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

C

Canis lupus

Member
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.

Speaking with VideoGamer.com, Just Add Water's CEO Stewart Gilray - who is developing a mystery title for PlayStation 4 - revealed that third-parties were initially told that the console would feature only 4GB of RAM, and were left happily surprised when the system's lead architect Mark Cerny discussed the console's specs on stage.

"We were told [PS4] was 4GB originally," Gilray told us, "and we first knew it had 8GBs when Mark said at the event's stage, 'And it has 8GB of memory.' We'd had kits at that point for a good while."


Gilray suspects that only "a couple of really close first-parties" knew PS4 would feature 8GB prior to the console's announcement, "but I think most third-parties, if not all third-parties were like, 'Yeah, 4GB, awesome, can't wait.'

"It's a fantastic amount of memory," he continues, "especially DDR5 memory, because it's so fast you don't have to have everything there at once. You can swap it in and out instantly, effectively. But when they said 8GB it was like, 'Ooookay.'"

Leaked systems specs for PlayStation 4 - back when it was still going under its codename 'PlayStation Orbis' - also suggested that the console would only include 4GB of RAM.

An "added bonus" of PS4's memory is that Sony has "already ring-fenced the system memory away from the game memory," Gilray adds, "so there's none of this business that we had with PS3 of having to share memories.

"When you press the PlayStation button on a PS3 game, you get the basic XMB up [but] to do anything you have to quit the game, because of the memory for it. With PS4 we don't have that because the system memory is already ring-fenced for itself."

Gilray's comments suggest that third-party developers could have been developing PS4 games targeting lower system requirements than the console's actual capability - which could go some way to explaining the suspected 30fps cap on the Unreal Engine 3-powered Thief.
Click to expand...

videogamer
 
G

genjiZERO

Member
I want to know why you would keep a secret like that. Aren't you hindering development speed in the short term?
 
LiquidMetal14

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
This definitely echoes what I've heard from 2 respective devs myself.

But we also did have this discussion soon after the reveal so it's no secret that they bumped this up to please devs early this year. Very recent.

genjiZERO said:
I want to know why you would keep a secret like that. Aren't you hindering development speed in the short term?
Click to expand...

They upped it based on demand really. They weren't hindering on purpose. Devs talked, they listened (in that regard).
 
D

Dictator93

Member
Uninformed tech people making generaliyations and assumptions.

30fps thief probably in all likely circumstances has nothing to do with only having originally 4GB to work with.
 
P

PhillipCostigan

Member
Wait, unless I've read something wrong somewhere, isn't the PS4 the opposite of what he's talking about?

The PS3 didn't have shared memory, it had a split memory pool which was the problem. The 360 had the 512 MB of shared memory.

The PS4 has 8GB of unified, shared memory, yeah?
 
M

Metalmurphy

Member
So, where is that GAFer that kept replying "You keep on believing that" when people mentioned this?

lol

THE:MILKMAN said:
2 reasons:

1, Waiting for 4Gb chips to become viable
2, Not wanting to promise something they couldn't deliver. *stares at PS3*
Click to expand...

Also to avoid leaks so that Microsoft couldn't easily adapt to the announcement.
 
D

Diablo Rosso

Member
genjiZERO said:
I want to know why you would keep a secret like that. Aren't you hindering development speed in the short term?
Click to expand...
So Microsoft wouldn't find out is the likely reason. Sony were probably thinking that it would be too late for them to combat it if they found out that late.
 
V

vocab

Member
Yo we making a game thats capable of 160 terraflops, and then they reveal that we have more flops to flop, and man I don't even know how we can cope with that many flops.
 
A

ascii42

Member
PhillipCostigan said:
Wait, unless I've read something wrong somewhere, isn't the PS4 the opposite of what he's talking about?

The PS3 didn't have shared memory, it had a split memory pool which was the problem. The 360 had the 512 MB of shared memory.

The PS4 has 8GB of unified, shared memory, yeah?
Click to expand...

I believe he's referring to RAM available to games vs the OS, not system memory vs. graphics memory.
 
