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

superchunk on 08 April 2013
CGI-Quality said:
superchunk said:
That's because it wasn't always going to be 8GB. How is that news to anyone? Sony planned on 4GB and then later decided the cost to bump to 8GB was justified due to being comparable to what was rumored to be coming in neXtBox.

Sony's 8GB was as much a reactionary change as adding motion to the original PS3 controller. However, in this case it will actually benefit devs and gamers.

When was it confirmed that the PS4 had 4GB of GDDR5? I was under the impression that it was always speculatory (just why I say people need to stop thinking their experts when rumors run wild).

It is known.

Its been a known thing since mid-2012 (or earlier) that all devs stated it had 4GB of RAM. Simply because SONY didn't comfirm PS4 yet, means nothing. If you frequented my comparison thread since it started in Nov2011, you'd have seen this clearly.

MS has pretty much always stated to have 8GB and Sony had 4GB. Then a little bit later the types were known to be DDR3 and GDDR5 respectively. Then there were a lot of discussion about which is actually better? Overall amount of speed/efficiency in graphics?

8GB took EVERYONE by surprise.



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cunger on 08 April 2013
Daisuke72 said:
4GB for the operating system? Windows doesn't even use that much -;- 2GB at the most.


The PS4 might be doing more cool stuff in the background than Windows does.



superchunk on 08 April 2013
CGI-Quality said:

So then you're giving validity to the X720 rumors, yes? It's been widely talked about by devs and journalists, just like the 4GB RAM rumor for PS4.

Me, personally, I give no rumors any props, the bottom line matters. Far as I'm concerned, the PS4 always had 8GB of GDDR5 RAM, and the rumors "meant nothing".

Well, considering the rumors for PS4 were perfectly accurate except the 4gb vs 8gb... yes I do think neXtBox rumors are accurate.

Keep in mind PS4 details in my comparison thread had existed in that form for over six months before Feb20th event. Besided adding some additional info on what the controller woudl and would not do... the only other tidbit I changed was 4GB to 8GB.

I expect the same from MS. I'll add some service related info and more details on Kinect/Controller. But the specs will remain the same unless MS has decided to change DD3 to GDDR5 to match Sony which really isn't that possible with a lot of redesign.

You can believe Sony always intended 8GB all you want, but then it simply makes no sense to keep it secret from devs including internal ones who also came out on Feb20th and said that it was a nice surprise. Fact is, Sony very recently made that change as a competitive move vs MS.



Chark on 08 April 2013
superchunk said:

It is known.

Its been a known thing since mid-2012 (or earlier) that all devs stated it had 4GB of RAM. Simply because SONY didn't comfirm PS4 yet, means nothing. If you frequented my comparison thread since it started in Nov2011, you'd have seen this clearly.

MS has pretty much always stated to have 8GB and Sony had 4GB. Then a little bit later the types were known to be DDR3 and GDDR5 respectively. Then there were a lot of discussion about which is actually better? Overall amount of speed/efficiency in graphics?

8GB took EVERYONE by surprise.

These are words men can learn by.

Why so many come to a forum to essentially tell everyone to shut up is beyond me.

Rumors are a big part of what we talk about here. Just become one rumor can be fake doesn't make them all fake and that we shouldn't discuss the possibilities. Those who think otherwise are unwilling to exercise their minds.



Before the PS3 everyone was nice to me :(

superchunk on 08 April 2013
CGI-Quality said:
superchunk said:
CGI-Quality said:

So then you're giving validity to the X720 rumors, yes? It's been widely talked about by devs and journalists, just like the 4GB RAM rumor for PS4.

Me, personally, I give no rumors any props, the bottom line matters. Far as I'm concerned, the PS4 always had 8GB of GDDR5 RAM, and the rumors "meant nothing".

Well, considering the rumors for PS4 were perfectly accurate except the 4gb vs 8gb... yes I do think neXtBox rumors are accurate.

Keep in mind PS4 details in my comparison thread had existed in that form for over six months before Feb20th event. Besided adding some additional info on what the controller woudl and would not do... the only other tidbit I changed was 4GB to 8GB.

I expect the same from MS. I'll add some service related info and more details on Kinect/Controller. But the specs will remain the same unless MS has decided to change DD3 to GDDR5 to match Sony which really isn't that possible with a lot of redesign.

You can believe Sony always intended 8GB all you want, but then it simply makes no sense to keep it secret from devs including internal ones who also came out on Feb20th and said that it was a nice surprise. Fact is, Sony very recently made that change as a competitive move vs MS.

No, you think it was a fact. The only factual information, that you or I know, is the PS4 has 8GB of GDDR5 and it was kept secret. All else is pintless to debate since you don't know it for sure.

ok. So then why didn't Sony's first party devs know about it either? I can barely justify not putting it in 3rd party dev kits... but you'd think Sony's internal studios would have known had it been in the works since the beginning.

OR does it make more sense that console development is an ongoing procedure where details are changed a lot. Hell, even WiiU hardware wasn't finalized until midway through 2012.

The only logical conclusion is that Sony decided relatively recently to go with 8GB. Then they decided to make that fact during their Feb20th event. Also fits in with the reason no actual console was displayed as its internals were being redesigned to double the ram which of course requires changes to its overall configuration.

Regardless of all of that... facts are that we knew the specs of PS4 many many months prior to its reveal. Just like we know neXtBox now.



