Key information
Throughout the current generation, the Xbox Series S has faced a notable limitation due to its memory capacity, featuring 10 GB of RAM compared to the 16 GB found in the Xbox Series X and PS5. Of those 10 GB, 2 GB are dedicated to the operating system and background services, leaving 8 GB with a 224 GB/s bandwidth for gaming.
To overcome this constraint during the development of Gears of War: E-Day, technical director Kate Rayner explained that developer The Coalition utilized the internal SSD of the Xbox Series S to store specific data that would typically occupy space in the RAM.
Because storage transmission speed is slower than memory, the studio carefully selected data to transfer between the SSD and RAM without harming performance. Specifically, elements regarding the city of Kalona and its visual effects were relegated to the SSD, allowing a couple of gigabytes of storage to provide approximately 1 GB of additional usable memory.
This technique enabled the team to keep the game running at 60 frames per second on the Series S without drastically reducing visual quality, though sacrifices were made, such as omitting Lumen light reflection capabilities. Rayner noted that this method has already attracted interest from other development teams wishing to learn more about the approach.
