PS4's 8GB RAM was kept secret from third-party devs until console reveal

Third-party developers were not aware that PlayStation 4 would include 8GB of GDDR5 RAM until Sony's reveal event in February - despite having received development kits long before the console's announcement.

[MariaHelFutura]

Very sneaky.

[Bathyj]

Ha.
You shouldnt underestimate the sneakiness.
Bubble for funny.

[MariaHelFutura]

I thought it was funny too. Aparently people don't agree w/ us....

[GameNameFame]

xbox fanboy are saying it was increased to match 720.

As if Sony had to do anything to beat that weak @ss leaked spec.

Just hope that MS threw that entire dev kit out and made something more comparable...

[Gazondaily]

Sorry I'm being blonde here, I can't see what's sneaky in that pic. Tell me!

@Gamenamefam and every one that agreed with him

What weak leaked specs? 8GB DDR is now weak? Sorry but how can people approve of such juvenile nonsense? It's the same kind of immature attitude of those who go out of their way of saying that the 360 came 'dead last', always inserting that word 'dead' in a desperate bid to put across their usually biased point.

Show some class N4G please!

[Gamer1982]

@septic watch mr deeds the movie and you will get the pic.
@gamenamefame MS cannot change there dev kits this late into cycle or they would have to delay the console launch for at least another year.

[GameNameFame]

Yes. The leaked spec for 720 were very very weak.

slow gddr3 on grafix card?
weak GPU and etc.

It seems to me that you are throwing a tantrum at how weak the spec was. Show some dignity.... and stop crying to deny its weak spec

[showtimefolks]

8GB ram is amazing considering we are talking about a gaming console

[Irishguy95]

It's also a waste of money. Considering it's 8GB's RAM in a console that only needs 4 MAX.

[a_bro]

well, it was obvious seeing that most of the games announced were working with 2gbs of ram.

seeing that makes you realize,just imagine if they go full power.

[aCasualGamer]

Bro, pun intended... my mind would explode. Can it get any better than Driveclub?

[a_bro]

very interested in playing that game. a first person only racing game makes things very interesting, i mean, thats how racing games/drive sims should be played.

[aCasualGamer]

They way they advertised it and presented it made it seem it will be more than just driving the cars, the way he checked the car out and everything. Maybe a more interactive "garage" feature will be implemented where you can buy parts and install them in first person view rather than automatically. Hope they experiment with that as it seems only natural for racing games to evolve more than just tuned racing gameplay.

Hope so atleast.

[Jaqen_Hghar]

Indeed. A man sees this as most developers have seen PS4 at SSJ1, but it can indeed go to SSJ3!

[Sharius]

or they will make this do the fusion-ha with PS vita?

[Gamer1982]

Makes sense to why the games were running on PC hardware too at the demo.

[DivineAssault]

Smart move.. This probably made MS think they had an advantage cuz im sure devs prolly gave them a heads up on what PS4 could do.. Then after the reveal, MS delayed their system announcement to try & make last minute upgrades lol.. Good job sony.. Keep everyone guessing & drop a bomb on that ass... They havent even shown what the console looks like & "other companies" are already scared of em..

[riverstars86]

When did Microsoft delay their system announcement? The only reveal date that can be close to being confirmed is Major Nelson's E3 countdown. Please quit being a troll and actually contribute to the community instead of being a pest.

[Salooh]

I don't care about how the ps4 will look. What would make sony get back to ps1/2 era are the games. Show unique and exciting with wow factor games and it will win. No limitation and don't make it like if it's a gift and waste time by showing off . That would make me soooooo excited for it. I already convinced to buy it day one but i need wow factor again to feel like we are getting something special .

Even though they released the vita with limitations i think sony learned it was a mistake. They already said they want the hardware to be simple and easy to use. Vita isn't so i think they did learn that..

Personally, I feel like i'm bored of gaming so i really need that..

[Sithlord-Gamble]

What are you talking about?
Developers have done nothing but praise the Vita for how easy it is to develop for.
You should probably check your facts before you make statements like that.

[Salooh]

I'm talking about us who are limited not the developers.

[fermcr]

Stop making things up. MS never delayed their system announcement.

[riverstars86]

Let's disagree with facts. Shows the overall intelligence of some individuals on this website.

[_-EDMIX-_]

how can either of you state whether it's a fact or not when its a rumor to begin with that was delayed?

those disagrees are from the people who know the sources that leaked the announcement also leaked Sony's announcement of the PlayStation 4.

in my opinion if the sources leaked out PlayStation 4 specs and announcements date they clearly know 720's as well. at this point it's difficult to dispute the credibility.

