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[stryke]

Generally external HDD will outperform internal HDD
Internal SSD will outperform external SSD but pretty minimal difference

PS4
                             Int HGST HDD         Ext 4TB HDD          Ext 480GB SSD
Fallout 4                           57.26               44.53                  30.06
Witcher 3                         1.35.38             1.27.42                1.17.09
Battlefield 1                     1.10.12               54.25                  33.00

Further testing with PS4 Pro and internal vs external SSD numbers in the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypQTC6Rt0jk

 

[ViciousDS]

Nice......those external gains are great

 

[Diablohead]

External drives on consoles always seem to bring the goods, that's awesome.

 

[Black Republican]

usb externals or ac adapter externals are better?


i think for the xb1 the wired ones were better

 

[Tajaz2426]

That is some nice gains. I just put an M.2 into my new PC build, I may have to put an external SSD on the ole PS4 Pro.

Anyone know any good deals for an external SSD? It would be most appreciated.

 

[Slayven]

I always have an issue where the ps4 forgets the external hard drive occasionally.

 

[L.O.R.D]

What about testing external sshd to PS4 and PS4 Pro?

 

[sensi97]

Nice. I wish the minimal size for external HDD was smaller. My spare SSD is too small. I could have use it to move the game I'm currently playing on it.

 

[HardRojo]

I need to get a 4 TB External HDD for my PS4.

 

[Deku Tree]

If I move an external HDD to a new PS4 signed into my same PSN then can I run my digital games off of it?

 

[Xliskin]

I will get 4 TB external drive with Ps4 Pro .... someday

 

[Certinty]

Time to transfer some of my games to my external HDD.

 

[Behlel]

They need to test this with FF XV, with the internal HDD the load times are too long, with an external WD My Book 3TB (3.5 drovw with external AC) I've reduced the initial load of the same save of nearly 45 second.

 

[ethomaz]

Generally external HDD will outperform internal HDD
Internal SSD will outperform external SSD but pretty minimal difference.

I'm confuse.

The same HDD runs faster in external than internal? While the same SSD runs faster internal than external?

I don't but it... internal should be faster for both.

 

[LordOfChaos]

Is it because bandwidth is reserved on the internal for video recording?

Wish we could turn that off and un-provision that.

 

[KainXVIII]

Witcher 3 1.35.38

Wow, W3 is that long to load on consoles? PC version on SSD is about 10 seconds to load

 

[ethomaz]

Is it because bandwidth is reserved on the internal for video recording?

Wish we could turn that off and un-provision that.

That should affect SSD internal too...

If there are any internal limitation it needs to affect both HDD and SSD... so both needs to be slower than external.

But SDD runs faster internal than external... that means there are no limitation and HDD sould run faster internal too.

You have two options here:

1) Both are faster internally (some internal bus limitation)
2) Both are faster externally

That is why I'm questioning if they used the same HDD for internal and external.

PS. I can't check because there is no article on DF page and I don't waste my time watching videos.

 

[Gamesgbkiller]

Ok. I'll try it someday. Useful for Just Cause 3.

 

[el87]

But of course is not that usable. You can't reliably suspend PS4 with an external drive and there are other issues that I and many others are reporting.

 

[Shahed]

So if I have an Internal SSD, theres no need to get an External one for better loads right?

 

[joeblow]

^^^ Correct.

That should affect SSD internal too...

If there are any internal limitation it needs to affect both HDD and SSD... so both needs to be slower than external.

But SDD runs faster internal than external... that means there are no limitation and HDD sould run faster internal too.

You have two options here:

1) Both are faster internally (some internal bus limitation)
2) Both are faster externally

That is why I'm questioning if they used the same HDD for internal and external.

PS. I can't check because there is no article on DF page and I don't waste my time watching videos.

He used stock internal drives for vanilla and the Pro. For HDD external tests, he used a different brand.

 

[ethomaz]

^^^ Correct.

He used stock internal drives for vanilla and the Pro. For HDD external tests, he used a different brand.

