Split the user base with an option add-on? That's a truly awful idea.
The PS2 had a life of more than 5 years, there's no reason a successful console shouldn't.Dire_Weasel

I had actually thought about that for a few hours after I had posted this thread. It would split the console consumer base and therefore we would have the dilema of what the PC Game developers have: Different Systems Configurations, make sure it could run well on all of them.

The initial reason for posting this thread is because, with the PS2 and the Xbox console, I don't remember seeing a whole lot of lag within the games that I played, like Devil May Cry, God of War, Soul Calibur II, Shadow Hearts, Final Fantasy X, Timesplitters, Halo, Dead or Alive 3, Dead or Alive Ultimate, Ninja Gaiden; all ran smoothly and without hesitation. The more recent games that came to mind for this concept were Assassins Creed and Mass Effect. Both are visually stunning games and run well, but I would like the next gen systems to run like they should: at 60+ fps. In both games, the frame rates drop when in densely populated areas (not to an unplayable extent, but still noticeable), and I would just like them to run smoother is all.

It has been suggested that the frame-rate increase will come with the firmware updates, but is that going to be the beat all end all solution?

There are some great technologies out today and with todays consoles there is some serious firepower going on - The only thing that will hold the consoles back is the RAM. Each system as of now has a total of 512 MB of RAM - not 1 GB or 1.5GB, but 512 MB.

Check out Gamespot's Head to Head Tech specs of each system here.

What I would propose is that the manufacturers of these systems put an upgrade feature in place. That the person fills out some information request for their system, pays a fee for the upgrades and sends it in to get the upgrades put in. With the development of faster RAM from Samsung, this would definitely speed up the processing of the games and also with the more efficient use of multi-core processors this would be a HUGE thing.

What do you think?