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curl-6 on 30 August 2012
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Viper1 said:
JEMC said:
Viper1 said:

Yes and no.   On a console, the total RAM is usually quoted but they do tend to have specific pools of system RAM and Video RAM.  Though some consoles allow them to be pooled together and accessed by either component.

But my post was refering to the total RAM used on a PC when gaming.    You do use all 8 GB of system RAM when gaming on a PC.    Not even close.   You barely even use all the Video RAM on your GPU.

Battlefield 3.  High settings.   1.1 GB of System RAM.  
http://cdn.overclock.net/d/d3/d3649ffd_Untitled.png

Thanks.

That eDRAM that's included in the processor is one of those "specific pool" that you mention, right?

Also, isn't that 1.1GB at Battlefield the system RAM, not the whole RAM? I've read stories/reviews that show 1.5 GB cards running short of RAM trying to max that game, albeit at resolutions higher than 1080p.

Well, that's something else itself.  The 2 pools I was referring too are system RAM and video RAM.   The PC equivelents are the DDR3 you put in your RAM slots and the GDDR5 that is included on your graphics card.

Yes, that 1.1 GB is system RAM, as I noted, which coupled with a 1.5 GB GDDR5 GPU shows that BF3 at highest resolutions with highest settings (both are things no next generation console will be doing) would use at most 2.6 GB....and that's if it using 100% of the video RAM.   And remember, this is a PC game which means the code is not optimised specifically for any dedicated hardware like a console is. 

 

TomaTito said:
curl-6 said:
The question remains though; is that 1.5GB available for gaming, or is that 1GB for gaming with 512MB for the OS?

And rumour was that they reserved those 512MB for the OS, how much will it really use at launch?

Questions. Questions. Questions.

512 MB for a console OS is beyond proposterous.  I can run Windows 7 on 512 MB.

It should also be noted that things liek texture streaming greatly reduce the need for RAM.   It could also be said that a protion of the 8 GB of onboard Flash RAM could be used as a scratch pad.   A scratch pad is like extra RAM.  Devs could use up any free portion of the 8 GB making the whole RAM issue moot.

I hope so, I just find the 512MB OS rumour worrying.

And can flash memory be used to stream like a hard drive? Because if so, why didn't Wii games do that?