Crytek: 8GB RAM Will be a Limiting Factor For PS4/Xbox One Development

[Lunar Templar]

While I'm sure all that technical stuff is true ....

I'm still inclined to roll my eyes at Cyrtec, cause really, they're just gonna use all that extra power to make they're next shining example of mediocrity 'pretty'.

Yes, I'm aware of Far Cry 3, no, I don't think the next one will be up to the same level.

 

[Evonisia]

More is better. But they Crytek has always been about the graphics first. Which is why Crysis 2 and 3 wernt that good. Though i do hear Crysis 1 is so much better? Gears had great graphics, GTA5, Skyrim and FC3 look great on the 360.

Crysis 1 gameplay wise was basically like FarCry 1, albeit with much worse vehicle sections (amazingly). So good and reasonably fun, but not outstanding or anything.

I do see Crytek's complaining as the anomalous result. Sure Crytek can push against this boundary, but most developers probably won't... at least not anywhere near as quickly as Crytek will.

 

[Strazdas]

It would be pointless to try running the consoles in high resolution due to their weak GPU but they seem to not able to do decent desolutions anyway. the thing is, noone her was speaking about resolution. we spoke about regular RAM benefits. Crytek didnt say it because they wanted higher resolution, they said it because they ran out of memory.

They didn't say why they ran into memory issues though - I wouldn't be surprised if they tried quite a few resolution/framerate/detail combinations. Since we don't know the exact circumstances of when they were running into memory issues, it's perfectly possible that they ran into memory issues at 1080p/60fps (with some effects turned off I would assume, otherwise hitting 60fps would be difficult).

Yes, they very likely tried many combinations in their testing. Doubt anything above 1080p though because noone on consoles seems to try that. Well, if you run into issues with basic standard on console launch, what will happen couple years into its lifecycle you think?

As a PC gaming forum it's very natural to think my situation is rare, but actually I'm pretty sure I'm in the majority if you also include the people who don't know they can/aren't technically able to upgrade. I'm sure that I have way more friends with laptops than friends with computers, and of my friends with computers I best most of them wouldn't know how to upgrade it.

Everyone round here thinks that everyone has super awesome game crunching machines, but the majority of Steam users (not PC owners, this is active PC gamers) don't. The lack of a graphics race is really awesome for all of those people, less so when games focus on the high end.

Because 'play it on medium settings' doesn't work a lot of the time. I currently own a lot of games that I can't play on low settings and we've had plenty of ridiculous cases recently of games asking for 6GB RAM minimum (even when it can run on less). The games where playing on lower settings is easy are often the games whose developers haven't been pushing for pie-in-the-sky look-at-the-pixels Titanesque specs or whatever.

It's been very nice to be in a situation where the consoles have forced developers to consider the lower spec PCs. I'm not looking forward to the new race to push the bar higher with the new console generation.

PC gaming forum? Since when is this PC gaming forum? While amount of PC gamers have been increasing everywhere, here included, this is hardly PC gaming forum. what with most of the news being about consoles and all.

Laptops as portable web computers are being moved into obsolesence by tablets and the only audience left is those that need portability AND power no matter the costs. Its a receding market. those that need only power buy desktops because its half the price. those that need only portability buy tablets.

I think we have been over this of why Steam survey is skewed havent we? steam survey looks at all hardware. this means that for example for me it surveys: GTX 760, 8600M GT, two integrated intel graphic cards. looking at average - thats 3 out of 4 using very old hardware. looking at reality - my integrated intel ones are never utilized and my laptop GPU isnt gaming but steam is still installed on that computer. In reality 95% of gaming is done on the 760, but survey thinks its only 25%.

You can play new games on low on 6 year old GPUs and still gave them look better than consoles when it comes to graphics. The reason you cant run it is because you are running on a laptop, and an old one too (judging from what you told us), and old laptop GPUs are weak.

It may be nice for you, but for people who saw the AI degrade, functions being taken off because with limited ahrdware the developers decided to sacrifice gameplay for graphics since the consoles can only process so much, it hasnt been that nice.

As for COD asking 6 GB ram minimum when in reality using 2.6 GB the explanation is simple - the developers were complete morons designing that game. its so full of memory leaks and GPU spikes its amazing how it didnt sink the franchise.

4 times in 6 years? Most of my laptops have lasted 4+, what happened if I may ask?

Holy fuck dude. What kind of laptop did you get? I had an HP laptop that lasted me 6 years before getting a new one this Christmas and giving it to my mom. It still works.

