Eurogamer: PS4 developers can only access a guaranteed 4.5GB of RAM, rest reserved for the OS.

[retKHAAAN]

Lol... I wonder what the headline would have looked like had it been MS who only allowed devs access to half their console's RAM...

 

[Bi0Hazrd]

I think they reserve that quantity of memory for future proof features of the os. I think it's ok that way.

 

[xist]

Lol... I wonder what the headline would have looked like had it been MS who only allowed devs access to half their console's RAM...

I know it's not directly related to your post but it's relatively apt. Taken from the Neogaf thread relating to this same topic -

Originally Posted by GodofWine

GPU is weaker in xb​

RAM is slower in xb​

And less RAM, slower RAM, is potentially available for games in xb.​

​

It doesn't change the landscape here.​

 

[The Pi]

I wonder does that RAM number include the Gig or 2 of Video RAM that many graphics cards these days are packing?

Nope.

While Rydian is right with the 4.5GB being enough for the game. It's still too strange that an OS would take 3.5GB or 2.5GB "If it can spare"

I'm probably wrong with this but it never said the leftover ram would be used entirely for the OS. So it could simply be they are reserving part of the ram just now so they know how to properly allocate it later.

i.e. If it released as 7GB for games then a new OS feature they wanted to add raised the OS usage to 1.5GB then they couldn't add it and it's not like games are hindered by 4.5GB for now (at least at 1080p)

 

[The Milkman]

Because RAM is the most important aspect of ANY form of gaming.

Come on guys, this is x86 were talking here. You have to expect an actual OS to be running here.

Not saying it NEEDS it, but I am saying its future-proofing like Joe88 said. Seeing how 4 GB tends to be more then enough on even the heaviest games, you might ask why Sony even put 8 GB in the first place.

 

[yuyuyup]

Sony probably maybe knows what they're doing, but frankly now I have little confidence in all three next-gen offerings. I think it's a good thing the PS4 is taken down a peg resulting in a leveling of the playing field a bit. Also admittedly it makes my Wii U purchase seem less regrettable.

 

[Arm73]

I feel like most of you have no idea how much 4.5GB of RAM actually is. It is PLENTY for a console. Games up to this point (on consoles) have gotten away with less than half a GB, and now this is more than 8 times that amount. Anyone who thinks we need more doesn't really know what they are talking about.

You miss the point here.
I think the outrage comes from the fact that they shocked us with frigging 8GB of memory at the unveiling and everybody just got blown away by the news and even MS had to do some last minute adjustment to stand up to the competition.
Everybody has been praising the PS4 on their knees ever since because of the might 8GB of DDR5 .

As it turns out, only ( and like you say that is plenty anyway ) 4.5 GB are available.
Nothing deal breaking of course, but all the hype and all the fanboys making 8GB a BIG deal now can finally shot up.
It was all a publicity stunt to begin with.
And everybody bit into it.

 

[RodrigoDavy]

4.5 GB is still a lot to use in PS4 games. Hell, some developers were even impressed with the 1GB of RAM available for Wii U games. What's happening here is that RAM is getting so cheap that computers and consoles can include way more than they need to. Now, if the PS4 is going to have 3.5GB for the OS it will most certainly be fast and capable of doing a lot of things.

 

[trumpet-205]

People need to understand that PS4 is using unified RAM. Meaning that 8 GB is used by both CPU and GPU.

 

[Coto]

Technically, Windows 7 and 8 only require 1GB of RAM - although they state 2GB minimum for the 64-bit version, I have Windows 8 64-bit running at around 900MB of RAM at startup with Rainmeter, Core Temp and AutoHotKey running in the background. You need 1.5-2GB to actually do much of anything, sure, but you can run them on a gig or so.

And that's what confuses me most about this news. The PS4 likely isn't aiming to run as complex an operating system as Windows; it'll likely be a more RAM-friendly, cut down Linux-based OS. The basics of it, even with the eye candy for menus and backgrounds, should not total out to even one gig of RAM. The premium features, such as background downloads and cross-chat and video recording, shouldn't take up a whole lot more than another GB, unless they're letting us record for a near-limitless amount of time, or record our voice chats as well, or something equally ridiculous. Reserving anything more than 2GB just seems wasteful to me.

raw data processed, as-is = bigger amounts of data required in storage media (ram too), less CPU demanding

compressed and encoded data = fewer requirements of storage media space, but more CPU demanding.

a chip that copies video buffer -> into video frames, compressed in realtime, will take the best from both worlds, voice chat included if in another thread.

Caching is what will be RAM consuming, as the target media where the chip writes the converted data, will be quite busy, and newly generated data will need to be stored somewhere.

you get the idea

 

[FireGrey]

Am I the only one that is happy about this news?
I was worried that only 1GB was allocated to the system, cause 7GB won't be used for games until about a decade.
3.5GB to the system means that we can browse through the menu quite easily, browsing through the PS3 menu was so slow, especially the playstation store.

