plane. We feel that if that happens, it’s like, why have the same exact game?” - Tetsuya Nomura

• gameplay will be receiving an update, not just visuals

RealDoll silicone sex dolls become dirty-talking robots

Source 1: new.com/au/technology/innovation/realdoll…

Source 2: linustechtips.com/15-please-pleasure-dolls… OP: Thony

• “Being startlingly life-like is no longer enough for sex dolls”

• RealDoll founder Matt McMullen is working with emerging technologies for new silicone “love dolls”

• physiques can be fully customized, and are now being given tailored personalities

• they are “using artificial intelligence and robotics to create the impression of sentience to form a genuine emotional bond between man and machine”

• “The outcome is that owners will be able to talk dirty with their sexbots before getting some action — and ‘she’ will like it”

• accompanied by… interesting… video in source 1

• first AI heads will be available that will attach to the top of existing RealDoll bodies, priced at $12800 and available by 2017

• full-body animated sexbots don’t have a release date but will cost up to $77000

[Fredrikmikael]

Linus my muse, my flame.

[Aytex]

sex dolls. hue hue hue

[Guest]

Thanks Linus! Cant wait to watch it tommorow while im finishing up some  projects ;D

[AddonCustoms]

Awesome, missed it last night so will watch it now while I work.

[Felix0411]

Well this is nice, isn't it.

[Felix0411]

• “Being startlingly life-like is no longer enough for sex dolls”

• RealDoll founder Matt McMullen is working with emerging technologies for new silicone “love dolls”

• physiques can be fully customized, and are now being given tailored personalities

• they are “using artificial intelligence and robotics to create the impression of sentience to form a genuine emotional bond between man and machine”

• “The outcome is that owners will be able to talk dirty with their sexbots before getting some action — and ‘she’ will like it”

• accompanied by… interesting… video in source 1

• first AI heads will be available that will attach to the top of existing RealDoll bodies, priced at $12800 and available by 2017

• full-body animated sexbots don’t have a release date but will cost up to $77000

 

Hold on a second... Why is this even a topic

[Samfisher]

June 12 WAN show? Wait wat?

[BiG StroOnZ]

Man your new workstation rigs and server setups must be flying. You never have The Wan Show uploaded this fast.

[Trik'Stari]

@LinustTech, why no mention of Fallout 4 having mods on Xbone? Was certain that would at least get mentioned, as it's pretty big news.

[Joshndroid]

@LinusTech

 

i feel that intel needs to create a great line of just cpus (without the onboard graphics). I would say similar to what you suggested AMD are doing, i think it would give people the ability to probably get more cores for their money for a better cpu.. something like the intel 6 core (cpu only) for the price of a 4core + gpu... i would be all up in that considering i run dedicated graphics cards in everything and have essentially no use for integraded chip

[slightlyjaded]

What the hell canada. south korea has awesome wireless... and regional Australia during the off peak parts of the day is lucky to get 2 MB/s....... I hate Aussie internet.

[Xeekei]

You guys completely missed the AMD Radeon R9 Nano. Which arguably was the most exciting card that AMD announced. Faster than the R9 290X but just 6 inches long (15 cm). Twice the performance/watt compared to R9 290X too.

[Takata]

HBM = High buswidth memory 

[DeltaStream]

I know that the LTT duo is out of the gaming loop but man saying that Microsoft won E3 this year reads almost like satire

This year's E3 will be remembered by the game communities as one of the best thing ever thanks to Sony trifecta announcements (Shenmue 3, The Last Guardian, FF7R).

 

I am surprised by the lack of Fury Nano talk which is in my opinion the best thing AMD showed since it brings back very high end card into small form factor, very very appealing product for some people.

 

On the CPUs performance argument i wonder if Intel, knowing that Zen will be decently competitive against their offering, will have some surprise that makes people wow with Skylake.

[The Gaige]

Why is there Battleborn not on that list!!!

[Bouzoo]

I know that the LTT duo is out of the gaming loop but man saying that Microsoft won E3 this year reads almost like satire

This year's E3 will be remembered by the game communities as one of the best thing ever thanks to Sony trifecta announcements (Shenmue 3, The Last Guardian, FF7R).

Sony had few good announcements, but there were games that shadowed almost all, even Shenmue 3 and The Last Guardian, like Fallout 4, Doom and Battlefront (FF7R is there, Sony had the first announcement but it's a Square Enix game so you can't account that as a reason to remember only Sony even though it's on PS4), so Sony had it's piece at E3, but they were not bigger than everyone else so people will not only remember them. It was the whole package.

