The PS5’s SSD could spell doom for next-gen PC game ports

There's a chance the console's SSD could be a boon to PC gamers, but equally it might mean we're only seen as a last-gen platform

[isarai]

Um... PCs can get SSDs too, in fact if anything this will bring the price down even further on SSDs and increase popularity/use of them bringing them into the realm of standardized. When that happens devs will be pushing things further than ever on PC.

[ApocalypseShadow]

Exactly. The same thing happened with things like micro sd cards. They were crazy expensive. I used to sell them and they were mostly used for cameras. When cell phones used cards, the prices dropped considerably. Now you can buy gigs of space smaller than you finger tip for cheap prices. And they've become faster too. Consumers benefited with bigger and better programs they could store on their phones. Cameras stored even higher quality pictures.

When consoles get SSD, it benefits everybody. PC SSDs, external SSDs, laptop SSDs, etc will become faster and cheaper. Consumers will be buying them in droves. They will have faster access to information.

And software design will benefit on consoles and pc's with faster access. Games will change to take advantage of it. And PC gamers will, mostly, no longer say that consoles are holding them back having a closer parity. They weren't anyway as developers could make their games at their fullest on PC if they wanted to. They just didn't. Consoles had nothing to do with it. But if it were true, PC gamers benefit with higher quality games being ported from consoles. And consoles benefit from higher quality PC ports.

It's why articles like these are a waste of time. It will only benefit everyone. PC gamers will switch out their old drives to take advantage of the new games and the lower prices of SSDs. First time I've seen a PC gamer complain about modifying and adapting.

[fr0sty]

It won't take long for PC SSD's to catch up, but if this custom "higher speed than any PC part" aspect of the PS5 SSD is true, porting those early games that rely on that speed won't be easy. That said, any third party game that is multiplatform will probably ignore that extra speed anyway.

[DVAcme]

Hell, Sony even has a track record of this: the PS2 popularized the DVD as a storage medium, and the PS3 did the same for Blu-Ray. Adoption leads to manufacturing streamlining and efficiency, which leads to lower material and manufacturing costs, which leads to lower prices, which leads to mass distribution.

[Neonridr]

@fr0sty - I'll believe it when I see it.

[ChrisW]

Sadly, there is a problem with the SSD price coming down... The smartphone market.

[SonyWarrior]

logged in just to vote you down.

[b163o1]

@ SonyWarrior

Logged in just to upvote..

[Nykamari]

b163o1, I logged in to upvote you and laugh 😂

[ChrisW]

Sigh... SonyWarrior... Getting your jollies of by playing with your multiple logins again? And you're doing this because of what? Oh, yeah... Because I was "quick to judge" about you playing any games on the Xbox and then told you to go educate yourself about grammar. Riiiiiiiiiiight....

Okay... Have fun!

[FyBy]

Maybe, but devs cant be sure, what configuration you use and where you install game to (ssd or slower and larger conventional drive). On console, there is one configuration (or two with X and Pro) which devs can develop with confidence, that everyone has same machine. I see consoles as a bunch of nice tricks how to make big bang with relatively small amount of money. There are clever solutions, which pc gamers can benefit from also. For example ps4 pro checkerboard 4k rendering is now used by NVIDIA as checkerboard sli rendering. Because it is much better. Indont know if NVIDIA has this idea from Sony but I never saw it before (i know about sli per frame, per half frame and per line, but never heard of checkerboard one). AMD uses storemi cascadelike ram and disk cache technology on desktop. Maybe it will be similar on ps4 too. So something like much better sshd disk.
Im looking forward for it!

[OMGitzThatGuy]

You think more SSD being brought and created would bring the price down? SSD prices just came down from a skyrocketing price hike because of factors like smartphones eating through their materials. Prices are only going to go up, there isn't a unlimited amount of resources in this world.

[NovusTerminus]

You do know that NVMe drives are faster then SSD's and their prices are now affordable, right?

[dekke]

Samsung 500GB 970 EVO Plus SSD, M.2 2280, PCIe 3.0 x4, NVMe, 3500/3200 MB/s

i have that its pretty naiiis

[CuVe]

Good luck with that 500GB... I have a 2TB Ssd in my PS4 Pro and still not enough for games that I regularly play with friends.

[dekke]

@CuVe

u do know that its on my PC not ps4 cuz there is not slot for NVMe on ps4 ? :D

and i have just regular 1TB HDD on ps4pro and its enuf for me ^^

[tontontam0]

You do know that these devs are targeting the low end pc gamers right?
they are going to lose a lot of potential sales if they make ssds on pc mandatory. they don't want that.

You'd be surprise how many pc elitist wanna be are out there those who only have a gtx 1050 ti and a very slow mechanical hdd, and a 60hz 720p monitor etc. and call themselves pc masterrace, those are the baseline pc gamers devs are targetting.

