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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Crytek Exec Says Next-Gen requires 8GB RAM

8 GB for consoles is overkill imo, unless there are severe multitasking features. But for games alone 8 GB is too much, 4 GB will be more than enough.



Nintendo and PC gamer

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osed125 said:

8 GB for consoles is overkill imo, unless there are severe multitasking features. But for games alone 8 GB is too much, 4 GB will be more than enough.

Exactly. But some people actually believe 8gb will be used. Even on PC, games use 1.5-2.5 gb of RAM (VRAM+System RAM) on a single monitor on high to ultra settings. Add the Windows OS and other background processes (average) and you get ~4gb.

Consoles wont have such a sofisticated OS like Windows and such multitasking will be optimised, so 1gb to 1.5gb would be more than enough to set aside. Games will use about ~1.5gb as well depending on hardware.



e=mc^2

Gaming on: PS4 Pro, Switch, SNES Mini, Wii U, PC (i5-7400, GTX 1060)

The question is not what you think or want, no matter if you want 4Gb just because according to you, 8Gb won't be required, but what matters is what third parties want and if it is viable when it comes to manufacturing costs. When Epic said that 360 needed 512Mb, no matter if you wanted 256, MS had to obey them and put more memory.

This is the same case, maybe Sony and MS intended to put 4Gb, but if thirds are whining for 8Gb they will put 8Gb in the end.



Scisca said:
GameAnalyser said:

I'm surprised by how developers are insisting on higher RAMs. Consoles are not designed to do multitasking like their PC counterparts, which makes 8 GB RAM's advantage least utilized on consoles. Instead a 4GB RAM(console's exclusive with higher bus frequency) would suffice more than enough for next gen gaming. Crytek better not be eulogizing higher memory requirements to utmost proportions, instead a little bit about what CPU/GPU next gen consoles use.

Guess they are insisting on RAM, cause it's the only important part that isn't set in stone by now. They already chose the CPU and GPU, but can easily increase the RAM. Remember how MS added 256 MB of RAM when they saw what Gears of War look like on X360 with 256 and 512 MB of RAM? Probable similar story here.


It then all boils down to how feasible SONY/MS can get it going, keeping in mind the total production costs and need for selling the console at a profit asap.



SxyxS said:

8gb=loooooong loading times(even if the game is installed on a very fast ssd)=will not be accepted by most gamers

8gb=1/3of a single layer blu ray

8gb=more than the capacity most games(even pc games) have at all


with a good data management ,good lightning effects and streaming 4 gb should be enough


Haha wow. Games don't just transfer all their assets over to RAM upon game load. I have 8GB of RAM and don't have long load times at all. And I have a traditional HDD, not an SSD. Good lighting effects need more RAM, not less. I can't see how you think good lighting reduces RAM usage? Texture Streaming isn't something you want to be totally rely on either.



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kljesta64 said:
consoles use different ram it not pc like


No, it is PC like. The only difference is console games have direct hardware access and don't use DirectX or OpenGL to access the hardware. They both use RAM, just the PS3 uses XDR RAM which is faster than DDR2 that was standard at the time.



GameAnalyser said:

I'm surprised by how developers are insisting on higher RAMs. Consoles are not designed to do multitasking like their PC counterparts, which makes 8 GB RAM's advantage least utilized on consoles. Instead a 4GB RAM(console's exclusive with higher bus frequency) would suffice more than enough for next gen gaming. Crytek better not be eulogizing higher memory requirements to utmost proportions, instead a little bit about what CPU/GPU next gen consoles use.


Well they better start being designed to multitask. Smartphones multitask now. People don't want a single use box anymore. The in-game XMB is one of the slowest, most frustrating software experiences I've ever put up with. You should be able to message somebody quickly while in a game, and a GREAT feature would be to leave the game running while going back to the main OS, kind of like hitting Alt-Tab while in a PC game. That would allow you to open the browser without having to reload the game. 



HappySqurriel said:
Typically, consoles manufacturers have favoured higher performance memory rather than more memory ...

I don't think that a system could be affordable with 8GB of high performance memory (and certainly not with 32GB of high performance memory), and I'm not sure if developers could get the kind of real world performance out of lower performance memory.

Essentially, I suspect Microsoft and Sony could get 8GB of DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) memory, but I doubt they could afford that much of DDR3 2800 (PC3 22400) or GDDR5 memory.

Well if they are using one of the two memory stacking technologies then they can have both high performance and more memory. They will either use DDR4 or GDDR5 and I suspect the former rather than the latter. They could go as wide as 512/1024 bits and get extremely good latency and power efficiency if they are willing to take a stab at it. Given the history of consoles using exotic/fast memory buses it wouldn't be unprecedented and quite justifiable as there are many algorythims which are memory bandwidth constrained which could be used to good effect.



Tease.

8gb ram would only encourage lazy programmers to be lazier. There us no real need for this much ram. And I dont think that xbox3 or ps4 will carry that much ram. They will have 4gb max, and at least 1gb of this ram will be used by OS only.





does this mean wii u is in danger