-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
RUMOR: So Killzone: SF was only using 1.5GB of VRAM
- Thread starter nhlducks35
- Start date
If I've learned anything from this gen (my first console gen), it's that there are continual improvements to the visual fidelity as time passes.
Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew
Banned
Don't get mad over it. What's happening is that a lot of GAF members don't care what "Jaguar" is or even care what the numbers in GPU means. RAM is one thing they can right-click on and check if their PC has it.
It is more than PS3? If so, OMG!
Is it more than WiiU? If so, OMG!
Is it more or equal to Nextbox? If so, OMG!
Does it have a 5 instead of a 3? If so, OMG!
Does it have a G ahead of it? If so, OMG!
basically AHHHH BIGGER NUMBERS
Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew
Banned
400 horsepower car is greater than 200 horsepower, you noobs!
RAM is the equivalent of horsepower, IMO.
That old rumour was around the first PS4 dev kits. Not the final hardware. It was a PC based dev kit, with separate CPU and GPU (so with segregated 8GB of main RAM and 2.2GB VRAM).
The PS4 uses an APU (combined CPU and GPU) with unified 8GB of GDDR5 RAM. Devs are free to assign as much available RAM to either CPU or GPU as they want.
I guess but it really hurts the brain going from tech forums to weird ass post on GAF. Its like to downplay this demo would make them sleep better at night.
Not at you bro
No, Kotakus article said the first devkits had 8GB of system ram and 2.2GB of Vram. That is because the first kits would have been for the most part off the shelf parts put together to get things going with an approximate baseline.
The 8GB of system ram in those machines would have been DDR3 not GDDR5. The 2.2GB (still a weird number to me) of vram would have been GDDR5 on whatever graphics card they dropped in. Much like my PC has 16GB of DDR3 system ram and 2GB of GDDR5 Vram.
It's not until the January 2013 devkit that they are rumoured to have a dedicated pool of ram using a SoC devkit. That would probably have been GDDR5.
so in simple language. PS4 will have thsoe 8GB of GDDR5 for games AND OS? There is no separate RAM for OS?
True. A portion (rumoured to be 0.5GB) will be reserved for the OS, so devs will only see 7.5GB for games. From that 7.5GB, they are free to carve it up into whatever chunks they want. Games with a fuck load of RAM intensive effects might dedicate more to the GPU side of things, open world games might want to use more of it for persistent data or caching data from storage.
IcyBlueStrawberry
Member
My only two problems with the graphics in the Killzone demo were the textures and the animations.
Both of those are heavily dependent on RAM and will probably improve drastically before launch, so I'm happy.
Both of those are heavily dependent on RAM and will probably improve drastically before launch, so I'm happy.
Just so wrong. In car analogy ram is more like a smaller, more efficient fueltank close to the engine (in this case the CPU and GPU). If the engine can't get fuel fast enough and in large enough quantities from the main fuel tank it might starve/stall. What's the upside? The faster you drive the more fuel you burn so you need that fuel quickly and in larger quantities when pushing performance.
Of course all of this depends on just how thirsty the engine is at its maximum performance
prag16
Banned
Animations heavily bound by RAM? If 8x the ram didn't appear to noticeably improve KZ's character animation from KZ3, I doubt doubling it again will by itself work any miracles.
Edit: whoops, I misread your post.
The animations are worse than in KZ2/3, so it just seems they didn't polish them at this point.
That's a very big assumption. If end to end bandwidth and computational power are high enough to utilise the available memory then yes, you get all those benefits
Pristine_Condition
Member
Came into this thread looking for discussion of this rumor.
Then got slapped in the face by a whole bunch of thread whining on the first page... Not trying to backseat mod here, but guys, this isn't just another RAM thread, and as Evilore and the mods always say, "new news-new thread."
...
I thought the textures in the KZ demo looked pretty muddy and lower in resolution than I would have assumed I'd see in a tent pole graphics demo for a system with that much RAM. So yeah, I'd assume the first thing GG would look into improving are the texture assets.
Then got slapped in the face by a whole bunch of thread whining on the first page... Not trying to backseat mod here, but guys, this isn't just another RAM thread, and as Evilore and the mods always say, "new news-new thread."
...
I thought the textures in the KZ demo looked pretty muddy and lower in resolution than I would have assumed I'd see in a tent pole graphics demo for a system with that much RAM. So yeah, I'd assume the first thing GG would look into improving are the texture assets.
I see. Thanks.
- RAM isn't everything, CPUs and GPUs exist for a reason.
- But it does help a lot.
- Bigger textures!
- More/larger render targets!
- General algorithm optimization, usually a way to trade CPU cycles for memory consumption and vice versa.
Everyone just needs to chill out and wait for more game footage. I can only imagine the horror that GAF was when the PS3 was announced with having a Cell in it.
Good thing your opinion isn't fact.
BrownWalrus
Member
Yes because the memory in the PS3 was not unified and was not shared between the GPU/GNC.
