Isn't 8GBs of RAM a bit excessive?

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nekrothing

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#1 nekrothing
Member since 2008 • 387 Posts

Wouldn't 4GBs be good enough? I'd imagine the PS4 would run into bottlenecking issues that would prevent it from being able to effectively utilize all of that RAM, when the rest of the PS4's specs are mid-range at best. It would be like purchasing a 680 GTX when your CPU only runs at 3.0GHz.

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clyde46

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#2 clyde46
Member since 2005 • 49061 Posts
More RAMS = BETTA GRAFIX!
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KarateeeChop

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#3 KarateeeChop
Member since 2010 • 4666 Posts

with the touchpad processor, move 2.0 and eyetoy 2.0 it's good to have 8gb so that at least some ram will be used for the games. :(

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StrongDeadlift

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#4 StrongDeadlift
Member since 2010 • 6073 Posts

Never underestimate the RAM.  Think about the RAMifications of your actions op.

Beautiful-Laying-Ram.jpg

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The_Game21x

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#5 The_Game21x
Member since 2005 • 26440 Posts

No it's not excessive.

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clyde46

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#6 clyde46
Member since 2005 • 49061 Posts

with the touchpad processor, move 2.0 and eyetoy 2.0 it's good to have 8gb so that at least some ram will be used for the games. :(

KarateeeChop
At least the PS4 will have some games. (Sorry, couldn't resist :P )
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Mr_BillGates

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#7 Mr_BillGates
Member since 2005 • 3211 Posts

Consoles decides the standard for graphics.

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Strakha

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#8 Strakha
Member since 2003 • 1824 Posts

It probably is. In terms of processing power the PS4 is about 8 times as powerful as the PS3 but it has about 16 times more RAM. I was expecting 4GB given the rumoured specs that turned out to by correct in every area besides the amount of RAM.

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bobbetybob

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#9 bobbetybob
Member since 2005 • 19370 Posts
Can we have some sort of PSA stickied at the top of the forum explaining what GDDR5 RAM is please?
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metroidfood

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#10 metroidfood
Member since 2007 • 11175 Posts

Can we have some sort of PSA stickied at the top of the forum explaining what GDDR5 RAM is please?bobbetybob

But that would take out all of the fun of SW.

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Inconsistancy

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#11 Inconsistancy
Member since 2004 • 8094 Posts

Wouldn't 4GBs be good enough? I'd imagine the PS4 would run into bottlenecking issues that would prevent it from being able to effectively utilize all of that RAM, when the rest of the PS4's specs are mid-range at best. It would be like purchasing a 680 GTX when your CPU only runs at 3.0GHz.

nekrothing

Analogy fail, frequency != performance.

Would rather have more than enough than "just enough", as it is, it'll be good for swapping in more data than the GPU/CPU can chew on. Games like Rage will get a huge boost in texture quality while getting a substantial reduction in pop-in, and more games will be like The Witcher2 with no loading screens.

And since MS/Sony are going a route with more multi-media function, it also serves background functions (you know, I said this a long time ago).

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clyde46

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#12 clyde46
Member since 2005 • 49061 Posts

[QUOTE="bobbetybob"]Can we have some sort of PSA stickied at the top of the forum explaining what GDDR5 RAM is please?metroidfood

But that would take out all of the fun of SW.

You're sig is awesome!
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BPoole96

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#13 BPoole96
Member since 2008 • 22818 Posts
Can we have some sort of PSA stickied at the top of the forum explaining what GDDR5 RAM is please?bobbetybob
Seriously. I'm not sure if I'm ready to handle several years of Cows creaking themselves over GDDR5 RAM. It bothers me even more that I guarantee many of the cows boasting about it don't even know what RAM stands for
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ConanTheStoner

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#14 ConanTheStoner
Member since 2011 • 23712 Posts

Cow%20&%20Ram.jpg.

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tagyhag

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#15 tagyhag
Member since 2007 • 15874 Posts
Now? Yeah. But remember, consoles are supposed to last for at least 8 years now.
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Douevenlift_bro

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#16 Douevenlift_bro
Member since 2013 • 6804 Posts

I thought only cows talked about RAM...

