The PS5's SSD shouldn't be underestimated, says Mortal Kombat creator

[midian182]

A hot potato: Assuming all goes to plan, the next generation of consoles are arriving this holiday season, which means we’re hearing more about their capabilities. Sony has already lauded its SSD as something spectacular, and now the co-creator of Mortal Kombat has praised the component, saying that people are underestimating what it will mean for the PlayStation 5.

Load times have been one of the biggest problems with consoles, but the Xbox Series X and PS5 will join the PC in embracing solid-state drive tech. In the case of the latter, Sony says that thanks to the use of PCIe 4.0, its custom SSD has a maximum compressed data throughput of up to 9 GB/s—twice as fast as the Xbox’s 4.8 GB/s. After the data has been decompressed, it can be processed at 5.5 GB/s, which again is about twice as fast as the 2.4 GB/s that Microsoft’s console can reach.

While the SSD might be faster, the Xbox Series X has the PS5 beat in other areas. But Ed Boon, co-creator of the Mortal Kombat series and creative director on Mortal Kombat 11, says people are underestimating what such an SSD is capable of when it comes to games.

In an interview with Geoff Keighley (via CCN) as part of the Summer Game Fest show, Boon said “I think people are underestimating the impact that the almost zero load time is going to have. It’s suddenly going to open doors that weren’t considered possible before. I think we haven’t even scratched the surface of what will eventually be done with those systems.”

“To me, the graphics are a given. Okay, the graphics are going to be better. But, this new way of handling memory and loading, and stuff like that, is going to be huge.”

Sony has also been talking about its solid-state drive, claiming it can process data "approximately 100 times faster" than a PS4.

Boon also talked about the recent Unreal Engine 5 tech demo that was running on the PS5, a decision that caused some controversy. “I was riveted watching the PlayStation 5 and Unreal Engine 5 demo going ‘that can’t be real, come on, that can’t be real,’” he said.

It’s claimed that the speed of the SSD means PS5 games will avoid the commonly used trick of long elevator rides or 'squeeze through tight spaces' animations to load the next section of a game. There will also be an absence of loading screens, such as the 'traveling on subway' sections in Marvel's Spider-Man. The proof, of course, will be when we finally see some extended gameplay footage of these titles.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/85371-ps5-ssd-shouldnt-underestimated-mortal-kombat-creator.html

 

[gigantor21]

The worry isn't the specs on the new consoles, but how long it will take to slough off cross gen releases. Especially in light of the pandemic and the economic impact of it, which will linger for years at this rate.

I want to see what ALL of the devs will do with the PS5 and XSX unshackled, not just the first parties (as exciting as that is).

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Is the PS5 like Stadia where all you need is a controller to play?

Where is the console?

 

[enemys]

Sorry, but why does TechSpot post plain manipulation like this? In the source site the dev says that SSDs in both consoles shouldn't be underestimated, near-zero loading times are more important than people think and changes in memory handling and loading will be huge. Yet in this piece of 'news' his words are suddenly used to suggest that he's praising PS5 over Xbox and that his word about underestimating SSDs are specifically about PS5, not both next-gen consoles as a whole.

 

[pencea]

Is the PS5 like Stadia where all you need is a controller to play?

Where is the console?

Give it a rest mate.You literally bash Sony in every article.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Sorry, but why does TechSpot post plain manipulation like this? In the source site the dev says that SSDs in both consoles shouldn't be underestimated, near-zero loading times are more important than people think and changes in memory handling and loading will be huge. Yet in this piece of 'news' he's words are suddenly used to suggest that he's praising PS5 over Xbox and that his word about underestimating SSDs are specifically about PS5, not both next-gen consoles as a whole.

There's nothing but speculation between Xbox Series X and PS5, but at least I know what the XSX looks like.

 

[fps4ever]

Sorry, but why does TechSpot post plain manipulation like this? In the source site the dev says that SSDs in both consoles shouldn't be underestimated, near-zero loading times are more important than people think and changes in memory handling and loading will be huge. Yet in this piece of 'news' he's words are suddenly used to suggest that he's praising PS5 over Xbox and that his word about underestimating SSDs are specifically about PS5, not both next-gen consoles as a whole.

When creating an article about PS5's SSD performance of course it's going to highlight Sony's case as stronger. There is a specific reason why, sorry if that hurts your feelz. The new Xbox certainly has its strong points as well.

In the case of the latter, Sony says that thanks to the use of PCIe 4.0, its custom SSD has a maximum compressed data throughput of up to 9 GB/s—twice as fast as the Xbox’s 4.8 GB/s. After the data has been decompressed, it can be processed at 5.5 GB/s, which again is about twice as fast as the 2.4 GB/s that Microsoft’s console can reach.

 

[ColdDeck]

There's nothing but spoeculation between Xbox Series X and PS5, but at least I know what the XSX looks like.

Huh? They both have had their specifications revealed already. The only speculation left is what ray tracing capabilities Big Navi will have, and what PS5 will look like.

 

[Buhaj]

Give it a rest mate.You literally bash Sony in every article.

He's salty there's a market where Apple or Nvidia doesn't mean anything.

 

[Adhmuz]

Sorry, but why does TechSpot post plain manipulation like this? In the source site the dev says that SSDs in both consoles shouldn't be underestimated, near-zero loading times are more important than people think and changes in memory handling and loading will be huge. Yet in this piece of 'news' his words are suddenly used to suggest that he's praising PS5 over Xbox and that his word about underestimating SSDs are specifically about PS5, not both next-gen consoles as a whole.

Not Techspot, just this writer, he has had quite a few of these types of posts... When I read your comment I hadn't actually looked at who the writer was but immediately though, oh, it must be a Rob article then.

