Today's big story is the rumor that Playstation 4 is reserving 2.5 GBs of its RAM pool for the operating system and multi-tasking features, leaving 5.5 GB of RAM for game functionality. The internet, of course, is a-frenzy with speculation and fear and naysaying and all sorts of pleasantness.
Now, the source of the rumor is a Mr. Leadbetter of Digital Foundry, the same person who claimed the XBox One RAM now has a bandwidth of 196 GB per second due to some magical "holes" discovered in the RAM by the XBox hardware team. Dubious at best, but until we get confirmation from other sources, let's just play along and assume it is true. Let's assume that PS4 uses 2 and a half Gigs of RAM for non-gaming features.
A downgrade? Sure, if you want to look at it that way. The rumors were that PS4 would only use 1 GB of RAM for its OS, rumors that were once considered common-sense during the time when everyone - including developers - assumed the PS4 would have only 4 Gigs of memory in total. However, when Sony announced the PS4 back in February and the 8 GB pool of unified RAM, they also announced a slew of new features. Native Remote Play (something I'm personally very excited about), Multitasking, background recording, cross-game chat, integrated menus and profiles, instant switching, and instantly resuming your game where you last left off when you turn your system back on. These new features - evidently - came at an increased cost of the PS4's hardware resources, but let's also consider the benefit.
I'll use the Wii as an example (and later I'll throw in the 3DS and the Vita for good measure). Keep in mind this is all IMO. If you're angry about Sony "robbing" you of your extra GBs of RAM, that's between you and your god.
Anyway, the Wii. I freakin' love the Wii, always have. I've had it since Day One, believe it or not. Back when the Wii was being developed, Iwata was quoted (in an Iwata Asks, I believe) for saying one design goal they had with the Wii was that it would boot up very fast. Nintendo wanted to reduce the time it took from turning your system on to playing the game, a time frame that has steadily increased since the days of cartridges. And that's something I love about the Wii: it boots up pretty dang fast and you can go from "Power Off" into your game significantly faster than you can on 360 or PS3.
3DS and Vita take this notion a step further. One thing I love about handhelds is that (when done correctly, I suppose) they are designed to respect your time. Handheld titles need to boot fast. They need to get you into the action quickly. Heck, even the "logo splash" screens when you boot up a game are typically abbreviated or absent in handheld games. That's part of why I love handheld gaming. Vita especially is incredibly swift when you want to switch out of a game, boot the browser, consult a GameFAQ, check your messages, quickly reply to a few messages on PSN, and then jump back into your game, and it does that with (iirc) 128 MB of RAM. Imagine what is possible with several Gigs of RAM.
I come from an era when gaming was instantaneous. Some people blame modern "COD kiddies" for having short attention spans, but gaming was even faster back in the day. Done with Ducktales? Pop the cartridge, slap in Mega Man 2, and you're playing a different game in less than 5 seconds. Bored with Metal Slug or Street Fighter 2 or Pac Man? Take your jingling pocket of quarters to a different arcade cabinet and play something else. The near-instant switching of gaming (and of handhelds) is something I have always craved and something that has gradually vanished. It's not about ADD (ironically, I was clinically diagnosed with ADD as a child). It's not about a short attention span. It's about entertainment. I am selfish about my entertainment, and if I'm going to exhibit patience for a game, it better be for the game itself, not the stupid logo splashes and forced updates and calibrations.
And that's exactly what the increase in RAM for non-gaming features will do. It will allow for that near-instant gaming. It will also allow for Remote Play, something that Sony has always promised but never truly delivered on. Every single PS4 game will be Remote Play compatible (that's a requirement from Sony) on the PS Vita. Sony has said that Remote Play "just works" and does not require any extra programming effort from developers. You think it "just works" without using system resources? C'mon. It will allow for background patching and "play while you install" and multitasking and all that fun stuff that PC gamers take for granted. And remember that there are some other features (like being able to "help" your friend play a game over the internet by taking over their game) are probably going to be pretty dang resource-intensive.
Sony was being praised for devoting 7 GB of RAM to gaming. I praised them, too, even though it was only based on rumors. It does sting a little if these new rumors are true as it comes across as a "downgrade", even though Sony never really announced their OS footprint. If you really, REALLY need that feeling of "I have the superior system nyah nyah" well the PS4 is still superior in many ways, RAM included. I suppose if you need an analogy: the comparison between Xbox One and PS4 was like comparing a Toyota Camry (X1) with a Bugatti Veyron (PS4). Now that the RAM allotment for gaming has been "downgraded", the Toyota Camry is competing with a Porche 911.
But regardless, I have given Microsoft a hard time for their 3 GB operating footprint. While it remains to be seen how PS4 will use use its 2.5 GBs, I think it is only fair that I eat some crow with a dash of salt. Omm nomm and all that. I have no excuse for giving Microsoft crap now that Sony is doing it too. Part of my frustration is that XBox One was/is focusing a great deal on TV switching and SmartGlass and camera control and other non-gaming features and when I saw what Sony was doing with - supposedly - only 1 GB of RAM I thought "why the heck is Microsoft devoting so much RAM to non-gaming features?!?" Apparently, as consoles become more and more like PCs, so too does their usage of resources. PCs also have a lot of memory set aside for non-gaming functions.
