But how do you quit and restart the game halfway through? It either has to load everything, or it can load parts in based on where you are, at which point it can stream...
PlayStation 4 (codename Orbis) technical hardware investigation (news and rumours)
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Deleted member 11852
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I think Blow's response to Random Internet Dude's tweet is where the assumption arose. Random Internet Dude suggests PS4 uses 1Gb RAM for the OS, Blow neither confirms or denies but says the numbers [of RAM OS usage for both consoles] could change.
Far from conclusive evidence
If he's choosing this approach, may be his game just restart on the spot ? He is the designer, so he can tailor everything.
Sounds like the game can be played on iOS. Doubt he can escape streaming.
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Same, reminding me of those "memory expander" hacks from the 1990s.
Yap ! Except that the OS seems to observe all apps' behavior and status, then compress and starve the obscured and unused apps on the fly, or pre-emptively.
I think Blow's response to Random Internet Dude's tweet is where the assumption arose. Random Internet Dude suggests PS4 uses 1Gb RAM for the OS, Blow neither confirms or denies but says the numbers [of RAM OS usage for both consoles] could change.
Far from conclusive evidence
based on nothing...
there was one claim of 1g on some incredibly two bit website nobody ever heard of that i recall. this of course became widely circulated on gaf as golden truth.
djskribbles
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Wasn't there a rumor that the OS would be 512MB when it was going to be 4GB GDDR5? Based on that, 1GB would be the logical guess wouldn't it?
Besides the site you mentioned, people find 1GB OS believable mainly because:
* PS4 OS was said to consume 512MB out of 4GB GDDR5.
* All major OSes -- including BSD -- run well under 1GB RAM. e.g., MS run 2 OSes and 1 hypervisor in 3GB.
Technically, PS4 could run the OS under 1GB RAM (or 2GB), and yet limit games to 5GB for other reasons. Or they could allow 5GB exclusive access, with shared access to more.
* PS4 OS was said to consume 512MB out of 4GB GDDR5.
* All major OSes -- including BSD -- run well under 1GB RAM. e.g., MS run 2 OSes and 1 hypervisor in 3GB.
Technically, PS4 could run the OS under 1GB RAM (or 2GB), and yet limit games to 5GB for other reasons. Or they could allow 5GB exclusive access, with shared access to more.
I'm sorry, but we based that on technical and business considerations, not at all on any rumors from anywhere. You might want to look up the discussions from back then. And yeah, they weren't based on anything. But explain to me how a company that only knew early this year that they were going to manage 8GB of GDDR5 has a strategy based on reserving 3GB of 4GB for non-gaming/OS functionality?
well we're all just guessing. 3gb is hardly confirmed and never will be (offhand i cant tell you how much is reserved in ps3 right now)
but it's my guess currently.
also just because they once planned to be at 4gb doesn't really mean anything as to how much they'd reserve. it's even likely part of their motivation, just like ms, was to go to 8gb so they could have gobs for the OS. we have the chinese bbs thing and blow's tweets (neither proof, we can just make our best estimate).
And like I say, I expect both Sony/MS to end up around 2GB reserved not 3. Interference already says 1Gb is held in limbo on Xbone and could be released to games eventually. they will push the reserve back over time imo.
Why not 2 GB reserved for apps and OS? At least that way they start off with a decent chunk of memory and don't find themselves screwed later down the line when discovering 1 GB just ain't enough for OS and other apps. Is the SSD in PS4 been confirmed? Because if that's the case then I guess they'd be able to get by with 1 GB and use the SSD to cache media and other stuff that would be used for apps.
If they're not necessarily looking for parity with MS then 1 GB reserved for OS doesn't seem to be a bad way to go. If they are looking for parity (in all aspects) then they may need to reserve more RAM for OS, apps, and services.
If they're not necessarily looking for parity with MS then 1 GB reserved for OS doesn't seem to be a bad way to go. If they are looking for parity (in all aspects) then they may need to reserve more RAM for OS, apps, and services.
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But enough for what?
The 48mb reserved for OS functions in the PS3 doesn't let you pause a game and play a Blu-ray disc.
Folks seems to be focussing on the OS, as in the minimum requires for whatever operating system will run completely separate to what resources games will have access too. The OS will have a RAM footprint and a RAM overhead for just doing what it's doing - multiplayer, voice or video, sharing, background downloading etc.
On top of what the OS is doing and the RAM it's using will be the other functions, applications if you prefer, that will also have a RAM footprint. Now I think Sony will, and should, try to ensure that all of the PS4's non-game functions are always resident in RAM so switching between games and anything else is instant.
Why is this desirable? Because technology marches on and what seems fluid and quick will at launch will not in two years. It'll feel slower in three years. It'll feel like a dog in four years. Remember when you buy a new device and it feels crazy fast then doesn't a year later? It's because technology reduces delays and pauses and what used to feel quick then feels slow compared to other things. If they want the UI and feature set - and I bet they have no idea what they might want to implement more than two years out - they need it all just there, ready to switch to in RAM: Games. Blu-ray playback. Netflix. Facebook. PS Store. Web browser. Video chat + unknown future features.
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