Understanding why Xbox One doesn't need GDDR5 RAM

[Eddie_Raja]

disolitude said:

This sounds like a possible theory...its certanly fleshed out pretty well.

However few things stand out. MS designed and manufactured the xbox 360 in 6 months after Nvidia cut them off for the Xbox GPU. It makes no sense for them to plan hardware specs in 2008-2009. More like 2011...

Secondly, since AMD was producing both, Microsoft must have known Sony is using gddr5 RAM. 4 or 8 gb wouldnt change gamping performance much, especially considering MS has 3 GB of 8 reserved for OS. If they felt PS4 was more powerful to an extent it would be a major issue with X1, they would have revised the console. They certanly have the money to introduce 5 Gb gddr5 + 3 gb ddr3 for the OS mid 2012 which is when i suspect x1 prototype manufacturing began.

Actually AMD recently admitted that they told neither Sony nor MS that they were making parts for both their consoles.  

Also I am pretty confident Sony intentionally caught MS off gaurd.  I mean think about it:

1) Everything Sony said prior to the 2 Week teaser for the playstation event was  about how Sony is not ready for the PS4 yet and that they would wait.  In addition to this, PS3 has many major exclusives coming out this year giving more evidence that they intend on sticking to PS3 another year.

2) Mark Cerny recently talked about how Randy Pitchford convinced him to use 8GB of GDDR5.  He said what convinced him to do this was the fact that they would beat the next Xbox st everything hardware wise.  I bet they realized this and saw that MS was not ready to launch or at least make any major changes to their design .  So they striked and went for the jugular. 

3a) A lot of rumors and leaked documents have hinted that MS  was intending on using DDR4.  This was supposed to be launched late late 2012 but was delayed due to less growth in the desktop market and more growth in the mobile market which has no need for DDR4.  DDR4 is not as fast as GDDR5 but it can be close (and better with EDRAM/ESRAM), and it would dropped in price dramatically over the years as it entered the PC market (In contrast DDR3 prices should continue to rise like DDR2 did when it was replaced).   

3b) Sony once again probably found out MS's weakness, saw their own strengths and pounced.  MS saw that if they didn't launch this year, Sony would gain far too much market share and so they made a conpromise.  The motherboard designs could be easily adapted to switch to DDR3 but GDDR5 was out of the question.  

Sony is already in production manufacturing PS4's, and MS didn't even have more than a couple working units at E3.  Sony clearly ambushed MS.