 

[Capaill]

Sorry, but why does TechSpot post plain manipulation like this? In the source site the dev says that SSDs in both consoles shouldn't be underestimated, near-zero loading times are more important than people think and changes in memory handling and loading will be huge. Yet in this piece of 'news' his words are suddenly used to suggest that he's praising PS5 over Xbox and that his word about underestimating SSDs are specifically about PS5, not both next-gen consoles as a whole.

I get some of what you're saying but for me, the first part of the article was how the PS5 SSD is better than the Xbox (which the original article also says) and the second part of the article is how the PS5 will have faster load times than the PS4.
But yes, the article heading and leading summary are misleading.

 

[enemys]

When creating an article about PS5's SSD performance of course it's going to highlight Sony's case as stronger. There is a specific reason why, sorry if that hurts your feelz. The new Xbox certainly has its strong points as well.

Except this is not an article about PS5 SSD, it's news about what MK11 creator said, and that was something else than the title and text suggest. It moves the focus from actual developer's opinion to bragging about PS5. That's just bad journalism IMO. That PS5 has a better SSD than XSX is a well-known fact, but it's hardly related at all to what Ed Boon was talking about.

 

[amstech]

I'm super pumped about the new consoles.
Had a great time playing Breathe of the Wild, looking forward to Forza for PS5, and some others!

 

[fps4ever]

Except this is not an article about PS5 SSD, it's news about what MK11 creator said, and that was something else than the title and text suggest. It moves the focus from actual developer's opinion to bragging about PS5. That's just bad journalism IMO. That PS5 has a better SSD than XSX is a well-known fact, but it's hardly related at all to what Ed Boon was talking about.

So this article focuses on something he said and expanded on it concerning the PS5 SSD which is their right. There is nothing good or bad about it. You are letting your emotions create a conflict that is simply not there.

 

[Cooe14]

Holy misconstruing what he said, Batman! He was talking about the next-gen consoles' SSD's in general. As in how having a fast SSD with an "extended memory cache" on it, on the next-gen consoles (both of them) is a game changer. Literally the only time he said anything about PS5 was when he was talking about how impressed he was with the Unreal Engine 5 demo. Who the hell signed off on this clickbait garbage???

 

[Cooe14]

When creating an article about PS5's SSD performance of course it's going to highlight Sony's case as stronger. There is a specific reason why, sorry if that hurts your feelz. The new Xbox certainly has its strong points as well.

It's not an article about PS5 SSD performance though. It's supposed to be about Ed Boon's comments, which were about the next-gen SSD's in both the consoles, and how THAT'S the game changer (that a high speed SSD, usable as an extended memory cache is standard on next-gen).

 

[Cooe14]

Huh? They both have had their specifications revealed already. The only speculation left is what ray tracing capabilities Big Navi will have, and what PS5 will look like.

This isn't true at all... We have no idea how each companies custom I/O hardware will affect performance, in addition to countless other variables. For example, Microsoft's BCPack texture compression engine is about 35% more efficient than Sony's Kraken, making that 2x raw bandwidth gap more like 1.6x for any/all texture files (which is the VAST majority of the contents in RAM on a game console). Stuff like this makes the raw SSD numbers very hard to draw definitive conclusions with other than "Sony's should generally be faster".

 

[fps4ever]

It's not an article about PS5 SSD performance though. It's supposed to be about Ed Boon's comments, which were about the next-gen SSD's in both the consoles, and how THAT'S the game changer (that a high speed SSD, usable as an extended memory cache is standard on next-gen).

Yet they focused on the PS5 SSD with its extra benefits over the XBX. Do you have an unhealthy problem with that like the other poster?

 

[Cooe14]

Yet they focused on the PS5 SSD with its extra benefits over the XBX. Do you have an unhealthy problem with that like the other poster?

Yeah, I do. He lied through his butt about what this article was about to get that sweet, sweet clickbait. The article should have been called "PS5 vs Xbox Series X SSD Discussion" not "The PS5's SSD shouldn't be underestimated, says Mortal Kombat creator".

(Which isn't what he said... He was talking about both consoles, and how having a fast SSD that can be used as a RAM cache being the baseline for next-gen is huge/shouldn't be underestimated; he talked about literally NOTHING in regards to how he thought PS5 was better...)

 

[fps4ever]

Yeah, I do. He lied through his butt about what this article was about to get that sweet, sweet clickbait. The article should have been called "PS5 vs Xbox Series X SSD Discussion" not "The PS5's SSD shouldn't be underestimated, says Mortal Kombat creator".

(Which isn't what he said... He was talking about both consoles, and how having a fast SSD that can be used as a RAM cache being the baseline for next-gen is huge/shouldn't be underestimated; he talked about literally NOTHING in regards to how he thought PS5 was better...)

Your opinion has been noted about TS expanding with their own opinions. Hope you'll be OK buttercup.

 

[sorten]

I guess those of us who didn't switch to SSDs over the past decade for PC builds might be surprised. The shift from HD to SSD will be dramatic, but the difference between fast SSD and faster SSD probably won't have much impact.

 

[LeroN]

My suppose is that the Sony's SSD will be able to serve many simulteneous queues on a full speed or close to it. So it would almost eliminate the bottleneck and manipulate the graphics data extremelly fast. But it's interesting what to do if you want to upgrade the custom SSD drive or replace it on PS5? However 1TB space is absolutely abnormal for 2020.

 

[Gaara]

Sony hurry up take my money and shut up.

 

[dirtyferret]

Tell us PC builders more about these S..S...D (is that what they are called?) perhaps we will also join the bandwagon and start using them in our builds!

 

[Edito]

Is the PS5 like Stadia where all you need is a controller to play?

Where is the console?

I know it's a pain to wait for the best console in the world to be revealed lol... Just wait a little longer...