While we've already seen the outside of Sony's PlayStation 4, there were still some speculations to be dealt with as far as system and specifications are concerned. Now, there's a new report stating that PlayStation 4 will take up 3.5GB of its 8GB GDDR5 memory for the operating system, leaving only 4.5GB of space for game code.
The information was revealed via a current PlayStation 4 documentation shown to Digital Foundry by a well-placed development source. However, more sources have also suggested that an additional 1GB of "flexible memory" may be attained via the OS reservation, based on the console's availability.
The report was later updated when a new source familiar with the matter offered additional information to Digital Foundry, confirming only 4.5GB of the PS4's 8GB GDDR5 memory will be guaranteed to game developers for the moment. The source also clarified how the PS4's flexible memory works.
The source explained to The Digital Foundry, as scripted by Eurogamer: "In real terms, an additional 512MB of physical RAM may be available in addition to the 4.5GB mentioned in the SDK. Flexible memory consists of physical and virtual spaces, and the latter introduces paging issues which impact performance. In our original story we combined them together. For practical game applications, the correct figures for this story, as we understand it now, are a guaranteed 4.5GB for development and a further 512MB from the flexible pool."
The original report had also stressed on Sony's internal docs that stated that 4.5GB worth of guaranteed memory would be available for developers, and will most likely be the same for every other game that makes its way to the console.
On the other hand, other sources close to Sony hinted that developers can also request up to an additional gigabyte of flexible memory purposes that can be used to boost several elements of the game (provided the background OS is also agreeing with the cause). However, rights may initially be reserved for the request of additional space, and could only be allotted to first-party developers.
While this information didn't come straight from an internal source, developing companies have already taken note of the growing popularity of the report, with some even taking to Twitter to make their points clear. One of them is Phil Tibitoski, president and community manager for Young Horses Inc.
Tibiotski, recently in the news for developing Octodad: Dadliest Catch for the PS4, shared his opinions on the matter after a user enquired about the same on Twitter, stating, "I know absolutely dick about developing, but devoting nearly half your RAM to the OS just seems like a lot. So I'm curious. I can say that there's plenty of RAM for the game side of things and it's nothing for anyone besides a dev to worry about."
He added: "It's not a lot with the amount of new stuff you can do. But I can't say anything more really. Sorry!"
The PlayStation 4 is currently set for a fall 2013 release.
