While were on the topic the successor to the Switch will have 64 GB of VRAM! It will be called Nintendo 64!!!!!!!!!!!

As far as price goes, my bets are on that the PS5 will be $450. (The Pro's base price will go down to $350 some time this year)

Doesn't really matter about powers of 2 conformity... Which has typically been AMD's memo, not nVidia's.
Each chip is usually connected via a 32bit memory bus... Memory transactions tend to be parallel.

But 20GB would mean a 320-bit memory bus... (If we assume it's using 10x 2GB chips) Which is actually less than the Xbox One X. (12x 1GB chips @ 32bit = 384bit bus - 12GB total.)

Still hedging my bets on 16GB though for a base console on a 256-bit bus, it offers the best bang for buck and keeps complexity down... The Xbox One X was a "premium" console after-all, which had more memory chips, wider memory bus, more PCB layers and a really (surprisingly) good power delivery system to power it all, none of that comes cheap.

And 16GB is actually a fairly chunky amount of memory anyway, developers can do allot within that amount of space if they leverage various technologies.
At the end of the day... Microsoft and Sony need to weigh up the Pro's and Con's of additional 4-8GB of DRAM... Or less Ram and more CPU/GPU performance... And I think the GPU is going to be at the forefront considering how stagnated AMD has been on that front... So they will likely push that envelope.. It's also the biggest sell. - People tend to be focused on GPU flops over anything the CPU or Ram does.

We should also expect the OS memory consumption to increase as well... A 4k User Interface isn't exactly going to be light on DRAM, which is why the Xbox One X's User Interface still operates at 1080P.

Agreed, if they can dedicate 16GB of RAM that would be plenty.

Its also worth considering 5GB of RAM for games has actually been sufficient this gen and games generally have good or great textures. Memory usage on PC games is still around 8GB recommended. So adding 32GB is a waste, put those resources elsewhere.

I haven't spent enough time with HZD to really judge it, but the world in that game doesn't feel as big or populated as AC:Odyssey.

When it comes to assets and character models though, I agree Sony does put greater attention to detail than others.

It is sweet spot based on anecdotes. X1 launched for 499 and after the first couple months it died out until the price cut and removal of peripheral. For a economy like USA 599 is little money, still the price to market that will have the sales starting high is 399 as proved through time. Would PS5 sell a lot at 499? Maybe, and only if Xbox is similar priced or much worse. And I doubt both. So if Sony put it at 499, they will have to cut price to fast, because only enthusiast will rush to buy it like that. They may enter another PS3 situation.

As much as we like to mock PS3 launching for 599, there was a 499 model as well, and it also had slow start.

Yeah. I'm betting 8GB will be dedicated for video games, and the other 8GB will be dedicated to the Operating System/Console features. Which will be great news for developers and users alike.

I'm also hoping that the PS5 controllers support USB-C ports/quick charging, external hard drive support right out the gate, and consistent "true" HDR output to ALL compatible TV's. (none of that boosted contrast or washed out flat colors bullshit)

the bad colors is totally fault of the developers. The systems are totally compatible with HDR (at least I know PS4 even base is) with small extra cost on processing.

And I would really be displeased if they put half their RAM for OS. For me I would have 0 issue with they using the 16GB for gaming and no OS at all =p ... but since we need to have OS so either 16GB for games and a 4GB for RAM (different memories and prices for what each needs), or 12+4 on a single type of RAM total 16GB.

I added a Poll, with really basic info; not enough space there to write, and only 6 options. We'll see who come closer after an official announcement.

My 2 cents :

If only one SKU will be available : $449, 10-12TF GPU, 16GB RAM.
If 2 SKUs will be available : Base Model $449, 10-12TF GPU, 16GB RAM / Premium $549, >14TF 24GB RAM.

Hmm I think the whole point for microsoft to launch multiple Skus is to undercut Sony in price, so a 300$ and 500$ console is what I expect, Sony will likely stick to 400$. A 400$ and 500-600$ console from Microsoft won't do anything and Sony will easily win next-gen again.

As for your specs, we will probably get 8 cores (Zen2), I don't see 12 cores being possible because of transistor budget and power budget, we might even have just 4 cores but I think that chance is low.

Hard drive just doesn't make sense, 4TB? At most 2TB, we won't seeing any desktop mechanical drives and 4TB laptops drives there is none except extra big ones in physical size. No I think both Sony and Microsoft will go for 1TB SSD or NVMe drive and use it with AMDs High-bandwitdh cache controller (HBCC) and go for less GDDR6 Ram, so 8-12 GB ram for Xbox two, 12-16 GB ram for PS5 and 16-24 GB ram for Xbox two+.