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[mrpeabody]

psx (1994) - 1mb vram, 2mb main ram (3mb total)
ps2 (2000) - 4mb vram, 32mb system ram (36mb total)
ps3 (2006) - 256mb vram, 256mb main ram (512mb total)

That's an order of magnitude increase every six years, and this generation will last longer than six years.

For next-gen, 8gb is on the high side but not out of the realm of possibility. And of course the developers are going to lobby for as much as they can get, same as they do every generation. Cliffy would cream himself if MS announced an 8gb machine.

 

[SafeinSound]

hahaha i seriously bust out laughing when I read this. wow.

I don't know why, but I didn't start laughing till I read this. It actually is pretty funny that Crytek thinks or wants this to happen.

 

[Metroid-Squadron]

High res textures (not only the base textures, but the normals, specular, etc...) need a lot of RAM.

Now that games are taking the deferred rendering route, a lot more RAM is needed. Specially considering that with more advanced shader models you need more buffers, and in HD they take a lot of memory. I don't want to see anymore low res particle buffers either.

Also, big environments with high-quality content variety will need A LOT of RAM if you don't to see popping all the time, specially if they're persistent (like Crysis 1's).

 

[Old Gimlet Eyes]

My PC plays all of the mutli platform games better than the consoles ... Yet it's running this 'slow RAM' ...

Hexplain?

Your graphics card isn't running "slow" ram, it is running a fast VRAM. I have 4GB of DDR2 memory on my system as well as 1GB of VRAM on my 5770 GB. That 1gb is doing the heavy lifting, not the system ram. I'm sure someone else here can give a much more technical explanation about this.

 

[SAB CA]

Is it bad that the first thing I think of, in regards to RAM on consoles, is "WOW, The HD 2D games would look AWESOME!!!!!" :lol:

That does sound like a stupidly large increase compared to what we have now, however. Would be interesting to see at work... and probably more expensive then most would care to pay for, for a few years...

 

[Mama Robotnik]

For next-gen, 8gb is on the high side but not out of the realm of possibility..

I think it really, really is. There's no games begging for 8GB RAM even on the PC platform, and would be a costly, unnecessary addition to the hardware.

Its not going to happen. If I'm wrong I'll gladly eat my words in a bun, but at the moment it would be an illogical and expensive move.

 

[Jonm1010]

Because RAM isn't always cheap for the entirety of a console's life cycle. DDR2 may be cheap now, but what about in 3 year's time when everything is at DDR4? It's the same reason why hard drive sizes keep going up with PS3 and 360.

Isn't that an argument in favor of putting cutting edge ram in a console??

 

[expy]

Will most likely be 2gb max.

 

[Zombie James]

8GB seems like overkill.

Not for systems with 5+ years of use. They want 8GB and they should get it. You can get 8GB of DDR3 today for $80-100, by the time these next-gen systems roll around in 2012-2013 (plus, manufacturers don't pay retail prices) 8GB of memory should definitely be affordable to do.

 

[newjeruse]

I'd be shocked if either PS4 or 720 had any less than 8 GB.

 

[Phoenician_Viking]

I want a Ferrari

Hahahahhaha.

 

[J-Rzez]

I hope they do give them that much to work with. Not necessarily to see what Crytek can do, but ND, SSM, and PD... One can dream.

Maybe if they wisen up and start playing the "Hey Mr. Sony/MS, think of how future proof the machines would be". Sony/MS love future proof like bitches love smilies (Boondocks shout-out!).

 

[K701]

2 gig VRAM + 16 gig System Ram rig, reporting in!

Spoiler

When I'm bored I like to browse shopping sites... I need help :'(

 

[TheExodu5]

8GB is ridiculous overkill. Even with the most demanding PC games, 1.5GB VRAM and 2GB of system RAM is enough to run at 2560*1600p no problem.

I would expect something closer to 2GB in the next consoles.

 

[BloodySinner]

This thread is full of stupid.

 

[Arnie]

Good luck, I'm expecting 2 at the maximum.

