Sony's PlayStation 4 console will need a healthy portion of its 8GB of memory simply to run the console's OS. That's inspired a new torrent of Xbox One and PS4 comparisons. But here's why they don't make sense. Digital Foundry's findings on the PlayStation 4 OS RAM requirements. The news this morning from Digital Foundry that Sony's PlayStation 4 will require a hefty chunk of its memory to run the console's OS -- 3.5GB of its celebrated 8GB total -- has a few scratching their heads and many a fanboy rushing to the front lines. But we shouldn't be wasting our breath on hardware comparisons that miss the point. The argument goes that so much memory-hogging kills the soaring ambitions Sony had set out for developers. The company announced the jump from 4GB to 8GB, and the concern was that developers wouldn't be able to tap the full potential of the new console's extra muscle. The news also follows some of the most vicious console-war back-and-forths in gaming history, spats that gave the PS4 a popular nudge toward the lead, over Microsoft's XBox One. To those who furiously typed out calculated defenses of Sony and joined in on the collective spearing of Microsoft and its Xbox One missteps, it comes off as a bit of a "gotcha!" in that it's becoming ever more clear that the consoles are getting increasingly similar. But the truth is that Sony's RAM requirements should come as no surprise. The need is only slightly more demanding than Microsoft's Xbox One, which requires 3GB out of its 8GB of total memory. The fact that these consoles are doing a heck of alot more than just running games - for instance, constantly storing gameplay footage, integrating activity into social networks and streaming services, recording your physical movements at all times - inherently means they will need more RAM to keep chugging along. If you wanted to play games on a less memory-intensive OS, you'd be a PC gamer. That Sony wouldn't open up about this sooner may be telling to its strategy to keep the conversation centered less on specs and more on strategy, specifically its corporate pro-gamer mindset and how much more consumer-friendly it was when compared with Microsoft's restrictive disaster. But after all, that's smart marketing and shouldn't change your sympathies towards the PS4 if that's the console you've gone all in on. This next-gen is ultimately about the overall gaming experience with emphasis on platform exclusives, ease and functionality of online play, and the treatment of the blossoming indie game community. Yes, of course there are still aspects to wage battles about. Sony is saying that it will allow for developers to use 1GB of flexible memory, which is an ambiguous consolation considering it's completely unclear how much of that can be split up between games and the console OS at any given moment for any given game. Nevertheless, for those counting it means game developers for the PS4 can potentially use up to 5.5GB of memory, while Xbox One clocks in at 5GB. Does the difference matter? To gamers, it shouldn't. To those who may actually be making these massive, memory-intensive titles, it sure could mean the difference between having -- or not having -- a highly-desired feature integrate seamlessly into a game environment. But for the average gamer who won't truly have any clue whether or not Tom Clancy's The Division for PS4 is utilizing that flexible gigabyte to make it incrementally smoother in certain parts than its Xbox counterpart, this memory race is meaningless. What truly matters is how much more powerful than their predecessors these consoles are. Think about it. Even 4.5GB of memory dedicated to a single PS4 game is nearly nine times more than the PS3, with its RAM maxed out at 512MB, was capable of allocating. That's an incredibly meaningful leap, and one that should be no less influential to the next-gen gaming experience because it differs slightly than the competitor's nearly identically powerful black box. Furthermore, it's simply time we resign ourselves to the realization that these consoles, from a hardware perspective, are almost completely in step. Of course, there are still very minute details that need to come to light before we can truly judge whether the PS4 is more technologically capable than the Xbox One, especially from a development standpoint, which will affect what games stay on certain platforms and which titles can truly live up to their potential. But for all intents and purposes, these two consoles are now clearly approaching a similarity level that makes a vast majority of side-picking arguments irrelevant outside the core matters, which should still reside in restrictions, privacy and the obvious-but-not-often-emphasized matter of what games you will actually be playing. So if graphics and memory usage are true selling points for you, then I'll say it again that this next-gen console war may not be the place to be hoisting up those priorities. Things like difference of memory usage and other hardware should be now be arguments solely for the PC market, and while the consoles now perform and operate with innards very similar to top-shelf towers, they couldn't revolve any less around the same pointless spec details.
