Console Reserved Memory

[deepbrown]

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

 

[Jesus2006]

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

[STRIKE]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![/STRIKE]

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

Edit: Wasn't firmware but SDK version

 

[deepbrown]

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

"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.)

 

[AlNom]

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

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

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.

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

"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.

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...

 

[Jesus2006]

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.

In the thread deepbrown linked they also say that the VRAM reservation has been removed completely as of 2.20 (without source though).

 

[AlNom]

In the thread deepbrown linked they also say that the VRAM reservation has been removed completely as of 2.20 (without source though).

24MB sure is a lot to wipe clean.

 

[Bellic]

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.

 

[AlNom]

http://www.gaming-age.com/news/2008/5/29-48

What part of the quote has to do with the topic.

 

[Jesus2006]

24MB sure is a lot to wipe clean.

Yes, but what was it used for after all until now (during gaming)?

 

[deepbrown]

Yes, but what was it used for after all until now (during gaming)?

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

 

[Butta]

Yes, but what was it used for after all until now (during gaming)?

Remote play? All I can think of...

 

[Rockster]

Reserved VRAM would be needed for in-game xmb access. If they no longer have that requirement, it means the feature will never come.

 

[patsu]

I think we should wait for 2.4 to be out before judging on memory usage. It's soon.

 

[Jesus2006]

Reserved VRAM would be needed for in-game xmb access. If they no longer have that requirement, it means the feature will never come.

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.

 

[Butta]

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).

 

[AlNom]

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.

So you want the game to get rid of the necessary VRAM while you're paused? It's not going to be very seamless...

 

[Shifty Geezer]

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.

 

[Rockster]

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.

 

[AlNom]

Pause the game, fade to 50% intensity and overlay the XMB icons. It shouldn't need much.

You'd need some memory for overlaying, but overall it shouldn't take that much memory.

 

[archie4oz]

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.

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