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FRIDAYTON MK II: 5.5 million bears and salmon create unholy allliance to sack SONY HQ

Corto

Member
Just for context, PS3 had 120 MB reserved for the OS at the start of its lifecycle from a total of 512 MB (256+256) and it's currently (as far as my googling goes) at 50 MB. Memory usage optimization it's a technical reality (for both consoles) not a fanboyism.
 

MercuryLS

Banned
I really don't see this being true a year from now. I just can't imagine how Sony could need more than a couple gigs for the OS.

It's not the OS that will take up most of the space, it will be mutitasking and running background apps. Sony doesn't want to be in the same position as this gen where they were limited in adding functionality due to the low footprint reserved for the OS. MS is pushing media functions hard on Xbox One using 3gb of ram to enable that, Sony is worried that sticking with 1gb would leave them in a poor position going forward. It's better for them to reserve 2.5-3.5gb now and open up some of that to devs later than to reserve 1gb now and be in a tough position if they want to add more features.

I'm not exactly happy with the news, but I understand. I just hope Sony hires some good software guys to make the OS more streamlined as time goes on. This is what I worry about because Sony sucks at OS development. Prove me wrong Cerny.
 

DietRob

i've been begging for over 5 years.

Google translate is so funny sometimes:
Cj0mZGi.png
 

Evolved1

make sure the pudding isn't too soggy but that just ruins everything
Yes, we know it's not a mind blowing concept, but the question is what warrants the scale of the increase? These systems aren't going to be doing any multitasking that's any more taxing than what tablets/smartphones do with around 1 GB these days and since Sony was already planning some degree of multitasking with games at the original 512 MB allotment, what does the extra 3 GB allegedly allotted now bring?

Don't just say "MOAR STUFF" - what could they specifically need this much memory for?

I'll tell you what I'd do, man.... two gamez at the same time.
 

KOHIPEET

Member
I call this BS. PS4 used to have 4 GBs of ram. Are the seriously suggesting that Sony spent time and money ob developing an OS that would take more than half of the available RAM? Leaving only 1.5 available for games. Also they've said that putting in that additional 4 gigs of ram was a result of developer request, not because the OS demanded too much.
I sense EG was low on visitors and they needed something to attract readers.

Be it either way, they've succeeded for sure.
 

rbanke

Member
some of these reactions..

For both consoles, isn't the total amount of ram there to keep these machines from being dinosaurs in 2-3 years and not what developers need right now? We've had several accounts of developers claiming they don't even know what to do (yet) with 'so much' ram. Both consoles reserving a large chunk of ram is fine. Take what you might need for the future and give it back as those requirements become clear because you can't claim more later. There is also OS optimizations that will be done over the years to yield back some of that I'd assume.

I really don't see the problem with either consoles doing this.
 

kevm3

Member
Of course the system can already multitask with 512mb. If you increase to 3.5 it means you can be running more things that are individually moire memory intensive. It means they can run things that take up more memory simultaneously. This isn't some sort of mind blowing concept that requires years of careful planning. I think you may be overestimating the impact of Kinect in the XBO, but that ultimately matters little. The PS4 is capable of being a media box with the right software just like the XBO is. If Sony decided they wanted to match the XBO in its ability to do things other than play games, they would need to allocate similar quantities of memory to non-game functions.

Again I don't know if they did, but in this game of counterfactuals it's not hard to rationalize this information.

I find it very hard to rationalize the information. I fail to see why Sony would add so much RAM, and a relatively expensive type at that to simply add 'snappier' multi-tasking or multi-tasking with numerous apps at the last minute, especially when Cerny said he added it because of the request of a game developer. From a decision making standpoint, it doesn't make sense to add so much GDDR5 ram due to 'listening to developers', only to reserve the vast majority of that for the OS and to give developers perhaps an extra gig to play with.

Sony is betting on the PS4 being a 'games-first' machine this time around and GDDR5 RAM is a significant expense. I doubt Sony would be stupid to incur all of that extra cost for multi-tasking or some OS feature they cooked up over the period of a few months. The average gamer simply doesn't care about that, so the cost to benefit ratio wouldn't be there. The One was designed from the get-go to be a multi-feature box. Sony announced the ram upgrade PRIOR to all of the information being released on the One, so I don't see how they could have doubled the RAM in reaction to obtain OS feature parity with the One.

The video sharing was built into the system before the addition of the extra 4GB of ram, so that being the cause of this speculated OS RAM bloat is out of the question. There is nothing you could possibly add to the system over the period of months that would require the OS to reserve possibly 7 times more RAM. For one, Sony has never been one to build these overly elaborate OS's. Doubling the RAM for OS features you don't even have planned doesn't seem like reasonable decision making to me.

The article says 4.5 gigs of RAM is available for use and that an additional GB 'may' be reclaimed in the form of flex RAM. How is that a 'maybe' when Jonathan Blow already said he was using 5 GB for his game? That completely throws that figure on its head. Also, with the tone Jonathan Blow was using, aka he is 'already using 5 GB for his game' gives me the impression that he has a lot more RAM to still play with. If he was limited to 4.5 GB and a possible extra 1 of flex RAM, he'd be complaining about the PS4 being RAM constrained and being forced to tap into this flex RAM. This issue could easily be resolved by asking Jonathan Blow if he had to use .5 of this flex RAM for his game.
 

op_ivy

Fallen Xbot (cannot continue gaining levels in this class)
so, the ps4 is a jack of all trades media box like the xbox one huh? interesting.
 

