The only reason that devs are not using 4GB of VRAM is because the market is so small. This is why Epic, Crytek, and id are so happy about this. Right now the mass market is PS3/360 with 512MB and low end PCs with 1GB. This will set the bar much higher and allow them to build games in a completly different way. In no time PC games will be pushing 4GB VRAM, and nvidia/amd will be releasing cards with 8GB, 10GB, 12GB, ect.

Games were not limited to 1.5GB or so because thats all they needed, they were that way because the market was not there. 

I agree, but video memory and GPU performance go hand in hand. More powerful GPUs will surely use 8GB down the road.

On a 1080p resolution and looking at memory bandwith and teraflops performance PS4 is promissing, it is downright technically impossible for PS4 to use 8 GB of memory at once (for VRAM). It would be like sticking 4 GB on intel HD4000 and ask the GPU to push 1080p worth of 4GB memory. 

I do understand this is a unified memory architecture and that GPU/CPU and os need to share 8 GB hence I doubt that the GPU will ever use up more than 4.

so basically changing the type of ram setup would potentially have a knock on effect that could require other components to be changed also, probably obvious to a lot of people but i didnt know that.. i think we wont have GDDr5 in the next xbox then assuming it has been created with GDDR3

Glad you see what I am saying. I do believe Sony intends for much or that RAM to be used for multitacking purposes. I think with 4GB they were not allowing the system to fully be utilized much like PS3. Now with 8GB they can give games 4-6GB allowing the CPU/GPU to reach their full potential, while also allowing the user to hop out and watch netflix, browse the web, edit share videos, ect. while the game sits in RAM.

Hi guys, this is my first post on these forums and I just wanted to clarify some things.

First, You can't take a cosole's specifications and compare them directly to the PC counterparts. It doesn't work that way. Today's PCs are exponentially faster than PS360 but yet the games don't look a whole lot different. That's because the PC has a lot of OS overhead and API problems they have to deal with. With consoles you have a single unified specification that you can directly code for so the results will look much better than anything we have seen before (probably mid-late cycle). Reports are saying that Sony is encouraging developers to code down to the metal with low level access to the GPU libGCM style, this means games in the future are going to blow away what the PC is producing today. The PC will always more powerful than a console but the console will always make more efficient use of the components.

Second, the 8GB of GDDR5 RAM is a potential game changer. Sony's OS most likely will not take up more than 1GB and that's being really generous because they really went with minimalistic design and tried not to block the developers to harness the power of the system. That leaves 7GB for the games, this will not all be utilized right out of the gate and there is a couple of reasons for that. It's more of a future proofing method because they expect this console to be the focus for the next 7 years but also because as games start to unlock the true power of the consoles it's going to start eating up that RAM rather quickly. If you played The Witcher 2 with Ubersampling or Crysis 3 with the DX 11 patch you can see that once the  high resolution textures are introduced the VRAM starts to become a bottleneck. I think both Sony and Microsoft understand this well enough to equip their systems with ample RAM for the future.

So basically, as PC gamer these things are amazing to see from consoles. Sony (and Microsoft based on rumors) have empraced the PC architecture which will mean better games for everyone. The processing power is nothing groundbreaking but in consoles it's going to really work well and even though we might not see the benefits of having 8GB of GDDR5 right away it was definitely the right call to make. Better to be safe then to be sorry later down the line.

Developers are happy, gamers are happy, now the ball is in Microsoft's court hopefully they will have a console that is equally as exciting.

I really hope this means reduced loading times as that is one of my pet peeves with games.

Yes, but it's 8GB unified RAM. Don't necessarily think system RAM, think VIDEO RAM!

The chance of MS allowing Sony to destroy them graphically this generation now that Microsoft has equalled and almost beat them is doubtful.  I can see MS having several footprints of console and stepping up in order to copy or beat Sony.   I just don't see MS going "here, take back all that market we ganked off you last generation by having a superior machine".

Just like Nintendo's Wii U. The company obviously has to preserve space for their initial programs and future programs. They PS4 has 8GB but only 4GB are useable. The Wii U has 2GB but only about 1GB is useable.

Damn, haven't heard the term ganked in a long time, awesome.