Crytek Says 8GB RAM May Not Be Enough For Upcoming Games

Many developers are always looking to push the limits of computer hardware to give us the best digital experiences they can, Crytek are often at the front of this wave of technical advancement and their CryEngine technology is a prime example of this. However, according to Crytek’s US Engine Business Development Manager, Sean Tracy, the current 8GB RAM configurations in next-gen (current-gen) consoles simply isn’t that much, or really that impressive at all.

“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”. said Tracy.

Tracy said that with games such as Ryse: son of Rome, they were already struggling with the 8GB limit on the Xbox One. This may sound strange given that your PC likely has 4 or 8GB, but console memory is likely managed in a different fashion to that of your desktop PC, which can offload between the GPU memory and the system memory, not a shared pool like the current architectures of the new consoles.

“[8 GB of RAM] will be one of the limiting factors surely in this generation. 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”.

Basically, there is going to be a need for innovations in gaming engines and software to push things further, but I guess we can also take this as another hint that PC gaming is soon going to be pushing beyond an 8GB barrier in more and more games, which could prove tricky for console ports, which often already lag behind their PC counterparts in terms of visual quality and performance.

Thank you TweakTown for providing us with this information.