Use of extra memory resources in Mid-Gen Console Upgrades? *spawn*

[iroboto]

This thread in the graphics forum seems both relevant and highly applicable to this one.

https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/will-gpus-with-4gb-vram-age-poorly.58233/

If there is no streaming technology, RAM requirements seem to just keep going up, especially with resolution.

With streaming it's a different story.

And AMDs latest offerings do also provide a method to have good performance with lower memory.

 

[rokkerkory]

I am also excited by the 1X's memory bandwidth! Need the capacity for the 4k textures

 

[AlNom]

I've said more than once that even a lot of stuff used by the game does not need to waste super fast mem. I think a tiered memory system of some sort, as long as it doesnt have absurd bottlenecks like the xbone, is the most efficient design choice.

On the other hand, folks tend towards simpler setups.

 

[milk]

Tripple A devs are used to optmizing their data so it fits all sorts of caches and registers already, which is a lot more complicated. The smaller studios and indies are either using a third party engine or just arent pushing performance and tech anyway. Having two types of memory at different speeds wouldn't bee such a headache as long as its well balanced the bottlenecks arent to horrible to deal with.

 

[Tkumpathenurpahl]

If they were to go tiered, with GDDR6 or some version of HBM as the main, fast memory, what would be the most cost effective second pool? A large amount of DDR3?

 

[MrFox]

It's crazy that right now ddr4 is more expensive per GB in 2017 than what sony paid for gddr5 in 2013. From dramxchange october spot price.

 

[Pixel]

If they were to go tiered, with GDDR6 or some version of HBM as the main, fast memory, what would be the most cost effective second pool? A large amount of DDR3?

By the PS5/X4 launch the fabrication facilities will have mostly phased out DDR3 there by causing DDR4 to be cheaper. DDR3 will only get more expensive as we go through PS5/X4's lifecycle in the early to mid 2020s. It would be a mistake to stick with DDR3.

But since its likely going to be an AMD APU solution for next generation I'm not certain how they'd connect the secondary DDR pool for the OS while still using a primary pool of unified GDDR6 or HBM3.
Going with the PRO's way of connecting the DDR3 is not ideal, since it connects via the southbridge and a PCIEx4 interface.