[riverstars86]

@edmix

Dude it is a rumor, not fact. The only hint that Microsoft gave about a possible announcement is Major Nelson's E3 countdown. ( http://www.geek.com/games/m...

I get that the source may be credible, but do you really believe that all their rumors come to fruition? We live in an age where people believe whatever they see on the Internet, let's not be naive and believe every little rumor that comes out. When people pass rumors as facts, it shows how naive and uneducated people really are.

[Snookies12]

@DivineAssault and fermcr - First off, you can't confirm that Microsoft delayed anything, though saying he's making it up is untrue as well. They could very well have delayed a potential showing of their console. We don't know one way or the other, unless we work with MS lol. (Probably not even then...)

[Arai]

Just want to point something out regarding the article.
The author seems to think DDR5 = GDDR5, which it isn't.
The PS4 uses 8GB of GDDR5, which is found on most modern graphics cards.

Wanted to clear that up so people aren't confused.

[Snookies12]

Yeah, it would be kinda crazy if it had 8 gigs of DDR5 ram lol.

[dcbronco]

It would be...futuristic.

Arai haven't you learned. Never tell the truth.

@Snookies. Check Arai's post. DDR5 doesn't exist yet. It's GDDR5. DDR4 won't be out until late this year or early next.

[Snookies12]

Disagrees? People want DDR5 even though it would cost an arm and a leg?

[RegorL]

@Snookies12 if I ever develop a graphics chip I will call it leg and run it in SLI.

Why?

This mobile has four arms and two legs...

[isyourhouseonfire]

So apparently the devs had nothing to go on, but now they have a piece of paper that says "8GB RAM". Gee, really exciting. What exactly should they do with that piece of paper, Sony? Make the console for you?

[koehler83]

Sorry, I really tried to parse that comment for the point..

But what the hell are you talking about?

Dev kits change leading up to console launches all the time. Every time. EVERY SINGLE TIME.

But you know what happens? The memory is lowered to cut production costs. "Make your game with 4GB of RAM" is all devs needed to know. Having more given to them has absolutely no impact on them whatsoever, except to alleviate any memory related issues they may have been having.

[isyourhouseonfire]

There are no real dev kits. Sony only has a spec sheet and has given devs randomly pieced together PCs. When will the devs actually see something that resembles a console release?

[koehler83]

@isyourhouseonfire

Again.. That's how it works.. EVERY TIME.

Devs will get a dev kit that resembles the final console (completely superficially) when the design is finalized.

Until then.. it's completely irrelevant. If they can't figure out x86 development without custom case mod, they have bigger problems.

[supremacy]

Its call dev kits and there were i believe different variations of them in the wild with the difference in memory. Sony just let them believe it was always going to be 4gb, but a rumour suggested that Kaz the ceo of Sony, was pushing for 8.

And since he was in charge of PlayStation before taking over the parent company, i would think getting what he wants would be a lot easier.

And thus 8gb of memory it is. But yeah devs had dev kits with 8gb beforehand, they're were just led to believe one thing over another until it was revealed.

[UnwanteDreamz]

@isyourhouseonfire

Give it up. You do not know what you are talking about.

[puamdefokejpn]

Well I don't know how they were lucky enough to acquire that extra 4gig ddr5 dimms ,..for production on such a scale as making a new hardware,.. and actually trying to have a global launch,.. That is really impressive shit,..

[Fishy Fingers]

Implies to me at least they upped it in either reaction to what competitors maybe doing or on the advice of 'someone'.

Can't really see why else they would hinder 3rd party launch titles.

Whatever the reason, it's a plus for consumers and studios.

[MariaHelFutura]

I'm not entirely clear on how the technical aspects of gaming works. But, I don't think anyone will be using the entire 8gb of ram with launch games. So I don't see how it would hinder them, but maybe I'm wrong.

[Tundra]

You're right.

RAM is storage. They upped the "storage" to future proof the console as I'm sure they plan to drag out next gen just as long as this one. Now as it stands, this "storage" in a quantity over 2GBs is largely unused for 1080p gaming unless you're stacking on AA and filters; and I mean a lot.

In other words, Sony secretly upping the RAM count probably won't be detrimental to development. Secretly upping the GPU to a stronger one would be an issue, so to say. The storage of RAM isn't nearly as important as the speed (bandwidth) of it for games. The speed of the PS4's RAM is plenty high as the memory is clocked pretty high, assuming it's 256-bit bus.

