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Slimebeast on 01 October 2011
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justinian said:
Slimebeast said:
zarx said:
lack of RAM was really a limiting factor this gen especially for the PS3, I could never understand why they always skimp on console RAM. Devs always complain about the lack of RAM on consoles.

Both Crytech, Carmack and CCP have stated that they want 4GB+ total RAM next gen, well Crytech actually said they wanted 8GB+ but I doubt they will get that I think 4-6GB. Rumors suggest that the Wii U has 1.5GB

Next gen will have 8GB RAM for sure as it's already dirty cheap. 8GB RAM only costs $50 and by 2013 it will probably cost less than half of that.

Video memory is harder to predict. Hopefully it will be 4GB but it's possible they choose only 2GB.


I am not saying you are wrong but I would be very surprise if you turn out to be right. RAM may be cheap but it seems scrapping the barrel in terms of saving every possible penny on production is the way of things...notable exception PS3 but we all know how that turned out initially.

Before x360 and PS3 I remember a few people saying RAM was cheap (then as well) and both systems should have more but that never happened.

I find (and this is not based on any formula just observation) that the highest end consoles come with half the total RAM that is recommended for the most graphically intense PC games around the time of launch.

In 2006 the recommended spec for the top Games like Crysis was 1GB RAM (256 Graphics RAM).PS3 and X360 came with 512 total.

Right now the sweet spot for PC is gaming 4GB (1GB Graphics RAM) as recommended for games like Metro2033, Battlefield 3 etc.

Even if the PC gaming specs jump to 8GB by the time of PS4 and Xbox NEXT, I would predict the max on these next gen consoles would be 4GB shared, maybe even less.

No, the  year before x360 was released RAM was actually expensive. I remember even in Spring of 2006 that I payed 100$ for only 512MB. For that $100 you get 16GB today  - 32 times as much RAM as you got 5.5 years ago!

Also your example with Crysis is wrong since it was released way after both X360 and PS3 in Fall 2007.

For comparable games and sweet spot recommendations on PC at the time of PS360 release you have to look at games like Doom 3, Battlefield 2 and HalfLife 2 where the recommendation was only 512MB RAM and 128-256MB video-RAM. In 2013-14 we will for sure have a few games that demand 8GB RAM and 2GB video-RAM for the highest settings (and some will make use of 4GB video-RAM).