Crytek boss Cevat Yerli reveals what he thinks is the most important aspect of next-gen consoles. If you guessed that it was the GPU or processor, you guessed wrong, as Yerli thinks it's the memory that's the most integral part of the next-gen puzzle.
In an interview with Videogamer, Yerli was asked what he would like Sony and Microsoft to factor into their next-gen consoles, and the Crytek boss answered that with memory, it would allow developers to do "so many techniques and tricks." Additionally, he states that he has never seen a console where the memory "was the right balance."
As a person who likes to drive technology-meets-game design as art, you can never have enough memory. Ever. Simple as that…Memory is the single most important thing that is always going to be underbalanced – I've never seen a console where the memory was the right balance.
Speaking of memory balance, does that mean the PS3 and Xbox 360's 512MB of RAM wasn't and isn't enough for developers? Stating the obvious, but Yerli thinks so. But there's a reason why console-makers aren't just dumping 32GB of memory in their consoles…and it's because of price and how it's the most expensive component.
Xbox 360, underbalanced. PlayStation 3, underbalanced. Simply because memory is the most expensive part, hence I wish there would be cheaper ways of doing memory so that memory doesn't become an issue anymore.
If they find ways to cheapen the cost to a degree they could triple or quadruple their memory. Just say, 'Hey we're going to have 32 gigs of memory'. That would be quite amazing because memory can do so many more techniques and tricks.
Now on to the PC specs! According to Japanese site ImpressGameWatch and 4Gamer (courtesy of DSOGaming), Agni's Philosophy was running on a single GTX680 that was paired with an i7-3770K (at 3.5GHz) and 32GB of RAM. GameWatch also suggests that the impressive tech demos did not even stress the PC housing the specs, which means what's shown can easily be achievable by high-end PC rigs today. Additionally, the tech demo uses 1.8G of texture data and was said to be running with a combination of MSAA and FXAA.
Lastly, 4Gamer states that with tessellation, Agni's Philosophy pushed scenes with 10 million polygons and that it was running at an impressive 60fps.
Are these the specs the PS4 and Xbox 720 will have? Maybe not as beefy but they might be close. Nonetheless, is Yerli right that graphics like these can't be reached without having at least 32GB of RAM or something similar? Speculate in the comments.