 

[elrechazado]

8GB is ridiculous overkill. Even with the most demanding PC games, 1.5GB VRAM and 2GB of system RAM is enough to run at 2560*1600p no problem.

I would expect something closer to 2GB in the next consoles.

no problem? heh

 

[H_Prestige]

8GB is ridiculous overkill. Even with the most demanding PC games, 1.5GB VRAM and 2GB of system RAM is enough to run at 2560*1600p no problem.

I would expect something closer to 2GB in the next consoles.

Same. Hopefully XDR2.

 

[Raide]

Are we talking Xbox720/PS4 here or after that? Damn, we will be lucky to get 2Gb+ in the next-gen stuff.

 

[Zombie James]

8GB is ridiculous overkill. Even with the most demanding PC games, 1.5GB VRAM and 2GB of system RAM is enough to run at 2560*1600p no problem.

I would expect something closer to 2GB in the next consoles.

2GB sounds ridiculously small to me for systems that (most-likely) won't launch for another 2 years and won't be replaced until 5-8 years after that.

 

[Red]

I'd be shocked if either PS4 or 720 had any less than 8 GB.

And what would all that RAM be used for may I ask?

 

[InsaneZero]

More RAM always comes with the drawback of being slower.

Get smaller but faster RAM instead.

 

[Phoenician_Viking]

Crytek wants 8GB of RAM in next-gen consoles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2WYqrdCPhU

 

[Warm Machine]

8 gig is possible. My PC has 16 gig. Memory is cheap as hell now. To put that in perspective though that would mean loading an entire 8 gig DVD into RAM.

I think we will likely get 4 gig though. Cheap laptop computers have 4 with 64-bit Windows 7 loaded.

 

[TheExodu5]

psx (1994) - 1mb vram, 2mb main ram (3mb total)
ps2 (2000) - 4mb vram, 32mb system ram (36mb total)
ps3 (2006) - 256mb vram, 256mb main ram (512mb total)

That's an order of magnitude increase every six years, and this generation will last longer than six years.

For next-gen, 8gb is on the high side but not out of the realm of possibility. And of course the developers are going to lobby for as much as they can get, same as they do every generation. Cliffy would cream himself if MS announced an 8gb machine.

We're reaching a cap for this sort of thing. RAM, even on the PC side of things, is not going to get much larger. The need simply isn't there, at all. 2GB-4GB was the norm around 5 years ago, and now that's 4GB-8GB. We've doubled in 5 years. At this point, even 8GB is overkill for 99% of systems.

Similarly, CPUs are going at a fairly slow rate as well. GPUs seem to be getting around ~20-30% faster each year, which is a far cry from the 50-80% we used to see.

 

[mxgt]

I'd be shocked if either PS4 or 720 had any less than 8 GB.

Why?

It's completely unnecessary.

 

[Sethos]

8 gig is possible. My PC has 16 gig. Memory is cheap as hell now. To put that in perspective though that would mean loading an entire 8 gig DVD into RAM.

I think we will likely get 4 gig though. Cheap laptop computers have 4 with 64-bit Windows 7 loaded.

Another one that just doesn't get it.

 

[Sanjay]

It's actually expensive

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/12066/Microsoft-to-Epic-You-Cost-Me-a-Billion-Dollars/

Oct. 23rd, 2006 11:27 am

WAS expensive, Ram is so cheap now days.

 

[DieH@rd]

8GB is ridiculous overkill. Even with the most demanding PC games, 1.5GB VRAM and 2GB of system RAM is enough to run at 2560*1600p no problem.

I would expect something closer to 2GB in the next consoles.

Consoles need to remain viable 6-7 years after their release. 2GB of ram will be too small for gaming in ~2018.

 

[Supervlieg]

Within years, any amount of memory is always too little, so yeah.

 

[Phoenician_Viking]

i have 12 gigs of RAM on my PC. 8 gigs in a console next-gen is not going to happen. Come on Crytek, cry some more

Crytek.

 

[riceandbeans]

Not for systems with 5+ years of use. They want 8GB and they should get it. You can get 8GB of DDR3 today for $80-100, by the time these next-gen systems roll around in 2012-2013 (plus, manufacturers don't pay retail prices) 8GB of memory should definitely be affordable to do.

