Do you think RAM technologies for CPU and GPU will ever converge or at least be on the same chip? Or are they just too different? Would be cool if we had completely unified RAM some day with a universal interface. Imagine just taking 2GB RAM from your CPU and plug it into your graphics card because you need more RAM for that now.

Playstation 4 uses the same memory for both, its cpu & gpu.

It runs with GDDR5.

My secrete hope is they eventually do the same on pc.

Id love to see a APU equal to a PS4 or better, for cheaper than a "intel cpu + nvidia gpu" is.

With Ryzen AMD are close enough, that the differnce in cpu tech is a meh, between the two.

If your cpu comes with a gpu equal to a ps4 as well? alot of people wouldnt buy intel anymore.

Theres also some advantages to haveing both cpu+gpu on the same memory.

It allows for "heterogeneous computing".

Think of it this way, right now all your x32 bit programs you run, do so mostly via the cpu.

But the cpu isnt always the most effecient way to do certain tasks, some your gpu can do better.

Nvidia/amd have programs that run more effective on the gpu, than a cpu (like encodeing movies and such).

However  these programs then dont use the cpu, they are a "either-or" situation.

With Hetrogeneous computing, you can split up any task (if you program for it) and you can use both the gpu+cpu together to work on the task,  with each part doing what their best at, and leaveing the the stuff their bad at to the other. This increases the programs run speed, and effeciency by a huge factor.

its one of the reasons AMD started makeing APUs.

They hoped they could make the world at large see the reasoning in this, and get programs that work like this out to consumers.

Playstation 4 uses the same memory for both, its cpu & gpu.

It runs with GDDR5.

My secrete hope is they eventually do the same on pc.

Id love to see a APU equal to a PS4 or better, for cheaper than a "intel cpu + nvidia gpu" is.

With Ryzen AMD are close enough, that the differnce in cpu tech is a meh, between the two.

If your cpu comes with a gpu equal to a ps4 as well? alot of people wouldnt buy intel anymore.

Theres also some advantages to haveing both cpu+gpu on the same memory.

It allows for "heterogeneous computing".

Think of it this way, right now all your x32 bit programs you run, do so mostly via the cpu.

But the cpu isnt always the most effecient way to do certain tasks, some your gpu can do better.

Nvidia/amd have programs that run more effective on the gpu, than a cpu (like encodeing movies and such).

However  these programs then dont use the cpu, they are a "either-or" situation.

With Hetrogeneous computing, you can split up any task (if you program for it) and you can use both the gpu+cpu together to work on the task,  with each part doing what their best at, and leaveing the the stuff their bad at to the other. This increases the programs run speed, and effeciency by a huge factor.

its one of the reasons AMD started makeing APUs.

They hoped they could make the world at large see the reasoning in this, and get programs that work like this out to consumers.

PS4 uses a GPGPU, so we're already there.

However, the second portion of the post - that would be something, as GPGPUs aren't quite there yet.

Yes, in fact we're already there ... (It's what PS4 essentially is)

I was more thinking about technology converged and not just repurposed. Built to cater to both scenarios equally.

I feel hurt that all 3 of you thought I didn't know that PS4 uses unified memory.

GPGPUs don't just unify memory. They also perform non-specialized calculations that the CPU would normally do by itself. The unification is of the hardware and memory. A consolized "super-computer part", if you will.

Still, I think what you propose makes sense for consoles. On PC, however, things should remain separate. Developers get more out of that because they can tailor certain features to work specifically with either the GPU (tessellation/AA/AO) or CPU (framerates/particles/amount on screen).