Cinder City becomes the first PC game to recommend 64GB of RAM, and at the worst time (Updated)

[midian182]

WTF?! Cinder City, an upcoming open-world co-operative PvE game from NC (formerly NCSoft), is a first for PC gaming – and not a good one. Its Steam listing reveals that the recommended amount of system memory is a whopping 64GB, which in today's AI-driven hellscape will require selling more than just a kidney.

Update: It turns out that despite the listing being on Steam for several days, the 64GB memory recommendation really was an error, according to NC. The game now recommends 32GB of RAM.

The original story follows below:

Games are getting bigger, more hardware-intensive, and less well-optimized. The end result is usually more high-end GPUs being required for "standard" gameplay, but Cinder City asks for just an RTX 4060 (8GB). What's unusual, however, is the staggering 64GB of RAM it recommends.

It's often a point of contention when a PC game recommends "just" 32GB of RAM. In Cinder City's case, this is the minimum requirement.

According to the latest Steam survey, only 4% of participants have 64GB in their machines. 16GB remains the most popular amount, used by 41% of participants.

Given that RTX 4060 recommendation and the fact it also asks for an Intel Core i7-12700/Ryzen 7 7800X3D, this could be a mistake (update: it was, according to NC), but it seems unlikely given the listing has been up for several days now.

NC couldn't have picked a worse time to release the first game to recommend 64GB. Right now, 64GB DDR5 RAM kits on Newegg start at $800 and reach $2,800.

It looks like things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. Ethan Tan, a memory industry consultant and former Samsung China executive, recently said that he expects memory prices to rise by 40% to 50% in the third quarter of 2026 compared to the prior quarter, and by another 30% to 40% in Q4.

NC still hasn't confirmed a release date for Cinder City, so that 64GB recommendation could change. It's worth remembering that IO Interactive originally recommended 32GB of RAM for 007 First Light, before later specifying that this was only for the 4K Ultra setting.

Even if things do change, it's shocking to see a 64GB recommendation for a game, especially at a time when few people are willing to pay a fortune to upgrade their PCs.

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Cinder City becomes the first PC game to recommend 64GB of RAM, and at the worst time (Updated)

 

[yRaz]

Something I have been seeing more of is that games are trying to do more on the back end. This is more common in massive RTS games. I don't mean in scope, I'm talking about when you have giant maps with like 8 players and each player has hundreds of units. Those games can scale resources effectively infinitely depending on the size of the map and the amount of units it needs to calculate even if they aren't being rendered.

Co-op PVE games have a lot in common with RTS games so while it might not be extremely graphicly demanding, it could be very CPU and memory intensive calculating unit paths and just enemy AI. I don't know if they have a destructable environment or not, but throw that in and you have an entirely new level cpu and memory requirements.

 

[gdavid65]

I could... but I don't wanna...

 

[Neatfeatguy]

It won't matter how much RAM you have, the game will run like **** off UE5.

 

[opckieran]

64GB of RAM, meanwhile, only 8 P-Cores meets the recommended spec...

 

[Eldrach]

Well - if they are able to load much more games assets into the memory, to prevent popping or stuttering - that could be beneficial.
Not saying that's necessarily the right way to go about it in todays market...But the idea itself isn't that half baked

 

[brucek]

This has to be a PR stunt. No one financially responsible for this game is going to look at the existing base of 64 GB machines, or the reasonable prospects for growth thereof, and be willing to tie their return on investment to that small an audience.

 

[noel24]

I almost feel sorry for Them.

 

[urielejh]

For what? It's a joke of a game LOL

 

[ActualViking]

Not the first game.

Microsoft Flight simulator recommended 64 GB back in 2024.