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superchunk on 08 April 2013
CGI-Quality said:
superchunk said:

ok. So then why didn't Sony's first party devs know about it either? I can barely justify not putting it in 3rd party dev kits... but you'd think Sony's internal studios would have known had it been in the works since the beginning.

OR does it make more sense that console development is an ongoing procedure where details are changed a lot. Hell, even WiiU hardware wasn't finalized until midway through 2012.

The only logical conclusion is that Sony decided relatively recently to go with 8GB. Then they decided to make that fact during their Feb20th event. Also fits in with the reason no actual console was displayed as its internals were being redesigned to double the ram which of course requires changes to its overall configuration.

Regardless of all of that... facts are that we knew the specs of PS4 many many months prior to its reveal. Just like we know neXtBox now.

I don't know anything of the NextXbox, not even the name. I can speculate, like you. But then, you were also someone that claimed neither the Nextbox nor PS4 would be much more powerful than the WiiU. Yeah, I kept up. ;)

Though if you end up right about the NextBox, I'll be sure to return here and credit accordingly.

My main point was always that the gap would be far closer than it was for Wii. Now, I did think they'd be closer than they actually are going to be, but it is still a FAR a smaller gap than Wii to PS360. So I was partially right... keeping in mind I stated this before anything was known on any system.



VGKing on 08 April 2013
superchunk said:
That's because it wasn't always going to be 8GB. How is that news to anyone? Sony planned on 4GB and then later decided the cost to bump to 8GB was justified due to being comparable to what was rumored to be coming in neXtBox.

Sony's 8GB was as much a reactionary change as adding motion to the original PS3 controller. However, in this case it will actually benefit devs and gamers.

Even with 4GB, Sony still had the advantage in terms of specs. Do I need to mention the difference between DDR3 and GDDR5?
If anything, the 8GB upgrade was their reaction to developers wishes, not Microsoft or Nintendo. Maybe Epic convinced them? We could see their next big game be a Ps4 exclusive....



VGKing on 08 April 2013
CGI-Quality said:
superchunk said:
CGI-Quality said:

So then you're giving validity to the X720 rumors, yes? It's been widely talked about by devs and journalists, just like the 4GB RAM rumor for PS4.

Me, personally, I give no rumors any props, the bottom line matters. Far as I'm concerned, the PS4 always had 8GB of GDDR5 RAM, and the rumors "meant nothing".

Well, considering the rumors for PS4 were perfectly accurate except the 4gb vs 8gb... yes I do think neXtBox rumors are accurate.

Keep in mind PS4 details in my comparison thread had existed in that form for over six months before Feb20th event. Besided adding some additional info on what the controller woudl and would not do... the only other tidbit I changed was 4GB to 8GB.

I expect the same from MS. I'll add some service related info and more details on Kinect/Controller. But the specs will remain the same unless MS has decided to change DD3 to GDDR5 to match Sony which really isn't that possible with a lot of redesign.

You can believe Sony always intended 8GB all you want, but then it simply makes no sense to keep it secret from devs including internal ones who also came out on Feb20th and said that it was a nice surprise. Fact is, Sony very recently made that change as a competitive move vs MS.

No, you think it was a fact. The only factual information, that you or I know, is the PS4 has 8GB of GDDR5 and it was kept secret. All else is pintless to debate since you don't know it for sure.

Look at the rumored PS4 specs from VgLeaks, and look at the offical ones released by Sony.

THEY ARE 99% identical. The only difference is that VgLeaks listed 4GB instead of 8GB. What happened here? Sony had recently upgraded dev kits and announced it to the public before any devs even had the chance to receive them. LEAKS COME FROM DEVELOPERS WHO HAVE THE HARDWARE.

More proof that these leaks(Yes, leaks, not rumors) are true is how surprised developers were. They went on the record saying they were very surprised with the 8GB of RAM.



superchunk on 08 April 2013
VGKing said:
superchunk said:
That's because it wasn't always going to be 8GB. How is that news to anyone? Sony planned on 4GB and then later decided the cost to bump to 8GB was justified due to being comparable to what was rumored to be coming in neXtBox.

Sony's 8GB was as much a reactionary change as adding motion to the original PS3 controller. However, in this case it will actually benefit devs and gamers.

Even with 4GB, Sony still had the advantage in terms of specs. Do I need to mention the difference between DDR3 and GDDR5?
If anything, the 8GB upgrade was their reaction to developers wishes, not Microsoft or Nintendo. Maybe Epic convinced them? We could see their next big game be a Ps4 exclusive....

When did I say otherwise? However, to the average person, 8 > 4. Keep in mind, Sony/MS advertise specs to mass consumer... not just devs.



ethomaz on 08 April 2013

Just to add.

The PS4 increase in memory is not a big change... the project is not changed, the memory controller is not changed, nothing of the PS4 was changed. Sony just replaced the 16x 2Gb modules of GDDR5 per 16x 4Gb modules of GDDR5... it is like to open your PC with 2x2GB modules and replace per 2x4GB modules.

So the rumors are 100% correct about PS4.

GAF always help me to show how the magic was done.



I love these images... makes everything seems simple and easy... and in the case of 4GB GDDR5 to 8GB GDDR5 it is a simple and easy move that make everything developers happy and the forum users crazy excited.