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

My computer only has 6GB, along with 1GB from my GPU, and I can still use high-res texture packs and such. Even though a little more would have been nicer, I think developers will be able to get by and more with 4.5GB dedicated to games.

[QUOTE=Megafan;41603307] 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] It's an entirely different architecture. It makes no real sense to compare it to PS3 because the memory in that operated entirely differently. PS4 is EXTREMELY CLOSE to how PC works and performs, by principle - based on a x86 CPU. It's 4,5GB is pretty decent at release, my own PC is at 4GB and it's fair to admit there will be still far more space for optimization, but if the devs are stuck with this for 7 more years, then by 2 years into the future, they will be having to scrub for each kilobyte again as PC will be probably at 8GB standard. Hell, even most today PC "gaming" motherboards have a 32GB memory bus, and 16GB of RAM goes for like $150. Not to mention most GPUs have 2GBs of VRAM to add to that. I sorta feel like we are riding into another beautiful decade of games being hindered by consoles not being to keep the fuck up. [editline]26th July 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=Period;41603479]My computer only has 6GB, along with 1GB from my GPU, and I can still use high-res texture packs and such. Even though a little more would have been nicer, I think developers will be able to get by and more with 4.5GB dedicated to games.[/QUOTE] For the entire 7 years this generation is likely to be expected to last? I will be nearly fucking 30 by the time we get rid of this.

[QUOTE=doommarine23;41603064]but it is GDDR5 vs DDR3 making it blindingly fast[/QUOTE] But does this really affect general RAM usage? iirc there's a good reason we don't use GDDR5 for general system RAM

[QUOTE=CakeMaster7;41603504]But does this really affect general RAM usage? iirc there's a good reason we don't use GDDR5 for general system RAM[/QUOTE] uh yeah, thats because gddr5 is the future(pc is still stuck in the past) 3<5 ddr3<gddr5 easy maths

is it right to have 16GB of RAM? iBuyPower was having a summer deal where you get 2x the RAM you bought, and my brother didn't see it

[QUOTE=skullorz;41603524]is it right to have 16GB of RAM? iBuyPower was having a summer deal where you get 2x the RAM you bought, and my brother didn't see it[/QUOTE] The more the merrier, right? You'll find a way to use all that RAM [img]http://i.imgur.com/IGbdM8p.png[/img]

[QUOTE=skullorz;41603524]is it right to have 16GB of RAM? iBuyPower was having a summer deal where you get 2x the RAM you bought, and my brother didn't see it[/QUOTE] There's nothing 'wrong' with it. I have 8GB which is enough for me but really, RAM doesn't cost that much and it's good to be prepared for the future.

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;41603480] For the entire 7 years this generation is likely to be expected to last? I will be nearly fucking 30 by the time we get rid of this.[/QUOTE] There isn't much they can do about that. You can't future-proof a console, especially not for 7 years.

[QUOTE=skullorz;41603524]is it right to have 16GB of RAM? iBuyPower was having a summer deal where you get 2x the RAM you bought, and my brother didn't see it[/QUOTE] Why are you buying prebuilt? Eugh.

[QUOTE=Period;41603563]There isn't much they can do about that. You can't future-proof a console, especially not for 7 years.[/QUOTE] You can at least not take up half of the memory with [???]

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;41603578]You can at least not take up half of the memory with [???][/QUOTE] That's.. true. I don't know what they are thinking or why it needs so much dedicated to the OS.

If this was an xbox one thread everyone would be bashing it. Instead everyone is trying to make excuses to why this is ok.

[QUOTE=Period;41603563]There isn't much they can do about that. You can't future-proof a console, especially not for 7 years.[/QUOTE] Everyone was excited at the prospect of the consoles being relatively future proofed at least in RAM terms, by going beyond what they really need but will need in the future, but now we find out that quite a bit of that is being used up by the OS. Apparently 2 CPU cores are also being used up by the OS, so these systems are leaving quite a lot of their potential unavailable to devs.

[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] paging firefox in the background does not sit in your RAM, but on your hard drive i imagine lots of Crysis 3's memory usage is textures that aren't currently on screen, so windows will stick those in virtual memory too

[QUOTE=pentium;41603438]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] Triangles and object size is pretty much irrelevant in memory, the difference between like 3k triangles and 15k triangles is going to be like less than a megabyte

I always thought that's the huge advantage consoles always had. The games got full access to the hardware (most tangible earlier on, it seems like that idea slowly vanes out with each generation) and they can really flash out optimization, squeezing the hardware for all it's worth. If they shit up nearly half of memory with something nobody even knows what it could be (I imagine it might be partially the mentioned advanced multiplayer "takeover" option, the streaming to Vita without requirement of support from the game developer themselves, and other these today fancy bells and whistles), the consoles loses a lot of it's technological advantage and it's just a PC with custom but just as bloated OS.

