Crytek wants PS4/Xbox 720 to have 8GB of RAM

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

2GB isn't enough, games from 2007 would easily eat up that much memory.

Remember that the biggest issue is textures, they take up loads of RAM (one of the face textures from TF2 takes up 100MB of memory alone, all 9 players takes that to nearly 1GB of RAM, just for face textures)

[RATiO]

Video Card RAM is alot more important than system RAM in a games console I'd say.

[oceanmotion]

Really? My current PC can do that, so I'd expect a console in a couple of years to be able to easily beat that.

Well, the current games. I just see a repeat of nice looking games that lack the extra fidelity PCs are capable of. I don't see why that would change with next gen consoles unless AA etc. are standard features of graphic chips that don't have a performance hit and can't be tweaked to gain more performance.

[shakey]

2GB isn't enough, games from 2007 would easily eat up that much memory.

Remember that the biggest issue is textures, they take up loads of RAM (one of the face textures from TF2 takes up 100MB of memory alone, all 9 players takes that to nearly 1GB of RAM, just for face textures)

And that is why my computer can not run the game, the damn faces! :p

[Ci7]

anywhare from 4 to 8GB

10 year cycle after all.

it won't be that 'much' after say 5/6 years

you would easily find 64GB desktop Computers!

[Athernar]

Ya, the next gen consoles will most likely at least have dual core vid cards, at least quad core procs, and plenty of ram. Since technology only keeps getting better faster, they have to really future proof the next set of consoles, or have a new set ready even quicker than all the previous ones were replaced.

Dual-GPU maybe, but there is no such thing as a dual-core GPU. GPU's are highly parallel by design, they have thousands of "cores" already.

[spudtrooper]

Realistically...4GB is what I'm expecting with the PS4/720 consoles. Naturally the CPUs will likely double or triple, but I don't expect them to go past the 3.2GHz mark. I'm guessing/hoping Sony puts a POWER7 into the PS4. By 2012/13 the chip should be reasonably cheap to manufacture on a large scale and is considerably faster than the PS3's CELL. The great thing is the POEWR7 is derived from the CELL architecture so we would be getting the best of both worlds. Add in an 8X Blu-ray drive, 4GB of RAM, wifi, and call it a day.

I would love to see Sony include a Move setup with every PS4 just to further that technology...but we'll see.

You really think power7 would be cheap to produce? those things are amazing, but their price is astronomical as well. I can also see the Xbox 720 being power series of some sort before the PS4

[shakey]

Dual-GPU maybe, but there is no such thing as a dual-core GPU. GPU's are highly parallel by design, they have thousands of "cores" already.

err ya, that's what I meant :p sorry and thanks for the correction.

[DPyro]

This makes sense. The PS1 had 2mb x16 = 32mb for PS2 x16 = 512 for PS3 x16 = 8GB for PS4.

[Amarok]

8GB sounds fair to me. 4 at least. =)

[Routerbad]

Consoles dont need that much ram they dont have overheads like running a full OS with loads of background processes. They need graphics ram more than they need system ram. PS3 is gimped with 256Mb (i know it can dip into the system ram but its much slower), i dont see next gen consoles having much more than 1-2Gb of ram, 8Gb is pointless.

They do have system process overhead. The PS3 has 256MB System RAM and 256MB VRAM, the 360 has 512 shared between system and VRAM. It's not much overhead, but it's there. 8GB would actually be reasonable for VRAM, considering the consoles won't be out until 2015ish (so they say).

[Minifig]

Crytek wants consoles to PCs, funny, because almost every gamer I know said they wanted Crytek games to be PC games, not console.

[notuptome2004]

Well what i see for the next Xbox would be

3.2ghz Power 7 chip witch allows 4 threads per core if i am correct and this chip be a quad core design.

4gb of unified ram

Blu-ray drive

modern day AMD GPU Directx 11 based

[Emn1ty]

It will more than likely be in the realm of 2-4GB of onboard ram. They won't need much more.

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

Imo it's not always about how much RAM it has... it's more about how well each component speaks to each other and how straightforward the programming is.

Like you could have 8GB RAM in a console.. but it could be 8GB RAM with some really high latencies or something. Which sorta makes it pointless.

[TheLegendOfMart]

They do have system process overhead. The PS3 has 256MB System RAM and 256MB VRAM, the 360 has 512 shared between system and VRAM. It's not much overhead, but it's there. 8GB would actually be reasonable for VRAM, considering the consoles won't be out until 2015ish (so they say).

Not as much as a desktop OS they are streamlined.

[Routerbad]

Imo it's not always about how much RAM it has... it's more about how well each component speaks to each other and how straightforward the programming is.

Like you could have 8GB RAM in a console.. but it could be 8GB RAM with some really high latencies or something. Which sorta makes it pointless.

Doesn't have to have high latencies. How much will 8GB of GDDR5 cost in 4 years? It all depends on when they decide to lock in the specs. More VRAM would give it a longer lifespan, seeing as that is the main bottleneck developers are wrestling with today.

Not as much as a desktop OS they are streamlined.

They do have system process overhead. The PS3 has 256MB System RAM and 256MB VRAM, the 360 has 512 shared between system and VRAM. It's not much overhead, but it's there. 8GB would actually be reasonable for VRAM, considering the consoles won't be out until 2015ish (so they say).

I know :shiftyninja:

[Elessar]

You really think power7 would be cheap to produce? those things are amazing, but their price is astronomical as well. I can also see the Xbox 720 being power series of some sort before the PS4

A 'dumbed' down version of the POWER7, mass produced? I think it's possible. If not that, then I would imagine 2-4 CELL processors would be another route to go.

[Raa]

Here's a hint Crytek : Develop it on PC first, then make your console counterparts. If people want the less attractive console version, then let them!

[LiquidSolstice]

8 GB is ridiculously excessive for a console.

[Ayepecks]

It will more than likely be in the realm of 2-4GB of onboard ram. They won't need much more.

Won't need much more than 2GB? :blink:

[Pupik]

Won't need much more than 2GB? :blink:

I've got 4GB on my gaming machine and I yet to see any game using more than 2GB. Closes I saw, was the closed beta of APB Reloaded which uses 1.8gb.

Consoles need more VRAM and not more RAM.

[MightyJordan]

I've got 4GB on my gaming machine and I yet to see any game using more than 2GB. Closes I saw, was the closed beta of APB Reloaded which uses 1.8gb.

Woah! 1.8GB?! :blink: Amazing. I've only got 2GB of RAM, and the Crysis games have used the most at a time on my system; they both easily use over 1GB, but I think Crysis 2 edges it, but it runs a lot smoother than the first one did, so I don't mind. :) Sadly, my graphics card has to work overtime; I can hear the fans going at around 80% in intense situations.

[Hitman2000]

at first 8gb seems like a lot but then you realise that the next gen are supposedly due in '14/15 and will probably have a lifespan of 5-10 years aswell, so think about it in 2020 8gb will seem like a microscopic amount of ram.

[LiquidSolstice]

at first 8gb seems like a lot but then you realise that the next gen are supposedly due in '14/15 and will probably have a lifespan of 5-10 years aswell, so think about it in 2020 8gb will seem like a microscopic amount of ram.

8 GB for a purpose built console machine? That's just absolutely bonkers. I'd take ridiculously fast low latency RAM over a large amount of RAM any day of the week.