A new PlayStation 5 internal SSD, M.2 drive speed and performance test has been shared online, highlighting the excellent performance of an M.2 drive that meets the recommended specs.
The new video, shared on YouTube by MiDASTECH, compares gaming performance and transfer times between the console's internal SSD and a Samsung 980 PRO 1 TB drive in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. As revealed by Insomniac Games last week, there's pretty much no difference in terms of gaming performance and load times between the two drives. Once again, the only difference is in the transfer speeds, which are considerably slower when transferring a game from the M.2 drive to the internal SSD.
In this video, I fully test out Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on the added PS5 M2 SSD Storage. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was designed to fully use the SSD capabilities of the Playstation 5 to eliminate loading screens. The is a game speed test and the main focus is to see if there are any differences in load time between the Console SSD and the added M2 SSD.
As mentioned above, the excellent performance of the M.2 drive in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart isn't surprising at all, as Insomniac Games' Director of Core Technology Mike Fitzgerald did confirm a few days ago that early tests made by the developer showed little to no difference if the M.2 drive met the recommended specs.
The Gen4 drives we tried that met the recommended specs gave results almost indistinguishable from the internal SSD. The rest of the I/O path still in use (hardware Kraken decompression, etc.) is definitely pulling its weight in delivering the crazy loading moments in Rift Apart.
We tried some below-spec Gen4 M.2 drives as well and saw up to 15% slower loading in the most SSD-stressing areas of the game. Not too shabby, but keep a close eye on technical specs if you’re making an SSD purchase, as our game does rely on high-quality storage.
Support for the PlayStation 5 M.2 storage expansion has been introduced with a new beta firmware. A public release date for the firmware has yet to be confirmed.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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