X

X05

Upside, inside out he's livin la vida loca, He'll push and pull you down, livin la vida loca
"already ring-fenced the system memory away from the game memory,"
Click to expand...
I wonder, does that mean the 8GB are for games only?
 
P

phosphor112

Banned
An "added bonus" of PS4's memory is that Sony has "already ring-fenced the system memory away from the game memory," Gilray adds, "so there's none of this business that we had with PS3 of having to share memories.
Click to expand...

Wait wait wait... whut?

EDIT: OOOOH OK. Ignore me.
 
M

monome

Member
genjiZERO said:
I want to know why you would keep a secret like that. Aren't you hindering development speed in the short term?
Click to expand...

Why would Sony refrain from punching MS in the guts?
they know devs spill the beans whenever they can, and you can bet industry insiders share together better infos and more rapidly than anything that leaks on the net, even if it means competiors learn stuff. it's okay as long as it's mutual.
 
I

Imperial Hot

Banned
You keep it secret in hopes that Microsoft doesn't find out, resulting in a massive difference in technical specs. Even if under a NDA, tech specs from the opposing console makers will always find their way into "enemy" hands.
 
K

Kallor

Member
Remember when 8GB of anything was impossible and we would be lucky to get 2GB GDDR5? those were the days.
 
V

valkillmore

Member
I know nothing about the tech side, all I know is what I see on the screen, and from what I've seen I'm liking it.

Question though - the suggestion that the reason Thief was capped at 30 FPS is due to the believe the system would have 4GB as opposed to 8GB; is this true? Would this be a legitimate reason for the cap?
 
J

Jadedx

Banned
Imperial Hot said:
You keep it secret in hopes that Microsoft doesn't find out, resulting in a massive difference in technical specs. Even if under a NDA, tech specs from the opposing console makers will always find their way into "enemy" hands.
Click to expand...

This is what I don't get, if Sony can do this, why can't MS do the same thing?
 
M

Metalmurphy

Member
valkillmore said:
I know nothing about the tech side, all I know is what I see on the screen, and from what I've seen I'm liking it.

Question though - the suggestion that the reason Thief was capped at 30 FPS is due to the believe the system would have 4GB as opposed to 8GB; is this true? Would this be a legitimate reason for the cap?
Click to expand...

Not really, no.
 
B

BlazingDarkness

Member
I think 8GB was a last minute thing. Which is why I don't put much weight in the XBOX specs, if Sony put it to third parties that PS4 would have 4GB and then changed it, what's to stop MS from doing the same thing? It's not too late.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
valkillmore said:
I know nothing about the tech side, all I know is what I see on the screen, and from what I've seen I'm liking it.

Question though - the suggestion that the reason Thief was capped at 30 FPS is due to the believe the system would have 4GB as opposed to 8GB; is this true? Would this be a legitimate reason for the cap?
Click to expand...

The only time memory would limit framerate was if you were over memory budget and thus had trashing when the system had to poll a large amount from the hard drive.

However, this would only cause framerate drops, like tanking from 30 to 20 FPS for a few moments. It wouldn't cause the framerate to constantly be lower.
 
LiquidMetal14

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
valkillmore said:
I know nothing about the tech side, all I know is what I see on the screen, and from what I've seen I'm liking it.

Question though - the suggestion that the reason Thief was capped at 30 FPS is due to the believe the system would have 4GB as opposed to 8GB; is this true? Would this be a legitimate reason for the cap?
Click to expand...
Choices in development contribute more to 30fps than a HW limitation so worry not :)

MuseManMike said:
Double dat framerate.
Click to expand...

I know this is a joke but I would stop saying it as some will inevitably start believing that the more memory would equal better fps. Far from it.
 
P

phosphor112

Banned
Jadedx said:
This is what I don't get, if Sony can do this, why can't MS do the same thing?
Click to expand...

Because MS are already using 4Gbit memory chips? Any other change would be TOO substantial.

Want to look at the before and after for Sony's upgrade?

FCQwrbx.png


Want to know what MS's "upgrade" or change in anything would be? Substantially more.
 
M

Midou

Member
I really don't expect any games already in development were going to exactly push the 4GB to its limits anyways..
 
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