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Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?

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Re: Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?

#151

Post by Stevvo »

andix wrote: post #27

If that happens, we will see it in triple-A games first. If some new titles have significant lower hardware specs than expected. If buyers can't afford the hardware anymore, the studios need to adjust. It's definitively possible to scale games down a lot. There are a few AAA games that were "dumbed down" for the Switch 1 (Hogwarts, cyberpunk, ...). And that's a really low-spec device. There are two factors: existing…

No reason to see it in AAA games. They already have to run on Series S, which has ~8 GB usable memory. Consoles are the primary target for any game (if they are not, it is not AAA). So minimum specs remain relatively static through a generation.

Re: Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?

#153

Post by dchftcs »

exabrial wrote: post #149
jpollock wrote: post #81

Programmers will write more efficient algorithms if their employers tell them to trade time-to-market for hardware cost. Previously, it was trade hardware cost for time-to-market. "Programmers" don't make this decision, the product owner does.

> trade time-to-market for hardware cost Enh. I think this only exists for some programmers, who can't write good code fast.

Whatever you're already able to do, you can do it better with more time.

Re: Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?

#154

Post by justincormack »

nrmitchi wrote: post #30

Until prices hit the large hyperscalers, I don't think most people are going to make significant changes. You might see a small set of open source projects related to self hosting put in an effort, but in general, I don't think so. Some big-tech orgs (that have their own hardware) will take costs into account, but they already do that. The "optimization" is more likely to be business-optimizations; "this can be slowe…

The new generation of Graviton on AWS ships with half the RAM per core in the standard family.

Re: Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?

#155

Post by d5lt5 »

exabrial wrote: post #149
jpollock wrote: post #81

Programmers will write more efficient algorithms if their employers tell them to trade time-to-market for hardware cost. Previously, it was trade hardware cost for time-to-market. "Programmers" don't make this decision, the product owner does.

> trade time-to-market for hardware cost Enh. I think this only exists for some programmers, who can't write good code fast.

Ehm. I would assume your definition of writing good code fast is not what the majority of enterprise developers agrees with.

Re: Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?

#157

Post by msalsas »

thewebguyd wrote: post #78
devmor wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Stop doing stupid stuff” is usually the biggest performance gain in commercial development. We do stupid stuff as a stopgap to meet a deadline and then stupid stuff stays until it starts being a problem.

There's nothing more permanent than a temporary fix. If deadlines are causing those stopgaps, the aggressive deadlines are the root problem.

Totally agree. In these days of fast devs it's common to see PO's excitement reducing deadlines and assumimg a dev can deliver 5 feats in a day instead of trying to stabilize and fix bugs. Sad

Re: Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?

#159

Post by VohuMana »

thewebguyd wrote: post #80
andix wrote: post #27

If that happens, we will see it in triple-A games first. If some new titles have significant lower hardware specs than expected. If buyers can't afford the hardware anymore, the studios need to adjust. It's definitively possible to scale games down a lot. There are a few AAA games that were "dumbed down" for the Switch 1 (Hogwarts, cyberpunk, ...). And that's a really low-spec device. There are two factors: existing…

I hope we continue local gaming, but my gut tells me we are going to see the opposite. I'd be willing to place a big bet on the new XBox leaning heavily into streaming, like GeForce now. Studios still get to build big, and the consoles get to rent hardware to you now, basically a wet dream for them. hardware costs must come down or every consumer segment is going to be renting, not owning, everything.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they try but I think the game streaming business model is mostly dead. Stadia was a huge flop, PlayStation has streaming for previous gen games and it sucks, Xbox also has a streaming offering but I haven’t heard anything good about it. It’s a bad user experience and a significant cost to the company providing the streaming.

Re: Ask HN: Will programmers write more efficient code during the memory shortage?

#160

Post by retired »

Byamarro wrote: post #142
retired wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never worked for a company where the engineers choose the technical stack. It’s always the architect, the CTO or the mother company that decides what technology to choose. Could be a German/Dutch cultural thing though.

Depends on a type of company, I work at a mid-sized startup and through lifecycle of this company there were times when we've had architects and there were times when we haven't. Rn we don't have and a lot of decisions is made within teams and we just try to keep communication about what's needed for business tight

Understandable. I worked mainly for 100+ people companies and the tech stack impacts team interoperability, hiring, licenses, life cycle management etcetera.
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