25MB of RAM allocation allows for dream audio work, says SCEE’s Dan Bardino
The PS3’s memory reserves and native 7.1 output has provided a “vast evolutionary leap” in sound design, according to SCEE’s longstanding audio manager Dan Bardino.
In an interview with Develop, Bardino spoke of how game audio standards have advanced at lightning pace.
“There were real problems before, but I think game audio has taken quite giant strides over the last few years,” he said.
Bardino, who for nine years has been the head of audio at SCEE, praised the PS3’s significant advancements from the PS2 in terms of memory capacity.
“Of the 2MB of RAM we had for sound on the PS2, for The Getaway we used that to recreate the sounds of the whole of London; all the car effects, all the gun sounds, some of the dialogue, music.
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“On a standard audio CD, 2 meg accounts for twelve seconds… With the PS3, we’re benchmarking at 25MB.
“So I think the PS3 has provided a real evolutionary leap in sound design, we are now able to do things we were just dreaming of on previous platforms. It’s just crazy to think about where we’re going next.
The PS3’s 512MB of RAM is split to two fixed amounts – 256MB for video and 256MB for processing. It can often be a bone of contention for some developers, as the Xbox 360 has the same 512MB RAM capacity but developers can split the memory however they want.
This essentially is what makes Xbox 360-to-PS3 ports sometimes unfavourable to the latter. It also means that far more Xbox 360 RAM can be dedicated to audio, if needed.
However, Bardino stressed that the PS3 has a number of features that distinguish the console.
“Of course, the PS3 is 7.1-native, so we’re doing interactive 5.1 music on a lot of our games. Killzone 2 and Wipeout HD were both 5.1 and interactive, there’s nothing else out there that’s doing that, he added.
“That’s pushing music further than anything else,” he added.
What should also be mentioned about the RAM is...
360 has 512MB of standard DDR3 at 700MHz
PS3 has 256MB of XDR DRAM at 3200MHz and 256MB of GDDR3 RAM at 700MHz.
The PS3's system RAM is four and a half times the speed of the 360's RAM; the PS3's video RAM is the same speed but dedicated to graphics.
The split RAM is a disadvantage, but it certainly encourages, faster, more efficient code. But, the speed is a mass advantage, the industry just isn't used to programming for these speeds; I'm not a programmer but it appears to me that it takes a very different mindset and approach.
An example being killzone2; in some respects, it only renders what you're looking at and not the whole surrounding environment, meaning the code and hardware needs to be quicker (where XDR comes in) but it frees up resources for other fancy stuff as long as it's coded for correctly. :)
Of course, the optimum approach this gen would have been a 512MB unified pool of XDR DRAM, then the speeds and flexibility would be available. Seeing as XDR DRAM is better than GDDR5 and DDR3.
If Sony stick the Cell architecture next gen, which I expect and hope, then they'll probably go with XDR again as they're great in tandem, there's XDR2 DRAM on the way which is truly crazy stuff (albeit expensive)..
..although I doubt CPU speeds will go above 4GHz and it seems they've kept RAM speeds consistent with clock speed in PS3 (Cell @ 3.2GHz / XDR @ 3.GHz). So seeing as XDR DRAM can hit 4GHz it may not be cost-effective to go with XDR2 unless it yields other viable benefits.
I also belive we'll hit 2GB of total RAM in the next gen of consoles.
Anywho, back to the point, hopefully we'll get a 2GB unified pool of XDR2 DRAM, then it'll run like sh*t of a stick and have great flexibility.
The cost-effective option will however, probably be 2GB unified pool of XDR(1) or 1GB of XDR/XDR2 + 1GB of GDDR5.
Sorry to go off-topic, but it's all related I suppose.
:)
thank you SOO MUCH eight ball
i have been doing research in the video game area for a good three years now and I have to say that your long comment really boosted by knowledge of RAM and audio for the ps3. I really appreciate it! Nice hearing from you, you are one of the most intelligent people on video games I am ever talked to!
thanks for the explanation.
I hope Sony can get a cheap deal for XDR2 for the PS4 in the near future
It is true that the dedicated RAM of the PS3 is faster, but so far none of the games on the 360 has shown that it is bandwidth limited.
Instead, we get games with lower resolution textures on the PS3 as opposed to the Xbox 360.
In theory faster frequency is better, but in practice it seems we don't need it!!!
Don't be fooled by numbers, it is the practical performance that matters.
for those uninformed, the ps4 cpu will be the intel power7 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POWER7, and the gpu will be the powervr series 6 http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-3929502.php
Everett
Those were rumours.
Although a high-end variant of a PowerVR sounds juicy.
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Anon
The PS3 is a step towards the future, a step towards more efficient coding and performance.
It's not that we don't need it, it's just that right now it isn't easy or conventional.
And when you say lower res textures, that's in multiplatform right? Actually, in multiplatform games that are poorly coded, the majority of PS3 exclusives blow away everything except PC for texture quality and many multiplatform games are now equal in this respect.
The PS3 can do higher res textures, it just takes effort.
Apparently you're uninformed Everett. Intel doesn't build RISC-based Power architectures. Intel's IA-32, or x86, is actually CISC-based.
Eight ball, the clockrates on XDR and GDDR are not directly comparable. XDR is clocked with a 32 bit bus, while the PS3's GDDR bus is clocked with a 128 bit bus.
128bits = 4 x 32bits, so the GDDR and XDR memories work at approximately the same speeds, though there are some technical differences regarding latency of access and bursting speeds.
The PS3 does have very high speed access to its system memory, but so does the 360 in the case where it is not having to contend with the needs of its graphics processor.