That explain all.

So the results are misleading and just shows how slow is the vanilla HDD and not the internal x external performance.

So if I have an Internal SSD, theres no need to get an External one for better loads right?

Unless you external HDD is better than your internal HDD you will never get better loads with external... in fact internal is faster with the same hardware.

There is no performance beneficies with external... the opposite there is a small penalty.

 

[Deku Tree]

Yeah they should have put the stock internal into the same enclosure and tested it externally to have a fair test.

 

[Izuna]

Please don't waste an SSD on this...

External is great tho. I wonder if Prey has the same issue with external drives tho.

 

[Izuna]

I'm confuse.

The same HDD runs faster in external than internal? While the same SSD runs faster internal than external?

I don't but it... internal should be faster for both.

The internal may be slower because the OS is accessing the drive.

 

[NewDust]

That explain all.

So the results are misleading and just shows how slow is the vanilla HDD and not the internal x external performance.


Unless you external HDD is better than your internal HDD you will never get better loads with external... in fact internal is faster with the same hardware.

There is no performance beneficies with external... the opposite there is a small penalty.

IT doesn't really show how slow the vanilla drive is. Yes it is slower, but not by a significant margin when comparing to a non standard drive.

However. Using a caddy with a sata->usb controller intended for normal HDD may have influenced the SSD results. And while read speeds might exceed on USB 3.0 vs Sata, I expect (not certain) that the iops for USB are limited compared to SATA (almost certainly when using that caddy)

 

[PyroPaperPlanes]

For those who didn't watch:

• From testing, load times are as follows in order of shortest to longest: Internal SSD>External SSD>External 3rd Party HDD>PS4 Pro Internal Stock HDD>PS4 Stock HDD.
• Storage capacity does not effect speeds. A full 4TB HDD filled with no/little data installed will perform the same when the drive is full. This is due to the 3BS file format.
• The drive must be formatted to the 3BS file format to install and play games. This is a security function that prevents the drive being read by PCs, and to provide relatively uniform performance between drives, as stated in the previous point.
• Save data is exclusively saved to the internal drive, regardless of whether a external drive is used or not.
• External HDDs can be used between different PlayStation 4s.

 

[eso76]

Duh, I just happen to have a spare 180GB SSD lying somewhere. Didn't occur to me I could move stuff to that and use it instead of continuously managing the files on the internal HDD.

 

[ethomaz]

The internal may be slower because the OS is accessing the drive.

SSD shows internal bus is faster.

They just used a HDD slower in internal than the HDD external.

That is why it is misleading... the correct order of better loading using the same hardware:

SSD Internal > SSD External > HDD Internal > HDD External.

 

[Alucrid]

Please don't waste an SSD on this...

External is great tho. I wonder if Prey has the same issue with external drives tho.

i put a 1tb ssd in my ps4, it's great

 

[Nerdkiller]

Is it possible to install a physical game onto an external drive? Because I want to get Prey, and I do not want to deal with those long load times.

 

[hanspampel]

is external SSD faster than internal SSD?

 

[Izuna]

SSD shows internal bus is faster.

They just used a HDD slower in internal than the HDD external.

That is why it is misleading... the correct order of better loading using the same hardware:

SSD Internal > SSD External > HDD Internal > HDD External.

As someone else said, the caddy they used may be what's misleading.

But sure, DF should have done if only to have a fair test.

 

[hanspampel]

SSD shows internal bus is faster.

They just used a HDD slower in internal than the HDD external.

That is why it is misleading... the correct order of better loading using the same hardware:

SSD Internal > SSD External > HDD Internal > HDD External.

does this apply
only for Ps4 Pro, or also regular Ps4?
has the Ps4 Pro a faster interface?

 

[joeblow]

^^^ The video in the first post shows that the PS4 Pro stock drive loads about 10% faster than vanilla's stock drive. However, using the same external 3rd party HDD for both units, the Pro loaded <1% faster than vanilla. In that test, the external HDD for both was 6%-7% slower than the stock drives.

