Game Dev: PS5 I/O Speed is on Another Level, Does Everything Significantly Faster Than Competition - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 October 2020 / 4,848 Views
Microsoft and Sony are both currently hard at work getting their next generation consoles, the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, ready for launch in Holiday 2020. The specs for both consoles were revealed earlier this year. The Xbox Series X has the more powerful CPU and GPU, while the PS5 has a faster Solid State Drive (SSD).
Industry developer Matt on ResetEra who has seen the PS5 SSD technology in action says it allows developers to do things they wouldn't be able to do on other platforms. Though, he says the Xbox Series X SSD is still a huge upgrade over the current generation storage devices.
"The [Xbox Series X] SSD and whole IO setup is great, and a huge upgrade from anything we have ever had before," he said. "[Microsoft] did a really nice job here, absolutely nothing to complain about.
"But in comparison, the PS5’s IO feels like it was taken from an IO-focused mid-gen upgrade 4 years from now. It is, very simply, on a whole other level. And yes, that allows for things you can’t do on any other platform.
"But it’s both consoles having a baseline SSD that will allow game design on the whole to advance across platforms, and every game and gamer will benefit from that."
"There are certainly things developers can do with the PS5 that can’t be done the same, as fast, or as well on any other consumer hardware at the moment. That’s also a fact," he added. "The PS5’s IO is a big deal that will lead to actual results in games."
He further said there is no comparison between the PS5 and Xbox Series X SSDs when you look at the I/O speeds, even saying SSDs on PCs don't compare.
"There is no comparison," he said. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with the SX’s IO or the speed you can get on a PC, and moving to any SSD based solution as a baseline is an incredible upgrade over the past that all games and gamers will benefit from.
"But the PS5’s IO is on another level. It does basically everything significantly faster than any competition in the consumer space. It is easily and by far the largest difference between the two next gen consoles."
Matt did mention the Xbox Series X is "still a stronger system in many ways."
Thanks GamingBolt.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
More Articles
I myself indeed felt the advantage a fast SSD can bring to a platform with all the texture loading and popping pains I experienced with this generation, for some reason, I literally have no complaint about graphic on current generation consoles, they are good enough to me, but loading problem is another story, that's just terrible, I can feel the worst when playing AC odyssey on PS4 Pro when riding horse in town and the image just stops for like 5 sec because of slow loading. Really looking forward to what PS5 can offer on the table to fix those issues.
give me an example what is possible in a game and only on PS5.... show me the game changer! Enough of that talk! We heard too many promises in the past what COULD be possible with new consoles, which were nothing but words. I'm not bashing PS5, I'm just a burnt child. We heard those empty promises before every generation and then came the disillusion.
Xbox executive said in other article , Xbox will have elevator scene to masked loading time while PS5 don't . Or perhaps you can have flying ability while maintaining great graphic while Xbox cannot do that on the same level.
You could wait for the 11th or when games releases instead of complaining.
@Hiku, of course that's just to simplified thing on layman terms. It doesn't mean the IO/SSD benefit is only for loading level. They are a lot of thing. UE 5 is the result of PS5 SSD tech, on how high quality assets with high textures can be streamed without lag, pop in and streamed frames by by frames. Xbox probably need to rendered some of the assets instead of streamed it all.
He must have been bought by Sony as well, no dev celebrating the advantage of XSX on CPU/GPU but everyone praising the SSD and I/O (even MS executive).
We already has a lot information since 2019 by many game developer that not related to Sony at all, and by game expert , game insider etc. Also even Xbox division hyping the SSD , they said it will change the playing field and revolutionize graphic and games LMAO
That is if you ignore what almost all devs have said on the SSD on PS5 being gamechanger. But you can wait for the 11th or full release of the console.
Well if you have no technical knowledge on the subject and disagree with almost all devs saying it is important and will change how games are made and played without really having evidence or being able to show it then it is hard.
You have already said you aren't a game developer.
And I said almost all not all, Ori dev for example is a Xbox dev, their games aren't cutting edge and he gave his opinion instead of interviewing a lot of other devs.
We all know that most 3rd party devs will target reasonable base equipment, so for like 2 years they will adress PS4 and X1 and HDD PCs, but after that it will be next gen and PCs and probably won't be with HDDs.
If for the whole gen devs just ignore SSD improvements and make the development same as if it was HDDs then it was a really pointless expense on both consoles, and also we will see such a discrepancy against 1st party games that it may look bad for 3rd parties. Because currently PS4 exclusives look better than the multiplats on PS4 but nothing so significant that most don't bother with it.
True, we havent seem yet how meaningfull the difference in the SSD and I/O will be in comparison to one another and most 3rd party games wont show it at all (perhaps wont even show the GPU advantage of Xbox) as first a small subset of games are cutting edge and from those an even smaller one would care on optimizing the most for the advantages of both platforms (so the expectation is Xbox with more pixels and details, PS4 with better texture, LOD and loading). Heck this gen we have X1X over 40% stronger than PS4Pro (and both being over 100% stronger than baseline) and yet the side by side difference isnt that big even against baseline in some cases and in other due to dev choices or lack of optimization run better on PS4Pro than X1X.
Still we get a lot of deniers so perhaps repeating will let it sink.
SSD were requested by developer, automatically will be used and utilize by third party and first party. IO/SSD are different from Cell .
The CPU was stronger (enough to even cover the weaker GPU and still have some left) they came with over 1 year time difference and had different GPU suppliers, so I have no idea what you are talking here.
