The PS5's UBERSSD!!!! Does it really matter that much?

[JoeDaCabbie]

So, I'm seeing some articles like this one (PS5 SSD is "best-in-class" across all platforms, says Epic CEO Tim Sweeney) now that makes it sound like Sony is owning the gaming world because PS5 will have a PCIe 4.0 SSD when it launches. Faster loading time is certainly nice, but is this really going to be a PC gaming killer with PCIe 5.0 and even 6.0 on the horizon? Especially since Sony is committing to this design for 3-4 years? What is the likelihood that PS5 is going to dominate over its entire lifespan? (Well, maybe from a cost-to-performance point of view; I'm not sure we'll see comparable PC gaming rigs in the $800 range with that kind of specs anytime soon.) 

 

EDIT: Posted in Computer Hardware because I'm curious both about how long folks think PCs will get to that point for a reasonably priced gaming rig, and frankly I'm not sure how much impact a faster SSD will have on gaming aside from reduced load times. I've never really heard of storage bottlenecking being a hot topic.

[Windows9]

5 minutes ago, JoeDaCabbie said:

not sure how much impact a faster SSD will have on gaming aside from reduced load times

So long as you have a SSD, even if it's cacheless, its fine (better then a HDD anyway)

[minibois]

At the moment, I am kind of unsure on how much this SSD will matter or not.

https://www.reddit.com/r/PS5/comments/ggy26f/next_gen_visuals_and_the_ssd/

This Reddit thread went into a bit of detail, telling us what could be an advantage with this much data throughput, but we have yet to see if the GPU and CPU can keep up with this throughput of memory.

 

Although it does bring up something that has been extensively discussed in the past (in the programming world): data (storage) vs computing (power).

Just take this for example: a system can store all multiplication tables for 1 - 9 (1x1, 1x2,.. 2x1, 2x2.. etc.) or it could just calculate this stuff on the fly. One takes up more data (because it has to store it all in memory), while the other means the system has to take a sec to calculate it all.

 

What is better?

Of course it will depend on the scenario, but I think we will see a big increase in game size, just because (on the PS5), the devs can leverage opening up a whole bunch of files on the system. And they know they can, because everyone who has a PS5, has this drive. Does that also mean Sony won't be a - conventionally - strong videocard/CPU in the system?

That is what I am uncertain about.

 

Plus what Tim Sweeney says does make a good point. While a dev on the PS5, makes a game for the PS5; only one machine. A PC dev makes the game for 'PC'. Some users are running storage as fast (or in the future faster) than the PS5; but the majority is still using 'normal' SATA SSD's or even an HDD. They can't (for certain) leverage the path of "Just load in more data".

Does that mean they will code another 'path' for the game in, that will leverage CPU/GPU power, or will they not bother?

 

I think raw CPU/GPU and even storage power is not going to be an issue. A year or two after the launch, we will already have PC's faster than the PS5.

But will everyone have that level of power? No.

Will everyone have that level of power on a PS5? Yes. 

That just makes it so the game devs could possibly take 'shortcuts' to leverage more from the PS5's CPU/GPU power.

 

TL;DR: all PS5 have fast storage, only some PC's do. Will they be able to use that speed for good performance/better performance than a PC? Find out on the next episode of DragonBall Z! We shall find it once the PS5 launches.

[JoeDaCabbie]

7 hours ago, minibois said:

At the moment, I am kind of unsure on how much this SSD will matter or not.

https://www.reddit.com/r/PS5/comments/ggy26f/next_gen_visuals_and_the_ssd/

This Reddit thread went into a bit of detail, telling us what could be an advantage with this much data throughput, but we have yet to see if the GPU and CPU can keep up with this throughput of memory.

 

Although it does bring up something that has been extensively discussed in the past (in the programming world): data (storage) vs computing (power).

Just take this for example: a system can store all multiplication tables for 1 - 9 (1x1, 1x2,.. 2x1, 2x2.. etc.) or it could just calculate this stuff on the fly. One takes up more data (because it has to store it all in memory), while the other means the system has to take a sec to calculate it all.

 

What is better?

Of course it will depend on the scenario, but I think we will see a big increase in game size, just because (on the PS5), the devs can leverage opening up a whole bunch of files on the system. And they know they can, because everyone who has a PS5, has this drive. Does that also mean Sony won't be a - conventionally - strong videocard/CPU in the system?

That is what I am uncertain about.

 

Plus what Tim Sweeney says does make a good point. While a dev on the PS5, makes a game for the PS5; only one machine. A PC dev makes the game for 'PC'. Some users are running storage as fast (or in the future faster) than the PS5; but the majority is still using 'normal' SATA SSD's or even an HDD. They can't (for certain) leverage the path of "Just load in more data".

Does that mean they will code another 'path' for the game in, that will leverage CPU/GPU power, or will they not bother?

 

I think raw CPU/GPU and even storage power is not going to be an issue. A year or two after the launch, we will already have PC's faster than the PS5.

But will everyone have that level of power? No.

Will everyone have that level of power on a PS5? Yes. 

That just makes it so the game devs could possibly take 'shortcuts' to leverage more from the PS5's CPU/GPU power.

 

TL;DR: all PS5 have fast storage, only some PC's do. Will they be able to use that speed for good performance/better performance than a PC? Find out on the next episode of DragonBall Z! We shall find it once the PS5 launches.

Thank you for some very good points and perspective!

 

The Reddit post was particularly interesting. Whilst the raw numbers in the example were impressive, I didn't see anyone noticing that the theoretical crowd of 6,300 NPCs were taking up nearly 1.5% of a 1TB drive's capacity by themselves. Taking that forward with game files and background assets, one game will eat most of the drive's storage. How long would it take to produce a game with 500-700 gB of assets, and who would want to have only one game stored on their machine at a time? So I'm going to scale that back in my own mind to something more reasonable in the 100gB range.

 

So, I guess the PS5 will be punching it out with PCs that have 3-5 times the build cost at today's pricing. Combined with your point about devs being able to design for one hardware spec sheet for max performance, I suppose that means the consoles (PS5 in particular) are going to be the gaming kings for a few years, at least. But I'm also wondering how long an SSD is going to last under that kind of load, and if Sony isn't going to be plagued with failures in 3-4 years. Time will tell, I guess.