Markadias

Banned
It's not the OS that will take up most of the space, it will be mutitasking and running background apps. Sony doesn't want to be in the same position as this gen where they were limited in adding functionality due to the low footprint reserved for the OS. MS is pushing media functions hard on Xbox One using 3gb or ram to enable that, Sony is worried that sticking with 1gb would leave them in a poor position going forward. It's better for them to reserve 2.5-3.5gb now and open up some of that to devs later than to reserve 1gb now and be in a tough position if they want to add more features.
I'm not exactly happy with the news, but I understand. I just hope Sony hires some good software guys to make the OS more streamlined as time goes on. This is what I worry about because Sony sucks at OS development. Prove me wrong Cerny.

All of this makes perfect sense.
 
Just for context, PS3 had 120 MB reserved for the OS at the start of its lifecycle from a total of 512 MB (256+256) and it's currently (as far as my googling goes) at 50 MB. Memory usage optimization it's a technical reality (for both consoles) not a fanboyism.

50 MB is still greater than the 360's 30ish MB. Don't forget that the PS3's OS is sluggish compared to the fluidity of the 360's OS, leading me to believe Microsoft has smarter engineers.
 

Auto_aim1

MeisaMcCaffrey
Yeah... How much did they waste on CELL again? Wasn't it in the range of $3-6 billion? All that for something that only games like GoW 3, Uncharted 2, 3 and The Last of Us took advantage of. In the end, they only looked marginally better than the graphical fidelity of what the 360's best produced.
You just proved my point. CE shouldn't be wasting time inventing new technology. That's not their speciality and not what they're for (Unless you're Samsung).
First you said CEs repackage stuff and now you're saying they shouldn't do it. What exactly is your point? If you're saying Samsung is a better company than Sony and Apple, I'm not interested in that.

FYI: They spent $400 million on Cell.
 
so, the ps4 is a jack of all trades media box like the xbox one huh? interesting.

The PS3 was a jack of all trades media box, with a muuuuuuuch smaller footprint lol. I don't see how any of this adds up. Why wouldn't you just dedicate 4 gigs of DDR3 to the OS? Why would you want to throw DDR5 at it, it can't use it!
 

LegoArmo

Member
I don't understand how their OS could use that much RAM. Must be something else to this, maybe something similar to the extra SPEs on the Cell?
 

fixuis

Member
Okay firstly this is not confirmed by sony themselves so until that happens this is just a rumour based on slides from kz:sf? And secondly given how Sony reduced ps3 os footprint from 120 down to only 50mb it's only a matter of time before more ram opens up and we get to a point where devs can use 7 or more gigs of ram..still not a big deal.
 
If this is true. I am cancelling my pre-order.

Not joking.

the 8gb of gddr5 was the killer app. Now they threw it out for 15 min. of fucking constant youtube recordings.
 

Gestault

Member
Smokey already did this. You're not only full of it, but already lttp.

Actually Juancho, if you look at the reactions in the thread, this is exactly what we're now seeing. As much as I dislike bundling an entire community up under one characterization, right in this thread you can see what he described happening pretty clearly. You in particular seem really defensive about that characterization. If this scenario plays out, it isn't even awful news. Just sit back and watch the fireworks with the rest of us. Things'll clear up before too long.
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
Has it been confirmed that games can only use six of the eight CPU cores or is Eurogamer just speculating?!

I think that's more plausible but I don't think it's been confirmed.

so, the ps4 is a jack of all trades media box like the xbox one huh? interesting.

There has been a big distinction between how Sony has handled PS4 and how MSFT has handled Xbone. I shouldn't have to explain that.

Of course these consoles can multitask. Look at what Sony has done with Vita and much less powerful spec than PS4.
 

MMaRsu

Banned
so, the ps4 is a jack of all trades media box like the xbox one huh? interesting.

Wtf it always was? Comments like these make me really shake my head.

50 MB is still greater than the 360's 30ish MB. Don't forget that the PS3's OS is sluggish compared to the fluidity of the 360's OS, leading me to believe Microsoft has smarter engineers.


AHAHAHAHAHA another funny ass comment. 360's horrible slow ass OS is a nightmare to work with. Loading up your games takes waaaaaaaaaaay too long.

XMB is a fast, sleek and understandable OS. Metro UI is a horrible UI where shit is hard to find.
 
I don't know about fanboystic meltdowns but if 3.5 GBs reserved for OS turn out to be true it will affect the decisions of a number of people (and have them possibly moving to PC gaming). Noone wants an AppStation.

To be fair, if you want a device that can't do anything but play games, the PC is literally the worse option out there.
 
I think I will wait for things to develop for the next year before I decide which console to buy. Those 7GB for games where too good to be true.

It still has GDDR5 memory and a better GPU than its competition, but now they're more close than ever before.

So, who's starting the #3GBForOSIsTooMuch campaign on twitter this time?
 
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