 

and No, you're pretty much wrong on everything. Sleep well sir.

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Strakha

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#17 Strakha
Member since 2003 • 1824 Posts

A better analogy would be buying a budget video card with 2GB apposed to 1GB or any card with more RAM than it can effectively use. The extra RAM isn't going to improve the frame rates of any game by more than a few FPS because it doesn't even have enough bandwidth to effectively use the smaller amount of RAM.

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Silenthps

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#18 Silenthps
Member since 2006 • 7302 Posts
for a console that'll last till probably 2020+? it's not enough.
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ShadowriverUB

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#19 ShadowriverUB
Member since 2009 • 5515 Posts

with the touchpad processor, move 2.0 and eyetoy 2.0 it's good to have 8gb so that at least some ram will be used for the games. :(

KarateeeChop
Touch pad data have only x and y of two touches and some other values, you will count it bytes ; p camera data also should not take much. Game assets is what takes ram the most
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ActionRemix

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#20 ActionRemix
Member since 2011 • 5640 Posts

It has to share the RAM with the GPU and it's going to be doing video compression in the background among other tasks.

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StrongBlackVine

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#21 StrongBlackVine
Member since 2012 • 13262 Posts

Why are on Sony hater so obsessed with the PS4? Worry about your own crapboxes.

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ShadowriverUB

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#22 ShadowriverUB
Member since 2009 • 5515 Posts

It has to share the RAM with the GPU and it's going to be doing video compression in the background among other tasks.

ActionRemix
Video compresion dont take much, its mainly blow for CPU
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andmcq

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#23 andmcq
Member since 2012 • 259 Posts

Not excessive at all. 1gb for the OS, 3gb for the GPU and the rest for the other parts of the system for example.

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StrongDeadlift

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#24 StrongDeadlift
Member since 2010 • 6073 Posts

Why are on Sony hater so obsessed with the PS4? Worry about your own crapboxes.

StrongBlackVine

Why do cows care so much what other people think or have to say about Sony :?

 

Also, you have no ram, therefore opinion invalid :cool:

Beautiful-Laying-Ram.jpg

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Strakha

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#25 Strakha
Member since 2003 • 1824 Posts

I feel people are still misunderstanding what he is saying. If you went and put 8GB of RAM in a GeForce 7800 (the card the PS3's GPU is based on) it's still going benchmark almost exactly same as a 512MB model on any game. Unless nvidia and ATI are putting way too little RAM in their current cards 8GB seems excessive (though not all of that is used on graphics) for a card with about the performance level of a 580. I would say about 1.5-2Gb is about right for a card with that performance which leaves 6-6.5GB for the OS and system RAM in the PS4. It seems excessive but then again every Sony console since the PS1 seems to have something strange about it's design that turns out to be a waste of their money in terms of real world performance. It wouldn't be a Sony console without something like this.

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ReadingRainbow4

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#26 ReadingRainbow4
Member since 2012 • 18733 Posts

Isn't the ammount of threads about ram a bit excessive?

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WitIsWisdom

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#27 WitIsWisdom
Member since 2007 • 9543 Posts

All I know is that I would rather it have too much then not enough.... I'm sure 3-5 years into its life cycle potential will be just about maxed out. If the rumors are true about the Xbox 720 having lower specs, it will show in due time. Either way I dont care, I will let the games speak for themselves.

If PS4 releases a SOCOM game that doesnt suck complete ass, then PS4 wins. Period... lol

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Tessellation

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#28 Tessellation
Member since 2009 • 9297 Posts
for sh!tty consoles it isn't...is a closed box that needs to share the ram with rest of the system..CPU,GPU etc...so it needs as much RAM as possible but it won't make magic either...PC in the other hand can go up to 48GB of dedicated RAM just for the system and them you have your GPU with 2,3 and 6gig dedicated just for the GPU,that alone is a massive step over consoles... lets not forget superior CPU and GPU's.
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Tessellation

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#29 Tessellation
Member since 2009 • 9297 Posts

Not excessive at all. 1gb for the OS, 3gb for the GPU and the rest for the other parts of the system for example.

andmcq
this man knows what he is talking about.
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lostrib

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#30 lostrib
Member since 2009 • 49999 Posts

But it's GDDR5! That means it has more G's and more 5's!