[QUOTE=ZachPL;41603603]If this was an xbox one thread everyone would be bashing it. Instead everyone is trying to make excuses to why this is ok.[/QUOTE] Thanks for the creative input, ZachPL! You really did [I]zing[/I] these filthy PlayStation fan boys! You know, the Xbox One won't let developers use all of the ram for games either. If they were allowed to do such a thing, the system would just stop functioning. Part of the ram [B]has[/B] to be dedicated to various elements of the operating system.

It seems the OS does quite a lot of background work, 3GB of background stuff seems pretty excessive, but considering it's running a variety of things from chat applications to a streaming application it could very well add up to around 3GB of stuff. It may also be to avoid the issue the PS3 has when entering the XMB mid-game, it takes ages to load, then another age to actually load menu options. Keeping all of the stuff it's running in memory certainly helps there.

While I do have certain doubts the OS really needs 3.5GB, developers are allowed to request an extra GB to use for their games. This seems like more of a safety practice if anything, Sony don't want the console being bogged down because a developer decided to not optimize their game.

90% chance of this being bullshit anyway, it had 4GB pre-feb announcement. When a dev says to Cerny "Get 8GB or you're fucked", he's not going to add 8 then use most of it for the damn OS.

[QUOTE=FlubberNugget;41603651]Thanks for the creative input, ZachPL! You really did [I]zing[/I] these filthy PlayStation fan boys! You know, the Xbox One won't let developers use all of the ram for games either. If they were allowed to do such a thing, the system would just stop functioning. Part of the ram [B]has[/B] to be dedicated to various elements of the operating system.[/QUOTE] Yeah the Xbox one came out with the same news a while ago and the reception was as predicted I thought the same skepticism would be taken with the ps4 but I guess the same numbers mean different things on different sides

[QUOTE=Juniez;41603699]Yeah the Xbox one came out with the same news a while ago and the reception was as predicted I thought the same skepticism would be taken with the ps4 but I guess the same numbers mean different things on different sides[/QUOTE] Xbone has 5 gigs iirc, I think it's a bit disappointing for both

[QUOTE=Juniez;41603699]Yeah the Xbox one came out with the same news a while ago and the reception was as predicted I thought the same skepticism would be taken with the ps4 but I guess the same numbers mean different things on different sides[/QUOTE] Double standards are silly all the same, but complaining about the OS needing a little RAM out of the simply put huge amount in total is redundant until you really know what Sony and/or Microsoft are doing with their console. [editline]26th July 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=CakeMaster7;41603722]Xbone has 5 gigs iirc, I think it's a bit disappointing for both[/QUOTE] 8GB.

It's a lot disappointing for both because I can already see that in three years we will be back to devs going "CAN'T MAKE BIGGER ENVIRONMENTS OR HIGHER RES TEXTURES THEY WOULDN'T FIT ON THE CONSHULS LOL"

Sometimes I think some of you forget that Microsoft and Sony have a budget to abide by, they don't want to shove more RAM in their consoles for developers to poorly use, just so they can make an ever larger loss.

You really don't need more than 4GB of RAM for just a game at the moment

[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;41603743]It's a lot disappointing for both because I can already see that in three years we will be back to devs going "CAN'T MAKE BIGGER ENVIRONMENTS OR HIGHER RES TEXTURES THEY WOULDN'T FIT ON THE CONSHULS LOL"[/QUOTE] That isn't a problem with this generation, consoles have always wrought this problem among platforms.

[QUOTE=Coffee;41603760]You really don't need more than 4GB of RAM for just a game at the moment[/QUOTE] And if you do in the future it better be for good reasons (large environments aren't one, you load what you need, not as much as you can). Massive amounts of resources leads to lazy development, limited resources means more optimisation is required, yeah it's more work but I'd rather the game ran as well as it could rather than as well as it needs.

[QUOTE=FlubberNugget;41603733]Double standards are silly all the same, but complaining about the OS needing a little RAM out of the simply put huge amount in total is redundant until you really know what Sony and/or Microsoft are doing with their console.[/quote] No-one thought the complaints were unfounded on the Xbox one, though, because facepunch studios doesn't like the xbone and therefore its the funniest thing ever when they announce the same thing The problem isn't the news, its the massive bias in reaction [QUOTE=FlubberNugget;41603733] 8GB.[/QUOTE] 5gb usable

[QUOTE=FlubberNugget;41603733]8GB.[/QUOTE] 5GB usable for devs, that is the subject of the thread, isn't it? Edit: ninja'd