The TG500 lacks the waveform RAM of the SY85, but can be expanded with one or two SYEMB06 non-volatile waveform RAM modules. It also features 64 note polyphony, being one of the first commercial synthesisers to do so.
Yamaha also offered a rack-mount version of the SY85 called the TG500. It lacks the keyboard, sequencer, floppy drive and continuous sliders but adds additional outputs, a further card slot of each kind (for four slots in total) and 2MB of waveform ROM for 50 additional internal waveforms for a total of 8MB over the 6MB of the SY85.