some ubuntu steam games use more RAM than windows version
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Why some steam games (as XCOM Enemy Unknown) need more RAM memory on Linux than on Windows? Minimum requirements for Windows are: Windows Vista / 2GB RAM and for Linux are: Ubuntu 14.04 (64 bit) and 4 GB RAM.
As a complementary answer in GameDev about porting a steam game to Linux, it could depend on many factors. Here are the comparison:
We can see that on Linux is double the amount of memory. Apart from reasons mentioned in the link about compilers, libraries and more, from the Steam and Game developer perspective, they want to make sure that the game runs perfect on said platform. This means that the requirements could be lower or higher when compared to Windows or Mac. In most cases, the requirements are the same (Like in Wasteland 2) or could be double like this game or even Borderlands: The Prequel. It depends at the end of several important factors:
Does the game have a native or developed engine on Linux (This has a big influence on hardware requirements)
Is the game/engine optimized for Linux (Think of it of Wasteland 2 on Linux 32-Bit versus Wasteland 2 Patch 2 on Linux 32-Bit. Basically 2x betters performance). This also includes less overhead, less memory/cpu usages, less I/O and more.
Does it use the correct libraries or library versions. This also includes video drivers, audio drivers, controllers and more.
With time, some games tend to have less hardware requirements after the developers have had more time to work on it. For example the Valve Engines games at the beginning had a huge memory requirement. After several months of optimization, they got to a level similar to Windows with a better overall performance.
Also notice that this are Minimum and Recommended hardware requirements added by Steam. I am pretty sure Windows users do not need 4 GB as a recommended amount of memory, nor do they need an Nvidia 8600 as a Minimum. Some users might have a great experience using lower requirements while others might actually need the Recommended for a "minimum" experience.
Additionally, don't be surprise if in a couple of months you see this same game with the same hardware requirements as Windows. Remember that between some Ubuntu developers helping out with Steam, the steam developers working on Linux to improve performance and the road that will lead gamers to Linux, and game development companies seeing Linux as an option, better requirements, more optimizations and more games will start to appear on this platform.
Don't know if anybody played Gothic 3 without any updates, or far cry without any updates. Then after applying all updates we were talking about a whole new game that actually worked. Well the same principal applies here.
As a complementary answer in GameDev about porting a steam game to Linux, it could depend on many factors. Here are the comparison:
We can see that on Linux is double the amount of memory. Apart from reasons mentioned in the link about compilers, libraries and more, from the Steam and Game developer perspective, they want to make sure that the game runs perfect on said platform. This means that the requirements could be lower or higher when compared to Windows or Mac. In most cases, the requirements are the same (Like in Wasteland 2) or could be double like this game or even Borderlands: The Prequel. It depends at the end of several important factors:
Does the game have a native or developed engine on Linux (This has a big influence on hardware requirements)
Is the game/engine optimized for Linux (Think of it of Wasteland 2 on Linux 32-Bit versus Wasteland 2 Patch 2 on Linux 32-Bit. Basically 2x betters performance). This also includes less overhead, less memory/cpu usages, less I/O and more.
Does it use the correct libraries or library versions. This also includes video drivers, audio drivers, controllers and more.
With time, some games tend to have less hardware requirements after the developers have had more time to work on it. For example the Valve Engines games at the beginning had a huge memory requirement. After several months of optimization, they got to a level similar to Windows with a better overall performance.
Also notice that this are Minimum and Recommended hardware requirements added by Steam. I am pretty sure Windows users do not need 4 GB as a recommended amount of memory, nor do they need an Nvidia 8600 as a Minimum. Some users might have a great experience using lower requirements while others might actually need the Recommended for a "minimum" experience.
Additionally, don't be surprise if in a couple of months you see this same game with the same hardware requirements as Windows. Remember that between some Ubuntu developers helping out with Steam, the steam developers working on Linux to improve performance and the road that will lead gamers to Linux, and game development companies seeing Linux as an option, better requirements, more optimizations and more games will start to appear on this platform.
Don't know if anybody played Gothic 3 without any updates, or far cry without any updates. Then after applying all updates we were talking about a whole new game that actually worked. Well the same principal applies here.