System Reservations on PS4, 4Pro, PS5, XBox One, One S, One X, and Xbox Series X|S [2019-12, 2020-03]

Surprised we don't even have a rumored amount? Only thing I can think of is Sony feels the amount looks bad compared to Series X? What other reason could there be to NDA such a innocuous detail?

Sony does not share as many details as MS does, thats basically it. Did Sony ever confirm Ps4 allocations? I think it was leaks that did that, like most things on PS, or do I remember it wrong?
 
Sony does not share as many details as MS does, thats basically it. Did Sony ever confirm Ps4 allocations? I think it was leaks that did that, like most things on PS, or do I remember it wrong?

They were pretty upfront about the PS4 and Pros memory allocations.

If they didn't talk about PS5's, it means it looks bad to do so and no one really cares about it.

In practice I doubt one or two gigs difference either way makes much difference due to the SSDs and the existence of the S.
 
They were pretty upfront about the PS4 and Pros memory allocations.

If they didn't talk about PS5's, it means it looks bad to do so and no one really cares about it.

In practice I doubt one or two gigs difference either way makes much difference due to the SSDs and the existence of the S.
They actually weren't upfront about PS4 memory allocation. I remember all the hoopla about xb1 reserving 3GB and the assumption was that PS4 was reserving around 1GB only. That is until DF published an article detailing the PS4 memory allocation; 4.5GB for games, 3GB reserve, and .5GB system managed Flexible memory. Sony then contacted DF to clarify the function of the flexible memory.
 
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They were pretty upfront about the PS4 and Pros memory allocations.

If they didn't talk about PS5's, it means it looks bad to do so and no one really cares about it.

In practice I doubt one or two gigs difference either way makes much difference due to the SSDs and the existence of the S.
Yes but an extra 1 or 2 gigs would help the XSX's slower SSD by having space for a larger buffer in RAM no?
 
Sony does not share as many details as MS does, thats basically it. Did Sony ever confirm Ps4 allocations? I think it was leaks that did that, like most things on PS, or do I remember it wrong?

KZ Shadow Fall Digital Dragons presentarion dig include a pretty detailed memory budget breakdown pretty early after PS4 release. I guess that was the first official source.
 
Can anyone provide even a broad breakdown of how a console OS requires so much memory?
even a 4K RGBA image is only 32MB uncompressed, - ie. GUI background.

How the hell do they need Multiple GBs of memory for the OS?

Even if you allocate 1GB for cached images, icons, logos, sounds - where they hell does the extra 2+ GB come from?
I must be missing something?

The core OS for a console should be well under 500MB, it's basically core cpu drivers + gpu drivers + OS Libs, which are all gonna be optimized specifically for that console.
 
The video recording stuff will take up several hundred MB, at least. Up to 2 minutes of 4K 60 video on hand, plus however much memory the encoder needs to work with, plus at least a few full res uncompressed HDR screens to work with.

Wouldn't be surprised if you were looking at something pretty big like 500~1000 MB.

Series S seem to have half a GB less reserved memory than Series X. If it's only recording at 1440p (anyone?) that might be a good reason why it needs less.
 
Surprised we don't even have a rumored amount? Only thing I can think of is Sony feels the amount looks bad compared to Series X? What other reason could there be to NDA such a innocuous detail?
Well, unless PS5 is used as the least common denominator, we dont actually see much in disparity between the two consoles in multiplatform games.
There is a chance the reserved memory has to do with certain functions, either in terms of development or in terms of user experience (current or future) that Sony doesnt want fully revealed. Then again I am sure that isnt something that competition wouldnt be able to know behind closed doors.
Or they just noticed that they suck in comparison to MS's optimisations. But we dont see this manifested in performance in any meaningful way so probably there is some difference (or none) but not big enough to affect games much.
 
Well, unless PS5 is used as the least common denominator, we dont actually see much in disparity between the two consoles in multiplatform games.
There is a chance the reserved memory has to do with certain functions, either in terms of development or in terms of user experience (current or future) that Sony doesnt want fully revealed. Then again I am sure that isnt something that competition wouldnt be able to know behind closed doors.
Or they just noticed that they suck in comparison to MS's optimisations. But we dont see this manifested in performance in any meaningful way so probably there is some difference (or none) but not big enough to affect games much.
Yeah I think the PS5 is the lead platform the majority of the time. So most optimizations will go toward playstation. What could an extra 1GB of RAM be easily used for anyway? Higher res textures? More effects on screen? Devs will probably just use it as a larger buffer space if the SSD is being used heavily.
 
Yeah I think the PS5 is the lead platform the majority of the time. So most optimizations will go toward playstation. What could an extra 1GB of RAM be easily used for anyway? Higher res textures? More effects on screen? Devs will probably just use it as a larger buffer space if the SSD is being used heavily.

Probably not. The XSX doesn’t have uniformed memory performance. 10 GB of 560 GBps is going to be available regardless so whatever more it supposedly provides is going to be of the 336 GBps variety.
 
Some public statements from DigitalFoundry on the various system usage and reservations related to Series S and PS5 @ https://www.eurogamer.net/digitalfo...-memory-boost-and-the-massively-fast-rtx-4090

Xbox Series S:
Why are developers being told that it's 'hundreds of megabytes' more memory and not a more concrete figure? Since recording the Direct, I've discovered that the amount of memory is somewhat fluid. There's a block of new memory available to all developers, but this can be augmented by disabling system level features the game may not be using, freeing up extra memory that otherwise wouldn't be used anyway.

PlayStation 5:
As a counterpoint, I suggest that with 12.5GB of RAM available to developers on PS5 (at least at launch - and it's 13.5GB on Xbox)
 
another gig of memory on the xbox series x is a pretty big deal. Wonder how much it will show up in actual game play.
A year and a half on, nothing obvious is standing out. The PS5 reservation may have been reduced, or something else in PS5 is providing a counter-balance like the faster I/O meaning even less buffer space is required.
 
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