Moving on, what interests me about this pool is that we're going to see faster multitasking, faster boot up, and whatnot. Sure, it will also benefit non-gaming features but it does not mean games are going to be "crippled". We already have third-party devs saying the PS4 version of their game will be the best by a significant margin. The Witcher 3 devs said the PS4 version would be "neck and neck" with what the game would look like on a maxed-out PC. Consider, too, that 5.5 GBs of RAM is 11 times more RAM than what the PS3 had. I don't know about you, but I was mightily impressed by what Naughty Dog was able to do with that measly bit of RAM in The Last of Us, weren't you?
Lastly, something we should all keep in mind: even if the rumored RAM allotment "downgrade" is true, none of this is permanent. Hey, you XBox One fans reading this? That goes for you too. The footprint of these operating systems shrinks over time. PS3 went from devoting over 130 MB (out of a split 512) of RAM to the XMB, chat, in-game menus, etc when it first launched down to using only 50 MB for the same essential functions. Wii-U currently uses 1 GB out of 2 GB of its RAM for the operating system, streaming to the tablet, Miiverse, etc, but Nintendo aims to cut that footprint in half (I think they've already made the OS RAM usage smaller, in fact, but don't quote me on that). The point is that both the PS4 and the Xbox One seem to be devoting a HUGE amount of resources to these features, but that can change over time. There's already rumors floating around from another industry insider that out of the 2.5 Gigs of RAM reserved on the PS4, 1 GB of it is set aside "just in case" and may later be opened up for gaming usage once Sony has some time to verify the OS pleases the fans and does what it should.
The endgame isn't the day the consoles launch. That's just Day One. As more information comes out (it hasn't come out for the Xbox One, but I'm going to assume the situation is similar) it appears that these RAM allocations aren't because "LOL bloated PS4/Xbox One operating system uses up so much RAM!". These RAM allocations are being set aside (this is just my educated guess) to help futureproof the console. The PS3 was crippled by a tiny RAM allocation and that's why a lot of features (like cross game chat) were never implemented or at best they were implemented poorly. Sony doesn't want Steam or Xbox One or Wii-U to come out with some must-have feature and then suddenly the PS4 can't do it because all the RAM is used up. It sounds silly, but Sony wants wiggle room to copy the competition if need be, and I assume that Microsoft and Nintendo also made similar allowances for themselves when setting that RAM allotment footprint.
And I hate to call some of those things "non gaming features", because they ARE gaming features (some of them at least). Instant switching on Xbox One and PS4 is a gaming convenience. Resuming your game from where you left off is a gaming convenience. Background installations, patching, and downloading are all gaming conveniences.
At the end of the day, other than the rabid wolves who are hungry to eat up any "negative" news for the PS4, I think the gaming community should be cautiously optimistic to see what Sony (and Microsoft; don't forget their own huge OS footprint) is going to do with all this RAM capacity.
TechRaptor writes, "We take a look at the upcoming Riven remake - a fully retooled 3D adventure aiming to satisfy those who want to play the game for the first time all over again."
"The Courcelles-based (Belgium) indie games developer Badass Mongoose, are today very happy and proud to announce that their atmospheric adventure game "Helix: Descent N Ascent", is coming to PC and the Nintendo Switch in 2025." - Jonas Ek, TGG.
"The Gliwice-based (Poland) indie games developer The Farm 51 are today very happy and excited to announce that they have just released "Chernobylite: Complete Edition" for PC via Steam." - Jonas Ek, TGG.
The only reason why I have a hard time believing it is there were Devs saying they wanted more RAM so Sony uped the amount just before the reveal at E3 making it 8GB RAM.
Now we know this was only a recent change. The OS and UI doesn't just materialise over night (talking about months to years of development and tweaking). So unless the PS4 was going to launch with roughly 1GB usable RAM for games (I highly doubt), before Devs advised them otherwise, what has happened in the last few months that has made the OS take up more RAM. I doubt we are going to see new social features as they, again, take time to develop. What is it? Am I wrong? Are we getting major increased functionality at E3?
We must remember that unnamed sources have a habit of coming from here: http://hhnhstrust.files.wor...
(remember the One and PS4 rumours before their reveal). The best thing to do is take this with a pinch of salt and wait for Sony to confirm or deny it.
I don't know why anyone would be upset because 5gb is enough for developers to program with
"At the end of the day, other than the rabid wolves who are hungry to eat up any "negative" news for the PS4, I think the gaming community should be cautiously optimistic to see what Sony (and Microsoft; don't forget their own huge OS footprint) is going to do with all this RAM capacity."
Man, ain't that the truth.
Admittedly, I hadn't even heard about this until I logged in just now. It seems farfetched, given that this is pretty much an unconfirmed rumor. But it certainly wouldn't be the first time people have taken rumors as facts.
Even if more of the RAM is siphoned for other purposes, the PS4 is still going to be one speed demon of a console and the Xbox One will most likely share in those speedy and instantaneous features. From where I stand, there's no reason to fret either way this rumor goes.
Wow, really, that news hurt you so much that you had to blog?? Do you actually play games on these consoles? Is it really worth getting uptight about it? C'mon man, all seriousness, nearly everything in life is more important than this. I know xbox is inferior to PS4, but entertainment will still be the same......
Camry v porsche, not always highway driving.....
Still 5.5 GB of VRAM vs 3GB VRAM+8/16GB RAM on a gaming PC is quite a difference.