[GOULDYBOBS]

Sounds like the base ps4

[tontontam0]

"Sounds like the base ps4"

Yup that's exactly what it is, PC elitist brag about graphics but the truth is the majority of gamers who are keeping pc gaming alive are those who owns low end console level pcs.

[RazzerRedux]

@tontontam0

"PC elitist brag about graphics but the truth is the majority of gamers who are keeping pc gaming alive are those who owns low end console level pcs."

Not true. According to Steam hardware surveys, the majority of PC gamers on Steam are using hardware much more powerful than the majority of console owners, which is, of course, base PS4 gamers.

[ProjectVulcan]

GTX1050Ti and a 3.5 mechanical drive crushes base PS4 hardware TBF

The GPU is nearly twice as fast and a 1TB 3.5 7200RPM drive is much faster than a 500GB 5400RPM 2.5 format drive inside a PS4.

By the time 30 million people own a PS5 it'll be 2024 and the game will have moved on a long way again for PC, including SSD performance

[tontontam0]

"According to Steam hardware surveys, the majority of PC gamers on Steam are using hardware much more powerful than the majority of console owners, which is, of course, base PS4 gamers."

come back again after 4-5 years, those majority only upgraded their system 2-3 years ago, when ps5 is released those pc gamers will be playing on their underpowered systems for quite a while.

[RazzerRedux]

A lot can change in "4-5 years" in the PC world. Not so much with consoles. PC gamers upgrade when they see fit. Console gamers upgrade when Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo tell them to.

[FyBy]

Nvme drives are usually ssds. What you probably meant was that Nvme drives are faster than ahci/sata ones.

[mkis007]

How many games have an ssd of any type as a system requirement...only one that I'm aware of. HDD is still the standard on pc. SSD's are still a loading luxury, nothing more. That will change in a hurry, but there will be growing pains.

[ssj27]

Reading pc games don't understand that the costume patent ssd in the ps5 are faster than anything in pc now. Ps5 seem to be able to star a game with literary no load times.

Dont worry this is always good news for PC they eventually be able to do the same. Hopefully soon like very soon.

I haven't use a pc for like in over a year. They are buggy outdated require a lot of updates constant updstes bug fixing its like having a job have a pc running decently updated.. so annoying they are so outdated out off touch. I can do everything with my phone thanks God. My phone is so fast bug free responsive automatically updated .. its crazy how pcs are so bad now days.

I know I'm be hated for saying the truth here.

If you are not using a pc for semi or not even semi i can do semi on my phone too.. but professional work editing website picture video audio making money out of it. And using a pc for personal reasons now days even only gaming you are crazy

[Giblet_Head]

Your neurologist needs to take away your phone. Yikes.

[ssj27]

You probably taping this from a phone lol and if you are on a pc to go in n4g you are crazy lol so out of touch and outdated

[Giblet_Head]

@ssj27

I hope for your sake they at least make you wear a helmet. Head trauma is pretty serious.

[ScootaKuH]

What?

[ssj27]

You wrote me. I edith it, read again.

Ps5 will be able to star a game in 1 to 3 sec. I know pc gamers are like what .
Whattttt. Lol

[MWH]

It sounds like you got yourself into something thinking it's something else. PC has always been like that, it's not outdated or out of touch it's just the way it works and it's part of the fun.

[ssj27]

Sure how many time have you repeat that to yourself to believe it?

You are telling me that a less powerful small tech can work faster and auto updated itself. Be bugfree and safe me hundreds of hrs on fixing bugs etc a d be stress free witch is priceless and a more powerful cant do?

Perhaps windowns and mac os sucks and android os are just better faster smarter and 10000000 more efficient.

Its not the way they are its that they are outdated and out of touch. Samsung already started allowing its phones to work as desktop mode. Soon pc wont even exists other thab professional work if any and stupid nerd pc gamers who claim they can get more fps when they spend 2k on components alone.

[MWH]

@ssj27

PC is not your thing and that's alright but don't run your mouth with bullsh*t, guy.

First; you don't know me so don't assume things to prove your point, it won't work.

Second; hundreds of hours to fix bugs? I've been building PCs for more than 20 years and you must have the shttiest pc there is!

Third; get off of your mobile.

[ScootaKuH]

Because you can't get SSD's for PC can you?

These articles are getting more and more stupid by the day!

[OpenGL]

This is dumb, next gen consoles will raise minimum requirements but that always happens with new consoles.

[MarkyMark89]

Dear lord does the author live under a rock, SSD's are already old news NVMe is the new enthusiasts grade shit. Sadly a 970 Pro Evo 2 TB still costs upwards of $325 even with sales, but its the way of the future.

