PlayStation 4 will only allow 4.5 GB (guaranteed memory) of it's 8GB RAM, for developers to use - Polidicks

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/KPpWD49.png[/IMG] [QUOTE]PlayStation 4 reserves 3.5GB of its 8GB GDDR5 memory for the operating system, leaving 4.5GB of space for game code, according to current PlayStation 4 documentation shown to Digital Foundry by a well-placed development source. However, further sources suggest that an additional 1GB of "flexible memory" may be reclaimed from the OS reservation, based on availability. Sony's internal docs say that 4.5GB is the baseline amount of guaranteed memory available for game-makers (note the memory usage of the [URL="http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-inside-killzone-shadow-fall"]Killzone: Shadow Fall demo[/URL]) and most likely what the lion's share of launch titles will be using. However, other sources close to Sony indicate that developers can request up to an additional gigabyte of "flexible memory", and use it to boost elements of the game - but only if the background OS can spare it. We're told that incorporating this isn't trivial, and it may well be that to begin with only first-party developers target its usage. Source: [I]Eurogamer.net[/I] [URL]http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-ps3-system-software-memory[/URL] [/QUOTE] I don't really know what to think about this. Why would an OS need 3.5 GB of RAM. It's not like the PS Dashboard it's doing much to warrant the need for that memory. Also, that "flexible memory", isn't that maybe used for recording games? Does that actually mean that only a maximum of 4.5GB of RAM will be used for gaming?

It might be used for the thing where someone remotely play your game for you if you're stuck somewhere. Also 4.5gb isn't bad, at least coming from me. I can run most games and I only have 3GB ram

[quote]PlayStation 4 reserves 3.5GB of its 8GB GDDR5 memory for the operating system,[B] leaving 4.5GB of space for game code[/B],[/quote] I thought everyone knew this? The PS3 had only 512MB of RAM in total which left even less space for gaming. 4.5 GB reserved exclusively for gaming isn't a bad thing at all.

Didn't they say 7GB was available for the developers to use after they announced the PS4? Or did I just somehow made that up?

they also said that developers can request 1gb of ram

[QUOTE=Starpluck;41602778]I thought everyone knew this? The PS3 had only 256MB of RAM in total which left even less space for gaming. 4.5 GB reserved exclusively for gaming isn't a bad thing at all.[/QUOTE] The CPU has 256MB, and the GPU has 256MB fucking wikipedia

Even if it's not the full amount of RAM, it's still GDDR5 RAM.

[QUOTE=Starpluck;41602778]I thought everyone knew this? The PS3 had only 256MB of RAM in total which left even less space for gaming. 4.5 GB resereved exclusively for gaming isn't a bad thing at all.[/QUOTE] Yeah 4.5 isn't bad, but it could be much higher. I am thinking, if the specs are high, then we will probably get better PC ports and games that utilize more than 4 GB of RAM.

4.5gb is a pretty big deal still. Most games will probably allocate 1gb in system memory, and the other 2.0-2.5 in texture memory. That's still a much higher budget than on the PC for pure shader and texture memory usage. For exampke most PC games only target around 1.0gb to 1.5gb of texture memory, and generally only games like crysis, BF3 or metro last light are hitting past the 1gb mark. BF3 for example tends to sit around 1.1gb.

Is there any game out there that uses more than 3 gigs anyway? I run Crysis 3 with Firefox in the background with 5 or more tabs and I barely hit 3.

[QUOTE=Matrix374;41602788]Didn't they say 7GB was available for the developers to use after they announced the PS4? Or did I just somehow make that up?[/QUOTE] Yeah, that was actually just a rumor you might have heard. [url]http://ps4daily.com/2013/04/playstation-4-developers-7-gb-ram/[/url]

I'm no expert but I'd imagine the console variants of games are more well optimized, which means less RAM usage. It's still super fast and assuming the disk is going to be fast as well, it'll be relatively cheap to manage memory. Plus isn't it combined GPU + general purpose RAM?

I hoped for 7, but I have 4gb myself, and with the 500mb before on consoles, this might be fine.

Why is anyone all that surprised at this? The Operating System will presumably need to have a lot more RAM available at an instant because of the huge overhaul. And I'm sure developers can request a little more.

If it turns out that it's not enough for games late in the life-cycle there's nothing stopping them from patching stuff to free the ram, right?

4.5GB is DDR5 RAM is perfect for pretty much anything in this generation and future generations. I doubt anything will really utilise more than that. Getting really sick of the media spouting utter nonsense about RAM. [quote=Awful News Site]We hear the PS4 has a whole EIGHT GIGABYTES of RAM! We don't know what RAM is, but it sure does sound interesting![/quote]

If I recall correctly, console developers utilize RAM more in their games, but still, 4.5 GB of GDDR5 ram seems reasonable to me, especially if they can request a gig more.

