[quote name='Mookyjooky']I was counting SDRAM.
Thats like counting all the ram on your graphics card(s) and audio card in your computer, having a gig of SDRAM and saying you have 2 gigs of ram.... ummm no. You have a gig.[/QUOTE]
SDRAM was only half of main memory on the Saturn. At the very least you have to credit it as having 2 MB of memory.
However, since this is a game console with a very specific application, the video RAM is certainly a valid consideration.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playstation
Look at the memory breakdown of the Playstation. Is this a 2 MB system while the Saturn isn't? Do you think the inclusion of 512K memory for caching from CD-ROM isn't a significant consideration when a similar allocation is needed on the PS1?
Both machines were effectively 3.5 MB designs with some portions of memory pre-allocated to specific functions as is likely for a device with a narrowly defined application. If you were designing a PC exclusively for game applications the amount of dedicated video RAM would be a major consideration. If, for instance, I have a shared memory system like the original Xbox, that 64 MB is for everyrthing. But if the GPU has an additional 16MB exclusively for its own use as frame buffer and faster access to texture and geometry data, that changes the system substantially. It won't help much for running something like Word but for a game console it's a major addition to the machine's capability.
If the PS1 and Saturn lacked their dedicated 512K sections for storing audio samples, those would have to live in main RAM, which means they'd need to be of lower quality and/or fewer to be handled along with everything else that needed to be there. While not every game fully exploited all of that 512K, far many more would easily have used twice as much.
So, in the case of a game console, such dedicated memory blocks must be taken into consideration since they aren't optional as they would be for a PC that makes sound during games but is largely silent while running Office apps. Any game is going to need a fair chunk of memory for rapid access to audio data. Having dedicated memory rather than one big lump means having to make an educated gues as to what will be enough but not too much (gotta keep costs in mind) but it also means that it can be wired in such a way as to give the audio processor direct access without ever coming into bus contention with other parts of the chipset.
So yes, if you have a dedicated gaming PC produced in volumes of millions of dedicated units, that gig of RAM dedicated to the audio and video subsystems is hugely important. It makes a trememndous difference in what the developers can do compared to the same system using shared memory for all functions and having only half as much.
In the early days of AGP, one of the things Intel liked to tout was the money savings from having less memory on the video card and just doing fast writes from main RAM. While it was true that a properly written game that required a 4 MB card in a PCI slot could perform as well with a 2MB card in an AGP slot, developers considered it a hassle. It meant dealing with yet more memory configurations and enabling low memory video cards wasn't how developers wanted to exploit AGP.
It isn't unusual for a PC game to list separately its minimum requirements for system RAM and video RAM. If those cumulatively come to 80 MB (64 +16), on a shared memory system that is what you'll need. (A bit less on a game written just for the shared memory system since it won't be duplicating data into the area allocated for video use but the only 'PC' treated like that is the Xbox.) In real life this would translate to needing 96 MB in the PC because of how RAM is incremented but you get the idea.
If you think the separate video and audio RAM on a console like the Saturn or PS1, imagine what developers would have faced without it.
And before you ask about the 10 MB section on the Xbox 360 GPU, that isn't the same thing. That is purely a processing buffer. It isn't used to store anything, it's just a place frame data gets processed for anti-aliasing and some other effects before passing through the rest of the GPU. You cannot store data there and repeatedly access it. So while it has great utility for visual quality, it cannot be thought of as part of the total system memory.
Thats like counting all the ram on your graphics card(s) and audio card in your computer, having a gig of SDRAM and saying you have 2 gigs of ram.... ummm no. You have a gig.[/QUOTE]
SDRAM was only half of main memory on the Saturn. At the very least you have to credit it as having 2 MB of memory.
However, since this is a game console with a very specific application, the video RAM is certainly a valid consideration.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playstation
Look at the memory breakdown of the Playstation. Is this a 2 MB system while the Saturn isn't? Do you think the inclusion of 512K memory for caching from CD-ROM isn't a significant consideration when a similar allocation is needed on the PS1?
Both machines were effectively 3.5 MB designs with some portions of memory pre-allocated to specific functions as is likely for a device with a narrowly defined application. If you were designing a PC exclusively for game applications the amount of dedicated video RAM would be a major consideration. If, for instance, I have a shared memory system like the original Xbox, that 64 MB is for everyrthing. But if the GPU has an additional 16MB exclusively for its own use as frame buffer and faster access to texture and geometry data, that changes the system substantially. It won't help much for running something like Word but for a game console it's a major addition to the machine's capability.
If the PS1 and Saturn lacked their dedicated 512K sections for storing audio samples, those would have to live in main RAM, which means they'd need to be of lower quality and/or fewer to be handled along with everything else that needed to be there. While not every game fully exploited all of that 512K, far many more would easily have used twice as much.
So, in the case of a game console, such dedicated memory blocks must be taken into consideration since they aren't optional as they would be for a PC that makes sound during games but is largely silent while running Office apps. Any game is going to need a fair chunk of memory for rapid access to audio data. Having dedicated memory rather than one big lump means having to make an educated gues as to what will be enough but not too much (gotta keep costs in mind) but it also means that it can be wired in such a way as to give the audio processor direct access without ever coming into bus contention with other parts of the chipset.
So yes, if you have a dedicated gaming PC produced in volumes of millions of dedicated units, that gig of RAM dedicated to the audio and video subsystems is hugely important. It makes a trememndous difference in what the developers can do compared to the same system using shared memory for all functions and having only half as much.
In the early days of AGP, one of the things Intel liked to tout was the money savings from having less memory on the video card and just doing fast writes from main RAM. While it was true that a properly written game that required a 4 MB card in a PCI slot could perform as well with a 2MB card in an AGP slot, developers considered it a hassle. It meant dealing with yet more memory configurations and enabling low memory video cards wasn't how developers wanted to exploit AGP.
It isn't unusual for a PC game to list separately its minimum requirements for system RAM and video RAM. If those cumulatively come to 80 MB (64 +16), on a shared memory system that is what you'll need. (A bit less on a game written just for the shared memory system since it won't be duplicating data into the area allocated for video use but the only 'PC' treated like that is the Xbox.) In real life this would translate to needing 96 MB in the PC because of how RAM is incremented but you get the idea.
If you think the separate video and audio RAM on a console like the Saturn or PS1, imagine what developers would have faced without it.
And before you ask about the 10 MB section on the Xbox 360 GPU, that isn't the same thing. That is purely a processing buffer. It isn't used to store anything, it's just a place frame data gets processed for anti-aliasing and some other effects before passing through the rest of the GPU. You cannot store data there and repeatedly access it. So while it has great utility for visual quality, it cannot be thought of as part of the total system memory.
