Memory capacity (Memory) over time
Installed byte-addressed memory of the stated kind.
- Device scope
- memory
- Method
- Design capacity
- Plotted in
- byte
Chart
63 figures from 38 machines, spanning 1964 to 2022. The lowest memory capacity here is 128 B (Atari 2600, 1977) and the highest is 16 GiB (Valve Steam Deck, 2022). That is a range of about 134 217 728× within one comparability group; the figures are plotted in B. Points use the release date of the machine the figure belongs to. The table below lists absent figures with their recorded reasons.
Data
| Machine | Released | Figure | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IBM System/360 Model 50 IBM 2050F Main Storage | April 1964 | 65 536 B | Vendor-rated | |
| Apple II Apple II firmware ROM | June 1977 | 8 KiB | Vendor-rated | |
| Atari 2600 Atari 2600 RIOT RAM | September 1977 | 128 B | Vendor-rated | |
| Atari 800 Atari 800 system RAM | November 1979 | 48 KiB | Vendor-rated provisional | |
| Atari 800 Atari 800 firmware ROM | November 1979 | 10 KiB | Vendor-rated provisional | |
| IBM Personal Computer 5150 IBM PC 5150 system RAM | August 1981 | 16 KiB | Vendor-rated | |
| IBM Personal Computer 5150 IBM PC 5150 firmware ROM | August 1981 | 40 KiB | Vendor-rated | |
| BBC Micro Model B BBC Micro Model B RAM | December 1981 | 32 KiB | Vendor-rated | |
| BBC Micro Model B BBC Micro Model B ROM | December 1981 | 32 KiB | Vendor-rated | |
| ZX Spectrum 48K ZX Spectrum 48K RAM | April 1982 | 48 KiB | Vendor-rated provisional | |
| ZX Spectrum 48K ZX Spectrum ROM | April 1982 | 16 KiB | Vendor-rated provisional | |
| Commodore 64 Commodore 64 system RAM | August 1982 | 64 KiB Dynamic RAM filling the whole sixteen-bit address space. | Vendor-rated | |
| Commodore 64 Commodore 64 system ROM | August 1982 | 20 KiB BASIC, the KERNAL operating system and the standard character set. | Vendor-rated | |
| Apple Macintosh 128K Macintosh 128K RAM | January 1984 | 128 KiB | Vendor-rated | |
| Apple Macintosh 128K Macintosh 128K ROM | January 1984 | 64 KiB | Vendor-rated | |
| Amstrad CPC 464 Amstrad CPC 464 RAM | June 1984 | 64 KiB | Vendor-rated provisional | |
| Atari 520ST Atari 520ST RAM | June 1985 | 512 KiB | Vendor-rated provisional | |
| Atari 520ST Atari 520ST TOS ROM | June 1985 | 192 KiB | Vendor-rated provisional | |
| Nintendo Entertainment System Nintendo Entertainment System RAM | October 1985 | 2 KiB Static work RAM addressable by the processor. | Vendor-rated | |
| Nintendo Entertainment System Nintendo Entertainment System video RAM | October 1985 | 2 KiB Static video RAM addressable by the picture processor. | Vendor-rated | |
| Sega Master System Sega Master System RAM | June 1986 | 8 KiB | Vendor-rated provisional | |
| Sega Master System Sega Master System video RAM | June 1986 | 16 KiB | Vendor-rated provisional | |
| Commodore Amiga 500 Amiga 500 Chip memory | 1987 | 512 KiB Chip memory in a base Amiga 500, per table 1-1. The maximum with a later Agnus is 1 MiB. | Vendor-rated | |
| NEC PC Engine PC Engine work RAM | October 1987 | 8 KiB | Vendor-rated provisional | |
| NEC PC Engine PC Engine video RAM | October 1987 | 64 KiB | Vendor-rated provisional | |
| Sega Mega Drive Sega Mega Drive RAM | October 1988 | 64 KiB | Vendor-rated provisional | |
| Nintendo Game Boy Game Boy work RAM | April 1989 | 8192 B | Vendor-rated provisional | |
| SNK Neo Geo AES Neo Geo AES work RAM | April 1990 | 64 KiB | Vendor-rated provisional | |
| Super Nintendo Entertainment System Super Nintendo work RAM | August 1991 | 128 KiB Work RAM addressable by the processor. | Vendor-rated | |
| Super Nintendo Entertainment System Super Nintendo video RAM | August 1991 | 64 KiB Video RAM addressable by the picture processors. | Vendor-rated | |
| Commodore Amiga 1200 Amiga 1200 Chip memory | October 1992 | 2 MiB The maximum Chip memory, which the manual records as the standard configuration by the time it was written. Machines shipped with 1 MB on the motherboard. | Vendor-rated | |
| Commodore Amiga 1200 Amiga 1200 Kickstart ROM | October 1992 | 512 KiB Kickstart 3.0 mask ROM, organized as 128K by 32 bit. | Vendor-rated | |
| Commodore Amiga 4000 Amiga 4000 Chip memory | October 1992 | 2 MiB | Vendor-rated | |
| Sega Saturn Sega Saturn backup RAM | November 1994 | 32 KiB Backup RAM of the PAL console, model MK-80200-50. | Vendor-rated | |
| Sega Saturn Sega Saturn CD buffer RAM | November 1994 | 512 KiB CD buffer RAM of the PAL console, model MK-80200-50. | Vendor-rated | |
| Sega Saturn Sega Saturn IPL ROM | November 1994 | 512 KiB IPL ROM of the PAL console, model MK-80200-50. | Vendor-rated | |
| Sega Saturn Sega Saturn work RAM | November 1994 | 2 MiB Work RAM of the PAL console, model MK-80200-50. | Vendor-rated | |
| Sega Saturn Sega Saturn sound RAM | November 1994 | 512 KiB Sound RAM of the PAL console, model MK-80200-50. | Vendor-rated | |