Yeah, i think you misunderstood me. That 6 year old laptop is still working and in use. What i meant is i only had to bring it 4 times total somewhere for my studies because the classes either had desktops there or a computer was not needed.
Its true that at one point i had to solder my monitor wires manually because flipping the lid up and down have broken them (yeah, those 0.1mm wires are really a paint to solder together, but larger pain was finding which ones broke out of the few hundred that were there.). And there also was the time when my MOBO was changed by warranty, but they did this to all laptops of this model since HP has made error manufacturing. But hey its still good for opening a game map on the side or letting it do some video encoding overnight

Your correct about the price, it comes down to weather the portability is worth it to you, in my case it is.
True ram was the point at hand, however there's only so much you can add before your just wasting cash, for now atleast 8GB is more than enough.

It was fun for the first hr or so, until more people came and we needed more space on the tables, so one had to be disconnected. I ended up going with laptop after a few LAN games and figured that carting around my tower was both anoying and a risk I wasn't willing to take. $1000 (laptop was on sale) was worth the price considering it saves me bringing a desktop around with a $900 GPU.

The person said that he only has 4 GB therefore didnt want games to utilize 8 GB consoles had. we told him he can just upgrade to 8 GB cheaply. 8 GB is enough for regualar gamer, I myself would like to have 16 GB instead (albeit only run on 8 atm) but i usually do more than regular users.
Also if you have a lot of RAM to spare you can play with DIMM drives.

900 dollar GPU? You were running a Titan? I hope you needed it and it wasnt just becuase of the name. because unless you specifically need this massive VRAM 780TI is otherwise identical.

Crysis 1 gameplay wise was basically like FarCry 1, albeit with much worse vehicle sections (amazingly). So good and reasonably fun, but not outstanding or anything.

no....
Crysis gamepaly wise was much more than FC1. FC1 was a straight shooter and a good one at that (FC2 was arse and i havent played FC3). Crysis on the other hand had multiple tactics and methods (you could play almost whole game in sneaking past enemies) as well as gameplay changes (suit powers). Its a spiritual sucessor to FC1, but its not the same.

 

[RicoADF]

Yeah, i think you misunderstood me. That 6 year old laptop is still working and in use. What i meant is i only had to bring it 4 times total somewhere for my studies because the classes either had desktops there or a computer was not needed.
Its true that at one point i had to solder my monitor wires manually because flipping the lid up and down have broken them (yeah, those 0.1mm wires are really a paint to solder together, but larger pain was finding which ones broke out of the few hundred that were there.). And there also was the time when my MOBO was changed by warranty, but they did this to all laptops of this model since HP has made error manufacturing. But hey its still good for opening a game map on the side or letting it do some video encoding overnight

Ah right, the wording made it sound otherwise, my mistake

The person said that he only has 4 GB therefore didnt want games to utilize 8 GB consoles had. we told him he can just upgrade to 8 GB cheaply. 8 GB is enough for regualar gamer, I myself would like to have 16 GB instead (albeit only run on 8 atm) but i usually do more than regular users.
Also if you have a lot of RAM to spare you can play with DIMM drives.

900 dollar GPU? You were running a Titan? I hope you needed it and it wasnt just becuase of the name. because unless you specifically need this massive VRAM 780TI is otherwise identical.

Thing is it depends on their hardware, their machine may not support more RAM and thus a cheap upgrade turns into a whole new machine. Currently I have 8GB as I have yet to even half fill it, I have been thinking about getting another 8 to use as a DIMM drive.

The GPU is a EVGA 780ti, over here Titans are far more expensive and can cost $1500.

 

[Strazdas]

Thing is it depends on their hardware, their machine may not support more RAM and thus a cheap upgrade turns into a whole new machine. Currently I have 8GB as I have yet to even half fill it, I have been thinking about getting another 8 to use as a DIMM drive.

The GPU is a EVGA 780ti, over here Titans are far more expensive and can cost $1500.

Yes, but we were saying it to his specific example, not suggesting endless RAM increase right now.
Ah, the expensive nations. am part of it, here in eastern Europe everything is 30% extra as well. Im doing fine with 760 thusly.

 

[RicoADF]

Ah, the expensive nations. am part of it, here in eastern Europe everything is 30% extra as well. Im doing fine with 760 thusly.

The 760 is good and the AMD 6950 was still quite a good card when I replaced it, hardware is getting diminishing returns, just like visuals.

 

[Arawn]

Dude...
Listen, you are to a certain point right. However the reason we harp on graphics is that it is safe territory. There ARE better graphics, there AREN'T better art Styles (just better executed) and there AREN'T better games. So that is one of VERY few things we can judge.

