16GB still overkill for modern games?

[BlitzPuppet]

Bf3 needs 8gb to be maxed out. It stutters a bit with 4gb. Bf4 will require at least 12-16 but nobody buys 12, so we assume 16. Not 32gb. 32gb then will be the 16gb of now. Allowing you to open dozens of chrome tabs, a few additional apps, bf4 and still be silky smooth. That will require 24-32gb so we assume 32gb. Bf4 should run fine with 16gb. But games which release in end of 2014 will need at least 16gb to be maxed out, the top 10% intensive games that is. This is without multitasking or any buffer. That is where 32gb comes in.

As a simple run, every 2-3 years the amount of ram needed at least doubles. 8gb became the norm in 2010 or so. Time for 16gb is now. 16gb will become required by 2013/2014 in some game or the other.

Max Payne 3 already recommended 16gb for ultra high end setups.

...I ran both (when I could bare to play them...ew) just fine with 6GB of ram...1080p...all maxed out.

Max usage I get is 77%.

 

[Texashiker]

I guarantee my statement. By 2014 8gb would be the minimum requirement for intensive games like witcher 3 and bf4. 16gb would be recommended. And to stay comfortable with multitasking and quick responsiveness, you will need 32gb. This change will happen sometime between 2013 end and late 2014.

As long as coders write games in 32-bit, your prediction will never happen.

Back in 2003, 2004, various pc magazines and websites predicted 32-bit operating systems would fall to the wayside by the end of the decade.

Here we are in 2013, and microsoft still offers a 32 bit version of windows 7. Who can we blame for keeping 32 bit alive? Most of the blame needs to go to microsoft.

What is holding us back is no longer the operating system, or the hardware, it is the developers. Until 64 bit programs are written to use the available memory, having more then 8 or 12 gigs is overkill.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Predictions in 2003 about 2010 are likely to be less accurate than a prediction in 2013 about 2014. It has been confirmed I think that bf4 will be 64 bit only. Witcher 3 will be 64 bit only. Games in 2014 will start coming as 64 bit only, no doubt about that. And going to 64bit will double the ram requirement instantly.

 

[HumblePie]

I got 32 GB in my main, 16 in my HTPC, 16 in my lappy, and another 16 GB sitting around unused. I think I'm set.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

I got 32 GB in my main, 16 in my HTPC, 16 in my lappy, and another 16 GB sitting around unused. I think I'm set.

Ya. For the next 3-4 years you are set

 

[Mannymal]

Most games don't take advantage of more than 2gb unless modded.

 

[Midwayman]

I have a tough time seeing 16gb ram being needed anytime in the immediate future when current games seem to have trouble breaking much more than 4gb. Ram requirements going up now that consoles will have 8gb isn't a bad prediction. But that's shared memory. A couple gb is going to be textures, etc. In the PC space that means 8gb will probably still leave you room for the OS, etc since you have on card memory for textures, frame buffer, etc. I'd imagine that GPU memory is going to be at issue more than system memory. Probably a safe bet you'll want a 2gb gpu in the nearly future. Maybe they'll be some ultra texture settings that will take advantage of 3 gb gpus. Either way I figure I'll have to replace my CPU and MB (and probably ram type) before there is much real need for more than 8gb of system ram in games.

 

[CountZero]

And going to 64bit will double the ram requirement instantly.

No it doesn't.

 

[Dumac]

As soon as 64bit games start coming in, 8gb will become the bare minimum. By 2014 to remain comfortable the norm will easily be at least 32gb ram.

I guarantee my statement. By 2014 8gb would be the minimum requirement for intensive games like witcher 3 and bf4. 16gb would be recommended. And to stay comfortable with multitasking and quick responsiveness, you will need 32gb. This change will happen sometime between 2013 end and late 2014.

quoted for posterity

 

[Martimus]

There was even a 64bit version of Windows XP, and we're still waiting for games to take advantage of it. There has now been at least four Windows OSes with 64bit, and now all of a sudden you think the ram requirements are going to quadruple in a year?

With the Playstation and Xbox moving from 256MB to 8GB of RAM, the newer games are far more likely to use more memory. I doubt it will be a fast change, but the updated consoles should drive an eventual change to the amount of memory new games will use.