Consoles don't use sticks of ram. It's soldered onto the board.

 

[TheExodu5]

Consoles need to remain viable 6-7 years after their release. 2GB of ram will be too small for gaming in ~2018.

It will be smallish, but keep in mind that textures and the like are not going to get that much bigger next gen. Having the textures to fill up that memory is going to be very expensive.

 

[Nekrono]

I'd be shocked if either PS4 or 720 had any less than 8 GB.

Joke post?

Not even on PC games are using this much, and mind you we actually have to play games on top of loading and running the OS.

May I ask you what could next-get consoles will use it for?

You're sure in for a world of disappointment if what you're saying is true.

Consoles will most likely come with 2GB RAM, maybe 3GB depending on what kind, etc.

 

[TacticalFox88]

Consoles need to remain viable 6-7 years after their release. 2GB of ram will be too small for gaming in ~2018.

Yes because we're totally making console games now that go outside the design specifications and technical limitations of the console

 

[Warm Machine]

Another one that just doesn't get it.

What is not to get?

 

[Zombie James]

And what would all that RAM be used for may I ask?

- More room to add background/OS features.
- More room to keep data in memory instead of constantly accessing the HDD or optical media.

Just two examples.

 

[mrpeabody]

Maybe a next-gen system releasing right now might have 2-3gb of total memory. But these machines aren't coming out until 2013, and they are supposed to keep producing great games until 2019 or so. 4gb is the absolute minimum, 8gb is what the devs want. The final specs will be somewhere in the middle.

 

[Zombie James]

Consoles don't use sticks of ram. It's soldered onto the board.

Yeah, and manufacturers pay wholesale.

 

[vantastic]

this is why i think crytek is a joke. they make a nice looking engine but you need super specs to even run their games properly. and pc gamers continue to waste their money upgrading just to play the latest crytek game.

 

[TheChewyWaffles]

Next-gen machines will get 2GB of mainboard ram and 1GB video ram.

 

[StuBurns]

this is why i think crytek is a joke. they make a nice looking engine but you need super specs to even run their games properly. and pc gamers continue to waste their money upgrading just to play the latest crytek game.

Crysis 2 will run on very conservative hardware.

 

[Red]

- More room to add background/OS features.
- More room to keep data in memory instead of constantly accessing the HDD or optical media.

Just two examples.

8GB is more than enough for modern PCs running several demanding programs in addition to games. You can run multiple instances of most games and run out of CPU power before you ever hit a RAM ceiling. 8GB for consoles is ludicrous. Unless for some reason games become exponentially more demanding in the next three years there's no need for it.

 

[TacticalFox88]

this is why i think crytek is a joke. they make a nice looking engine but you need super specs to even run their games properly. and pc gamers continue to waste their money upgrading just to play the latest crytek game.

Not sure if serious.

 

[TheChewyWaffles]

this is why i think crytek is a joke. they make a nice looking engine but you need super specs to even run their games properly. and pc gamers continue to waste their money upgrading just to play the latest crytek game.

What does any of that have to do with Crytek being "a joke"?

 

[mysteriousmage09]

Next-gen machines will get 2GB of mainboard ram and 1GB video ram.

I'm fine with that as long as the speeds are fantastic.

 

[Chris R]

Want 4GB, but I think 2GB is more realistic. What would be ideal would be an expansion port where bonus ram could be added in when needed in 2015/2016.

 

[water_wendi]

8GB minimum.

 

[Metroid-Squadron]

Not even on PC games are using this much, and mind you we actually have to play games on top of loading and running the OS.

That's because no PC games are actually pushing the hardware anymore.

Can anyone (with actual knowledge obviously) post a breakdown of the typical RAM usage of games this gen?

 

[woolley]

I think people are being a little short sighted on this issue. When the current was announced how many people would of thought about the ability to have 256 people matches on consoles or have the graphics that some of the games are putting out on consoles? We might not be able to think of all of the possibilities of what this could do right now but 5-6 years down the line it could really do wonders if developers have more to work with.