How Cinder City’s 64GB RAM Mistake Exposed PC Specs Confusion

When Game PC Requirements Cross the Line

Game PC requirements are the published minimum and recommended hardware specifications that tell players and PC builders what CPU, GPU, RAM, storage, and operating system a game is expected to need to run properly at different quality settings and performance targets, based on the developer’s current build and optimization plans. Cinder City, a third-person RPG shooter set in a near-future dystopian Seoul, managed to turn that usually boring line of text into headline material by telling prospective players they should have 64GB of RAM to meet its recommended specs. In a world where consoles happily ship with 16GB of memory, that number was less a recommendation and more a sign that something about how we talk about PC gaming specs is off.

The 64GB RAM Listing: An Outlier That Broke Trust

On its initial Steam page, Cinder City’s recommended specs called for an Intel Core i7-12700 or AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D paired with a GeForce RTX 4060 and a staggering 64GB of system memory. The minimum specs were lower on CPU and GPU but still listed 32GB of RAM as the floor. To one source’s knowledge, this made Cinder City the first PC game to recommend 64GB of RAM on Steam. One quotable reaction summed it up: “Cinder recommends having more memory than a PS5, Xbox Series X, PS5 Pro, and Switch 2 combined”. That kind of outlier is not a harmless typo; it distorts expectations, pressures builders into overbuying, and quietly implies that “normal” gaming rigs are suddenly inadequate when they are not.

From Error to Update: What the New Specs Say

After community pushback, Big Fire Games acknowledged that the 64GB memory recommendation was an error and updated Cinder City’s PC system requirements. The studio stated, “We identified an error in the memory specification listed under the system requirements on our Steam Store page. The information has now been updated to the correct specification (Recommended: 32 GB RAM)”. Now, both minimum and recommended RAM are set at 32GB. The recommended GPU has also been raised two tiers, from an RTX 4060 to an RTX 4070, while CPUs, DirectX 12, and other basic PC gaming specs remain unchanged. The team also stressed that these game PC requirements are based on the current development build and may go down as optimization improves before launch.

What “Realistic” Modern Specs Look Like Here

With the error corrected, Cinder City’s system requirements look far more like an ambitious, but believable, snapshot of modern RAM recommendations and PC gaming specs than a hardware fever dream. The minimum calls for a mid-range CPU such as an Intel Core i5-10400 or Ryzen 5 3600 and a GeForce RTX 2060, paired with 32GB of RAM. The recommended tier keeps the same i7-12700 or Ryzen 7 7800X3D but now asks for an RTX 4070 and 32GB of RAM. This balance—raising GPU demands while keeping memory flat—signals that raw graphics power, not exponential jumps in system RAM, is still the main lever for better visuals and performance. It also matches the developer’s note that these game PC requirements may be lowered after further optimization before release.

Why This System Requirements Error Matters

Cinder City’s 64GB RAM listing may have been a mistake, but it was an instructive one. It showed how a single outlandish number can warp perceptions of what is normal for PC gaming specs, and how fragile trust is when players rely on these tables to plan upgrades. Once the studio clarified the error and set both minimum and recommended RAM at 32GB, the picture snapped back into something that aligns with current expectations: serious, but not absurd, hardware for a modern shooter. The real lesson is that game PC requirements need to be treated as living technical documents, updated as development builds change and clearly labeled when they are based on non-final, still-optimizing code. Without that clarity, the next system requirements error could send builders chasing the wrong parts all over again.