I doubt the Ps5 will get an NVMe, would be the same problem they have with the current-gen. Not enough memory for people who purchase a lot of games and over 5-7 years everybody hits that point even the stingiest purchasers.
I could see them doing some small capacity NVMe tied into a traditional SSD that would only be accessed by the current title running. It would be a lot more cost-effective and would still let them hit the high r/w speeds they are looking for. Being a closed box and ecosystem the possibilities for a unique hardware setup is endless. Time will tell, but all these articles make me realize how many people are clueless about tech or specs and just enjoy spreading nonsense through the web like they know wtf they are talking about. Like the kid above saying the games will boot up in 3-5 seconds on the Ps5. I have a 970 Evo Pro (512gb) because I am not made of money. Windows boots up in about 3 seconds for me (5 Startup programs), Games all depending. Lol guess the only computer he uses are Walmart laptops.

[Jon_Targaryen]

This article gave me cancer...

[Lon3wolf]

Eh?

[ProjectVulcan]

All that would happen if someone is on old style mechanical drive is the loading times will be slower. That's it. I would say very few people on gaming PC now DON'T have an SSD in their machine for their favourite titles. They have been cheap for 18 months. A good 500GB PCIe 3.0 M.2 drive can be had for a mere $65, the price of one console game.

So buy an SSD now. You have an entire year yet before new consoles even arrive! This is ages away, another year of gaming before an expensive console gets on par with PC.

After that it'll be ANOTHER year before any one console sells through to over 10 million units and they start to become more common. Two years away before most people start to think about moving from PS4/Xbone to new consoles.

Right now all that happens with consoles and their slow hard drives is you wait around longer than you would on a PC with the game installed on an SSD. I have installed games on my PC's SSD for 8 years now, and had to put up with slow consoles.

Now it seems consoles will finally catch up in this department. They probably won't be faster than a decent PCIE 4.0 drive, even if they are the difference will be so small you wouldn't even notice it.

It's one thing going from current 1 minute console load times to 15 second PC load times.

It's another if a brand new console can load a game in 5 seconds and a five year old PC SSD takes 8 seconds. Nobody will care or notice.

[Reefskye]

This article makes no sense, PC games have been taking advantage of SSD's since BF3. MOST PC games recommended settings these days are to be put on an SSD, 7200RPM HDD is a minimum requirement, Even world of warcraft has this requirement. giving consoles an SSD isn't going to magically transform gaming. I have games that can map entire planets with tree's and space stations, with view distances over the 200km mark with 0 load screens because everything is rapidly streamed from SSD to memory.

I mean most motherboards come with M.2 these days, and even a normal Sata SSD is less than 1 second slower in a gaming situation, we are talking 0.5s difference between an NVMe and a sata SDD in gaming applications.

[Stanjara]

I get what he is saying, but on the other half I really don't care about PC gaming. ( as those enthusiasts can upgrade whatever, whenever)
He is talking about streaming world assets as you play, as seen on Star Citizen game, where that game is barely playable without an SSD, so when porting a ps5 game made with ssd in mind, those pc ports will be rough.

I really can't wait to ditch hdd as standard storage. The moment consoles drop hdd, the more affordable ssds will get.

People also making today's ssd implementation as the next, which is wrong.
Witcher 3 can run on a beast 5k$ pc with NVMe, load in game in 3sec, and still have pop in assets, because it wasn't made that way- to stream the world through ssd.

That's why ssd in next gen console is a big deal. It will bring ssd as standard storage and be used for streaming and rendering game assets. Hopefully

[Teflon02]

Listen here I have a Samsung 970 pro NVMe drive and 90% of games load faster than the time it takes to jump into the load screen animation and jump out. This does nothing but benefit me because games will now more made more aware of faster speed drives. Even so, most games usually benefit through load times only really so I doubt until the second half of the next gen that it won't be necessary. Even so it's a good thing. Even laptops have been coming with them since like 2012 or so. Low end laptops even come with them. There really isn't any excuse at this point lol. Especially if you're trying to play a modern game

[Wontime1]

If devs are going to making pc ports and having to cater to the lowest common denominator, those with hdd's, then this author is totally making a valid point

[nickoflodeon]

This is like claiming a new fast SUV will make sports cars obsolete. It doesnt work that way. Sports cars would get faster, too.

The gaming industry is the same, its a trickle-down structure. PC is the testbed for new technology and the consoles use it later. Sure, current gaming PCs may be on par with the future consoles, but future gaming PCs will be much better than them.

[D__RAiL]

we are getting Gen 5 on PC before even Gen 4 gets popular.

[Asuka]

Uh no. Corsair MP600 NVMe PCI4.0 with 5000MB/s read and 4000MB/s write will be more than adequate for anything next gen. No game is ever going to saturate that bandwidth anytime in the near future. Hell there isn't even a consumer gfxcard that can saturate an x16 PCIe3.0 😂

Point being PC gaming will be just fine, and it's nice that consoles are finally getting proper IO (hopefully at least 1TB storage), but articles like this need to stop sensationalizing the whole "fastest SSD ever" angle when it'll end up nothing more than just marketing material in a year's time.