 

[Axeia]

Well, this might go down in history as a lesson on what not to do as a game dev.
Going by the Steam Hardware Survey under 5% of users have 64GB or more and I highly doubt ANYONE at the moment is looking to upgrade their RAM.
(Heck if I had 64GB and didn't desperately needed it I'd probably be selling 32GB right about now, easy money)

 

[llamapanda]

It'll be a hoot reading the inevitable sea of red Steam reviews shredding this as people who ignore or scoff at hardware requirements pile into it after having a terrible experience. Add in another pile from people who just want to decry the requirements out of principle and this game's cooked almost before it's srtarted.

 

[trparky]

A game that says it needs 64 GBs of RAM to play is just practically begging for people to say...
"Nope, I'll play something else."

 

[zavrix]

Better sell my car to buy some ram if I want to play this game, which I don't but just saying

 

[gingerbill]

This makes me think the company making it must be incompetent , I don't want to buy games from an incompetent company.

I hope this game is a disaster .

 

[llamapanda]

This makes me think the company making it must be incompetent , I don't want to buy games from an incompetent company.

I'd be less concerned if the game/studio in question had a bit more weight behind it. If Id/Arkane/IO/CDPR/etc. tell me I'll need a major upgrade to enjoy their new offering, my first thought would be that it's going to be epic in scale and spectacle rather than an unoptimised mess thrown together in a rush.

 

[JamesBlond]

This type of Game will die faster than the PC that runs it does, gamers cannot afford it and will cause the game to crash in every way

 

[Guyver1wales]

2000's - "But can it run Crysis?...."
Late 2020's - "But can it run Cinder City?...."

 

[Melkor Unlimited]

This type of Game will die faster than the PC that runs it does, gamers cannot afford it and will cause the game to crash in every way

Gamers can afford rtx 5080.
Some managed to obtain rtx 5090.

But they are stuck on 32GB (or less) of RAM?

In really weird times we are living now.

 

[Melkor Unlimited]

Not the first game.

Microsoft Flight simulator recommended 64 GB back in 2024.

I have thought the same when read the title.
Steam shows only 32GB RAM in recommended.
64GB was in Ideal spec.

 

[disinfect8280]

It's already updated (32GB for both). Looks liked they bumped up the GPU recommendation at the same time.
32GB min is still pretty wild though.

 

[Rapob]

Memory leak.
Game looks horrible..

 

[Revolution 11]

Something I have been seeing more of is that games are trying to do more on the back end. This is more common in massive RTS games. I don't mean in scope, I'm talking about when you have giant maps with like 8 players and each player has hundreds of units. Those games can scale resources effectively infinitely depending on the size of the map and the amount of units it needs to calculate even if they aren't being rendered.

Co-op PVE games have a lot in common with RTS games so while it might not be extremely graphicly demanding, it could be very CPU and memory intensive calculating unit paths and just enemy AI. I don't know if they have a destructable environment or not, but throw that in and you have an entirely new level cpu and memory requirements.

That just makes me think these games are not optimized that well. A game like Bannerlords has plenty of units on the screen. 8 players with 100 units each is entirely possible in multiplayer.

It runs fine on 16 GB of RAM and that game is also doing a lot of calculations in the background on each attack being dependent on armor, weapon type, speed of the colliding weapon (hitting a enemy running at you causes more damage than one running away due to the speed of the collision), etc.

 

[yRaz]

That just makes me think these games are not optimized that well. A game like Bannerlords has plenty of units on the screen. 8 players with 100 units each is entirely possible in multiplayer.

It runs fine on 16 GB of RAM and that game is also doing a lot of calculations in the background on each attack being dependent on armor, weapon type, speed of the colliding weapon (hitting a enemy running at you causes more damage than one running away due to the speed of the collision), etc.

And there are games like AoE2 where you can have 1600 characters running around and the game runs like crap. Total war has this issue, CnC. All on different engines and the only thing they have in common is they're RTSs

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Gamers can afford rtx 5080.
Some managed to obtain rtx 5090.

But they are stuck on 32GB (or less) of RAM?

In really weird times we are living now.

Not sure if serious.....or just blissfully ignorant...