Console Reserved Memory

Jesus2006 said:
Probably not here, but the link you posted leads to another site saying that as of firmware 1.80 the size was already down to 48MB so i guess it's even lower currently!

http://www.innerbits.com/blog/2007/08/21/ps3-180-sdk/

Edit: Wasn't firmware but SDK version :oops:
Click to expand...

"48MB and 24MB respectively." That's 72mb total. It's claimed to be 47MB total on the link I gave, mainly citing ND slides I believe (but with confirmation from other presumed developers.)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
deepbrown said:
Where should I put this? It's claimed the PS3 OS only uses 47mb of Ram... http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=301964

Edit: I searched OS, but OS is apparently too short a word to search on the forums
Click to expand...

A good reason to start a new thread. ;) There was specific discussion on the firmware 1.80 awhile back. In page 28/58 of the Uncharted GDC pdf, the OS is shown as reserving 47MB. There's no indication of how much is reserved in local GPU memory however. Things may have changed significantly since then.

May be of some significance:

http://www.criteriongames.com/article.php?artID=120

Criterion said:
Well, you’ll be pleased to hear that thanks to a combination of the extra memory in the latest SDK and a refactor of our graphics memory management, Cagney now renders SD internally at 720p just like on 360 and even though we’re doing an extra software scaling pass at the end (which the HD version does not need to do!) it still runs at our trademark 60fps.
Click to expand...

http://www.criteriongames.com/article.php?artID=70

Criterion said:
"With the latest SDK Sony freed up some memory. We've upgraded to this SDK and made use of the extra memory to scale the 720p game to 960x1080 as part of the very final post-process render stage in the game; this 960x1080 video mode uses the PS3 hardware scaler to upscale the image horizontally to output at 1920x1080.

"This scaling process in Burnout costs a very small amount of frame time (under 0.4% of a 60hz frame, which we can afford without dropping frames) since we're going to a larger number of pixels, but it enables those with 1080i TVs that don't support 720p to play in HD.
Click to expand...

I have to wonder why they didn't just scale to 1280x1080 and then let the hardware scaler deal with it. Correcting for the anamorphic upscale might have been a bit of a headache (1280x1080 is 32:27, 960x1080 is 8:9 ), or perhaps the amount of freed memory isn't all that much...
 
AlStrong said:
A good reason to start a new thread. ;) There was specific discussion on the firmware 1.80 awhile back. In page 28/58 of the Uncharted GDC pdf, the OS is shown as reserving 47MB. There's no indication of how much is reserved in local GPU memory however. Things may have changed significantly since then.
Click to expand...

In the thread deepbrown linked they also say that the VRAM reservation has been removed completely as of 2.20 (without source though).
 
http://www.gaming-age.com/news/2008/5/29-48

We've finally received word that the long awaited, and much rumored, PlayStation 3 Firmware Update 2.40 is indeed the real deal and is said to be coming relatively soon. Many of the most requested features, such as a universal friends list and in-game messaging will be included, in addition to a few rather nice surprises (*cough*soundtracks*cough*). We definitely can't divulge all of the details, but trust us, it's coming.

We aren't yet 100% sure of the actual release date, but all signs point to sometime in June. We're guesing that Sony will probably detail 2.40 in the coming weeks.
Click to expand...
 
Jesus2006 said:
Yes, but what was it used for after all until now (during gaming)?
Click to expand...

Exactly...memory was put aside for future applications - and generally Sony's future applications must be finalised now, and they now know how much memory they will use - thus, the memory can now be released to developers. That's my view anyway.

Comments from Neogaf:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=11341749&postcount=36

"last i heard, 360 OS was 24MB, and PS3s was 48MB from main memory, and nothing from video memory anymore"

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=11342069&postcount=45

"Pretty much... and many of the more commonly used functions that used to require a chunk of additional memory allocation, now do not (certain implementations of messaging, soundtracks, etc.) Hence Faf's "evolving" comment, I believe."

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=11342154&postcount=48
 
Reserved VRAM would be needed for in-game xmb access. If they no longer have that requirement, it means the feature will never come.
 
Rockster said:
Reserved VRAM would be needed for in-game xmb access. If they no longer have that requirement, it means the feature will never come.
Click to expand...

If the game is paused with ingame XMB the required VRAM can be outsourced to the HDD temporarily which should only take a second or two.
 
I certainly hope that the memory footprint has been reduced to somwhere in the area of 40MB in fw 2.4.

Put this on my wish list right next to bumping up the GDDR bus speed back up to 700Mhz from 650 (I think that this would help PS3 on framerate isses from 360 ports... if this is indeed the bottleneck).
 
Jesus2006 said:
If the game is paused with ingame XMB the required VRAM can be outsourced to the HDD temporarily which should only take a second or two.
Click to expand...

So you want the game to get rid of the necessary VRAM while you're paused? It's not going to be very seamless...
 
What VRAM will be needed? An overlayed XMB would need only the icons, and a simplified XMB wouldn't need much of that either. Would it even need VRAM? Can't the XMB content be stored in XDR and used via GPU to display over the in-game graphics? Pause the game, fade to 50% intensity and overlay the XMB icons. It shouldn't need much.
 
I don't think the PS3's OS implements the concept of swap space like a PC, which wouldn't help VRAM anyway, and the libraries required to implement such a system would only serve to increase the OS's memory requirement.
 
Shifty Geezer said:
What VRAM will be needed? An overlayed XMB would need only the icons, and a simplified XMB wouldn't need much of that either. Would it even need VRAM? Can't the XMB content be stored in XDR and used via GPU to display over the in-game graphics? Pause the game, fade to 50% intensity and overlay the XMB icons. It shouldn't need much.
Click to expand...

Except the game doesn't pause (when you hit the PS Button). It's the same as the Xbox logo on the 360 gamepad. You just don't notice it as much because the default screen is opaque
 
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