Rumour – Is Sony Cutting The NGP’s RAM In Half?

26 responses to “Rumour – Is Sony Cutting The NGP’s RAM In Half?”

1. 

   Rappo

   May 27, 2011 at 3:08 pm

   Awwww… And I thought it was actually going to be a good system

   Reply
2. 

   SuperFred

   May 27, 2011 at 3:10 pm

   Here’s hoping they make it upgradable RAM, like the PS3’s HDD

   Reply
   1. 

      Simon

      May 27, 2011 at 3:13 pm

      Yeah.. that’s not going to happen.

      Reply
   2. 

      Jonathan Betten

      May 27, 2011 at 3:13 pm

      LOL, there is a stark difference between system specification RAM and a replaceable HDD. In the end, it wouldn’t happen.

      Reply
3. 

   706

   May 27, 2011 at 3:30 pm

   This is kind of disappointing. I didn’t know how much RAM it had to begin with, 512 isn’t much but in a handheld I could imagine it going pretty far. 256 though… doesn’t sound very impressive.

   Reply
   1. 

      The Insufferable Señor Steengo

      May 27, 2011 at 3:46 pm

      Hey, it’s only half as much as the PS3.

      Reply
4. 

   N0NEoftheAB0VE

   May 27, 2011 at 3:37 pm

   Well I guess Epic’s not gonna be pleased!

   How expensive is RAM anyway – my PC does bugger all and even it has 4GB?

   Reply
   1. 

      Alinos

      May 27, 2011 at 4:57 pm

      not very, the next gen of consoles should really have minimum 8.

      the issue isn’t so much the ram size itself. It’d be clock speed and most likely internal heat/battery drain.

      The reduction in ram might save 10-20 dollars(probably a lot less when bought in bulk), but if it means that battery life is extended, provides more airflow there could be other benefits that make the cost difference more than just the part.

      Also depends on the size of the RAM card.

      for PC i think for 2Gb RAM DDR3 at MSY, for the worst possible brand you would be paying like 20-25 bucks. Note that a stick of this ram would be maybe 13cm long and about 3-4cm tall(off the top of my head

      Reply
5. 

   dmag87

   May 27, 2011 at 3:59 pm

   If Sony can sell this thing for roughly the same price as teh 3DS, that will massively increase their chances of competing in the handheld wars. Let’s not beat around the bush, as ‘nice’ as ridiculously powerful hardware would be, no one would be willing to pay big dollars for this thing. Even the 3DS is pricey compared to the cost of consoles at the moment. Sony’s biggest mission should be keeping the cost down to roughly the 3DS’s. If they can’t, they’re finished before they even launch the thing.

   Reply
   1. 

      N0NEoftheAB0VE

      May 28, 2011 at 1:33 am

      I think they should be aiming for cheaper than the 3DS. Call me crazy but the 3DS ain’t exactly walking out of shops here.

      I know plenty of parents who have bought their kids a DS but are not even considering upgrading to the 3DS, and more still that wouldn’t even know of its existence.

      I think Nintendo has completely stuffed up when it comes to the price, $350 is highway robbery.

      I’ve considered it and with two DS age kids if I got one I’d have to get two or all hell would break lose and there’s no way I’m plonking down $700 when the only good games we’ve already played on the Xbox (SFIV) and the N64 (Zelda)

      If Sony ar cutting the RAM it gives me hope that they’e actually trying to undercut Nintendo’s price.

      Reply
6. 

   James Mac

   May 27, 2011 at 4:08 pm

   Not really surprising.

   I also think the cold reception the 3DS got didn’t help matters.

   Reply
   1. 

      Edward

      May 27, 2011 at 6:20 pm

      The majority of the cold reception was due to the massive lack of desirable titles at launch…

      Reply
      1. 

         solypsis

         May 27, 2011 at 10:02 pm

         yep!

         Reply
7. 

   djmcbell

   May 27, 2011 at 4:29 pm

   Isn’t it due out this year with people already making games for it? Bit late to announce that it’ll have half the RAM intended…

   However, how much RAM is required for a handheld?

   Reply
8. 

   Apris

   May 27, 2011 at 5:59 pm

   It is worth remembering a few things — SONY never announced any RAM numbers, 256mb system RAM and 128mb VRAM is a decent amount for a handheld. After all your going to use less memory for things like textures as textures can be a lower resolution without sacrificing quality (your not going to see a difference between 1080p textures and 720p textures on a 5″ screen)

   Ohh and to compare it to other gaming devices, it means NGP has 12x more RAM than PSP, 4x More than Wii, 3x more than 3DS, 96x more than DS and 75% of what PS3/360 has.

   Reply
   1. 

      oggob

      May 27, 2011 at 7:17 pm

      well that just settles it then, it’s complete crap. :p

      Honestly, I agree, handhelds are completely different to what you expect in a console, so this doesn’t concern me at all.

      The brief gameplay footage of Uncharted when it was first announced looks friggin crisp as, it also didn’t seem to be struggling with any framerate issues either.

      At e3 we are going to get bombarded with so much NGP media, we’ll be able to see if the games look like that are “suffering” from the system specs.

      Reply
      1. 

         solypsis

         May 27, 2011 at 10:08 pm

         But, do you really think all the developers are suddenly going to downgrade their demo reels / playable engines a couple of weeks before e3, just to make it appear closer to what they finally launch… or they will just leave everything “as is” (running at full power)and say it will look close to what we see/play at e3?

         I can’t imagine there would be time (or the desire) to do last minute changes.

         Reply
         1. 

            oggob

            May 28, 2011 at 12:51 am

            I’m of the opinion that these fresh reports are just confirming the actual specs of the console and original reports got lost in translation somewhere.

            Supposedly Uncharted NGP has been in development for 2 years now (someones LinkIn profile), they would have had a dev kit, like you mention it seems an odd choice to change those specs now, perhaps 6 mths out from a release somewhere.

            So either, there was no change and this is just confirming the specs. Or, there was a change, but tests carried out saw no performance impact on any of the games still being made, which is quite possible as this isn’t the VRAM, but general RAM so alot of it would be for the OS performance.

            Reply
9. 

   otoha

   May 27, 2011 at 6:39 pm

   I don’t have any problem with the removal of internal flash memory if they add an SDXC reader, however halving the RAM is a terrible idea and i would have thought they already learnt that lesson with the psp (with the 2000 and 3000 having double the original RAM)

   Reply
10. 

    plmko

    May 27, 2011 at 7:25 pm

    I don’t really care because the graphics memory is the same and that is what really matters.

    Reply
    1. 

       Dylan

       May 28, 2011 at 10:02 am

       Graphics aren’t important, not as important as the RAM anyway, too little RAM and game may look nice. But playing it will be as choppy as hell.

       Reply
11. 

    Gues(s)t?

    May 27, 2011 at 8:20 pm

    WHAT first my iPad 2 and now this!

    Reply
12. 

    Grandmaster B-Funk

    May 27, 2011 at 8:34 pm

    mmmmmmmmmmm……
    just make sure you don’t kill the games sony, because at the moment i’m more willing to buy an gp than a 3ds…

    Reply
13. 

    AnonymousPessimist

    May 27, 2011 at 11:11 pm

    Here’s a crazy idea:
    Only have one touch screen.

    Imagine the savings.

    Reply
    1. 

       techwizzy

       May 28, 2011 at 1:36 am

       smart idea thats a saving in the right direction
       I doubt anyone can come up with a better idea for sony to save on this

       Reply
14. 

    moloko

    May 28, 2011 at 12:44 am

    Don’t worry Nintendo won already.

    Reply