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ActicEdge

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#31 ActicEdge
Member since 2008 • 24492 Posts

Cow%20&%20Ram.jpg

We have a good relationship this gen :)

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TheWalkingGhost

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#32 TheWalkingGhost
Member since 2012 • 6092 Posts
Butthurt hermits still raging over that RAM!!! :lol:
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Wiimotefan

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#33 Wiimotefan
Member since 2010 • 4151 Posts

Cow%20&%20Ram.jpg

We have a good relationship this gen :)

ActicEdge

:lol:

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Strakha

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#34 Strakha
Member since 2003 • 1824 Posts

Benchmarks of 1.5GB 580 vs 3GB 580. It's very rare for a card manufacturer to put less RAM in a card than it can use effectively. The PS3's RSX was based on the GeForce 7800 which at the time came in 256MB (the same amount of RAM it had in the PS3) and 512MB versions. In benchmarks the version with more RAM will only perform a few FPS better as is the case with the 580 which is similar in floating point operations to the card in the PS4. Considering this and the benchmarks below I believe about 1.5GB is about right for a card of the performance of the one in the PS4 and 6.5GB for OS and system RAM seems excessive. The difference is less than 3 FPS when the card is pushed to the point when it is only performing just above what is considered a playable frame rate of 30 FPS.

HD7970-35.jpg

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TheWalkingGhost

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#35 TheWalkingGhost
Member since 2012 • 6092 Posts

Isn't the ammount of threads about ram a bit excessive?

ReadingRainbow4
Yes. If the next MS system has more than 8 you can expect Hermits and Cows to making even more threads on this.
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Strakha

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#36 Strakha
Member since 2003 • 1824 Posts

[QUOTE="ReadingRainbow4"]

Isn't the ammount of threads about ram a bit excessive?

TheWalkingGhost

Yes. If the next MS system has more than 8 you can expect Hermits and Cows to making even more threads on this.

It will have 8GB but it was rumoured to have 8 from the start as the OS is rumoured to use 3.5GB of that RAM meaning it won't be avilable for gaming purposes. That's a bit excessive too but 6GB would have be too little with the OS uses that much. The OS in the PS4 will only use 1GB.

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ActicEdge

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#37 ActicEdge
Member since 2008 • 24492 Posts

[QUOTE="ActicEdge"]

Cow%20&%20Ram.jpg

We have a good relationship this gen :)

Wiimotefan

:lol:

Blatantly stolenn from another user but it was too good to not be used again.

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Cranler

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#38 Cranler
Member since 2005 • 8809 Posts

Could the extra ram be used to load maps in the background? Or for instance if your in an Elder Scrolls game and youre near a cave it would start loading the data into ram in case you decide to enter the cave?

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clyde46

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#39 clyde46
Member since 2005 • 49061 Posts

Could the extra ram be used to load maps in the background? Or for instance if your in an Elder Scrolls game and youre near a cave it would start loading the data into ram in case you decide to enter the cave?

Cranler
The large amount of RAM can help a whole lot of things. You can have better looking textures, better animations, AI, audio. The list is rather long, however you will run into problems if the APU they are using is not up to snuff.
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DrTrafalgarLaw

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#40 DrTrafalgarLaw
Member since 2011 • 4487 Posts

Benchmarks of 1.5GB 580 vs 3GB 580. It's very rare for a card manufacturer to put less RAM in a card than it can use effectively. The PS3's RSX was based on the GeForce 7800 which at the time came in 256MB (the same amount of RAM it had in the PS3) and 512MB versions. In benchmarks the version with more RAM will only perform a few FPS better as is the case with the 580 which is similar in floating point operations to the card in the PS4. Considering this and the benchmarks below I believe about 1.5GB is about right for a card of the performance of the one in the PS4 and 6.5GB for OS and system RAM seems excessive. The difference is less than 3 FPS when the card is pushed to the point when it is only performing just above what is considered a playable frame rate of 30 FPS.

