Will an SSD actually improve PS4 menu speed/lag?

[Michael Kelso]

In this article titled "Give Your PS4 a Speed Boost While You Wait For a PS5": 

http://superjumpmagazine.com/give-your-ps4-a-speed-boost-while-you-wait-for-a-ps5-2432bec8b7e8

 

It says putting a cheap $35 250gb SSD inside the PS4 just for the OS, and reusing the stock drive externally for games will prevent the menu lag and stuttering on the PS4.

Does anyone have experience in doing this?

[Chris Pratt]

I dropped an SSD into my PS4, but I used it for system and games. However, when I upgraded to a PS4 Pro, I didn't bother, and I don't know that it really made all that much of a difference. Of course the PS4 Pro is faster in general, so maybe the difference just wasn't noticeable to me at that point.

 

However, it's not going to be anything miraculous either way. Menus may be a little snappier but how much does that really matter if you don't feel any difference when gaming. It's not like you spend a ton of time just browsing through system menus. As far as gaming is concerned, there's a visceral difference between the fast storage of the next gen consoles and the previous gen HDD, but I don't think you're going to get anywhere near that same feeling from just dropping a SATA SSD into the previous gen.

 

In general, I'd say it's probably not worth it in the long run, but if you're going to keep using the PS4 for a while, maybe it might give a little improvement to your experience?

[Michael Kelso]

5 minutes ago, Chris Pratt said:

However, it's not going to be anything miraculous either way. Menus may be a little snappier but how much does that really matter if you don't feel any difference when gaming. It's not like you spend a ton of time just browsing through system menus. As far as gaming is concerned, there's a visceral difference between the fast storage of the next gen consoles and the previous gen HDD, but I don't think you're going to get anywhere near that same feeling from just dropping a SATA SSD into the previous gen.

 My PS4 stutters and freezes literally every time I hit the ps button in-game. It's kinda of annoying so that's what I was hoping to fix

 

[Chris Pratt]

1 minute ago, Michael Kelso said:

 My PS4 stutters and freezes sometimes if I hit the ps button in-game. It's kinda of annoying so that's what I was hoping to fix

 

Maybe? Usually UI stutters are going to be CPU related. As faster drive would only help if it's trying to load in something off the drive. It's possible there's some asset or DLL or something that is responsible for the overlay, but I doubt the drive is affecting much there.

[Mavrick2k]

My son was complaining about his PS4.  I dropped a 1TB ssd inside it and then formatted original and threw in an enclosure for an external.  He says it has sped everything up and his games load and function better. Again your specific issue might differ if you are also having hardware issues unrelated to the drive.

[SteveGrabowski0]

On 5/3/2021 at 12:30 PM, Michael Kelso said:

 My PS4 stutters and freezes literally every time I hit the ps button in-game. It's kinda of annoying so that's what I was hoping to fix

 

That doesn't sound normal, my PS4 Slim never did that and I used cheap mechanical drives in it.