 

[Taleweaver]

Anybody who thinks that's not enough RAM, do us all a favor.

1 - Run a game on your PC (a game that, of course, would actually see the console, 3DS Max is not a game, Sony Vegas is not a game, etc.) that you think takes up a lot of RAM.
2 - Minimize it (or preferably run it windowed) and wait until you're in-game.
3 - Press CTRL+SHIFT+ESCAPE.
4 - In the new window, go to the "processes" tab.
5 - Find the game's process, look to the "Memory" tab and take that number.
6 - Divide that number by 1,000,000 (a million).
7 - That's how much RAM it's using, in GB, at the time you're looking at that list.

inb4 "LOLrydian people know how to do this" - No they don't. Can't tell you how many times people tell me they need 16GB of RAM when they're running games using a gig or less, or something happens and everybody and their grandmother says "MEMORY LEAK!" when the thing's using the same amount of RAM it normally does, etc.

EDIT: Added the unit of measurement, whoops.

Tell me about it. I had it happen at my job where some hotshot managed to order 4 extra GB of RAM on top of the 4GB his brand new laptop already carried (he "needed it"). I got informed by mail that I just had to install the extra RAM and deliver it to him.

The scary thing wasn't that he asked his boss and he believed him, or even that that boss ordered it for him (while our company was being restructured and - supposedly - had to keep the wallet tight)...or even that my boss put the order through (he's usually too busy to check on what people actually order, let alone need). No: the scary part was that he wasn't even punished for blatantly lying about what he needed.

There was no extra slot for extra RAM in the laptop. And nor should there be...because we were still running windows XP 32 bit.



And this is what scares me: that the decision to use 8GB of RAM isn't made because it needs to...but because hot shots and marketeers want to use it as a sales argument.


On the other hand, I've got to admit that trumpet-205 has a more than decent point here:

People need to understand that PS4 is using unified RAM. Meaning that 8 GB is used by both CPU and GPU.

This is probably where most of that RAM is being used for: the GPU side. Kind of strange why they're using unified RAM if the first thing they're doing is splitting it up again, but hey...sales argument (OMG it has more RAM!!!!).

 

[trumpet-205]

This is probably where most of that RAM is being used for: the GPU side. Kind of strange why they're using unified RAM if the first thing they're doing is splitting it up again, but hey...sales argument (OMG it has more RAM!!!!).

Unified RAM simplifies programming a lot. In the old days, CPU has to fetch the data to RAM first, then move the data to VRAM on GPU, finally GPU can render a frame.

With unified RAM, data does not need to travel, since GPU and CPU share the same memory space.

 

[KazoWAR]

don't forget about what ever amount of RAM is used on GPUs, that also lumped into the PS4 4.5 GB game limit!

 

[Mantis41]

Sony and MS may be wanting to prevent programmers producing bloatware with additional RAM being freed up later in the development cycle.

While the confirmation that Sony’s next generation system will include 8GB GDDR5 RAM was met by rapturous applause during February’s big PlayStation 4 jolly-up, a laundry list of developers have hinted that the gigantic offering could lead to ‘lazy’ programming in a report published by VideoGamer.com.

source

 

[shakirmoledina]

the fact that it has 8gb gddr5 is in itself excessive.

then again seems quite a lot... power hungry machine.

 

[EzekielRage]

Wasn't it announced that the XBone also only gives 5GB of Ram to the game? So what's the fuss about? Who cares? Games are the same boring mess we got the last few years, ram doesn't change that. I never thought I would say this but to me gaming gets worse every single year. I am so glad indies exist where games care about being a game and not about teh grafix...

 

[TemplarGR]

Wasn't it announced that the XBone also only gives 5GB of Ram to the game? So what's the fuss about? Who cares? Games are the same boring mess we got the last few years, ram doesn't change that. I never thought I would say this but to me gaming gets worse every single year. I am so glad indies exist where games care about being a game and not about teh grafix...

This. As a 20+ years gaming veteran, this is my conclusion too. Next-gen will be absolutely the same as last-gen, just with true high definition graphics(instead of rendering 480p and upscaling it). More polygons and better textures. That's all folks...

I am getting really bored with so-called "hardcore gaming". My happiest gaming hours the last few years were on the DS and on the 3DS... Nintendo is the only one who still knows how to make fun games...

 

[marksteele]

This. As a 20+ years gaming veteran, this is my conclusion too. Next-gen will be absolutely the same as last-gen, just with true high definition graphics(instead of rendering 480p and upscaling it). More polygons and better textures. That's all folks...

I am getting really bored with so-called "hardcore gaming". My happiest gaming hours the last few years were on the DS and on the 3DS... Nintendo is the only one who still knows how to make fun games...

But templar, you totally forgot you can swap to TV in the middle of playing your games

 

[Sakitoshi]

*Rydian teaching how to view RAM use*

My results with Borderlands 2, all settings to max except Physx that is at medium.

Spoiler

a gig of RAM, VRAM is left out though. I don't know if VRAM can be seen.