Could a console manufacturer switch to a different ram spec?

[Squilliam]

What advantages would extra ram be in regards to a system with a fixed specification?

I can see two for the Xbox 360:

1. Reduce noise by caching extra data to ram, which may be more important in a slimmer design. This is similar to how the extra ram on the PSP was used.

2. Improve the hosting of multi-player games, maybe? Since the Xbox 360 relies on P2P.

 

[jetrii]

What advantages would extra ram be in regards to a system with a fixed specification?

I can see two for the Xbox 360:

1. Reduce noise by caching extra data to ram, which may be more important in a slimmer design. This is similar to how the extra ram on the PSP was used.

2. Improve the hosting of multi-player games, maybe? Since the Xbox 360 relies on P2P.

I don't think the extra ram would have any real benefits unless developers released patches for their games. If i recall correctly, even thought Sony managed to lower the PS3 OS' memory usage, games only have access to the amount of memory that was available at the time of the build. So even if more memory appeared, the games would not be able to see it to ensure compatibility. Also, using the extra ram for caching may introduce bandwidth/latency issues.

Although, if Microsoft was able to allow entire games to be installed onto the hard drive, perhaps a similar thing can be done to allow partial ram caching by every game.

 

[NathansFortune]

You would have to redesign the chip and memory controller which is relatively costly. The money would be better spent on designing better/cheaper chips for the successor console and making sure TSMC move the current RAM and other chips down to the newer process nodes and if need be half-nodes promptly so they can acheive good cost savings on the current lot.

 

[NathansFortune]

I don't think the extra ram would have any real benefits unless developers released patches for their games. If i recall correctly, even thought Sony managed to lower the PS3 OS' memory usage, games only have access to the amount of memory that was available at the time of the build. So even if more memory appeared, the games would not be able to see it to ensure compatibility. Also, using the extra ram for caching may introduce bandwidth/latency issues.

Although, if Microsoft was able to allow entire games to be installed onto the hard drive, perhaps a similar thing can be done to allow partial ram caching by every game.

Yup, Sony need to update their SDK everytime the memory usage is lowered. Until Sony let them, developers can't take advantage of reduced OS reservations.

 

[Crossbar]

What advantages would extra ram be in regards to a system with a fixed specification?

I can see two for the Xbox 360:

1. Reduce noise by caching extra data to ram, which may be more important in a slimmer design. This is similar to how the extra ram on the PSP was used.

2. Improve the hosting of multi-player games, maybe? Since the Xbox 360 relies on P2P.

The hosting point also applies for PS3 games using P2P.

I can see a benefit of having Home permanently loaded in RAM allowing fast switch between game lobbies in home and the game it self.

Home would clearly benefit from larger memory allowing pre-caching (in the background) of adjacent areas.

The internet browser would also benefit from a larger cache.

You would have to redesign the chip and memory controller which is relatively costly. The money would be better spent on designing better/cheaper chips for the successor console and making sure TSMC move the current RAM and other chips down to the newer process nodes and if need be half-nodes promptly so they can acheive good cost savings on the current lot.

When moving a chip to a smaller process you usually do a bit of redesign anyways, swapping memory controller shouldn´t be much of a deal, these are pretty standard IP-blocks.