Why do "Next-Gen" games use so much video memory?

[Gypopotamus]

So many games have released recently that use massive amounts of video memory for no apparent reason! 

For a 1440p monitor user with a pair of GTX 780s, it's really frustrating having to lower texture resolutions etc just so I don't get stutters!

Here's a rant I recorded about the issue:
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGyYZddc9gI


Can anyone on here provide a reasonable explanation as to why these games perform so badly?

[Firearm2112]

I love your voice btw

[Lepp]

From what I've been reading, it seems like poor optimization.

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong though.

[Vacsol]

it's because the PS4 uses 8gb of GDDR5 shared between the CPU and GPU. so games are being built to take advantage of VRAM more than before.

the PS4 is the main platform for this generation of games because it is the most popular, so people build their games around it.

 

also, this would be considered to be self advertisment, which would fall under section 4.2 of the CoC

[Tacitus]

I've not watched your rant yet, so that might answer what I'm about to ask, but what games are you finding this with?

 

One thing for certain is developers are taking certain liberties with the amount of Vram available to them in the next-gen consoles. This is particularly true where the game is only coming out for PC Xbone and PS4, as they no longer need to factor in the lower power old consoles.

 

Another factor could be poor optimisation; this is a notorious problem among some developers, particularly Ubisoft, who I am naming as they are one of the biggest devs out there.

[Gypopotamus]

From what I've been reading, it seems like poor optimization.

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong though.

 

 

it's because the PS4 uses 8gb of GDDR5 shared between the CPU and GPU. so games are being built to take advantage of VRAM more than before.

the PS4 is the main platform for this generation of games because it is the most popular, so people build their games around it.

It seems to me as though Lepp is right here. As Vacsol said, the PS4 has 8GB of GDDR5, so game devs are using it, but I'm not sure they are building games that NEED to use it all. If you look at how much VRAM Watchdogs or Shadow of Mordor use, and compare it to something that looks way better like Crysis 3, or an older but equally pretty open world game like AC4 or FarCry 3, these new games us an obscene amount of VRAM!!! SoM looks nice, but not THAT nice!

[ltguy]

I've only said this about 300 times on linustechtips.... Always buy double memory edition video cards for SLI. SO listen closely... if you want to run dual 980 video cards, wait for the 8gb models. Please do yourselves a favor. Even jayztwocents is turning down his settings on his triple 780's because he is running out of vram.

[ComradeHX]

Why does Titanfall require so many GB of sound?

Because potatoes can't handle compression.

[Gypopotamus]

I've not watched your rant yet, so that might answer what I'm about to ask, but what games are you finding this with?

 

One thing for certain is developers are taking certain liberties with the amount of Vram available to them in the next-gen consoles. This is particularly true where the game is only coming out for PC Xbone and PS4, as they no longer need to factor in the lower power old consoles.

 

Another factor could be poor optimisation; this is a notorious problem among some developers, particularly Ubisoft, who I am naming as they are one of the biggest devs out there.

Oh it's definitely poor optimisation! The games I'm talking about is Watchdogs (which I think we all know about in terms of performance) and Shadow of Mordor (which does perform fine for the most part, but doesn't deserve it's 6GB recommendation for Ultra textures!)

[Vacsol]

Why does Titanfall require so many GB of sound?

Because potatoes can't handle compression.

it's not only a compression thing, it's also because they decided it would be a good idea to include every available language on all versions of the game, rather than asking which language to download when you install the game.

[Laputacake]

I love your voice btw

Same... Funny enough i thought watch dogs ran well at ultra with 760 even if i am running at 1680x 1050

[Polyvalent]

Higher vram is becoming a normal thing but it really took off quickly with games like shadow of mordor and bf4 (in mantle it can use 3-4 GB at 1080p), leaving a lot of people with 2, 3, and even 4GB cards released within the past 3 years in the dust.  

[RelentlessAF]

So I totally agree with you and everything but you should totally make more videos. Awesome presentation and presence 10 out of fucking 10.

[Gypopotamus]

Same... Funny enough i thought watch dogs ran well at ultra with 760 even if i am running at 1680x 1050

Interesting. What settings did you run at? I admit that 1440p maxed out should require a lot of horsepower, but it was faaaaaar too stuttery to be just a hard game to run!

 

 

Higher vram is becoming a normal thing but it really took off quickly with games like shadow of mordor and bf4 (in mantle it can use 3-4 GB at 1080p), leaving a lot of people with 2, 3, and even 4GB cards released within the past 3 years in the dust.  

Yeah this is an unfortunate thing! I never knew about the mantle thing, but this is definitely a trend. The thing is, a game like Shadow of Mordor was developed in conjunction with Nvidia, who want their cards to be able to run these games, surely!

 

 

So I totally agree with you and everything but you should totally make more videos. Awesome presentation and presence 10 out of fucking 10.

Thanks dude! And I plan on it! Got a review of Shadow of Mordor in the works, and a few more of these rant videos... they're pretty fun to make

[MPX309]

was a good video, nice points.