[froy402]

Dam, so now we'll have to wait for PS6 to get NVMe and so the universe could align itself again, dam doom gen.

[porkChop]

Are you kidding me? SSD and NVME are widely available on PC. This is so stupid.

[KillZallthebeast]

Stop being poor. A 500gb albeit small is only around 70$ If you're buying a console or have a gaming pc that shouldn't be an issue.

[Sophisticated_Chap]

Developers will not make games that can only played on console. In fact, things are going the complete opposite direction. Besides, you can buy an SSD for a PC no problem, and have been able to do so for the last 10 years.

[Dovergamer]

Indirectly the PS5 architecture, the SSD, is going to benefit PCs. The price of SSD will go down since the standard use due to the increment of popularity. Sony introduced bluray in the PS3 making it popular. Now Sony plays smarter popularizing SSD. In other words PC will get a huge benefit and hence the consoles.

[PCpower]

Except blu ray is a dead format. No PC builder puts blu ray players or DVD players in their computers. You can't even buy a new car with a CD player anymore......The internet is so fast and cheap that nearly everyone just streams now or uses their cell phone. Also, SSD has been mainstream in PC since at least 2009. The author of that article is just retarded.

[Dovergamer]

If we think in current times, yes, bluray service is done. However by the time of the PS3 bluray was a huge jump and a bridge for newer things to come. SSD is known in PC since 2009 but is not standardized as a mass production item. With PS5s out there SSD will get cheaper. Loading times and memory access will get way much smoother.

The open world game will get a significant support due to the new system architecture. Yes the author of the article is not considering the right context. However We all know that Sony always introduces technology through each new console. They push forward the industry of electronics.

[akuarius87]

no, it wont, because even if they are better right now, pc can upgrade their hardware in the future, while consoles cant do it.

[TheHateTheyGive]

Anything that has ps4/5 on the title will be a doom and gloom piece 90% of the time.

[Ulf]

This is what happens when you let random internet people call themselves "journalist".

[william_cade]

trigger

[MadLad]

Sure XD

[PCpower]

I can tell the author has never owned or built a PC. No PC builder in the last 10 years puts their main operating system (OS) on a hard drive anymore. It's 2019, about to be 2020. SSD has been mainstream now for about 10 years. Hard drives are only used for long term storage where you need to store huge amounts of data for cheap because a high capacity SSD is expensive. It's how everyone and their grandma builds a PC. You buy 256 GB to 1 TB SSD and put your WIndows OS and games on it, and then you use your slow 2 TB or larger hard drive to store your movies or music or other files.

Anyways, here is how the majority of gaming PC's are built now:

16 GB of Ram
Mid tier to high end graphics card like a Nvidia 1050 ti to 2080ti or AMD RX570 to 5700XT
AMD 3000 series or Intel 9900 series for CPU
One or more hard drives from 2 TB to 8 TB for storage
Main drive SSD from 256GB to 1 TB for games and your windows OS.

This is how the majority of DIY PC's are built......All my friends have similar setups. The author of that article needs to do more research or get out of his 2009 cave and join the rest of the world in 2020......

[smoothdude]

PC is the master race of gaming. Honestly PC and Switch and I am set. Next gen can't even do the flops that current PCs do with the newest graphics cards!

[MadLad]

I felt the same way for a long time. Give me my PC, and whatever Nintendo is doing, and I'm set. That said, I got the chance to get a dirt cheap PS4 Pro, being that my one friend runs a rent-center, they got a return and I only had to pay the $90 difference of what it cost the store. I've been having a lot of fun playing an improved version of Last of Us (and soon 2), Bloodborne, and a few others.

PC is always going to be my main platform; it just does things you can never with console, but I was actually a little impressed with what I've been getting out of the PS4. That said, I also get the luxury of playing all of the content at one time, instead of waiting between releases over the console's life span.

[HighPlayer28]

Dumb article next gen consoles will make ssds even more popular and cheaper due to the fact gamers will be buying them in bulk. Pc gamers should thank Microsoft and Sony for improving their gaming next gen.

[zodiac909]

When is the PS5 reveal event going to happen?

[smoothdude]

Lets debunk this right now then, https://gizmodo.com/sony-se...

[ShadowWolf712]

...what??

You do remember that tech advances, PCs are upgradable, and they already have SSDs available, right?

[RedCloud88]

I've been more worried about what kind of performance people will see on the current systems with these new boxes being build with nvme in mind. Theres already games showing legitimate loading and asset streaming issues on the ps4 pro and one x. Could create current gen ports that are borderline unplayable as we shift focus to the new gen

[shauzy]

lately i feel like im losing iq when i read just the title of these opinion pieces