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Digital Foundry Taps into PS4 Pro's secret sauce

Sony

Nintendo
Summary, though the video is definitely worth a watch:
- Loading times are improved (Internal SSD best results, external SSD lagging slightly behind). This is the biggest advantage.
- Texture loading/pop-in notably better with SSD compared to stock HDD
- Asset loading/pop-in better with SSD, in some cases geometry is drawn faster/ at a larger distance, though in most cases geometry/npc loading distance seems to be baked in.
- Menu navigation, small improvement with internal SSD. Menu navigation seems to be more tied to internet speed.
 

jonnyp

Member
These consoles don't even support SATA3 port speeds so yeah, it doesn't make a world of difference. Hence why some titles still take a whole minute to load even with an SSD.

Indeed, and it's nothing new. I get that news is slow at the moment but making a video about this in 2020 is fucking silly as it has been known since the PS4 launched. It was also known it didn't improve as much as people wanted due to the interface.

Has nothing to do with next gen either, so what was the point of this DF?
 

The Fartist

Gold Member
Indeed, and it's nothing new. I get that news is slow at the moment but making a video about this in 2020 is fucking silly as it has been known since the PS4 launched. It was also known it didn't improve as much as people wanted due to the interface.

Has nothing to do with next gen either, so what was the point of this DF?
They have bills to pay like the rest of us?
 

The Fartist

Gold Member
I have a 512GB SSD in my PS4 and I honest love it. Everything's so zippy it's insane.
Yeah, just installed a 1 TB Samsung 860 EVO a couple of days ago and there's no going back, it's awesome. I've had an M.2 on my PC for 2 years, but experiencing that similar boost on my PS4 feels pretty novel.

Also, just bought a used PS4 Pro with a faulty HDD this morning for $200 and then the DF video pops up! I bought the Pro an hour or two before DF uploaded.
 
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-Arcadia-

Banned
This was fun. This knowledge comes years too late for me, with next-gen consoles right around the corner, though. Even playing backwards compatible games, I'll likely be using the internal drive.

If we weren't in the era of BC though, I would absolutely do this, with a cheaper drive. The improvements are tangible and far more impressive than I expected, when actual visuals are being affected, and loading times are taking a very meaningful decrease.
 
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Sony

Nintendo
I wonder what the speed difference is between these SSD results and a 7200 RPM higher speed HDD.

Yeah, it doesn't makes sense to put such ssd in ps4, cheap chinese ssd would be enough to be bottlenecked by sata2

They said in the video that the premium for the tested SSD is in storage capacity and the same results will be reached with smaller storage SSD's (cheaper) if the speeds are comparable.
 
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Rikkori

Member
QLC is trash & that 870 QVO is overpriced for what it is. Definitely don't recommend it as a choice.
 
Its bottle-necked by the decompression/encryption - hence why the PS5 has a ton of hardware and design specifically to remove that bottleneck.

The SSD decreases load times significantly when it has to load a ton of different files, because seek time is much better and that wouldn't be affected by those bottlenecks. Games like Monster Hunter, or the texture loading in games, is what sees the most benefit. When its just straight data loading it isn't much of an improvement over a mechanical hard drive.
 

Ulysses 31

Member
This was fun. This knowledge comes years too late for me, with next-gen consoles right around the corner, though. Even playing backwards compatible games, I'll likely be using the internal drive.

If we weren't in the era of BC though, I would absolutely do this, with a cheaper drive. The improvements are tangible and far more impressive than I expected, when actual visuals are being affected, and loading times are taking a very meaningful decrease.
0o

With the release of PS4 Pro there were HD vs SSD charts showing the advantages. :lollipop_grinning:
 

-Arcadia-

Banned
0o

With the release of PS4 Pro there were HD vs SSD charts showing the advantages. :lollipop_grinning:

bazZpAL.gif


Sometimes you miss something.
 

Ovek

7Member7
I run all my games off a external usb3 Angel Bird SSD not exactly the use case for it but it significantly improved... well everything in Jedi Fallen Order.
 
Well its had good use on PC for years.

And in consoles for years too... for some reason DF is a few years late comparing load times and transition speeds etc with SSDs... a simple youtube search will show you the speed advantages in launch ps4 (small but there) and PS4 pro (better) as well as XBOX consoles, etc. Its weird that this is news, if Im honest.
 

