It would actually be interesting to see the outcome if Steam offered a popup window so you could select "SSD" or "HDD" as a download option. The developers could cater for PC gamers right now by offering two different downloads. But I guess time/money and all that jazz plus the fact that not all SSDs are equal - SATA v NVMe, etc.
Poll: *The Official PlayStation (PS5/PS5 Pro) Thread*
- Thread starter BMox81
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It would actually be interesting to see the outcome if Steam offered a popup window so you could select "SSD" or "HDD" as a download option. The developers could cater for PC gamers right now by offering two different downloads. But I guess time/money and all that jazz plus the fact that not all SSDs are equal - SATA v NVMe, etc.
But it still doesn't make sense. Why would a 15GB game duplicate or triplicate all of its data? Especially on a PC where you can't even plan where your data is going to be on HDD platter so duplication would just as easily lead to increased access times. Happy to be proven wrong here but I get the impression a lot of the benefits are hyperbole and a way to justify the reduced storage capacity (which is ultimately a cost issue rather than a "We won't need more storage than this" issue).
I am not a programmer but my understanding is that during install the data is spread out across the platter. That is what the drive controller deals with, addressing data blocks.
The new system in the PS5 doesn't use traditional addressing, instead every piece of data is given a I.D. code that the new Sony high speed controller uses to handle the data internally. No MBR or any of the current drive registry systems are used, so that is why existing games cannot take advantage of the system. They have to be written with the storage method in mind.
I am not saying you won't need more storage, games will get bigger (as always) and people always want more storage) but this isn't going to like going back to a small drive. It is more efficient when used as intended, that is why you are better off putting your big old games on an external drive.
Edit: It has probably been mentioned in here somewhere but for clarity, as it applies to PC games more than consoles, is that you can get around duplication for asset load times by having massive amounts of RAM to cache it into, but consoles do not have that luxury.
The new system in the PS5 doesn't use traditional addressing, instead every piece of data is given a I.D. code that the new Sony high speed controller uses to handle the data internally. No MBR or any of the current drive registry systems are used, so that is why existing games cannot take advantage of the system. They have to be written with the storage method in mind.
I am not saying you won't need more storage, games will get bigger (as always) and people always want more storage) but this isn't going to like going back to a small drive. It is more efficient when used as intended, that is why you are better off putting your big old games on an external drive.
Edit: It has probably been mentioned in here somewhere but for clarity, as it applies to PC games more than consoles, is that you can get around duplication for asset load times by having massive amounts of RAM to cache it into, but consoles do not have that luxury.
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Don't get to hung up dcsarge example on file size. However the installs for certain games does contain multiple copies of the same data.
You're argument about not being able to control where the data ends up the platter is a reason why they do duplicate data. You want to keep certain chunks of data as close together as possible. In the hope that when you need to call that data they are near to each other.
For example: say a common postbox that you use all over the game. You want to use it in the downtown section of your map that has different buildings to the uptown(?) side of the map
You will want a copy of the post box near all the downtown buildings and a copy of the post box near the buildings used for uptown. so when you are loading all the downtown buildings your gambling that the postbox will be right next to that building data, rather than travelling to another part of the disk to collect the post box data that is next to uptown buildings.
Yes there would be an issue if that chunk of data is split in middle and are on opposite sides of the platter, but it is a gamble they are willing to take.
I would recommend watching the HDD/SSD section in the PS5 reveal. Start at the 10 min 30 seconds mark for the duplicate example. Hopefully the graphics helps to explain it
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. I don't sleep properly so my mental faculties are not great at the best of times 
.I've seen the video and do understand the basics behind the methods being used and am not disputing that, I'm just saying I don't trust the numbers going around. If next-gen games are even a quarter smaller than their current-gen counterparts I'll gladly be proven wrong (it'll save me money on an SSD upgrade for the console too) but I'm not convinced that data is being duplicated to anywhere near the extent that some say it is, at least not commonly.
Hopefully nearer to release some devs will be able to talk a bit more openly about how they're using the SSD performance effectively and what benefit that brings beyond simple load time reductions. The potential is certainly there.
Hopefully nearer to release some devs will be able to talk a bit more openly about how they're using the SSD performance effectively and what benefit that brings beyond simple load time reductions. The potential is certainly there.
I think it'll be interesting to see how this influences PC gaming too, as much as PCs have had SSDs for many years this could quite easily push some developers to require either a large amount RAM and/or an SSD for PC versions of games also developed with the next-gen consoles in mind. It'd be the first time in a long time that the consoles have been leading the way in that respect.
Soldato
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Let's not forget Microsoft wants the games that will come in the near future to work on the older consoles as well, so anything "new" has to be exclusive possibly to PS5 or PS5 and PC. With that said, I don't see a lot of games out there that will require truly (and not just due to bad optimization) an extremely fast storage device.
I can see it being a combination of both. I belive MS flight sim and star citizen already recommend SSD.
Depending on the price of RAM especially when DDR5 comes out, developers may need to hold back. However i won't be surprised if within the next 5 years 32GB will be what everyone recommends for mid range gaming PCs.
Edit: We could also see queue depth and IOPS startring to make a difference.
Isn't that only for the first year? it won't be long till multiplat start stretching their legs.
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Only for first party games.
Haven't watched it yet but Tim said the PS5 storage system was world class - better than PCs at this point in time. Sony might have played a blinder here and that extra juice in the Xbox Series X might not surmount to anything in the end.
Holy ****. Impressive
