During the presentation of the specifications of the PlayStation 5 that took place yesterday, ** Mark Cerny placed special emphasis on the SSD of the console as one of the basic pillars of its architecture ** and that is that, really, Sony has managed to include a seal of distinction that surely much to talk about in the coming years. The PlayStation 5 custom NVMe SSD is not only twice as fast as the Xbox Series X, but even on PC it is difficult to find an equivalent that reaches these reading speeds, this component It will be very useful for both the console system and developers.
First of all, and one of the most obvious characteristics, is that increasing reading / writing speed so much, installations will be much faster than on PS4, something that was very necessary. According to Cerny himself yesterday during the conference scheduled for the GDC, is because "it will no longer be necessary to create new files with the changes incorporated in them". That is to say, "Without facilities as you know them today", a new way of organizing files to further optimize the installation and upgrade system.
Another advantage of having an SSD is to improve loading times. In the case of the PlayStation, taking as an example the fast trips of the 2018 Marvel’s Spider-Man, they will be quick "like a blink". Cerny says loads can be achieved so fast that developers "may have to slow them down a bit." Without a doubt, a great step forward compared to the games of this generation.
Storage expansion.
In another order of things, like Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5 will allow you to expand your storage through an external SSD. While in the case of the Microsoft console you will need to buy one of its proprietary expansion cards (apart from the expansion with traditional USB 3.2 HDDs), in the case of the PlayStation 5 you will not need a Sony proprietary SSD, but it is certified by the company. That is to say, if you can find an SSD just as fast as the PS5 (which will not be easy thanks to its 5.5 Gb / s) and is certified by Sony, you can use it as system storage.
John Linneman, of Digital Foundry, clarifies through his Twitter account that right now there is no SSD on the market as fast as the PlayStation 5, so what a priori should be an advantage for its accessibility, could become a setback. It all depends on the time it takes the market to receive this type of SSD and the sale price, which, seeing its capabilities, will surely not be cheap at all.
PlayStation 5 will go on sale at the end of the year, although before it remains to clarify both the price and the final design of the console, apart from its launch games. The launch date of Xbox Series X could have leaked yesterday, if Sony also points to Christmas, the margin between one and the other could be just a few weeks away.