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
wasnt it said a million times by actual graphics people pop in has nothing to do with ssd's ? And you can put the fastest ssd in the ps4 but the cpu will gimp it ?
No, it definitely adds to the time it takes to load in textures, but it's not the only think, and if there's another bottleneck then there's another bottleneck.

For as much as people talk about the PS5's "fast SSD", the custom silicon it uses for I/O and decompression is the thing that really sets it apart, I think. That WILL make pop in a thing of the past.
 

Great Hair

Banned
Has nothing to do with next gen either, so what was the point of this DF?

To divert the attention perhaps, away from poor Craig and his low poly face among other issues to "look! Sony PS4 has popin as well!"

Let's remedy this by installing a cheap $900 8TB SSD in 2020. A total waste of time and bandwidth.
 
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To divert the attention perhaps, away from poor Craig and his low poly face among other issues to "look! Sony PS4 has popin as well!"

Let's remedy this by installing a cheap $900 8TB SSD in 2020. A total waste of time and bandwidth.

Are you saying this it's because they want people to say that they release positive videos on playstation?

That's quite a conspiracy there.

If I'm not mistaken it's alot easier to replace the HDD in the PS4 Pro than the Xbox One X. Maybe that's why they did this video first?
 
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Bo_Hazem

Banned
I stupid video this late to say the least, and architecture that doesn't even fully support more than 2.5x speeds over HDD no matter how fast the SSD is. Doesn't add a fraction to what has been spoken about years back but a smart way to fool low IQ people into believing that SSD improvements in PS5 won't be much. Typical DF. :lollipop_tears_of_joy:

By the way, I'm happy to see an 8TB SSD! I really need that on my PC for added storage.
 
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McCheese

Member
Throughput is 90% gimped due to the slow port in the PS4, but you do see overall loading times decrease due lower seek times.

Not worth the money, especially this late on.
 
S

SLoWMoTIoN

Unconfirmed Member
Huh, I thought the ps4 pro only let you use 2TB for internals.
 
Summary, though the video is definitely worth a watch:
- Loading times are improved (Internal SSD best results, external SSD lagging slightly behind). This is the biggest advantage.
- Texture loading/pop-in notably better with SSD compared to stock HDD
- Asset loading/pop-in better with SSD, in some cases geometry is drawn faster/ at a larger distance, though in most cases geometry/npc loading distance seems to be baked in.
- Menu navigation, small improvement with internal SSD. Menu navigation seems to be more tied to internet speed.
I witness all of the above on a daily basis especially the Menu navigation. HOLY SHIT, the menu navigation is MASSIVELY improved.
- Division 2 loads for me from start to in-game map in 25 seconds.
- Fast travel to any point on the map is 7 seconds flat.

Do the above with my stock hard drive.
- Takes me over 2 minutes to load into the game and start playing
- Fast travel can take up to 1 minute to travel to any point in the map.

Anyone who has a PS4 Pro MUST pick up the biggest internal SSD you can afford.
The difference in performance is night and day.

Wait, so it actually helped with pop in even on the PS4 Pro?
Oh hell yes. Again, my example i use is Division 2. On my stock drive the pop in was very obvious especially directly after fast travelling to any point on the map.
I don't see that same pop-in issues anymore with my internal SSD.

I don't know if its because of my SSD but Ghost of Tsushima is the current fastest loading game on my PS4 Pro. Fucking 20 seconds and i'm in the game from a dead start and dying in-game OR fast travel is like 3 -4 seconds. It almost seems instant.
 
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LordOfChaos

Member
These consoles don't even support SATA3 port speeds so yeah, it doesn't make a world of difference. Hence why some titles still take a whole minute to load even with an SSD.


The Pro did add SATA III, but they were still gain limited by the slow ARM IO coprocessor and I'm not sure if the weird SATA over USB bridge on the original was still in there, which would have limited things further (USB isn't great for latency)

 

The Fartist

Gold Member
Don't really understand the complaints.

The PS4 Pro has many years of life left for a lot of people, and who would't want a 8 TB drive.
Yeah, GAF is gonna GAF, I guess.

If I had money to burn, I'd totally put this 8 TB drive in every device possible. It is overkill, but so what? Digital Foundry did it because they can and know that this video would get clicks, nothing wrong with that.
 
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