Please correct me If I'm wrong, but isn't one of the reasons 8G GDDR5 is impressive (aside from the bandwidth) is the fact that it is unified, meaning that it can essentially act as 8G Vram for the GPGPU (or however much will end up being used for gaming)?
Or is it not that simple?
Chuck Norris
Banned
That would be like pouring a litre of drink into an 8 litre bottle (right now PS3 is like having two 256ml bottles), PS4 GPU and CPU will be like pouring 8 litres of drink into an 8 litre bottle
Basically, you need the hardware to back up the RAM, or its pointless.
If memory speed/latency stay same the additional memory doesn't affect performance.
Here's some things that it makes easier.
- more varied textures (more textures)
- larger textures (ie. jump from 512x512 texture to 1024x1024 texture takes 4x the memory)
- More varied animation
- more persistent game world
Things that you do might have effect for longer time.
IE. in GTA when you go rampage there might be cleaning crew working on the mess for long time and messing traffic etc. (for days if needed.)
- NPC interaction with each other and world when player is not close by.
- Creating a procedural game world without player seeing the popup.
same goes for all the fun things like voxelization of an environment for cone tracing or creating lightmaps away from direct vision.
In short, you do not need to touch every bit in memory for every frame for it to be useful.
Yes, you can stream things like persistent world into HDD and fetch from there, but the additional latency can be bad when you want to keep things changing.
Here's some things that it makes easier.
- more varied textures (more textures)
- larger textures (ie. jump from 512x512 texture to 1024x1024 texture takes 4x the memory)
- More varied animation
- more persistent game world
Things that you do might have effect for longer time.
IE. in GTA when you go rampage there might be cleaning crew working on the mess for long time and messing traffic etc. (for days if needed.)
- NPC interaction with each other and world when player is not close by.
- Creating a procedural game world without player seeing the popup.
same goes for all the fun things like voxelization of an environment for cone tracing or creating lightmaps away from direct vision.
In short, you do not need to touch every bit in memory for every frame for it to be useful.
Yes, you can stream things like persistent world into HDD and fetch from there, but the additional latency can be bad when you want to keep things changing.
How much RAM could a GAF Ram ram if a GAF Ram could ram RAM?
SlickShoesRUCrazy
Member
Ingueferroque
Banned
If only there would be a tailor made PS4 version of GTAV planned.. this news is probably a godsend to Rockstar.
iamshadowlark
Banned
Fuck man, developers were really limited to 1.5 GBs? That would have been a nightmare later on.
Devkits had 8 GB and 2.2 GB Vram. And of course they only used the Vram for graphics.
I think they will always have to have a certain amount put aside for the OS, Share functions etc. I just cannot see Sony letting developers pretty much ignore all the features they have touted, in favour of using more RAM.
Castle Doctrine
Member
I'm a little nervous about this thing even being ready for manufacture and a release by holiday 2013.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
It's a unified pool, there shouldn't be any VRAM. If the kits had 4GB and 1.5 was usable "for graphics", a more likely explanation would be that the person discussing it just split the pool down the middle assuming a 50/50 split for CPU and GPU usage, and that 1GB was reserved for OS / extra functions.
I say it implies 1GB for OS because if it was only 512, then we would have 2GB for system and 1.5 for video, which seems quite unlikely - video is more likely to get the extra 512.
Always-honest
Banned
Sooner or later Herman Hulst or some other better know Guerilla guy will respond to this.
But i have no doubt the game will look better than that alpha demo.
Kinda cool if this would be even half true.
But i have no doubt the game will look better than that alpha demo.
Kinda cool if this would be even half true.
Pachterballs
Banned
I like how now that it has 8gb of ram... its not a big deal for some people.
lmao
would love it if KZSF had a
lmao
would love it if KZSF had a
special making of featurette you unlock after beating the game that talks about the ram bump
iamshadowlark
Banned
You mean retail-like unit? Then no. But VGleaks had the article about the dev-kit evolution. They've been spot-on mostly. The 8GB thing is obviously very new.
http://neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=509773
The kit that shipped in January is supposed to be the first one withe the Custom GPU and the camera and new controller. The CPU has been available for a while now.
The devkits that were out before were pretty much final silicon but they are rather new iirc.
People saying is not only Ram and you need the cpu and gpu power to push it are fucking right.
But 8GB gddr5 is a good new and games will look better because in my opinion 4GB would be a Bottleneck, even if the GPU is not some crazy top of the notch thing or the console is not going to be used for gaming at more than 1080p.
But 8GB gddr5 is a good new and games will look better because in my opinion 4GB would be a Bottleneck, even if the GPU is not some crazy top of the notch thing or the console is not going to be used for gaming at more than 1080p.
old manatee
Banned
If I scrap my motherboard for one that supports unified gddr5 RAM will pages of killzone gifs load faster?
ryanthelion123
Neo Member
I just hope 8Gb of RAM is enough for PS4's browser to handle multiple windows of GAF RAM threads.
Similar threads
- x2
- Poll