Both of the new consoles come packing 8GB of ram, though in each of them a large percentage of that is kept aside for the system to run. According to those guys who do excel at graphics but are rubbish at making engaging games, Crytek, that’s just not enough.
According to Crytek’s US Engine Business Development Manager Sean Tracy, that memory fills up pretty quickly, and the paltry 8 gigs is going to hold the generation of games back.
“I would have to agree with the viewpoint that 8 gigs can easily be filled up, but also keep in mind that developers don’t necessarily even have access to all 8 gigs of it. For example the Xbox One retains some of the RAM for OS purposes. Since technology, as Ray Kurweil states, progresses exponentially, we will soon find that the computational requirements of games will quickly hit the ceiling of a few gigs of ram. We already had to manage quite intensely our memory usage throughout Ryse and this will be one of the limiting factors surely in this generation.
He does, however, say that it’s not all about the power, but clever use of technology that’ll make games look amazing
“As hardware gets stronger the complexity of scenes can be increased and the dynamism within them. However, with that said it’s not the raw power alone that will allow for photo-realistic graphics but technology that intelligently scales and utilizes all that the hardware has to offer.”
It’s quite funny; in 2011, Crytek moaned about the then-current gen consoles, saying the new ones should have 8Gb of RAM. Now they do, and it’s still not enough.
Honestly though; what developers have managed to do with the 512Mb of RAM in the old consoles is still impressive, and I have no doubt that they’ll manage some rather incredible stuff with even more.
Last Updated: May 19, 2014
Admiral Chief in Space
May 19, 2014 at 11:33
Dat header, hahaha, oh you!
Alien Emperor Trevor
May 19, 2014 at 11:38
That header’s 11-bit when it should be 2-bit.
Admiral Chief in Space
May 19, 2014 at 11:54
Dose heds, much glare, so amaze
Admiral Chief in Space
May 19, 2014 at 11:34
This seems appropriate
Hammersteyn
May 19, 2014 at 11:39
Been a while
Alien Emperor Trevor
May 19, 2014 at 11:47
There you go:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/265930/
Kensei Seraph
May 19, 2014 at 12:03
Here you go.
http://www.downloadmoreram.com/
Alien Emperor Trevor
May 19, 2014 at 11:36
Oh BS. You don’t even use half that on a PC right now. When I alt-tab out of a game & check RAM usage the game process has never used more than 2GB, most of the time it’s even less.
Hammersteyn
May 19, 2014 at 11:42
Maybe they are trying to say next-gen can’t run Crysis?
Alien Emperor Trevor
May 19, 2014 at 11:46
I’m not sure what he’s trying to say. Maybe hope for memory leaks?
Rikus
May 19, 2014 at 11:51
I am sure he’s trying to say that Crytek can’t code efficiently
Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!
May 19, 2014 at 12:14
The only games I’ve seen using 4gb and more were bf3 and crysis 3.
Hammersteyn
May 19, 2014 at 11:38
Played Stick it to the Man last night, Amazing how games doesn’t need to be just about graphics. Infamous and Tomb Raider sill looks amazing on the PS4 though. So it’s pretty amazing what 8Gigs gets you.
RinceofFuturePast
May 19, 2014 at 11:44
Awesome header!
Kensei Seraph
May 19, 2014 at 11:59
No.
Exalted Overlord Geoffrey Tim
May 19, 2014 at 12:05
Shut up, you. it is awesome.
Kensei Seraph
May 19, 2014 at 12:23
It made me want to slap you, and I’m generally a pretty Zen person.
Dutch Matrix
May 19, 2014 at 12:25
Gandhi would have taken a swing at Geoff…
Kensei Seraph
May 19, 2014 at 12:27
I would like to but unfortunately I don’t have any golf clubs and I don’t know where he is.
Oh and can’t forget the cops that might take offense to me committing assault and battery.
Exalted Overlord Geoffrey Tim
May 19, 2014 at 14:57
Calm down bro, there’s no need with that. Have you talked to somebody about this anger problem?
