Xbox One: does it have dedicated video RAM?

[80251]

Somewhere I once read the Xbox One had 2 GiB of dedicated VRAM, but I've also read that it doesn't have any dedicated VRAM at all but instead uses system memory. So which is it?

 

[thently]

Yes

 

[Nextg_Rival]

It has SYSTEM memory of 8 GB DDR3 - it's shared among all of it's components, the equivalent of the CPU and the GPU.

EDIT: To answer your question, no, it does not have a dedicated VRAM for the graphics, it has shared RAM. The PS4 is the same in that regard (although it's memory is GDDR5, not DDR3).

 

[80251]

It has SYSTEM memory of 8 GB DDR3 - it's shared among all of it's components, the equivalent of the CPU and the GPU.

EDIT: To answer your question, no, it does not have a dedicated VRAM for the graphics, it has shared RAM. The PS4 is the same in that regard (although it's memory is GDDR5, not DDR3).

Using DDR3 system memory as video RAM doesn't sound like a very
good idea from a performance standpoint. Is the DDR3 memory bus at
least 384-bits or 512-bits wide?

I can see why the PS4 is the superior platform for gaming.

 

[Nextg_Rival]

As far as I know there is no memory bus since the memory is shared, although some website reports a 256 memory bus both for the PS4 and the XBOX1. Regardless, I can't actually be certain that there is/is not a memory bus because some of the specs on that website are also wrong (for example they listed the processor clock at 1.6 for both, while the XBOX has 1.75 GHz). The XBOX is worse than the PS4 spec-wise, but not too much - it can hold its own.

 

[Nepperz]

I am late to answer but I couldn't resist replying to Nextg_Rival. How can it not have a memory bus? Do you know what a bus is? How could you possibly access that memory without a bus..... Please do explain.

 

[Nextg_Rival]

I am late to answer but I couldn't resist replying to Nextg_Rival. How can it not have a memory bus? Do you know what a bus is? How could you possibly access that memory without a bus..... Please do explain.

The way I know it is that the Xbox ONE is one whole big component - it doesn't need a connector because it's already connected - it's one thing on its own. The APU has integrated graphics, RAM and everything. Of course, I am not an expert since I've never actually seen an opened Xbox and I can't confirm this stuff, but according to what I've read that's how it works. I think it uses an AMD Jaguar architecture, try looking that up and maybe you'll see something I failed to see.

 

[gamerk316]

While the XB1 doesn't have dedicated VRAM, it does have a very fast 32MB ESRAM that can be utilized to hide the relatively slow latency of DDR3. Problem is, using this properly requires a LOT of extra coding, since you suddenly care what is loaded and when, so it's harder to work with. MSFT went the ESRAM route to keep costs down, since GDDR is expensive. Which is why it's funny the PS4 sells for less.

 

[NightAntilli]

Tiled resources is supposed to boost the usability of the ESRAM, but we'll see how well that works in practice.