Sony’s upcoming next-gen console, the PlayStation 4 may come with a whopping 8GB of GDDR5 RAM, but only 4.5GB of that is guaranteed to developers of PlayStation 4 titles. Of the missing 3.5GB, an additional 1GB can be accessed as flexible memory, meaning it can be used by the game as long as the system does not need it.

This gives developers a total of 5.5GB to play with should they need it, not quite the 7GB that many had hoped. The remaining RAM will be reserved for the Operating System (OS), though it is rumoured that this 3.5GB OS requirement could be lowered once the console OS is streamlined.

Some of the PlayStation 4’s new features such as application switching, and the ability to pause and resume games on the fly are being touted as the cause of this 3.5GB system load. Never the less, the PlayStation 4 will still be a gaming behemoth when it launches this winter for a RRP of $399/€399/£349.

What do you think of the 3.5GB operating system load, which brings the PS4 into line with Microsoft’s Xbox One, which uses 3GB for the system? Microsoft’s strength has always been the software, whilst Sony have pushed the hardware front so it’s interesting to see that Sony has more power, but needs of it to run it’s OS. Let us know what you think of this latest development in the console war in the comments below.