| Sega Saturn Sega Saturn video RAM | November 1994 | 1.5 MiB Video RAM of the PAL console, model MK-80200-50. | Vendor-rated | |
| Sony PlayStation PlayStation main memory | December 1994 | 2 MiB Main memory installed in the console. No TLB is fitted, so the physical map is fixed. | Vendor-rated | |
| Sony PlayStation PlayStation video memory | December 1994 | 1 MiB Video memory attached to the GPU, holding the frame buffer, texture pages and color lookup tables. | Vendor-rated | |
| Nintendo 64 Nintendo 64 main memory (RDRAM) | June 1996 | 4 MiB Main memory of the retail console, built from 9 bit RDRAMs. | Vendor-rated | |
| Sega Dreamcast Dreamcast audio memory | November 1998 | 2 MiB Audio memory belonging to the AICA chip. Development hardware could carry 8 MiB. | Vendor-rated | |
| Sega Dreamcast Dreamcast main memory | November 1998 | 16 MiB Base system space. SDRAM directly connected to the SH-4 on a 64 bit bus. | Vendor-rated | |
| Sega Dreamcast Dreamcast texture memory | November 1998 | 8 MiB Texture memory belonging to the graphics chip. Development hardware could carry 16 MiB. | Vendor-rated | |
| Sony PlayStation 2 Graphics Synthesizer embedded DRAM | March 2000 | 4 MiB Embedded DRAM on the Graphics Synthesizer die, holding the frame buffer, the Z buffer and textures in one address space. | Vendor-rated | |
| Sony PlayStation 2 PlayStation 2 main memory (Direct RDRAM) | March 2000 | 32 MiB Main memory fitted to the console. The Emotion Engine can address 256 MB, which development hardware used and retail machines never did. | Vendor-rated | |
| Game Boy Advance Game Boy Advance writable RAM | March 2001 | 288 KiB | Vendor-rated provisional | |
| Game Boy Advance Game Boy Advance video RAM | March 2001 | 96 KiB | Vendor-rated provisional | |
| Nintendo GameCube Nintendo GameCube main memory | September 2001 | 24 MiB MoSys 1T-SRAM main memory of the shipped console. | Vendor-rated | |
| Nintendo GameCube Nintendo GameCube sound memory | September 2001 | 16 MiB 81 MHz DRAM reserved for sound on the shipped console. | Vendor-rated | |
| Microsoft Xbox Microsoft Xbox unified memory | November 2001 | 64 MiB | Vendor-rated | |
| Nintendo DS Nintendo DS main RAM | November 2004 | 4096 KiB | Vendor-rated provisional | |
| Microsoft Xbox 360 Microsoft Xbox 360 unified memory | November 2005 | 512 MiB | Vendor-rated | |
| Nintendo Wii Nintendo Wii MEM1 | November 2006 | 24 MiB | Vendor-rated provisional | |
| Nintendo Wii Nintendo Wii MEM2 | November 2006 | 64 MiB | Vendor-rated provisional | |
| Sony PlayStation 3 PlayStation 3 video memory (GDDR3) | November 2006 | 256 MiB Video memory attached to the RSX, in the console Sony launched. | Vendor-rated | |
| Sony PlayStation 3 PlayStation 3 main memory (XDR DRAM) | November 2006 | 256 MiB Main memory attached to the Cell processor, in the console Sony launched. | Vendor-rated | |
| Nintendo Wii U Nintendo Wii U unified memory | November 2012 | 2 GiB Four DDR3-1600 modules as fitted to the shipped console. | Vendor-rated provisional | |
| Microsoft Xbox One Microsoft Xbox One unified memory | November 2013 | 8 GiB Main memory of the shipped console, excluding the on-die eSRAM. | Vendor-rated | |
| Nintendo Switch Nintendo Switch unified memory | March 2017 | 4 GiB The LPDDR4 shared between the processor and the graphics units of the shipped console. | Vendor-rated | |
| Microsoft Xbox Series X Microsoft Xbox Series X unified memory | November 2020 | 16 GiB GDDR6 on a 320 bit bus. | Vendor-rated | |
| Valve Steam Deck Valve Steam Deck unified memory | February 2022 | 16 GiB On-board LPDDR5 as fitted to the LCD model. | Vendor-rated | |
| Apple II Apple II system RAM | June 1977 | unknown The January 1978 manual leaves fitted RAM dependent on the purchased configuration and does not state one universal capacity. | not plotted | — |
| MSX MSX system RAM | 1983 | unknown No page-level RAM figure has been verified in the cited book. | not plotted | — |
| MSX MSX BIOS and BASIC ROM | 1983 | unknown No page-level ROM figure has been verified in the cited book. | not plotted | — |
| Amstrad CPC 464 Amstrad CPC 464 ROM | June 1984 | unknown No page-level ROM figure has been verified in the cited guide. | not plotted | — |
| Acorn Archimedes A310 Acorn Archimedes A310 RAM | June 1987 | unknown No page-level RAM figure has been verified in the cited manual. | not plotted | — |
| Acorn Archimedes A310 Acorn Archimedes ROM | June 1987 | unknown No page-level ROM figure has been verified in the cited manual. | not plotted | — |
Why this chart holds one group only
Every point on a chart is implicitly compared with every other point on it. This chart uses one comparability group: one metric, one device scope, one method . There is no chart of all clock frequencies over time because they are not one quantity.
Points use the release date of the machine a figure belongs to, including figures recorded against a part. A release date applies only to a machine that shipped. What this metric measures.