I told myself I wasn't going to post in this thread because people are foaming at the mouth and not thinking.... but here I am, which makes me an idiot.
First off, I know all you guys want are hard numbers and I don't have them. But I do know the philosophies in place currently. If you would like to use your brain and think critically about things... keep reading. If you want to get into a 5>4.5 OMG IM CANCELLING MY PREORDER conversation - this thread won't help you, in either direction.
I was told by a couple of Devs in the lead up to E3 that the OS footprint was "bigger than expected" but not a single one of them complained about it. No one is in danger of running out of ram. As some people have mentioned in this thread - games like the The Last of Us are happening with 512mb of ram. Launch titles, of all things, are not going to be pushing the hardware in any sort of way... and that includes ram.
So why is the ram footprint bigger than expected? It's fairly simple - Sony is hedging their bets. They were absolutely caught with their pants down with their OS this gen. Not having the memory overhead to do things like Party Chat gave Microsoft a huge advantage when it came to online gaming, which is obviously a growing sector. So much like $399 as a target price was a reaction to $599 being a disaster... "big OS footprint" is a reaction to "small OS footprint" being a disaster.
But the thing that I'm hearing and I believe there was even a line dedicated to this in the eurogamer article is that these numbers aren't set in stone. The fact of the matter is that high end PC games use around 3gb of ram and use higher res textures (art tends to take up the largest chunks of ram) than the ps4/x1 do. The idea that launch games need 7gb of ram is absolutely ludicrous. 4gbs is fine. Anything more, at this point, is overkill. It won't be overkill forever... but it's overkill for now.
So Sony gets to sit on this chunk of ram, be in 1gb or 3gb - again, I don't know the numbers. I don't know if eurogamer is right (I do know at E3 that some thought more ram would be freed up when the final dev kits shipped... but I don't know anyone working with a final dev kit). But Sony is coming at this from a position of power. They don't need the ram currently so they get to take a wait and see approach before saying "ok, devs, you guys get this." The systems will launch and they will look at what people are doing with their own OS, they will see what features people are asking for, they will see if microsoft or Nintendo (or even steam) come out with some surprise feature that catches fire - and if it does they will have the memory there to be able to do it also. If it doesn't that chunk of ram gets freed up for developers.
This thread is looking at this entire thing like the endgame is the day it launches. That's day one, guys. This is a long term strategic move and, imo, a smart one. They are putting themselves in a position to be able to adapt... something they couldn't do with the ps3. I know as gamers all we want to hear is higher numbers. But find me one developer that thinks the ram available to them on either system isn't enough (and this goes for the x1 as well guys... all this 5gb hurr hurrr stuff is fanboyish nonsense that you can go through my post history and see I never took part in once).
I feel like this post is far to philosophical for this thread of LARGE NUMBER > SMALL NUMBER, but hopefully this info is useful to some of you. Sony have created a nimble system and this is part of that philosophy.
1. They're wrong. They should get better sources, or at least attempt a better analysis.
2. OS matters are a bit more complicated than how this is being portrayed.
3. I clearly have a lot to learn before becoming a master troll.
4. It's Friday. My mobile is getting too much of a workout for a Friday.
Sony is playing it very safe for launch units. Things like clock rates, OS size, and memory allotments are conservative for a reason. Sony does not want to be in a position where they will lose out on a killer feature or find themselves in a position where there is zero room to grow. I wouldn't be surprised if year 3 or 4 of the PS4's life cycle you see a patch to upclock the GPU.
Upclocking the PS4's GPU 200 mhz more would yield a 2.3 TF machine.
As of this moment, not a single developer has complained about "too little RAM". Most developers are very happy by not only the quantity, but the speed of RAM. As we enter the third year of the machine, the OS size will shrink and things will become less bloated.
Let things play their part and STOP overreacting. Some of you have zero idea how well designed and balanced the PS4 is.
Here's the deal...somewhat. From a dev at one of the biggest in the industry. Just a messenger here.
Dev still a little cagey to give out 100% concrete numbers unfortunately like I was previously told, so I apologize ahead of time that they're not as detailed, but these are supposed to be the closest to detailed info I get on the OS footprint:
-At most, the OS uses 1.5GB, with a good amount of that helping the HD recording feature and on the fly switching/ multi tasking
-4.5GB is indeed about what's available for devs at present.
-1GB is set aside for futureproofing OS operations down the line.
-1GB for developer reserve, should they need it
And finally as an important point, I'm being told the faster RAM in the PS4 does in fact make a huge difference.