As for graphics, they CAN enhance gameplay. A firefight in a DX10+ storm in STALKER is incredible, because you can see the outlines of the enemies on the ground after each bolt of lightning, letting you spot them.
The reactive grass in Crysis lets you see the enemies just by observing the sway of the grass. It also allows you to check their speed and stance.

Not to mention they help immersion.
Not to forget power also can help with physics and AI (STALKER's grand 1000 AI case)

I will admit you are the first to site the need for better graphics to add to immersion. Yes, it does seem a good reason for needing high definition and resolutions. Although it doesn't seem to be valid one. Surely we've seen games below that 1080 pull off the very same mechanics. It's not impossible to do so. Yet, that brings up the other reason many clamor for the higher rez; an expected standard. I have read in other such conversations where people claim that 1080 is the minimum. "How can it be called next gen if it struggles to get that much?" or at least something along those lines. And it is then that the comparison to PC comes up. The beating of the dead horse resumes. We all know computers are powerful, instead this is a method of belittling consoles. I love my PC, I love my consoles. They're different machines with different uses. One isn't trying to replace the other. I'm not going to make toast with a blender, but I can still have tasty smoothies. Perhaps that's it? The king sees the princeling as a threat? Nah, as noted PC are higher specs. No need to undermine others. There's no real threat. Maybe I'm just overthinking things. Just seems like there's venom at consoles as much as there's for Microsoft and it's Xbox One. Again the high graphics shouldn't been the focus of game development. Graphic stability, yes. But not definition and resolution. Yeah I'd like to see devotion to better AI that doesn't just walk single file towards the shooter. Or better yet AI companions that are more use than bullet sponges and forwarding the story.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

I rarely go above 4GB, thats while running games plus a browser as I forget to shut the window bfore I game.

My question is; who wants phote-realistic graphics?

Personally, I want amazing dream like worlds of someone with a better imagination than me.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Hey Crytek! RAM is kind of really expensive right now, how about you return to this statement when DDR4 comes out?

Honestly, I don't see any reason to upgrade to 16GB from 8GB RAM unless next-gen games are going to feature a spontaneous photo-editing mini game.

 

[Strazdas]

The 760 is good and the AMD 6950 was still quite a good card when I replaced it, hardware is getting diminishing returns, just like visuals.

I relaced a 8600GT with that, so the jump was quite large. I disagree about diminishing returns as lnog as your smart. if your always buying most expensive and the best then yes, returns are diminishing, if you are buying the mid-range card from generation thats been going for a while the performance/price ratio is still amazing, and the returns are hardly diminishing when its a matter of 30% more FPS.

Surely we've seen games below that 1080 pull off the very same mechanics.

No. We havent. there is none. Its because thats not possible. We had games that are low resolution and limited mechanics that have immersion (silent hill for example) but its not the same type of immersion as STALKER immersion for example. To reach stalker immersion you need the resolution and quality. Granted, games that require such immersion is rather rare, but they do exist.

I have read in other such conversations where people claim that 1080 is the minimum.

PCs were doing 1080p for 2 decades. Its been a standart for a while.
That being said, most people fight for 1080p on consoles specifically because before the launch both sony and microsoft sold consoles on thier ability to do 1080p all the time. its supposed to be "The next gen thing". turns out. its not really happening.

We all know computers are powerful, instead this is a method of belittling consoles. I love my PC, I love my consoles.

Except that, you know, in ALL generation launches except this one Console was on par with PC and only went weaker because it wasnt upgradable. this time its weak at launch. there is a difference. We didnt had this type of talks in 2005 because in 2005 consoles were in fact more powerful than PCs. Now a mid-range PC outperforms the new consoles.

eah I'd like to see devotion to better AI that doesn't just walk single file towards the shooter. Or better yet AI companions that are more use than bullet sponges and forwarding the story.

Better AI needs processing power. Processing power consoles do not have. And when it comes to a compromise graphics or AI we already saw that developers go the graphics route. why? because graphics sell units.

Hey Crytek! RAM is kind of really expensive right now, how about you return to this statement when DDR4 comes out?

erm, since when RAM is expensive.

Its DDR4 thats going to be expensive for first couple years after launch.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Hold on hold on... On a PC what games natively run more than 3-4 gigs of ram? As far as I'm aware there aren't very many 64-bit games out there, and the ones that are don't even hit the 4 gig 32-bit limit... I can't even max out my RAM usage while playing games...

 

[BarkBarker]

Graphical boundary pushers complaining about not being able to push the boundary more....guess they have to either find intelligent design in the visual department or FUCKING DEAL WITH IT and make games that don't need a fucking radar cos I can't see shit in this lighting catastrophe.