The PS5 specs reveal just happened and it was quite surprising in some ways. As it turns out, Sony decided to go all-in with delivering the fastest possible SSD, with an impressive I/O throughput of 5.5 GB/s with raw data and 8-9 GB/s with compressed data, almost twice as much as that of the Xbox Series X (which is 2.4 GB/s with raw data and 4.8 GB/s with compressed data).
The craziest thing about PS5 is the speed of the SSD. 5.5 GB/s is just part of the story - there is a lot of custom silicon in there to ensure that the system isn't bottlenecked in other areas. It's *REALLY* fast on paper - a lot faster than Xbox Series X even.
— John Linneman @dark1x.bsky.social (@dark1x) March 18, 2020
This means PS5 games will have the fastest loading times, but then again, as discussed by Digital Foundry's Writer and Video Producer John Linneman on Twitter, this will likely be only fully utilized by Sony's first-party games as any multiplatform title are going to cater to the lowest common denominators available on Xbox Series X and PC.
Sure, only first party games will truly utilize those speeds but multiplatform games are still going to be made with SSD in mind. I mean, we went from 50-100MB/s last gen to 2.4GB/s (X) and 5.5GB/s (PS5). That's a MASSIVE leap.
— John Linneman @dark1x.bsky.social (@dark1x) March 18, 2020
Absolutely, not saying otherwise.
— John Linneman @dark1x.bsky.social (@dark1x) March 18, 2020
On the other hand, the PS5 is quite less powerful than the Xbox Series X when it comes to the CPU and especially the GPU. Not only is the official TFLOPs count quite different (12 for the Xbox Series X and 10.28 for the PS5), Sony's next-generation console is also using variable frequency on both CPU and GPU, unlike Xbox Series X.
This means that the CPU frequency won't always be at 3.5 GHz and most importantly the GPU frequency won't always be at 2.23 GHz, which would be insanely high. In fact, our hardware team (who's crafting a deep dive analysis right now) at Wccftech believes the usual clock could be well below that frequency, leading to a much lower TFLOPs count.
The main issue will be for PS5 developers, though. John Linneman suggested that this design could force them to make some choices that just won't be necessary when making games for Microsoft's next-generation console, which comes with fixed clocks.
PS5 is predictable but it forces developers to make choices that won't be necessary on Series X. I think fixed clocks are a better choice in this case BUT we'll see how it goes.
— John Linneman @dark1x.bsky.social (@dark1x) March 18, 2020
Of course, it's early days and Sony doesn't seem to have revealed everything when it comes to the PS5, unlike Microsoft with the Xbox Series X. Still, with most specifications officially confirmed for the two consoles, we now have a much better idea of the relative power thresholds.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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