Curiously, a Digital Foundry article has appeared on the Portugese version of Eurogamer that claims – it appears – that the PS4’s operation system reserves 3.5GB of the system’s 8GB total [via] – that’s nearly half if the post is to be believed.
The article’s language means it’s difficult to translate accurately, although there’s a Google one here. It’s also difficult to pin down a source – and screenshots in the article point to the recent Killzone presentation – so at the moment take this with a pinch of salt.
Both the PS4 and Xbox One will launch with 8GB – although the PS4’s is faster – but both with significantly lower than that amounts for actual games, leveling the playing field somewhat. The Xbox One reserves 3GB, by the way, effectively giving Microsoft’s console a little more room to breath.
A difference presumably only used in first party exclusives.
Update: it’s now available in English. It also states there’s a 1GB ‘flexible memory’ section that developers (which seems to be limited to first party studios just now, it appears) can claw back “only if the background OS can spare it.”
The article cites a “a well-placed development source” so it’s presumably not based off the old Killzone slides. Chances are this is part of the current dev documentation which somebody has passed onto Eurogamer. Sony haven’t made an official comment yet.
leeroye
I would be amazed if this is true. 3.5 gig for an OS, cant see it myself.
Radboud
But doesn’t it say that it is 4.5 GB guaranteed RAM for developers?
It probably only uses 3.5 GB when you download stuff in the background, use CGC, use some messaging etc. all at the same time.
It does not state the OS needs 3.5 GB RAM.
Or am I missing something here?
Radboud
Sorry to reply to my own ost, but I am talking about this quote: “Sony’s internal docs say that 4.5GB is the baseline amount of guaranteed memory available for game-makers”
The 3.5 GB that the OS would need is a conclusion of that quote, not smething the documentation states.
orimisac
This kind of “report” resembles something from “The Onion”…
4Gigs for OS… Ok: what are they packing? The latest Windows 8 and on top of it, through virtualization, the latest Ubuntu and the latest OS-X??? All full featured and running all fraking possible services (like exchange server, mySQL + Postgres, apache, etc…)??? C’mon… Just take a look at the amount of memory used by OS in a full featured PC running lots of services…
Journalism requires investigation and validation of sources. Otherwise it becomes something like “Facebook discussion” where the most blatant nonsense is taken at face value. Things like “anonymous sources” and “3rd party information” is just to be taken with raised eyebrows. And that’s just the case with this information.
The worse thing is that I’ve seem this “information” replicated in several “news forums” and nobody had the presence of spirit to say: oh… this is just bs… Nobody here ever developed software ??? Wow… wtf situation…
bunimomike
I’m with you on this but just because that seems like a mammoth amount of memory to set aside but there we go. Let’s see what Sony has to say about it in an official capacity before we all start wishing harm on Mark Cerny. :-)
orimisac
Someone suggested that some of this “mammoth” memory could be used as RAM disk. To a point it makes sense and is coherent with what Sony people said about “playing a game while downloading it”. But, on the other hand, RAM disks may be dynamically allocated and must not be available all the time (so, if a game or application needs memory, it has precedence over RAM disk requirements). Also, following the logic of RAM disk, it could be used as swap area, so it is possible to swap between games and applications without much latency. The swap concept would allow to reduce the “load times” if some “double buffering” policy is implemented (for instance: preload next part of the game while gamer is still engaged in playing and that would result in apparent zero load times which would be a good thing).
bunimomike
I’m with you on that. There are times where my PC has the RAM (8GB, coincidentally) but the game I’m playing hasn’t been programmed to utilise it. I sit there with things loading (albeit quickly on the PC) but think to myself “argh, if only you knew about the spare RAM you’re not using… you could have so much pre-loaded!”. Oh well. :-)
plutoniumdragon
Not sure if this has been answered, but does the “OS reserved” figure include the graphics memory?
bunimomike
There is no graphics memory. It’s a unified pool of memory which is then divvied up to whatever task they see fit to use it for (ie. games, music, video playback, etc.).
Ooo… but it’s the same speed as current video memory in PC graphics cards. They use GDDR5 as well.
plutoniumdragon
I understand that, but if the game has to allocate another 0.5 to 2Gb out of it’s “own” memory allowance for the graphics hardware (buffers,textures AA etc) then it’s starting to look a bit like a trade off between pretty graphics and having enough Ram to do AI and stuff.
But IANAP what do I know :)
The Von Braun
So, not exactly leaving the games side the scraps, but not quite the 3-Course meal many expected (guess games developers will be deciding which to go for…starter and main course…or skip starter and have a sweet after).
I’m going to take this in a sensible and calm manner, after all, the last ‘new’ console, the Wii U uses 50% of it’s 2G Ram for the O/S so both PS4 and Xbone are’nt that bad, but i just want Sony to come out and explain WTF that chunk of Ram is used for and how it’s suddenly become so bloated.Basically i know it’s going to be for non-gaming shit that no-one really wanted, but since it’s on Xbone, it has to be on PS4.
Come back Sega!-You fecked up on hardware design many a time (MCD, 32X+Saturn) but least last one you did had Ram allocated to where it was most needed…GAMES!!!.
Still been laughing reading all these ‘Pre-order Cancelled!’ rants on various sites.Really? now your angry, now details on what you’d pre-ordered start to appear? feck me..what is the net going to be like once the games on both hit and people realise they are nowhere near what the hype would have them believe?.
yogh_wayne
Hmm, “a well-placed development source”… I’ll wait for some official information from Sony, thanks.
ignorbert
I read the first ps4 dev kits had 2Gb Ram.. so it seems the os does not need much memory..
So if the overhead if for the share feature.. I would be happy with 7,5 mins if this saves 750mb of extra game memory.. still more than xbox.. and after 7,5 minutes I should know what my “friend” is trying to show me :-)
Starman
Well it will give them the option to add things over the years at least. They’ll want to be able to match whatever tricks the X1 has. They don’t want “cross-game chat” all over again.
steverouse1234
I’m probably only to use the record and share feature when it’s linked to a trophey anyway.
Kennykazey
That’s a ridiculously large amount, even with 15min of video stored in it. Vita can do cross game and multitasking with less than 1 GB. Either this is BS or PS4 can play two games at the same time. Surely Sony wouldn’t shoot themselves in the foot like this after having Cerny talk about great longlivety.