Latest Rumour Suggests PS4 Will Have Half The RAM Of Xbox 720

[mankind]

But it'll be faster. It's like the Megadrive/SNES days all over again.

Over the last couple of days there’s been a smattering of rumour posts regarding the two next generation consoles. In particular, the amount (and type) of RAM that the platform holders are making available – to games and the respective operation systems – in their new hardware, expected this year.
And whilst all this sounds like the playground discussion of the 16-bit era (“My Mega Drive Has Got BLAST PROCESSING”) there’s enough links between the otherwise disparate rumours that suggest that there might be something in this.
So, which one’s the Mega Drive and which is the SNES?
Well, one thread has tied the numbers together, and it looks like Sony are aiming at 4 GB next generation, and Microsoft a much meatier 8 GB. For reference, the PS3 has 512 MB just now.
The trick is that the PS4 (or whatever it’ll end up being called) will be using super fast GDDR5 memory, whilst the Xbox 720 will be using DDR3/4 chips. Is there then a balance between the two sets of specs? An even ground? Possibly.
The PS4′s RAM bandwidth is rumoured to be 192 GB/s, whilst the 720′s 64 GB/s. Remember, a lot of this is just speculation, but it does point to a split down the middle that could ultimately prove tricky for developers. 8 GB will be much better for open worlds, but the faster RAM better for effects in more constrained environments.
What you have to remember is that the operation systems still need to be loaded into memory along with the games, on PS3 that’s the XMB. It’s unlikely that the PS4 will need the entire OS (which could take up to a GB) but rather a smaller subset that expands when the game is paused. Indeed, whilst it’s not directly related, remember this?
And if Sony are aiming at 4K, they’ll need all the memory they can get.

http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2013/01/...m-of-xbox-720/

[LfCpS3]

Been hearing a lot about this.

Seems like many are saying it will be amazing for the first 2 years but it may cap out in like 4 to 5 years ( not good if sony plan a 10 year cycle)

Almost every game on the PC with max settings use like 2 GB of ram( most less than 1.5 GB). A few use a lot more but these are super high with fxaa/msaa, nothing to expect on the consoles

[claud3]

They are really squeezing out every fake detail possible, for us to fall for them

I mean it's got so so desperate, that they are downgrading the power of a Ps4... Next thing will be the Same said about the Xbox720
It will have less power than the Ps4... Were does it end all this bullshit

[MonkeyClaw]

They just need to bite the bullet and put 8GB of GDDR5 in there and make us all happy! Seriously, within a couple years that ram will be much cheaper and would be much better for the long run! Or worse case put 4GB GDDR5 and another 4GB of DDR3/4, DDR3 is insanely cheap! I can find a 4GB stick of DDR3 ram on Newegg for $20, and that is factoring in profit for both the memory manufacturer and Newegg, so I am sure if Sony bought those direct in mass quantities it wouldn't cost them very much, and I would gladly pony up a few more bucks to have it in there along with the GDDR5!

[LfCpS3]

They just need to bite the bullet and put 8GB of GDDR5 in there and make us all happy! Seriously, within a couple years that ram will be much cheaper and would be much better for the long run! Or worse case put 4GB GDDR5 and another 4GB of DDR3/4, DDR3 is insanely cheap! I can find a 4GB stick of DDR3 ram on Newegg for $20, and that is factoring in profit for both the memory manufacturer and Newegg, so I am sure if Sony bought those direct in mass quantities it wouldn't cost them very much, and I would gladly pony up a few more bucks to have it in there along with the GDDR5!

I keep hearing that the console style RAM is more expensive.

[claud3]

Or maybe we wait and see the real spec's that Sony release for the PS4

[Lethal_NFS]

I would rather have more RAM that is slower, instead of less RAM that is faster. Wouldn't this only hurt the console later on in the years when it could probably really use that extra RAM?

That is only if this were to be true too.

[MonkeyClaw]

I keep hearing that the console style RAM is more expensive.

Why would it be more expensive?! One gets soldered onto a ram module, the other gets soldered onto a motherboard, but in the end it is the same chip! If it did cost more, it would probably be pennies difference between the two. I agreed with claud3 though, we all just need to sit tight and play the waiting game to hear from Sony & Microsoft!

[itachi73378]

Bandwidth is more important than size when it comes to how a system ages afaik. MS is going with slow RAM and they need it for their kinect and their OS ad extravaganza. PS4 is supposed to have 4gb GDDR5 which is much faster and expensive. I think sony is doing the right thing

[J3ff3]

They are really squeezing out every fake detail possible, for us to fall for them

I mean it's got so so desperate, that they are downgrading the power of a Ps4... Next thing will be the Same said about the Xbox720
It will have less power than the Ps4... Were does it end all this bullshit

that is not a downgrade, 192GB/s is very impressive

[Centurion]

Bandwidth is more important that size when it comes to how a system ages afaik. MS is going with slow RAM and they need it for their kinect and their OS ad extravaganza. PS4 is supposed to have 4gb GDDR5 which is much faster and expensive. I think sony is doing the right thing

Cannot equate the two like that. High bandwidth does not make up for low capacity.

