Gears of War: E-Day Runs Smoothly on Xbox Series S By Using SSD as RAM
Gears of War: E-Day, an exceptionally demanding title, runs effectively on Xbox Series S thanks to an innovative optimization technique employed by developer The Coalition. The studio discovered a method to leverage the console’s SSD as supplementary RAM to overcome the hardware’s 10GB memory limitation—significantly less than the 16GB available on Xbox Series X.
Technical director Kate Raynor discussed the approach with Digital Foundry, explaining how the team taps into the SSD when the Series S runs out of conventional memory. This solution enables the game to maintain playable performance on the less powerful console while still delivering a visually demanding experience.
The technique has generated interest beyond The Coalition, with other development teams reportedly eager to learn and potentially implement the SSD-as-RAM approach in their own titles. This represents a meaningful technical breakthrough for maximizing Series S performance, potentially extending the console’s viability for demanding AAA games.