HD7970-35.jpg

Strakha
The improved RAM amount ánd quality is not for an FPS-increase primarily. You're using RSX as an example btw...how is that any comparable to the PS4? It's mainly put in there so RAM will never be a bottleneck and developers won't have to use tricks, like derezzed object details and it will help immensly with pop-in issues. But think bigger, more (and better) RAM can mean a lot more detail in open-world games and a lot more detail in general in every game. The increased amounts of RAM is for developer friendly-ness.
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Wiimotefan

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#41 Wiimotefan
Member since 2010 • 4151 Posts

[QUOTE="Wiimotefan"]

[QUOTE="ActicEdge"]

Cow%20&%20Ram.jpg

We have a good relationship this gen :)

ActicEdge

:lol:

Blatantly stolenn from another user but it was too good to not be used again.

No shame in that, I saved the image as soon as I saw it.  :P

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TheWalkingGhost

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#42 TheWalkingGhost
Member since 2012 • 6092 Posts
[QUOTE="Cranler"]

Could the extra ram be used to load maps in the background? Or for instance if your in an Elder Scrolls game and youre near a cave it would start loading the data into ram in case you decide to enter the cave?

clyde46
The large amount of RAM can help a whole lot of things. You can have better looking textures, better animations, AI, audio. The list is rather long, however you will run into problems if the APU they are using is not up to snuff.

People should wait and see what Devs do with this. Right now just be happy the system won't be starved for memory like other systems. More power and Ram = Better games for all, even Hermits as now your ports of console games maybe better. The PS4 won't hold the PC back if it is the lead system and the game then ported over.
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DragonfireXZ95

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#43 DragonfireXZ95
Member since 2005 • 26645 Posts

[QUOTE="bobbetybob"]Can we have some sort of PSA stickied at the top of the forum explaining what GDDR5 RAM is please?metroidfood

But that would take out all of the fun of SW.

I doubt it. People would ignore the sticky, just like everything else.
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DragonfireXZ95

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#44 DragonfireXZ95
Member since 2005 • 26645 Posts
[QUOTE="clyde46"][QUOTE="Cranler"]

Could the extra ram be used to load maps in the background? Or for instance if your in an Elder Scrolls game and youre near a cave it would start loading the data into ram in case you decide to enter the cave?

TheWalkingGhost
The large amount of RAM can help a whole lot of things. You can have better looking textures, better animations, AI, audio. The list is rather long, however you will run into problems if the APU they are using is not up to snuff.

People should wait and see what Devs do with this. Right now just be happy the system won't be starved for memory like other systems. More power and Ram = Better games for all, even Hermits as now your ports of console games maybe better. The PS4 won't hold the PC back if it is the lead system and the game then ported over.

Yes it will, it will just take a year or so to start holding the PC back like usual.
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StrongDeadlift

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#45 StrongDeadlift
Member since 2010 • 6073 Posts

ps4copy.jpg

stolen from gaf

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DrTrafalgarLaw

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#46 DrTrafalgarLaw
Member since 2011 • 4487 Posts
[QUOTE="DragonfireXZ95"][QUOTE="TheWalkingGhost"][QUOTE="clyde46"] The large amount of RAM can help a whole lot of things. You can have better looking textures, better animations, AI, audio. The list is rather long, however you will run into problems if the APU they are using is not up to snuff.

People should wait and see what Devs do with this. Right now just be happy the system won't be starved for memory like other systems. More power and Ram = Better games for all, even Hermits as now your ports of console games maybe better. The PS4 won't hold the PC back if it is the lead system and the game then ported over.

Yes it will, it will just take a year or so to start holding the PC back like usual.

>Claims consoles holding backs PC >Still plays Battlefield 3 You would have an actual point, if you weren't playing those pew pew games.
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silversix_

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#47 silversix_
Member since 2010 • 26347 Posts
Aren't u tired of fugly textures? The more ram the better.
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Strakha

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#48 Strakha
Member since 2003 • 1824 Posts

[QUOTE="Strakha"]

Benchmarks of 1.5GB 580 vs 3GB 580. It's very rare for a card manufacturer to put less RAM in a card than it can use effectively. The PS3's RSX was based on the GeForce 7800 which at the time came in 256MB (the same amount of RAM it had in the PS3) and 512MB versions. In benchmarks the version with more RAM will only perform a few FPS better as is the case with the 580 which is similar in floating point operations to the card in the PS4. Considering this and the benchmarks below I believe about 1.5GB is about right for a card of the performance of the one in the PS4 and 6.5GB for OS and system RAM seems excessive. The difference is less than 3 FPS when the card is pushed to the point when it is only performing just above what is considered a playable frame rate of 30 FPS.