3.5 for the operating system? What the hell are they doing? I could understand the XBox One ram distribution with their tv yadda yadda stuff but PS4?

[QUOTE=Sokrates;41602824]Yeah, that was actually just a rumor you might have heard. [url]http://ps4daily.com/2013/04/playstation-4-developers-7-gb-ram/[/url][/QUOTE] OP's article suggests that may have been outdated info from when the PS4 was meant to have 4gb of ram, and they've beefed up the OS since switching to 8

[QUOTE]PlayStation 4 reserves 3.5GB of its 8GB GDDR5 memory for the operating system[/QUOTE] What kind of bastard Windows is it running?

This smells an awfull lot like bullshit.

That's 0.5 GB less than on Xbox One :(

[QUOTE=Ezhik;41603044]That's 0.5 GB less than on Xbox One :([/QUOTE] but it is GDDR5 vs DDR3 making it blindingly fast

[QUOTE=Starpluck;41602778]I thought everyone knew this? The PS3 had only 256MB of RAM in total which left even less space for gaming. 4.5 GB reserved exclusively for gaming isn't a bad thing at all.[/QUOTE] Except isn't this in place of BOTH RAM and VRAM? The word "unified" sorta seems to imply that. [editline]26th July 2013[/editline] Okay, so PS3 apparently had 256MB of main RAM and 256MB of VRAM on top, so that's 512MB of RAM total. On the other side, consider that they dropped the quite alien and abnormal architecture and it's practically a x86, so it's FAR more comparable to PC. I wouldn't be to overjoyed by these news, personally.

[QUOTE=RIPBILLYMAYS;41602761]It might be used for the thing where someone remotely play your game for you if you're stuck somewhere. Also 4.5gb isn't bad, at least coming from me. I can run most games and I only have 3GB ram[/QUOTE] 3gb ram HDD cache VRAM The ps4 just has the ram which is used for everything, what that means is that we're going to be looking at shit textures once more again. Most average PCs these days get 4gb ram + roughly 2gb of vram. Ou of that about half a gig goes into the system. Most gaming PCs tend to have at least eight and need that for full texture support.

-wikipedia is full of shit and can't read it's sources properly-

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;41603155]Yeah, furthermore Meanwhile PS3 had The bandwidth is literally less than a quarter of what was done in the PS3 setup. It's not really comparable functionally.[/QUOTE] 5.5Gbits/s wot. its 5500MHz, the bandwidth is 176 GB/s

[QUOTE=wraithcat;41603137]The ps4 just has the ram which is used for everything, what that means is that we're going to be looking at shit textures once more again.[/quote] I highly doubt this. Last of Us looks pretty fantastic in both textures (by mid-range PC standards, more or less) and model detail and that's on the PS3. [quote]Most average PCs these days get 4gb ram + roughly 2gb of vram. Ou of that about half a gig goes into the system. Most gaming PCs tend to have at least eight and need that for full texture support.[/QUOTE] I assume by 'average PC', you mean 'average higher-tier gaming PC', yes? If you had just said 4GB of RAM I might agree with 'average PC', but that [I]and[/I] 2GB of VRAM is a bit ridiculous for your average person. [editline]26th July 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=Awesomecaek;41603155]Yeah, furthermore Meanwhile PS3 had The bandwidth is literally less than a quarter of what was done in the PS3 setup. It's not really comparable functionally.[/QUOTE] Do you honestly think they're making a next-generation console with less than a quarter of the previous one's capability? I mean I don't know a lot about how it works, but that can't be true.

[QUOTE=OutLawed Blade;41602817]Is there any game out there that uses more than 3 gigs anyway? I run Crysis 3 with Firefox in the background with 5 or more tabs and I barely hit 3.[/QUOTE] Minecraft. Or any other extremely poorly coded game. Remember that on a console you can get away with some really nice optimizations. Remember the signpost in San Fiero? Large objects do not take up a lot of memory. [img]http://www.gta.cz/data/eng-sanandreas/clanky/eggy/egg_8.jpg[/img]

[QUOTE=BloodYScar;41602946]3.5 for the operating system? What the hell are they doing? I could understand the XBox One ram distribution with their tv yadda yadda stuff but PS4?[/QUOTE] My thoughts exactly, how the fuck did they manage to need 3.5gb of ram for their OS when 2gb is more than enough for Windows..