Sony's PlayStation 4 console will need a healthy portion of its 8GB of memory simply to run the console's OS. That's inspired a new torrent of Xbox One and PS4 comparisons. But here's why they don't make sense.
Digital Foundry's findings on the PlayStation 4 OS RAM requirements.
The news this morning from Digital Foundry that Sony's PlayStation 4 will require a hefty chunk of its memory to run the console's OS -- 3.5GB of its celebrated 8GB total -- has a few scratching their heads and many a fanboy rushing to the front lines. But we shouldn't be wasting our breath on hardware comparisons that miss the point.
The argument goes that so much memory-hogging kills the soaring ambitions Sony had set out for developers. The company announced the jump from 4GB to 8GB, and the concern was that developers wouldn't be able to tap the full potential of the new console's extra muscle.
The news also follows some of the most vicious console-war back-and-forths in gaming history, spats that gave the PS4 a popular nudge toward the lead, over Microsoft's XBox One. To those who furiously typed out calculated defenses of Sony and joined in on the collective spearing of Microsoft and its Xbox One missteps, it comes off as a bit of a "gotcha!" in that it's becoming ever more clear that the consoles are getting increasingly similar.
But the truth is that Sony's RAM requirements should come as no surprise. The need is only slightly more demanding than Microsoft's Xbox One, which requires 3GB out of its 8GB of total memory. The fact that these consoles are doing a heck of alot more than just running games - for instance, constantly storing gameplay footage, integrating activity into social networks and streaming services, recording your physical movements at all times - inherently means they will need more RAM to keep chugging along. If you wanted to play games on a less memory-intensive OS, you'd be a PC gamer.
That Sony wouldn't open up about this sooner may be telling to its strategy to keep the conversation centered less on specs and more on strategy, specifically its corporate pro-gamer mindset and how much more consumer-friendly it was when compared with Microsoft's restrictive disaster. But after all, that's smart marketing and shouldn't change your sympathies towards the PS4 if that's the console you've gone all in on. This next-gen is ultimately about the overall gaming experience with emphasis on platform exclusives, ease and functionality of online play, and the treatment of the blossoming indie game community.
Yes, of course there are still aspects to wage battles about. Sony is saying that it will allow for developers to use 1GB of flexible memory, which is an ambiguous consolation considering it's completely unclear how much of that can be split up between games and the console OS at any given moment for any given game.
Nevertheless, for those counting it means game developers for the PS4 can potentially use up to 5.5GB of memory, while Xbox One clocks in at 5GB. Does the difference matter? To gamers, it shouldn't.
To those who may actually be making these massive, memory-intensive titles, it sure could mean the difference between having -- or not having -- a highly-desired feature integrate seamlessly into a game environment. But for the average gamer who won't truly have any clue whether or not Tom Clancy's The Division for PS4 is utilizing that flexible gigabyte to make it incrementally smoother in certain parts than its Xbox counterpart, this memory race is meaningless.
What truly matters is how much more powerful than their predecessors these consoles are. Think about it. Even 4.5GB of memory dedicated to a single PS4 game is nearly nine times more than the PS3, with its RAM maxed out at 512MB, was capable of allocating. That's an incredibly meaningful leap, and one that should be no less influential to the next-gen gaming experience because it differs slightly than the competitor's nearly identically powerful black box.
Furthermore, it's simply time we resign ourselves to the realization that these consoles, from a hardware perspective, are almost completely in step. Of course, there are still very minute details that need to come to light before we can truly judge whether the PS4 is more technologically capable than the Xbox One, especially from a development standpoint, which will affect what games stay on certain platforms and which titles can truly live up to their potential.
But for all intents and purposes, these two consoles are now clearly approaching a similarity level that makes a vast majority of side-picking arguments irrelevant outside the core matters, which should still reside in restrictions, privacy and the obvious-but-not-often-emphasized matter of what games you will actually be playing.
So if graphics and memory usage are true selling points for you, then I'll say it again that this next-gen console war may not be the place to be hoisting up those priorities. Things like difference of memory usage and other hardware should be now be arguments solely for the PC market, and while the consoles now perform and operate with innards very similar to top-shelf towers, they couldn't revolve any less around the same pointless spec details.
