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S.T.A.G.E. said:
fillet said:
VGKing said:
walsufnir said:
fillet said:
RAM doesn't make graphics, limitation of RAM makes it harder to make games with free flowing open play without constant loading screens.

You could put 100GB of RAM in a calculator, it's still a calculator.

It's great news about the 8GB of RAM in the PS4 but some members here don't seem to grasp what that actually means.

I thing I have to comment on this, not saying anything counterwise.

The ram-talk on this site is getting ridiculous to me.

The problem with ram is one thing: if you have ram that isn't sufficient a game will suffer.

If Sony had built ps4 with 4 gb of whatever ram you can imagine it would have still suffered of being less than 8 gb than nextbox. I know that ppl would have argued that the speed of gddr5 would make it still better but that nonsense. It is always the size of ram which is really making a difference, not necessarily the bandwidth which is only one side of the medal of truth. Less ram can't be bought on "sideways". It would be true if you build a system of 8 gb ram with ps/2-fp-ram, but that's not going to happen. The combination of bandwidth and latency is crucial for performance is crucial, yes. But that's it, because ram only serves the computational units.

Because of the big amounts of ram gives devs the opportunity to build games we can all look forward to. No matter if DDR3 or GDDR5.

I'm 50/50 with you on this one. While I agree that amount of RAM matters more than bandwidth, both are important. You can't really say that 4GB of GDDR5 would be inferior to 8GB of DDR3. It really depends on the game. 


This doesn't really come down to opinion.

4GB GDDR5 will perform FAR better than 8GB of DDR3.

1. Because no game on even a PC uses 4GB of video RAM on ultra high unless using multiple monitors and even then, don't think any does.

2. Both RAM and bandwidth are equally important depending on which is acting as the bottleneck, with 4GB+ of RAM in the Next gen consoles there is no RAM bottleneck, 8GB is going to make no difference in performance - at all.

3. GDDR5 vs DDR3 for graphics RAM makes a massive difference, by massive, we're talking as much as 30-40% higher frame rates in games, the quantity once you get to a certain point (of which 8GB is about to the moon and back more than that level) makes sweet FA difference.

4. There are lots of PC graphics cards that come with way more RAM than they need to because it's cheap as chips and a marketing ploy. The graohics cards in question though are too underpowered in compute performance to actually make use of that RAM.

 

Graphics RAM quantity = allows high screen resolutions, high res texures etc

Graphics RAM speed (GDDR5/DDR3/etc) = FRAME RATES!

GPU performance = FRAME RATES!

You need all 3 to support each other, so it's no good having 8GB of fast video RAM if the GPU isn't up to the challenge of making use of it.

On the PS4 it's based on a 7850-more or less, for something of that speed 2GB video RAM is more than enough and any more would be pointless because it's not powerful enough to support it.

This only pertains to the video RAM though which is shared with the system of course, but I'm making the point that 8GB of GDDR5 RAM does NOT equal GRAPHICS WOWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!

So yes, you could have ultra high res textures/screen resolutions but you'd be running at stupidly low frame rates!

This is all basic 101 PC graphics card stuff, seriously, look it up :)

Don't mean to sound hostile here.


Why did Epic demand 8GB of RAM if they aren't going to use it and certain PC games already stepping over the 3GB recommended level? Next gen will step over these boundaries. Skyrim demanded about four GB's (not minimum but recommended) on PC's. You know that Bioware is going to try and out gun Bethesda with the space next gen will provide for open world experiences (Bethesdas forte). I made a pact with myself that I will never play a Bethesda game on a console ever again unless the specs match the game. Fallout and Skyrim were not the best experiences for me even with my 360 and PS3. Can't wait for the new specs.


Not disputing any of that mate, I'm purely talking about "will 8GB shared RAM increase graphics performance vs X GB"

Answer = NO!

It will allow developers freedom to make games easier and cheaper (and possibly better) with less time needed to optimize game code, and less tricks needed to allow large game worlds to appear seamless. It will also allow Sony to add on extra features as time goes by to the main OS and not have it slow to a craw like say with the XMB currently where it's clearly bogged down.

The only time RAM quanity affects performance in a game is when you haven't got enough of it, at which point you get stuttering. Having enough simply allows the game to run as it should, having more simply allows you to do others things, it doesn't improve performance of said game.