We tested the RAM-saving storage tech in Gears of War: E-Day — up to 3.7 GB/s of SSD streaming speed saves several gigabytes of system RAM usage
Today we’re focusing on a less-discussed technology that plays an equally important role in bringing this visually rich, densely detailed world to systems with more limited hardware resources: storage technology designed to reduce RAM usage.
Gears of War: E-Day demonstrates advanced graphics technologies like Unreal Engine 5's Nanite and Lumen, MegaLights, and RTX Mega Geometry. However, the game also utilizes a storage technology to reduce RAM usage. This technology was tested on both high-end and more modest systems to observe its impact. By leveraging the NVMe SSD as an extension of system memory, the game dynamically loads and offloads complex city data in real time.
This approach allows the game to stream necessary assets just in time, overcoming the console's limited RAM. The storage technology appears to be working as expected, saving about 2GB of RAM on NVMe SSDs, regardless of generation. The game's average read bandwidth far exceeds the limits of a SATA SSD, leading to slower textures and lighting/shadow delays when running on a SATA SSD.
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