NC Corporation's upcoming open-world shooter, Cinder City, has drawn attention for its highly unusual system memory requirements. The game, developed by Big Fire Games, lists a minimum of 32GB of RAM and a recommended 64GB for optimal performance. These figures are significantly higher than those typically seen for modern PC games, even those with advanced graphics.
While the game's premise as a third-person shooter set in a near-future Seoul suggests demanding visuals, other hardware specifications appear more in line with current gaming standards. The minimum requirements include a Ryzen 5 3600 CPU and a GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card. However, the recommended specifications present a peculiar combination, suggesting a Ryzen 7 7800X3D processor paired with a GeForce RTX 4060. The discrepancy between the recommended CPU and GPU, coupled with the extreme RAM demands, has led to speculation about potential optimization issues.
The 64GB RAM recommendation, in particular, stands out. Such a requirement could necessitate a substantial financial investment for players looking to meet the game's highest settings, as DDR5 memory alone could cost upwards of $800. While PC gamers often upgrade their systems, few are likely to do so for a single game with such elevated memory needs.
Cinder City has yet to receive a confirmed release date. There remains an opportunity for NC Corporation and Big Fire Games to address these specifications, either by correcting potential errors or by implementing optimizations to reduce the game's memory footprint. The current system requirements have generated significant discussion, though perhaps not for the reasons the developers intended.