Devs have access to only 4.5 gb of RAM right now. That is news to me and almost everyone else.This is a non issue.
Why did you have to cancel your PS3 and Wii U game pre-orders too? Huh, what do they have to do with the PS4?
How could you not understand that's what I meant?...I mean, wow.
Here's the deal...somewhat. From a dev at one of the biggest in the industry. Just a messenger here.
Dev still a little cagey to give out 100% concrete numbers unfortunately like I was previously told, so I apologize ahead of time that they're not as detailed, but these are supposed to be the closest to detailed info I get on the OS footprint:
-At most, the OS uses 1.5GB, with a good amount of that helping the HD recording feature and on the fly switching/ multi tasking
-4.5GB is indeed about what's available for devs at present.
-1GB is set aside for futureproofing OS operations down the line.
-1GB for developer reserve, should they need it
And finally as an important point, I'm being told the faster RAM in the PS4 does in fact make a huge difference.
How is this not an issue?
Except it hasn't.
If true, It's kinda crazy all the dedicated gaming hardware this gen ended up with more overhead than PCs.
Here's the deal...somewhat. From a dev at one of the biggest in the industry. Just a messenger here.
Dev still a little cagey to give out 100% concrete numbers unfortunately like I was previously told, so I apologize ahead of time that they're not as detailed, but these are supposed to be the closest to detailed info I get on the OS footprint:
-At most, the OS uses 1.5GB, with a good amount of that helping the HD recording feature and on the fly switching/ multi tasking
-4.5GB is indeed about what's available for devs at present.
-1GB is set aside for futureproofing OS operations down the line.
-1GB for developer reserve, should they need it
And finally as an important point, I'm being told the faster RAM in the PS4 does in fact make a huge difference.
You know if you really didn't want it, you could have just sold it and bought an x1 with a bunch of games + gold for a few years. PS4 is gonna be nearly impossible to find for a few months after launch. Idiots bought PS3s for up to 2,000 when it launched.Not funny at all. I had to cancel my E3 pre-order deals too. Now Sony is affecting gaming on my other consoles too.
It's one order. You can't cancel individual items in the same order.
Because there is a pool of ram 10x as much as the previous gen, that's more than sufficient for the gpus in theses systems?How is this not an issue?
I do not see why Netflix was mentioned either.How could you not understand that's what I meant?...I mean, wow.
it has already been addressed as being incorrect.
How could you not understand that's what I meant?...I mean, wow.
5.5.gb out of 8gb? Pre order canceled.
This is a non issue.
Very true, but what about Bethesda? They might have actually needed the 7GB of RAM.
in FEBRUARY yes.Devs have access to only 4.5 gb of RAM right now. That is news to me and almost everyone else.
Please explain.
And finally as an important point, I'm being told the faster RAM in the PS4 does in fact make a huge difference.
Here's the deal...somewhat. From a dev at one of the biggest in the industry. Just a messenger here.
Dev still a little cagey to give out 100% concrete numbers unfortunately like I was previously told, so I apologize ahead of time that they're not as detailed, but these are supposed to be the closest to detailed info I get on the OS footprint:
-At most, the OS uses 1.5GB, with a good amount of that helping the HD recording feature and on the fly switching/ multi tasking
-4.5GB is indeed about what's available for devs at present.
-1GB is set aside for futureproofing OS operations down the line.
-1GB for developer reserve, should they need it
And finally as an important point, I'm being told the faster RAM in the PS4 does in fact make a huge difference.
The title change makes this sound like a non issue. I'm pretty sure this is an issue.
Because there is a pool of ram 10x as much as the previous gen, that's more than sufficient?
Devs have access to only 4.5 gb of RAM right now. That is news to me and almost everyone else.
This thread is WAY too long so I can't read all of it and I doubt anyone will even read my comment but here it goes!
Wasn't the rumoured Ram amount prior to 8GB around 4Gb or something? If so did they only have around 1Gb allocated for games at the time or did the OS just get more complex and it's footprint increase?
This thread is WAY too long so I can't read all of it and I doubt anyone will even read my comment but here it goes!
Wasn't the rumoured Ram amount prior to 8GB around 4Gb or something? If so did they only have had around 1Gb allocated for games at the time or did the OS just get more complex and it's footprint increase?
So you don't think ram will ever be an issue over the run of the PS4?
What's up with the title change? Just because it's "bad" news for Sony, mods try to make into something less obvious.