[itachi73378]

Cannot equate the two like that. High bandwidth does not make up for low capacity.

Yeah but you can always reduce memory usage through optimization but you can't magically increase bandwidth

To be fair, large pools of memory comes with its own set of advantages, namely larger render distances so open world games may perform better, but then again those games use the same streaming tech as linear games so bandwidth wins there too

[brebaz]

They just took what people say on the forums and just made an article about it.

Rumors are fake until proven otherwise.

[Nitey]

They just took what people say on the forums and just made an article about it.

Rumors are fake until proven otherwise.

Pretty much

But it is nice to speculate about things here and there. I hope the rumours that there will be a march or pre-e3 reveal for next gen consoles is true

[coolguy]

DDR5 Memory is much faster then DDR3 so it will even out. 4 gigs is plenty of ram

[itachi73378]

DDR5 Memory is much faster then DDR3 so it will even out. 4 gigs is plenty of ram

Yeah, in fact all PC games running at max settings at 1080p rarely use more than 1gb of Vram (unless using high MSAA which is horrible), the unoptimzed agni demo took only 1.8gb so I think 4GB is plenty

[claud3]

that is not a downgrade, 192GB/s is very impressive

i am not saying that personal.. It's the fact that someone has stated that as fact

and i am saying, someone will come out and state for a fact, that the Xbox720 will be less powerful than the PS4

It's a sad state of affairs when one says it first and the other says the same thing, to make their party believe in it

[TGO]

Cannot equate the two like that. High bandwidth does not make up for low capacity.

Wii U 2 gb of ram
But I don't believe the specs, PS4 seems to have half the ram and half the cores but twice the speed, why would Sony do that?
Seems Kinda ironic really
Sent via Codec

[J3ff3]

Wii U 2 gb of ram
But I don't believe the specs, PS4 seems to have half the ram and half the cores but twice the speed, why would Sony do that?
Seems Kinda ironic really
Sent via Codec

why wouldn't they? its just a different way of achieving a similar outcome.

on a similar note (from rumours so far), why would MS go with an apparently weaker gpu? (in terms of TFs). its likely because the number of cores/flops/gigs of ram really has nothing to do with actual performance. we won't know their real capabilities, relative or otherwise, until NDAs are lifted. even when we know the full specs it won't tell us which is better.

[Centurion]

Yeah but you can always reduce memory usage through optimization but you can't magically increase bandwidth

To be fair, large pools of memory comes with its own set of advantages, namely larger render distances so open world games may perform better, but then again those games use the same streaming tech as linear games so bandwidth wins there too

You can only optimize for size so much. If your data structure requires X amount of memory then having more memory bandwidth isn't going to change that.

Not sure what you mean by streaming tech and linear games. If you're referring to streaming data off disk then more memory is useful there because you can pre-load more assets. It's not so much dependent on memory bandwidth because the disk is so much slower than RAM anyway.

Memory bandwidth comes into play when processing data. It's how fast you can get things from memory to the processor and back (be it a CPU or GPU etc). But you also need enough memory to store what you're processing.

Increasing memory bandwidth does not remove the need for memory.

[D3seeker]

Ooo Ok. So you wanna real scoop. The PS4 will actually be using 6BG of XDR 2 Ram, Be powered by a special SOC derived from an i7 4670 and NVIDIA GTX 660 with an extra standalone GTX670 thrown in for good measure.

I fully expect this to be taken and tossed across the interwebs just so I can singlehandedly throw a wrench into every ones day who would like to just sit back and wait for Sony to spill the beans

[itachi73378]

You can only optimize for size so much. If your data structure requires X amount of memory then having more memory bandwidth isn't going to change that.

Not sure what you mean by streaming tech and linear games. If you're referring to streaming data off disk then more memory is useful there because you can pre-load more assets. It's not so much dependent on memory bandwidth because the disk is so much slower than RAM anyway.

Memory bandwidth comes into play when processing data. It's how fast you can get things from memory to the processor and back (be it a CPU or GPU etc). But you also need enough memory to store what you're processing.

Increasing memory bandwidth does not remove the need for memory.

I agree since all of this is a balancing act but increasing memory amount won't get rid of bandwidth requirements. High bandwidth allows for more objects onscreen per frame, higher res assets and elimination of pop in for example (not that pop in will be a problem because of tesselation anyway)

Keep in mind that out of that 8gb for xbox we don't really know how much are games using. It'll just come down to how flexible the next gen engines are.

[claud3]

Does it matter, we do not have solid facts to back this rumor up

The solid facts to actually have a conversation about this. This is a rumor there for false in what it is actually promoting and that is lies

There will be an 720 rumor the same that will or already out, saying that it is less powerful than the PS4

So what makes this rumor so special

[itachi73378]

Because its the same RAM amount that ALL rumours have reported. When all rumours share something common, it does deserve a bit of attention.

[daLa]

I'm just going to buy whichever console is better.