[Popingheads]

Wait why are you talking about AMD trying to "hide" the fact that the 390x and 290x have the same tessellation performance? That is a completely incorrect statement, AMD themselves never said anything about the 390x having better tessellation performance. People online saw there was a difference and speculated that something changed, and they were wrong and it turns out to be mainly a driver improvement, but I have never seen a source from AMD saying that they actually improved anything like that.

 

Plus its not completly the same card, it does use newer memory chips that can clock significantly higher than the previous ones. It starts at 1,000 MHz higher than the 290x and I've seen cards overclock to 6,600 MHz which is above what the last cards could do by a good amount.

[Ralph Schaddelee]

I especially liked how Luke did the screens. Scrolling & all. Great show.

[MageTank]

You guys spent an entire minute of this podcast on my name? That's flattering. But yeah, a Mage that can wear heavy armor is always OP, in every game.

[Bouzoo]

You guys spent an entire minute of this podcast on my name? That's flattering. But yeah, a Mage that can wear heavy armor is always OP, in every game.

And tnx to your name, we have a new class in the LTT game.

[Takata]

I'm guessing the Fury X only comes with 4GB of memory because 6 or 8GB would have been too expensive, and wouldn't have increased the performance by an amount that justifies the cost increase. It's _probably_ enough, although all of Nvidia's offerings at this price point and above have a lot more than 4GB. I'm guessing AMD will release an 8GB version when the price of HBM permits it, and games start demanding it.

 

390X is definitely overloaded with its 8GB of memory, unless you have an application that demands a disproportionally high amount of VRAM compared to its demand for GPU processing power. Do modded games tend to do that? AMD may have been desperate to differentiate it from the 290X in some tangible way, which falls flat if you know that some 290X cards came with 8GB of memory too.

 

I don't think every rebrand is wrong, but this one certainly seems deceptive. One would reasonably assume that a "390X" is a generation ahead of a "290X", or at least tangibly improved, since the first number has been incremented, and all of the others are the same. ...but current information suggests they're almost the same. It would have been fine if the 290X was rebranded as the 380X, since that's just reusing last generation's high end GPU as this generation's mid-high end GPU. Then the Fury X could have been called the 390X, and we would have been floored by the speculation that a _90X card could even get close to an Nvidia Titan. While AMD would have been rebranding just as many of their GPUs, it would have looked less deceptive.

[stconquest]

Is there a video on the Panel Discussion/Q&A at Google?

[stconquest]

@Slick  IDK how much thought was put into the FURY name, but Furies were sort of justice seekers:  http://www.greek-mythology-pantheon.com/?s=fury

 

Titans are the "old gods".  A war was fought against the 3 brothers Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades.  Furies COULD be written into that war, but I don't know if there are true references.

 

The war:  http://www.greek-mythology-pantheon.com/?s=titan

[ShredBird]

On the topic of emulation of the PS4 and XboxOne I think it will be far more feasible than emulating PS3 because of the proprietary nature of Cell.  In theory, you don't even really need to "emulate" the PS4 and XboxOne CPU because they're already x86 which is where a lot of computing power is lost emulating other systems.  With other systems such as the N64 and Gamecube/Wii, a lot of work is done either "interpreting" the foreign instruction set using a parser or actually using a "Just in time" compiler to translate the code to be natively executed on x86.  In these systems the difficulty will be in emulating OS aspects such dashboard and console features that are accessed through some API, or emulating the graphics driver which is usually unique to the console.

However, I don't think there is a capable emulator of the original Xbox which was x86 and also used a DirectX like graphics API... so there's that.

Another thing about emulating consoles on PC, for more complex consoles it requires a much more collaborative effort of dedicated developers.  N64 emulation is in a poor state for two reasons.  The hardware was very proprietary making it difficult and the developers are divided.  You have two or three good developers all in their own corners working in the problem with their own personal idea of how it should be accomplished instead of working together.  Because of that each emulator has its strengths and weaknesses for each game, it's like you need every plugin and emulator out there and you just mix and match with whatever combo runs the game you want to play best.

Then you look at something like the Dolphin emulator which has made every game playable at full speed with fantastic quality with the out of the box config.  That was a very organized emulation effort with clear goals and lots of talented developers all contributing.  Computationally speaking, emulating Gamecube/Wii should be much more demanding than emulating the N64, yet the quality of emulation between the two systems is enormous.

A lot of factors play into why or why not emulation is in a good state for a specific console, but it seems like console complexity and developmental collaboration/organization seem to be the two biggest factors.