Not long ago, Sony has confirmed that the PlayStation 5 will add an SSD for a better performance. For instance, the Solid-state drive is able to reduce load times greatly. That is to say, both old games and new games will run even faster on PlayStation 5 than on other systems. What’s more important? It will improve the raw bandwidth largely.
The sources say that Sony has already improved its SSD units. Why? This is one of the preparations for integrating SSD into the upcoming PlayStation 5 console. Sony decides to use the customized SSD, instead of the basic SSDs, in the next-generation console because it wants to reach the peak performance levels.
Sony SSD for PlayStation 5: High Bandwidth
Among the technical details about Sony’s next-gen PS5 console (including AMD Ryzen-powered APU and Navi GPU), the built-in Sony SSD for PlayStation draws much attention of the public. The biggest bright spot of Sony SSD for PlayStation 5 is the ultra-high potential bandwidth.
Huge Difference between PS4 & PS5 Console
The news saying that Sony’s PS5 SSD will be added to PS5 only come out over a month ago. Afterwards, Sony had demonstrated the performance difference between the PlayStation 4 Pro and the next-generation console development platform to the gathered press in the US. The demonstration shows the difference is actually huge.
Tips On Adding An External Drive To Your PS4 Or PS4 Pro.
Mark Cerny’s Demonstration
Mark Cerny commented on the SSD performance of the new PlayStation 5 in the new Wired article: Sony’s PS5 SSD is “the key to the next generation”.
After putting an SSD into the PS4 Pro console and an early ‘low-speed’ devkit device, Cerny made a side-by-side demonstration. He used a Spider-Man’s fast-travelling system to demonstrate the load times.
It turns out that the load times have been improved a lot:
- It usually takes 15 seconds to load into the new area on the PS4 Pro console.
- The time is reduced to just 0.8 seconds on the devkit.
Additionally, Mark Cerny also makes a demonstration of the benefits of an SSD during loading in the visuals of a new area; for example, on the expansive open world of Spider-Man.
High Raw Bandwidth
Till now, there is no technical detail about the customized SSD of Sony. There is no clear answer to any of these questions:
- Who makes the NAND flash memory or controller?
- Whether it is equipped with the PCIe 4.0 interface?
The raw read speed is important. But so are the details of the I/O mechanisms and the software stack that we put on top of them. I got a PlayStation 4 Pro and then I put in a SSD that cost as much as the PlayStation 4 Pro—it might be one-third faster.– said Mark Cerny
As a result, Sony doesn’t want to simply add the new SSD into the PlayStation 5; the company declared that it has worked together with its partner (may be AMD) to finish the development of input/output system. In this way, users can enjoy more and advanced features that can’t be got by simply adding a NAND flash into the PS5 console.
The next generation of AMD Ryzen 3000 CPUs and the upcoming Navi GPUs which will be included in the new SSD are expected to run on PCIe 4.0 interface. That shows the raw bandwidth of Sony’s SSD for PlayStation 5 is greater than anything else on the PC. This is only possible when AMD launch the new CPUs and the corresponding X570 motherboards giving support to PCIe 4.0.
The PCIe SSD Market Share Will Be Equal To SATA Drive Market Share.
The new PCIe interface is going to double the theoretical bandwidth of PCIe 4.0. Only in this way, can the raw performance of PC keep pace with new console.