 

[ethomaz]

is external SSD faster than internal SSD?

The opposite.

does this apply
only for Ps4 Pro, or also regular Ps4?
has the Ps4 Pro a faster interface?

I don't know because I didn't watch the full video but the same SSD was a bit faster internal than external.

HDD they used one 3rd for external and the vanilla for internal... this comparison is basically useless because there are big differences in performance between the vanilla HDD and the 3rd HDD.

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

Nice......those external gains are great

If people actually watch the video they will find that the same drive hooked up internally vs externally performed better internally

 

[StereoVsn]

All I can say is that I find loading speeds and stuttering significantly improved on the Pro for larger Open World games like DAI, FFXV, Witcher, Skyrim, etc. For example in FFXV and Skyrim loading times are maybe half the OG drive and stuttering also seems much lower (the latter is anekdotal since I didn't really time it as it's a hard thing to quantatively measure).

I use an internal Sandisk 960GB SSD, not the fastest SSD out there but more then enough for a console and it's worth it, IMO. I also play different games quite often (with current PS5 exception) so a hybrid won't help much.

 

[Fournier]

Is it possible to install a physical game onto an external drive? Because I want to get Prey, and I do not want to deal with those long load times.

Of course you can. You can set your external hdd as your default location for downloads and disc installs.

 

[ToastyBanana]

Is it possible to install a physical game onto an external drive? Because I want to get Prey, and I do not want to deal with those long load times.

It's better but still a good 30s load when transitioning between areas in Prey on an external SSD on a Pro.

 

[adamsapple]

Best feature of the 4.50 firmware, right there with Boost mode.

SSD gains are very notable and you can get a $99 SSD to have some of your primary games on. I have the Samsung T3, $99 for 250GB. I can copy a bunch of my primary games to it and leave the internal 1TB of the Pro other storage. Advantages vary by game but in every game I've tested personally, the load times are cut in half or close to it.

Is it possible to install a physical game onto an external drive? Because I want to get Prey, and I do not want to deal with those long load times.

Yes it's possible. You can either move a game already installed from internal to external via the storage settings, or in the storage settings you can mark whichever gets to be the 'primary' device where all content goes.

Regardless, save games always go in the internal drive.

is external SSD faster than internal SSD?

No, internal SSD is slightly faster but either forms of SSDs are significantly faster than stock drives.

 

[kyser73]

I always have an issue where the ps4 forgets the external hard drive occasionally.

But of course is not that usable. You can't reliably suspend PS4 with an external drive and there are other issues that I and many others are reporting.

Yeah, I've found this too. Did anyone make a thread about it yet?

 

[PLASTICA-MAN]

I didn't get how external HDD outperform internal ones? Is it because of USB 3.1?
Any external HDD works fine?

 

[ethomaz]

I didn't get how external HDD outperform internal ones? Is it because of USB 3.1?
Any external HDD works fine?

The video shows Internal outperforming external.

The only case external did better was because the external HDD was faster than vanilla internal HDD... the video do a poor job in the comparison choices that lead most guys thinks external is running faster lol

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

I didn't get how external HDD outperform internal ones? Is it because of USB 3.1?
Any external HDD works fine?

I thought the Pro only had USB 3.0?

 

[PLASTICA-MAN]

I thought the Pro only had USB 3.0?

The extra port is 3.1.

 

[adamsapple]

I thought the Pro only had USB 3.0?

Back port is 3.1 and annoyingly also doesn't work with rest mode. If you have your USB on the back port and put a game on rest mode, it'll say the drive was disconnected improperly and you'll be forced to reboot the system and 'repair' it.

 

[PLASTICA-MAN]

Back port is 3.1 and annoyingly also doesn't work with rest mode. If you have your USB on the back port and put a game on rest mode, it'll say the drive was disconnected improperly and you'll be forced to reboot the system and 'repair' it.

Wow. I didn't know that. Thanks for notifiying this.