[RegorL]

Usually it is not a problem using more memory, the game will be able to cache more.

I suspect there will be launch games will have more than 8 GB of 'level' data.

http://dice.se/wp-content/u...

[TrevorPhillips]

Truthfully when they revealed it, I jumped like a crazy person with my hands in the air! I cannot wait to get my hands on this beast :)

[lovegames718]

Grren powerz is the biggest Sony groupie on this site. Moron that backs Microsoft even after shafting consumers with faulty hardware and having a bs one year warranty initially causing thousands of millions of ppl to rebuy a new xbox. Thats sad and your pathetic. All the while hoping that those rumors of anti used games and always online arent true but still defending.

Green powerz our a joke on this forum and will remain so. We all know your game and your not a good stealth troll at all. Go back to your washed up Xbox articles claiming that any press is good press even when its tarnishing xbox image lol hahahahahah

By the way both companies have inside ppl giving them info if you dont think that your a moron. Its good Sony kept tht hush hush with only a select few ppl knowing. Sony is doing things right and ppl are scared and fanboys are crying!!!!!

[GetSnooked]

And what makes you any different from him?

[MRMagoo123]

well for one lovegames is making crap up or trolling they are just telling it how it is, and you cant call lovegames a ps fanboy either considering they have 1 bubble and this being a "sony fanboy run site" apparently would mean they would have tonnes of bubbles right?

OT

I can bet sony kept it secret for the reason most ppl think so MS didnt know about it till they wanted them to know, if that doesnt make sense maybe you ppl are stupid.

[Mr_Writer85]

The PS3 was made in a way that developers had to put time and effort in order to get the best out of the platform. But 3rd parties weren't keen, and that's why games suffered on PS3.

Now this way they can 'hold back' the extra RAM until developers maximise the current development kits.

It also saves use from 'we've maxed out the PS4' comments 2 years into the life cycle. It could also mean Sony could 'bribe' developers. Eg: If you make game X exclusive we will give you the development kit with 8 GB ram. Also as they say first party developers will have full access so exclusives may have more too them.

This is all in my humble opinion mind.

[Ck1x]

But for arguments sake even ND came out and stated themselves that they maxed out the PS3's abilities with Uncharted 2 and that game came out in 2009. Which is saying a lot, seeing as how this is the one game that everything seems to be measured against on the console scene. So my guess is that whatever ND's 2nd generation PS4 game will probably be, that game will be the one to completely max out what the system is capable of and show it...

[Danja]

ND game engine was maxed out NOT THE PS3

Hence they changed the art direction for UC3 to further push what the system could do.

[Metfanant]

@Danja...

No...the PS3 was maxed out...

all games are using the full power of the PS3, if not there wouldn't be things like frame rate problems, or torn frames...

but you have to look at things this way when youre looking at game development..and this holds true for EVERY console...

the "power" of a console is like the space inside a bucket...

launch titles are like filling the bucket with boulders...its using all of the power, but its wasteful...there is lots of space between the boulders, and you can't fit that many boulders in the bucket...

2nd gen titles are like filling the bucket with rocks...still using the same amount of "power" but you;ve gotten better at making things efficient..what used to require a boulder, now only needs a rock...there is less space between the rocks, and you can fit more of them...

3rd gen titles are like filling the bucket with gravel...same power..even more efficient..and so on and so forth...

4th gen titles are like filling the bucket with sand...ditto...

now the only DIFFERENCE here is that Sony's dev kits were based on lesser hardware specs so launch titles will actually have been created for "lesser" power...but the concept still holds true on how Uncharted 2 DID "max out" the PS3, but games were still able to improve graphically...

[Ck1x]

The 8gb of RAM is great, but is that all we are going to hear about in the 8th generation is RAM? People don't seem to get it that even though the system utilizes a unified memory approach, a game is never going to have access to all 8gb of RAM. Depending on how much multimedia functions Sony builds into this box, will determine how much RAM will be allocated by the OS. From what I saw from the unveiling of the PS4, the console is going to always be preloaded with software to enable that instant On functionality. You can't do that without having software loaded into RAM and running in the background. This is how cellphones and computers achieve their multitasking as well, no different really! So unified doesn't mean all access, there will still be parameters set-up by the firmware of the specifications needed by the OS to run efficiently.

[gamelover5]

the ram for the os is boxed of already the 8 gigs of ram is for gaming only here is the link read half way down http://www.videogamer.com/n...

[EliteDave93]

Guys, I have a question and its kinda off-topic but im going to ask anyway.

