AfterDawn: News

UPDATED: Sony cutting RAM in upcoming Vita handheld?

Update: Sony has said this weekend they will not reduce the RAM in the Vita, but they will also not reveal the final specs meaning it could still be 256MB instead of the rumored 512MB.

According to developer Novarama's CEO Dani Sánchez-Crespo, the upcoming Sony PlayStation Vita will indeed see the rumored RAM reduction.



Originally pegged at 512MB of RAM, the handheld will have just half of that.

When asked if the cut would cause any problems for developers, Sanchez-Crespo says:

That won’t affect us. It’s actually good for developers to work under constraint. Generally for Vita, we still have a whole lot of headroom in terms of GPU power, CPU power and indeed RAM.

The exec also reminded that the original PSP severely lacks powerful specs compared to the Vita:

Remember the PSP had 32 MG of RAM, we have about ten times that now. And the system’s battery life, by the way, is really good. You’d think with all the processing power that it would drain fast, but it’s fantastic.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 1 Aug 2011 2:10

• Previous article

• Sony says cost of PSN breach will likely be less than expected

• Next article

• Foxconn will replace some workers with 1 million robots within 3 years

• 24 comments

• brockie

  http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-07-29-sources-question-vita-ram-halved-claim
  he was asked how he felt if it was halved I think in the above story.
  
  the guy has already backtracked on the above statement saying he does not even no if that is true.

  1.8.2011 02:27 #1

• jookycola

  And now all the promises and selling points will slowly start to fall off this thing until it's just another bomb like the last psp.
  

  
  

  1.8.2011 02:47 #2

• brockie

  jookycola bomb? the 6 year old PSP is outselling the 3DS 2-1 this quarter.

  1.8.2011 03:09 #3

• ps3lvanub

  Originally posted by jookycola: And now all the promises and selling points will slowly start to fall off this thing until it's just another bomb like the last psp. I liked the last PSP... But this isn't good at all. I will just wait a year and get whatever improved PSP they come up with that has 512MB of ram... Hey Sony, I know what this hypothetical PSP can be called: PSP VitaLITY <See what I did there? :D
  

  
  
  IMPORTANT: If you hate Sony for being so corrupt, copy this image into your signature too!
  
  OMG! COD6 TENTH HACK WITHOUT JTAG!

  1.8.2011 09:31 #4

• KillerBug

  No biggie...it is a very dumb way to cripple their new device, but I probably wouldn't buy it anyway...If I buy another Sony product after the PS3, I really deserve to get f**ked...and I will.

  1.8.2011 11:09 #5

• ZippyDSM

  Er......why make it that much harder to port PS3 games to the new PSP?
  

  Until lobbying is a hanging offense I choose anarchy!
  Ah modern gaming its like modern film only the watering down of fiction and characters is replaced with shallow and watered down mechanics, gimmicks and shiny-er "people".
  http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/

  1.8.2011 11:23 #6

• Mr_Bill06

  Well of course the PSP is out selling a higher priced handheld. Any model of a Toyota car will out sell any cars from Ferrari. The 3DS also does not have a lot of 3D games for it yet, and the ones out are not that great from reviews I have been reading. Things may change when the price cut comes this month for the 3DS.
  

  1.8.2011 11:39 #7

• ZippyDSM

  I got this feeling they will put it back within the next couple of revisions.....
  

  Until lobbying is a hanging offense I choose anarchy!
  Ah modern gaming its like modern film only the watering down of fiction and characters is replaced with shallow and watered down mechanics, gimmicks and shiny-er "people".
  http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/

  1.8.2011 11:56 #8

• themind

  Afterdawn is the only place that Confirmed that the Vita will have half the ram. You heard it here first. Thanks Mr. Yoskowitz this will surly end up happening.
  Confirmed: Sony will cut ram down to 256mb in upcoming PS3 console
  

  1.8.2011 13:14 #9

• Mysttic

  O_o AD was the first to confirm... Well even if that is true, does it really matter? And as for half the RAM it all comes down to how good the games are and even then... it's like Killer said, after the PS3 bs, can you really trust them enough to care.

  1.8.2011 13:32 #10

• DXR88

  and this is why we shouldn't let execs piss around with engineering specs. if the engineer says it needs 512MB ram, it needs 512MB of ram...always trying to save a few cents. idiots
  

  Powered By
  
  

  1.8.2011 13:45 #11

• Azuran

  Quote:It’s actually good for developers to work under constraint. Am I reading this right? I'm not a programmer, but my common sense is tingling and its telling me this is a load of ****. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
  

  1.8.2011 14:26 #12

• DXR88

  Originally posted by Azuran: Quote:It’s actually good for developers to work under constraint. Am I reading this right? I'm not a programmer, but my common sense is tingling and its telling me this is a load of ****. Please correct me if I'm wrong. its a load of shit. its the old way of thinking while it used to be valid as what you could do with textures was very limited, there was no need for extra head room.
  
  now you have all kinds of texture enhancing techniques, which requires that much more ram, a good developer wont let and extra 256MB go to waist.
  
  again its coming from an exec that couldn't give a shit how it performs as long as he gets his cut.
  
