The PS5 will make use of a "specialised" SSD, or solid-state drive, allowing for crazy fast load times and unprecedented console game performance. Said SSD is "key" to the next-gen console, according to Mark Cerny, the brain behind the PS4, and now, the upcoming PS5.
Cerny describes the introduction of an SSD as "a true game changer", and above everything else, it's "the key to the next generation". In a lot of ways, the approach seems to make sense. Improved visuals are only going to take you so far -- some would argue that we're now closing in on the limit of what's possible with realistic graphics anyway -- and so, issues like load times and rendering could be where the next generation battle is fought.
Going into more detail in Wired's PS5 article, it sounds like developers have been asking Sony to put an SSD in its next-gen machine for some time. "Starting in the fall of 2015, when Cerny first began talking to developers about what they’d want from the next generation, he heard it time and time again: I know it’s impossible, but can we have an SSD?" it reads.
If this specialised SSD really can all but eliminate load times and allow games to run at their best, then Cerny's talk of changing the game will ring true. Quite frankly, we can't wait to see this thing in action.
[source wired.com]
Comments 25
better and faster storage = better world streaming
Another slow news day eh?
Surely Knack 3 won't be that amazing.. will it?
At least we've got a year and a two thirds to save up as it will probably be rather expensive
@LieutenantFatman I'm making Knack 3 in Dreams as we speak. No need to wait!
@Octane
Not sure if you're joking, lol. But I'll be downloading Dreams when I get a chance, probably today, so if you want anyone to test your creations let me know.
@LieutenantFatman That was a joke
It's already done, I'm working on Knack 4.
I'm still doing the tutorials.
@Octane
Nice, I can imagine they go on forever. There were A LOT on LBP2 and 3 as I recall.
Dudes a genius. I have faith this console will be a monster and really up the ante so-to-speak. The .8 seconds to load spiderman on the dev kit...wow. And 8k displays? Native 4k all but guaranteed with 8k upscaling...damn wendy
They'll probably have to change the logo font or the S and 5 will look way too similar.
@Enuo the roman numeral V would work well imo.
Ok since this sssd thing will improve load times will it eliminate or at least reduce pop ins in games? That's the one thing that drives me crazy n breaks my immersion, when things just pop outta nowhere in front of me when I'm playing a game. Specially open world games(I'm looking at you ac odyssey/ origins) they suffer the most. I get that graphics can only improve so much, b/c is a given, n frame rate will also improve a lot next gen, but if there's one thing i really would love to improve is when things just appear outta nowhere... hate it!!!
@Brasilkilla hopefully with better hardware it will
This doesn’t add up. SSD’s are expensive, and swapping one in for pure bulk storage doesn’t yield that much of a generational leap to loading times (as evidenced by the millions of people already using them with their PS4’s). Plus, “specializing” the bulk storage drive would mean you could kiss upgrading or expanding your PS5’s capacity goodbye, in a generation where 8k textures promise to swell game install sizes even more grotesquely.
One way or another, calling this storage architecture just a “specialized SSD” has to be an oversimplification for marketing’s sake (not that there’s anything wrong with that, for a first impression like this).
The simplest way to square this circle that I can see is to introduce a two-tiered storage solution, where the most recent game is copied to a small, static, superfast SSD that’s designed to hold just one or two games. Long “loading” times the first time you play it, then it’s fundamentally cached so long as you stick to it.
We’ll see.
Working on improved performance is good. Like the second paragraph says, there's only so many times you can beef the graphics. I wanna see how the games are running on this thing.
Cerny said spider-man load scene when fast travel is only 0.8 second on ps5, man that alone worth a new console I think
BioWare should've waited for the PS5 to be released first before releasing ANTHEM.
I sure hope so. I remember getting FFXV on Black Friday 2017, I enjoyed it but the loading times were wild. Then Xenoblade 2 came out with much faster loading and I could never take FFXV seriously again.
Near instant loading times really would be next gen stuff.
@Fath they're not just introducing SSDs to the nextgen hardware, they're also introducing a 7nm ryzen cpu inside the console, problems we have with PS4s with SSDs today might be caused by that old Jaguar CPUs bottlenecking the SSDs, although a two tiered solution might be more budget friendly. who knows
“On the TV, Spidey stands in a small plaza. Cerny presses a button on the controller, initiating a fast-travel interstitial screen. When Spidey reappears in a totally different spot in Manhattan, 15 seconds have elapsed. Then Cerny does the same thing on a next-gen devkit connected to a different TV. (The devkit, an early “low-speed” version, is concealed in a big silver tower, with no visible componentry.) What took 15 seconds now takes less than one: 0.8 seconds, to be exact.”
That is freakin’ amazing! As someone who is currently fast traveling between Control Points in The Division to loot gear this would shave off around 10 minutes easily!
This is sounding expensive. Am I the only one concerned about price?
if this SSD is specialised, it probably won't be so easy to upgrade it for higher capacity.
My money is ready and waiting. Who doesn't want faster load times? Not bothered about 8k. And I don't think devs will bother with it either as it's wasted resources having rendering extra pixels when nobody had 8k tvs
If they manage to make it a chip like RAM memory it will be basically in "realtime". That'd be awesome!
I think the SSD is going to be the most important part of the PS5, going to make gaming even more enjoyable, between this and BC day one purchase for me.
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