I have 350$ put away for PS4 do you guys think thats enough or should i try and put away some more?

Appreciate all the answers.

[ILive]

Put more away, at least $500-550 is what I would recommend.

[puamdefokejpn]

some more,.. id go for a 100,.. if it is 450,.. That would be great,.. but who knows,. they could just go 399

[mac_sparrow]

Always try and put away more, if you don't need it you have cash in your pocket to keep or to buy more launch games and accessories with. Putting a bit aside each month is a great way to plan for a console launch.

[Why o why]

Agreed. OverSave. That can never be a negative. . . . unless you're not eating or paying your bills with that said money obviously. . . Hmmm

[Jaqen_Hghar]

a man recommends $500 for the system (probably lower but just to be safe and pleasantly surprised), $60 for whatever game you want with it, and some for warranty and taxes along with possibly an extra controller (a man will assume $60-70)

[4lc4pon3]

350 is not enough bro. expect between 450-500 IMO and this is just my opinion.

[gamingisnotacrime]

All i care for is that it is developer friendly and games quality will be better at launch than the PS3 launch.
The specs i leave it to the developers to play with, i will play their sweet games

[cyclindk]

I believe celebrations are in order...

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[clintos59]

greenpowerz

So 1st your saying everything about the 720 is just rumours until microsoft reveals the truth but now your screaming out, "I Told U They Copied The 720" hahaha. So now the 720 exists now lmao. Make up your mind already.

[MRMagoo123]

You cant call him up on that he played his xboxfanboyonly free flipflop card, it makes them immune to being called for spinning bs.

[ikokjones]

I know someone who works at a Third Party dev.
Sony had to up the amount of ram because the devs could do stuff on the Microsoft machine that required workarounds or sacrifice on the Sony box.

Changing hardware specs is the dumbest thing you can pull on a dev team especially if they have prototyped and tested the limitations of the system. If you're far into development, the budget will take a hit to pay for the rework

[OC_MurphysLaw]

I was wondering about this. Certainly 8GB is welcome by all for looking to the future...BUT... IF you as a 3rd party dev have been making your game for the past 12-18 months based on 4GB of RAM... then suddenly less than 12 months to launch you find out at a press conference you should have had an extra 4GB to work with... wouldn't using that extra 4GB now be quite difficult given all the coding up to now was done with 4GB in mind? Sure some things can be improved...but I would think 3rd party devs making launch games would feel a bit slighted by them holding back the actual RAM size?

[BrianC6234]

I doubt the early games use all of the RAM so it's no big deal at all.

[irepbtown]

No launch game will use the full 8GB ram. Someone mentioned it earlier, the most logical reason as to why Sony added 4GB more is to future proof it. Get's the PS4 lifecycle extra years.

I don't know much of the technical side, but I'm sure 8GB ram for any Launch game, PS4 exclusive or not is a No No. Expect that few years into the PS4's life.

[BrianC6234]

Sony probably knew they'd include 4GB of RAM so that's what they told developers but kept working on it to get it to 8GB. That's one part of a console they don't really decide on right away. Maybe they wanted to get a deal done of the price of the memory first.

[Pillsbury1]

Dealwithit.

[Saleem101]

This was done to prevent leaks, remember Kaz said why go first so your competitors can copy your specs... Microsoft don't have time to alter there system checkmate... #dealwithit

[DoesUs]

Sony actually got lucky. It was going to be 4gig of GDDR5, which by the way would still of performed better than 8 gig DDR3 which Durango has. They went for 8 as certain sized GDDR5 memory modules became available so they were able to increase. They didn't have to go back to the drawing board for a system redesign as it was cleverly engineered in the first place, incase these modules landed. For MS to change the "rumoured" specs, is not easy without a considerable delay. But most MS followers on here *cough* Greenpowerz/Power Of Green/Why Dis will no doubt disagree, expecting MS to have a machine that tops out ahead of the PS4....not happening. Dual GPU, dual APU....er, no.....just no.

[jay2]

Ok that was stupid.

[LAWSON72]

Just curious but they say it has 8GB of ram but i thought devs got got double the ram in there dev kits so does it have 16GB of ram

[ZoyosJD]

The final dev kits have 16 GB, but they usually cost upwards of $15-20k. Mostly for licensing and such mind you, not the actual hardware, but the developers still design around what they expect the consumer hardware to have available.

[imchuckbass]

If you think your games will suddenly go from 30fps to 60fps just because devs were told they're getting a bit more memory, you're in for disappointment

Memory isn't a substitute for an average gpu and shockingly awful cpu.