 

[dpodblood]

Yeah people need to remember that the reason that most games are not using a lot of memory is because 90% of games are console ports. The developers have made these games with the very tight memory constraints of the PS3 and the 360 in mind. Now that we have a new generation of consoles coming out games can start to use more memory. We already know that the PS4 is going to have 8GB of RAM which is basically 15X as much as the PS3.

 

[Dumac]

Yeah people need to remember that the reason that most games are not using a lot of memory is because 90% of games are console ports. The developers have made these games with the very tight memory constraints of the PS3 and the 360 in mind. Now that we have a new generation of consoles coming out games can start to use more memory. We already know that the PS4 is going to have 8GB of RAM which is basically 15X as much as the PS3.

Why do you do this to me? It hurts.

 

[dpodblood]

Why do you do this to me? It hurts.

Huh?

 

[Martimus]

Huh?

8GB is 32 times the amount of memory of the 256MB the PS3 has. I think he was just picking on the math error.

 

[Jaskalas]

As soon as 64bit games start coming in, 8gb will become the bare minimum. By 2014 to remain comfortable the norm will easily be at least 32gb ram.

In nine months.

Hold on, gotta write that down. :whiste:

 

[KaOTiK]

One thing to keep in mind guys, when the next gen of consoles come out at the end of the year they have 8GB of RAM and while a gig (or tad more) will be reserved for the consoles OS and functions games in general will be using a lot more RAM than now, especially since a large number of big PC games are ports as well.

Granted, min specs probably wont go up too much, but I recommended sure will. We have already started seeing some games recommend 8GB and with the overhead the devs have to deal with on the PC the games will require more resources.

Frankly, we would have been at this stage years ago if consoles didn't become the main stream thing they are for games.

 

[Dumac]

Huh?

8GB is 32 times the amount of memory of the 256MB the PS3 has. I think he was just picking on the math error.

If he said 16x, I could have accepted that as jut some wrong information.

But fifteen? Really? That isn't even a power of 2.

 

[jacktesterson]

And going to 64bit will double the ram requirement instantly.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

I'm sure my age is catching up to me, but what is Haswell supposed to run again? Bog standard 1.5V DDR3-1600?

 

[alcoholbob]

If he said 16x, I could have accepted that as jut some wrong information.

But fifteen? Really? That isn't even a power of 2.

Maybe he thinks 8 GB of shared memory means 4GB of RAM and 4GB of VRAM.

 

[Martimus]

Maybe he thinks 8 GB of shared memory means 4GB of RAM and 4GB of VRAM.

Even if that is the case, doesn't the PS3 also have shared RAM?

 

[Bateluer]

Quoting so it can't be changed. I hope I remember to come back to this thread in 2014 but I likely wont lol.

They'd be losing a whole slew of the market. A lot (majority?) of people that play BF3 aren't playing with the rigs we play with. You can increase demand via in-game settings from 4gb to 8gb for example on one version of the game (even that must be pretty dang hard), but from 4gb to 32gb? Maybe I'm just not seeing it.

Either way I wouldn't mind eating my words. Would be interesting what a game would be like that needs 16gb.

I kinda disagree with you. The PS4 will come with 8GB of fast DDR5. These upcoming consoles will be establishing the baseline and lowest common denominator for game development for the next several years, so 8GB could easily become the minimum in 2014-2015, with 16 and 32 being nice bumps. In AT's review of the Radeon 7790, they also state that 2GB video cards should be the goal if you're going to spend more than 150 dollars.

 

[Regs]

Maybe they'll start lowering the latencies on DDR3 and charge more for it? There comes a point when prices drop low enough, that new manufactures and current alike, stop producing as much to invest in other more profitable endeavors.

 

[MagickMan]

Went from 8GB to 32GB and turned off the page file. RAM was so cheap, there wasn't any real reason not to.

 

[Barfo]

I kinda disagree with you. The PS4 will come with 8GB of fast DDR5. These upcoming consoles will be establishing the baseline and lowest common denominator for game development for the next several years, so 8GB could easily become the minimum in 2014-2015, with 16 and 32 being nice bumps. In AT's review of the Radeon 7790, they also state that 2GB video cards should be the goal if you're going to spend more than 150 dollars.

If that turns out to be true then maybe we'll start seeing PC ports that scale the game down because few people have PCs that meet those requirements.