Gears of War: E-Day Runs Smoothly on Xbox Series S By Using SSD as RAM
The Coalition was able to work some magic on the Xbox Series S by tapping into the SSD to increase performance.
Gears of War: E-Day, a visually stunning game, demands significant computational resources, whether played on the Xbox Series X or PC. However, The Coalition, the game's developer, ingeniously optimized the title for the Xbox Series S by leveraging its solid-state drive (SSD) for enhanced performance. Studio Technical Director Kate Raynor discussed this innovative approach to memory management with Digital Foundry, highlighting the importance of utilizing the SSD when the console's 10GB of RAM becomes insufficient for demanding games like Gears of War: E-Day.
Offloading data from the limited RAM to the SSD is not a novel concept, as computers routinely employ a dedicated storage area on the SSD or hard drive called the Page File to handle excess data when memory is depleted. While this method is effective, it typically results in slower performance due to the SSD's inherent slower speed compared to RAM. The primary challenge was determining which data to store in memory and which to offload to the SSD to maintain optimal performance levels.
The Coalition's solution involved strategically prioritizing data, retaining in RAM only the information that remained unused for an entire frame or series of frames, while keeping frequently accessed data in system memory. Although this technique does have its limitations and may lead to performance degradation over time due to the frequency of page file refreshes into memory, the overall outcome is impressive.
By implementing this memory optimization strategy and reducing the reliance on Lumen reflections, The Coalition successfully managed to maintain excellent performance on the Xbox Series S.
This approach not only addresses the Xbox Series S's hardware constraints but also paves the way for more developers to adopt similar optimization techniques. As the RAM crisis continues, this innovative method may become increasingly necessary to ensure that more affordable hardware, such as the Xbox Series X, can effectively support demanding games.
Gears of War: E-Day, which launched in early access last week, has undergone substantial changes from its predecessors, solidifying its position as one of Xbox's premier exclusives.
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