[Saleem101]

Please don't feed the troll..

[imchuckbass]

How am I trolling? What I said was completely factual. Loads of memory doesn't make up for a weak gpu and even weaker cpu. FACT

[LAWSON72]

Disagrees? Wow, ps4 fanboys stick to just playing games because you know crap about hardware. Last time I checked a 4gb 670 delivers no more fps then a 2gb version, but wait you fanboys dont know what a 670 is.

[vigilante_man]

Developers get 4GB and I would imagine the system & share & background downloading, etc. get the other 4GB. That is a lot of Ram for adding many future features.

A smart move. I heard they were toying with 4GB or 8GB. The MS rumours of at least 8GB must of swayed Sony's final decision. It seemed a key point that they made in their Feb reveal.

The early reveal and 8GB Ram were to cut MS off at the pass. And it seems to have rocked MS. And now we hear the PS4 may do another reveal at the end of April because MS have put theirs back to May.

Are MS struggling to find an equal footing? Sounds like a Soap Opera.

We will all know after E3. If this pushes both MS & Sony then it can only be good for gamers.

[DoesUs]

Its not a 4gig split, nowhere near.

[Metfanant]

i dont think the background OS features are going to require anything CLOSE to 4GB...not needed...

im not sure what the #'s are right now...but the PS3 OS'memory footprint was like 50MB back in 2009 (not sure why those numbers stick in my head, but i cant remember more recent numbers)...

i know the PS4 plans to introduce some pretty hefty features to the experience...but to think its going to require them to set aside a whole 4GB for the OS and not allow devs access to it for games i think is quite the stretch...

[gamelover5]

reading is fun http://www.videogamer.com/n...

[chukamachine]

I've seen articles all over the place, 2gb no 4gb no 8gb.

And that was for the 720.

Greenz, what makes me laugh is MS needed help from the development of cell.

I think 720 only really had 4gb in it, but they haven't said a word and have put in 8gb now. ddr3.

Regardless of specs, MS got nothing for me, just like the 360 had nothing either. to each his own.

[Turbotoby]

How come we haven't heard much about the GPU in the ps4? The RAM is great but the graphics card is equally important.

[hobohunterz]

We have they said its 1.84tflops or something

[Cryptcuzz]

I suspect more will be revealed for the GPU come E3, unless Sony does another reveal like on February. That would be sweet.

Sony said 1.84 Teraflops for the GPU, but I haven't heard anyone say, what if they up that number just like they did with the double amount in memory?

CPU has rumors of being upped to 2.0 GHz 8 core.

That leads to the GPU being untouched and key candidate for improvement.

[artdafoo]

Forget the devs, more importantly from M$, and apparantly it worked.

[MultiConsoleGamer]

It's because they added it at the last minute.

[MontyQ]

cliffy b 4 life

[AceOfCakez]

Sony: "This isn't even my final form!"

[inFAMOUS_KRATOS]

greenpower, im pro sony bro, but seriously you need help

never had i seen soo much denial......

on topic, so thas kinda good news / bad news? i dont know can devs go back and optimize extra ram for game that were in developement before?

very cool of sony.

[landog]

the ram is very great in the system, though, truthfully it is the least important

gpu is #1

cpu is #2

Ram is #3

as far as pushing graphics

and the gpu and cpu is ps4 are very good, just not amazing cutting edge...it does have amazing ram though, and should be sub-$500 with those specs

the cpu is by far the weak link

overall though, i think sony is making a good decision and it will produce excellent looking games!

i will be grabbing one at or near launch

[vigilante_man]

The 8gb GDDR5 Ram is amazing.

I agree the CPU would seem to be the slowest component. But this ain't a PC. I have a quad-core AMD and most software even today is not optimised for true multi-core PC performance.

But consoles are different. Developers have their hardware set in stone so it is much easier to get the most out of them. Just look how some game companies got amazing results this generation.

I am so excited to see how developers can optimise the PS4 and Xbox 720. Who knows. Their experiences may trickle back to PC software and web browsers, office suites and media applications could perform better on multi-core systems.

[NeoTribe]

They need to quit treating the ps4s ram like the Manhattan project. Its ram... Thats it... It shoulda never considered having less than 4. I hope xbox has 12 gigs just so i can see the articles that would pop up. Than again if xbox 720 did have that much ram, all of a sudden ram would be stupid.

[danthebios]

wont be surprised if it was later revealed 12 gb RAM