[SkilledRebuilds]

Great Video..Subbed and Will be sharing informative content like this a lot.

[Laputacake]

Interesting. What settings did you run at? I admit that 1440p maxed out should require a lot of horsepower, but it was faaaaaar too stuttery to be just a hard game to run!

Mostly ultra but in fairness i can game at 10 fps... Lets just say a core 2 duo E6550, 3gb ddr2 ram and a 5450 trying to play gta iv

 

My hard drive is soo fast http://i.gyazo.com/96c0f058e750c94157978d8719ef53a5.png

[JcGross]

also, this would be considered to be self advertisment, which would fall under section 4.2 of the CoC

I would argue that it's not. A video, especially in this topic, is a much more effective medium to present your argument on the matter as it allows the creator to show off the games he's talking about (as in our case, well done by the way) and it also allows for a longer argument that people will more likely listen to rather than reading through a wall of text.

[Gypopotamus]

I would argue that it's not. A video, especially in this topic, is a much more effective medium to present your argument on the matter as it allows the creator to show off the games he's talking about (as in our case, well done by the way) and it also allows for a longer argument that people will more likely listen to rather than reading through a wall of text.

Yeah this genuinely wasn't supposed to be an advertisement. I just wanted to find out what people on here think of the topic (as this is my go-to forum for genuine discussion)! If I wanted to advertise I'd go to reddit... which I did...

[RelentlessAF]

Thanks dude! And I plan on it! Got a review of Shadow of Mordor in the works, and a few more of these rant videos... they're pretty fun to make

Cool I subbed.

[JcGross]

So on the topic. I don't know. I'm lost. This whole thing sprung up because of Shadow of Mordor. Had they not written that you need 6GB of VRAM I don't think this whole uproar would have happened. Truth is that with the generation leap PC graphics started to improve dramatically. So many people have been asking for this. Well you need to have better gear to have better graphics. It's that simple. Sure, it could be optimized better. But the truth is that everything can be written in millions of ways, and devs are happy if they can find one combination that somehow doesn't fall apart. I feel people give developers too much credit sometimes. Most of the time they don't know why something works and why others don't. That's just the nature of computer sciences. Let's just wait and see what the future holds.

[RelentlessAF]

So on the topic. I don't know. I'm lost. This whole thing sprung up because of Shadow of Mordor. Had they not written that you need 6GB of VRAM I don't think this whole uproar would have happened. Truth is that with the generation leap PC graphics started to improve dramatically. So many people have been asking for this. Well you need to have better gear to have better graphics. It's that simple. Sure, it could be optimized better. But the truth is that everything can be written in millions of ways, and devs are happy if they can find one combination that somehow doesn't fall apart. I feel people give developers too much credit sometimes. Most of the time they don't know why something works and why others don't. That's just the nature of computer sciences. Let's just wait and see what the future holds.

I agree with your point about needing better hardware but that isn't really what gamers were asking for. We are asking for them to utilize that extra bandwidth to bring us jaw dropping experiences that melt our eyes at their mere mention. Not properly optimizing a game just uses a ton of resources with a decent looking delivery.

[Gypopotamus]

So on the topic. I don't know. I'm lost. This whole thing sprung up because of Shadow of Mordor. Had they not written that you need 6GB of VRAM I don't think this whole uproar would have happened. Truth is that with the generation leap PC graphics started to improve dramatically. So many people have been asking for this. Well you need to have better gear to have better graphics. It's that simple. Sure, it could be optimized better. But the truth is that everything can be written in millions of ways, and devs are happy if they can find one combination that somehow doesn't fall apart. I feel people give developers too much credit sometimes. Most of the time they don't know why something works and why others don't. That's just the nature of computer sciences. Let's just wait and see what the future holds.

Yeah maybe you're right. But it does seem to be an emerging pattern with a lot of games. Hopefully devs start to find that sweet spot for their engines and games will start releasing in a more playable state.

[ACatWithThumbs]

It's simple Ps3/Xbox360 512mb Ps4/XboxOne 5-6GB (If you count in the OS)
The new consoles allow them to use more ram and that's what devs are doing.
It was obvious that this was going to happen when they announced the consoles.
The 2GB on my GTX670 are already bottlenecking my system.(Should have bought the 4GB version )

 

[Gypopotamus]

It's simple Ps3/Xbox360 512mb Ps4/XboxOne 5-6GB (If you count in the OS)

The new consoles allow them to use more ram and that's what devs are doing.

It was obvious that this was going to happen when they announced the consoles.

The 2GB on my GTX670 are already bottlenecking my system.(Should have bought the 4GB version )

 

But my question is, what exactly are they using this memory for!? Why is the video memory usage for SoM so much greater than Crysis 3's, despite Crysis 3 obviously looking better? Yes it's an open world but I would have presumed that open worlds require more RAM and more CPU power, rather than GPU and VRAM.