Cyan's New Steampunk Game Needs 32GB RAM for Max Graphics and VR

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Cyan proves why Steam should have entry-level, mid-range, and high-end system requirements

Firmament Video Game
(Image credit: Steam)

Cyan, the developer behind Myst and Riven, is building a new first-person steampunk puzzle game called Firmament that will apparently destroy high-end gaming hardware. The game has unusually daunting system requirements, starting at 16GB at a minimum for RAM, while a whopping 32GB is recommended.

32GB is a very rare requirement to see; only a handful of titles originally had 32GB recommended requirements while in development, including Forspoken, Hogwarts Legancy, and the PC port of Returnal. However, all three eventually changed their recommended requirements to 16GB or 24GB at launch. The same could apply to Firmament since the game won't be released until May. However, if the game does launch with the 32GB requirement, it will be one of the only games with such a high memory requirement.

Thankfully Firmament's 32GB requirement appears to be more specific than what the Steam page leads people to believe. According to a dev response by PCGamer, the developers wanted to ensure Firmamenent runs as smoothly as possible, especially in VR. As a result, they decided to increase the memory requirements to 32GB so users better understand what the game requires to achieve the game's maximum possible graphics fidelity.

The devs go on to say that the game will run perfectly fine on 16GB of memory and even supports M1 Macbook Airs with just 8GB of RAM.

This is good news and means the game will run smoothly on mainstream hardware. Conversely, the 32GB is more of a "high-end" system requirement, aimed at users who will be cranking up the visual quality settings as high as possible. Cyan's explanation also proves why Valve should incorporate entry-level, mid-range, and high-end system requirements into the Steam page, instead of limiting the requirements section to a minimum and recommended requirements alone.

We don't know how graphically demanding the game will be, but based on what the devs have said, the game appears to be intense. The Steam page screenshots demonstrate this well, with extremely high-resolution objects, textures, and superb lighting effects.

Firmament will launch in 4 weeks, on May 18th, 2023.

(Image credit: Steam)
Aaron Klotz
Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

29 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Giroro
    This reminds me of the lecture on code optimization from my CS102 course, which was verbatim:
    "If your code runs poorly, buy a bigger computer. RAM is cheap."
    That was the same professor who's entire explanation of pointers is that they "points at things". This was confusing as my previous CS101 professor had taught us that a memory address is "don't know; don't care" (that was his answer to most questions).

    You can't expect somebody with Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science to know how to optimize code, or even to know how a computer works. If you want that, you need to hire either an electronics engineer, or somebody who is self-taught.
    Reply
  • Makaveli
    Giroro said:
    This reminds me of the lecture on code optimization from my CS102 course, which was verbatim:
    "If your code runs poorly, buy a bigger computer. RAM is cheap."
    That was the same professor who's entire explanation of pointers is that they "points at things". This was confusing as my previous CS101 professor had taught us that a memory address is "don't know; don't care" (that was his answer to most questions).

    You can't expect somebody with Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science to know how to optimize code, or even to know how a computer works. If you want that, you need to hire either an electronics engineer, or somebody who is self-taught.
    lol i like your prof.

    32GB of DDR4 memory is like $100 USD.
    Reply
  • emike09
    RAM is so cheap these days, everybody should be consider running 32GB if they actually want to use computers for doing modern computer things that aren't web browsing or Office apps. That said, I agree with the above comments on optimizing code, it's easier for developers to harness massive compute resources and not optimize their code. I continually was maxing out my 32GB with various applications and multi-tasking, and finally made the jump to 64GB. I rarely utilize all 64GB now, usually around 40-45GB, but I'm future-proof for the next 4-5 years now RAM-wise.

    If you want a gorgeous high-res and smooth VR experience like I do, you probably don't mind spending extra on good hardware.
    Reply
  • 10tacle
    emike09 said:
    RAM is so cheap these days, everybody should be consider running 32GB if they actually want to use computers for doing modern computer things that aren't web browsing or Office apps.
    Exactly! I've been building PCs since the late 1990s and from my chair, about every 4 years the typical RAM requirements for a well balanced system (gaming and productivity) doubles. People whining about RAM requirements for the latest game is of course nothing new - not anymore than whining about drive space that was recently posted about here for a game.
    Reply
  • digitalgriffin
    Giroro said:
    This reminds me of the lecture on code optimization from my CS102 course, which was verbatim:
    "If your code runs poorly, buy a bigger computer. RAM is cheap."
    That was the same professor who's entire explanation of pointers is that they "points at things". This was confusing as my previous CS101 professor had taught us that a memory address is "don't know; don't care" (that was his answer to most questions).

    You can't expect somebody with Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science to know how to optimize code, or even to know how a computer works. If you want that, you need to hire either an electronics engineer, or somebody who is self-taught.
    You're joking right? Have things got that bad in the cs world?

    In cs330 we were hard wiring and or xor nor not chips to make a machine that sorted punch cards. Punch cards were 99% dead but it was to make sure we understand how the CPU worked internally. (1995) We had to hard wire up a plate stack too, creating sram circuits for tournament sorts.
    Reply
  • newtechldtech
    Giroro said:
    This reminds me of the lecture on code optimization from my CS102 course, which was verbatim:
    "If your code runs poorly, buy a bigger computer. RAM is cheap."
    That was the same professor who's entire explanation of pointers is that they "points at things". This was confusing as my previous CS101 professor had taught us that a memory address is "don't know; don't care" (that was his answer to most questions).

    You can't expect somebody with Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science to know how to optimize code, or even to know how a computer works. If you want that, you need to hire either an electronics engineer, or somebody who is self-taught.

    Which university exactly ? try graduating from MIT or Stanford or Berkeley then talk.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    Giroro said:
    This reminds me of the lecture on code optimization from my CS102 course, which was verbatim:
    "If your code runs poorly, buy a bigger computer. RAM is cheap."
    That was the same professor who's entire explanation of pointers is that they "points at things". This was confusing as my previous CS101 professor had taught us that a memory address is "don't know; don't care" (that was his answer to most questions).
    Sounds like a school not known for its Computer Science program.

    Giroro said:
    You can't expect somebody with Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science to know how to optimize code, or even to know how a computer works.
    I'd wager the majority do.

    Giroro said:
    If you want that, you need to hire either an electronics engineer,
    I've met more than one EE who wrote horrible code, due to an almost complete lack of appreciation for abstraction.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    emike09 said:
    RAM is so cheap these days, everybody should be consider running 32GB if they actually want to use computers for doing modern computer things that aren't web browsing or Office apps.
    Web browsing is probably the thing most people do (other than games) that uses the most RAM. All the ad networks and scripting on modern websites chews up gobs of memory. Fortunately, browsers have gotten pretty good at garbage collecting inactive tabs, but still... web browsing is no longer the sort of cheap activity it used to be.
    Reply
  • emike09
    bit_user said:
    web browsing is no longer the sort of cheap activity it used to be.
    True, and a lot of complex apps are running in-browser these days. Simple example - Google abandoned Google Earth, but they continue to develop it on earth.google.com.
    Reply
  • PBme
    The word "requirement" seems to be being misused. Recommendation for best visual fidelity settings maybe. Though that brief demo they video certainly doesn't reveal any reason why as that doesn't show anything impressive or demanding looking by today' AAA game standards.
    Reply