I could recommend somebody?
http://kathyewing.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/dr-phil1.jpg
Hammersteyn
May 19, 2014 at 14:59
LOL!
Kensei Seraph
May 19, 2014 at 15:08
Haha.
That’s what games like Quake are for.
RinceofFuturePast
May 19, 2014 at 15:12
“What’s the problem?”
Rikus
May 19, 2014 at 11:44
Ag, Crytek. How about you stop bragging about how you continually max everything and start making good games. I am not a game designer and even I can max out 8GB of RAM. It’s not that difficult really. The key is making the best of what you’ve got. Code optimization goes a long way.
Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!
May 19, 2014 at 12:31
And so does a little bit of story optimization…
Kensei Seraph
May 19, 2014 at 12:37
Pffft, those are for people who can’t make beautiful games.
RinceofFuturePast
May 19, 2014 at 11:45
Considering how little ram the 360 and PS3 had yet were still able to deliver some sterling games I don’t see that ceiling being reached any time soon.
Hammersteyn
May 19, 2014 at 11:50
Like TLOU for instance, on 512MB Ram
RinceofFuturePast
May 19, 2014 at 11:51
Exactly. Crytek crying rivers 😛
derp
May 19, 2014 at 12:01
512MB?
Capitalist Luxury
The graphics card and the system each have 256MB of ram.
Crytek are just being cranky because they cannot force Sony and MS to fit their consoles with 64Gb of ram.
Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!
May 19, 2014 at 12:30
and remember that was shared ram. Half for the graphics and the other half for the system
MakeItLegal
May 19, 2014 at 12:12
i want a shirt with this onm
” According to those guys who do excel at graphics but are rubbish at making engaging games, Crytek, that’s just not enough.”
well said LG
Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!
May 19, 2014 at 12:13
This makes no sense. 8gb is plenty. It’s enough for them on pc which has far more oveehead on ram than a console. So why isn’t it enough for console? I’m a pc guy. Anyone care to explain what I’m missing here?
Kensei Seraph
May 19, 2014 at 12:14
Kinect.
Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!
May 19, 2014 at 12:17
Lol and the ps4?
Kensei Seraph
May 19, 2014 at 12:19
Controller light bar?
Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!
May 19, 2014 at 12:29
hahahah. You make me laugh. But yeah, I’d actually be very interested from a tech point of view to see why 8GB is not enough in a console but is in a PC.
Dutch Matrix
May 19, 2014 at 12:20
Crytek wants to release another tech demo sorry game…
Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!
May 19, 2014 at 12:29
BOOM
Rags
May 19, 2014 at 12:20
Erm 8gb would’ve been enough for PS3/xbox360. Now 8gb is not enough because the new gpu’s and cpu’s have made 8gb a bottleneck. Methinks Geoffrey needs some coffee.
Alex Hicks
May 19, 2014 at 13:03
For some reason all I can think of is this: “640K ought to be enough for anybody.” – Bill Gates (allegedly).
Point is – computing tech moves so rapidly, who knows what will happen.
Kromas
May 19, 2014 at 13:15
But will it run Crysis ….. no …..no it will not. 😛
PC MASTER RACE FTW!
Brian Murphy
May 19, 2014 at 16:37
LoL, watch out for statements like this folks. It’s quite literally hype, nothing more, nothing less. The simple truth is that if a game CAN use the resources, the devs are going to use them. Take The Witness, for example. Gorgeous looking artsy piece, but not exactly hi-fidelity in terms of graphics right? So there’s no way they’d be hitting limits or anything like that, right? Wrong.
The way they’ve designed the Witness is to keep as much of the area of the map cached in as possible to avoid loading stutter. So yeah, the Witness uses all available RAM on the PS4.
When developers say stuff like this, or the favorite ‘we’re using 100% of blah’, it’s hype talk, developers will use every bit of resource they can get their hands on, from game to game, engine to engine. The only difference is, code improves over time, developers learn new techniques to take advantage of the architecture, and things like that. Which is how games and engines look/perform better YOY.
Silly Crytek just needs to make a GOOD game with all those resources.