  

  Powered By
  
  

  1.8.2011 14:56 #13

• Mr_Bill06

  That is a load of crap like DXR88 has said, where not in the 80's and 90's anymore games are more complex and ram is quite cheap and they buy in massive quantities saving even more. This call is not by any means to pass the savings on to the consumer. Sony if you could only do things right you would have customers coming back, not running away.
  

  1.8.2011 15:43 #14

• xnonsuchx

  Originally posted by Azuran: Quote:It’s actually good for developers to work under constraint. Am I reading this right? I'm not a programmer, but my common sense is tingling and its telling me this is a load of ****. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
  Well, kinda wrong! That's one reason game consoles have less memory than general purpose computers...to help prevent lazy developers from writing crappy 'bloatware' code like they can on computers. That, along w/ lower power needs and less heat.
  
  Anyway, it's so silly for people to be arguing about changes to rumored specs, especially when thy have no first-hand knowledge that such a change really affects anything.

  1.8.2011 15:47 #15

• DXR88

  Originally posted by xnonsuchx: Originally posted by Azuran: Quote:It’s actually good for developers to work under constraint. Am I reading this right? I'm not a programmer, but my common sense is tingling and its telling me this is a load of ****. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
  Well, kinda wrong! That's one reason game consoles have less memory than general purpose computers...to help prevent lazy developers from writing crappy 'bloatware' code like they can on computers. That, along w/ lower power needs and less heat.
  
  Anyway, it's so silly for people to be arguing about changes to rumored specs, especially when thy have no first-hand knowledge that such a change really affects anything. the more ram the larger the textures, more head room for stuff like AA and Anisotropic filtering, texture stenciling i could go on all day about stuff that can fill all the ram. besides the CPU has very strict rules on what goes in and what comes out, curving the bloatware use substantially
  
  if consoles had more ram they would and could still be on par with your midrange PC's.
  
  if it turns out to be untrue good, unlikely though.
  

  Powered By
  
  

  1.8.2011 17:58 #16

• brockie

  Mr_Bill06 so the PS2 should be out selling everything as well then if we look at it your way.

  1.8.2011 21:17 #17

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by brockie: Mr_Bill06 so the PS2 should be out selling everything as well then if we look at it your way. it was doing better than everything but the WII for a time....
  

  Until lobbying is a hanging offense I choose anarchy!
  Ah modern gaming its like modern film only the watering down of fiction and characters is replaced with shallow and watered down mechanics, gimmicks and shiny-er "people".
  http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/

  1.8.2011 21:41 #18

• xnonsuchx

  Originally posted by DXR88: the more ram the larger the textures, more head room for stuff like AA and Anisotropic filtering, texture stenciling i could go on all day about stuff that can fill all the ram.
  I'm not saying it doesn't make things easier in some cases, but how many people would whine about an extra $25-50 in cost and up to 10-20% lower battery life? It's all about trade-offs and most of the people complaining about this RUMOR have little to no idea what they're even talking about and make ridiculously false comparisons/assumptions about it. I wouldn't bother caring at all about the issue until if and when a respected developer actually says something has an inherent flaw.

  1.8.2011 23:14 #19

• KillerBug

  Originally posted by xnonsuchx: Originally posted by DXR88: the more ram the larger the textures, more head room for stuff like AA and Anisotropic filtering, texture stenciling i could go on all day about stuff that can fill all the ram.
  I'm not saying it doesn't make things easier in some cases, but how many people would whine about an extra $25-50 in cost and up to 10-20% lower battery life? It's all about trade-offs and most of the people complaining about this RUMOR have little to no idea what they're even talking about and make ridiculously false comparisons/assumptions about it. I wouldn't bother caring at all about the issue until if and when a respected developer actually says something has an inherent flaw. LoL...it wouldn't add nearly that much...you can get 12GB of high quality memory, mounted on sticks, with coolers, and assembled by corsair for just $100...that is under $5 for 512MB, retail...cut that in half for wholesale without boards, and then cut that down about 33% because Sony would not use good memory...and you see that by cutting the memory in half, they are saving about $1 per unit.
  
  ...But the sony beancounters chimed up and said something like, "We can save $50,000,000 dollars on the first 50,000,000 units shipped if we cut the memory in half"...and that was that...nevermind that the games will suffer and thus they will sell fewer units.
  

  
  

  2.8.2011 01:11 #20

• brockie

  KillerBug hate campaign again if any thing Sony products are made very well so they must use good parts.

  2.8.2011 07:06 #21

• jookycola

  Actually I like and agree with everything Killerbug has said in this. Bean counters won this round.
  

  
  

  2.8.2011 15:38 #22

• KillerBug

  Originally posted by brockie: KillerBug hate campaign again if any think Sony products are made very well so they must use good parts. Sony cuts corners...I'm not saying they are as bad as microsoft or anything...but it is rare to find top-quality parts in a Sony product...and since I was discussing the price of top-quality Corsair memory, the 33% stands. If anything, I was giving them more credit than the deserved with the wholesale prices.
  
  Even if they did use top quality components, the price difference between 256MB and 512MB would still be under $1.50 per unit.
  

  
  

  3.8.2011 04:35 #23

• LM2008

  Is funny how Sony announces the biggest device of the present years and while time pass, all real pieces start to fall, until we end with a..bricked handheld. I was so exited when Vita was announced, but now what i'm hearing is not so good.
  

  5.8.2011 12:48 #24