HD7970-35.jpg

DrTrafalgarLaw

The improved RAM amount ánd quality is not for an FPS-increase primarily. You're using RSX as an example btw...how is that any comparable to the PS4? It's mainly put in there so RAM will never be a bottleneck and developers won't have to use tricks, like derezzed object details and it will help immensly with pop-in issues. But think bigger, more (and better) RAM can mean a lot more detail in open-world games and a lot more detail in general in every game. The increased amounts of RAM is for developer friendly-ness.

I used the RSX and GeForce 7800 as example in case someone questioned if future games would be different to the benchmarks of BF3 for the 1.5GB and 3GB. They were not that generation as card manufacturers always err on the side of giving cards as much or more RAM than they need for peak performance. A couple of FPS is the best you will likely get out of the card with more RAM. The biggest evidence 4GB would have been enough is that the PS4 dev kits had 4GB and it's likely the marketing people rather than the tech people who decided on 8GB so it wouldn't have a number smaller than the Xbox which isn't actually using almost half of it's RAM for gaming anyway. Also earlier in this thread I mentioned the PS4 is 8 times more powerful in processing power but has almost 16 times more RAM than the PS3. This adds to the considerable evidence that the decision to upgrade to 8GB was more of a marketing decision than a practical one.

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Teuf_

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#49 Teuf_
Member since 2004 • 30805 Posts

Benchmarks of 1.5GB 580 vs 3GB 580. It's very rare for a card manufacturer to put less RAM in a card than it can use effectively. The PS3's RSX was based on the GeForce 7800 which at the time came in 256MB (the same amount of RAM it had in the PS3) and 512MB versions. In benchmarks the version with more RAM will only perform a few FPS better as is the case with the 580 which is similar in floating point operations to the card in the PS4. Considering this and the benchmarks below I believe about 1.5GB is about right for a card of the performance of the one in the PS4 and 6.5GB for OS and system RAM seems excessive. The difference is less than 3 FPS when the card is pushed to the point when it is only performing just above what is considered a playable frame rate of 30 FPS.

HD7970-35.jpg

 

Strakha

Your logic here doesn't really make sense. PC games have to target a wide variety of hardware, so the developers will come up with a fixed budget based on common hardware and that budget will determine exactly how much memory is consumed by the game. Then when you run the game you might have way too much memory or not enough memory, depending on how recent and expensive your video card is. If you have enough memory then the GPU runs normally, and if you don't your performance rapidly degrades since the driver will attempt to page data in and out of video memory during a frame. If you have way more than enough memory for a game there's no "bonus", it performs exactly the same as if you had exactly enough memory. On consoles a developer knows exactly how much memory will be available on that platform, so there's no chance of "using too much" or "not using enough"...they will simply use all of it. There is of course a limit on how much a game can read and write to memory during a frame which is determined by the bandwidth and other hardware characterstics, but even if you're bottlenecked by bandwidth it's still better to have more memory since you can keep more textures/meshes/AI/physics objects/whatever in memory at any given time without having to unload them.

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Strakha

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#50 Strakha
Member since 2003 • 1824 Posts

There is of course a limit on how much a game can read and write to memory during a frame which is determined by the bandwidth and other hardware characterstics, but even if you're bottlenecked by bandwidth it's still better to have more memory since you can keep more textures/meshes/AI/physics objects/whatever in memory at any given time without having to unload them.

Teufelhuhn

Yes and that is exaclty what I was trying to demonstrate and that's why whether it's a 256MB 7800 vs 512MB 7800 or 1.5GB 580 vs 3GB 580 you aren't going to see much a perfromance boost by giving it more RAM because card developer always err on the side of caution when it comes to RAM.