The PS5 Pro can compete with gaming PCs using Gen 5 SSDs
Now that the latest version of Sony’s console has been available for two years, some have turned their attention to the potential of a PS5 Pro. A modified edition of the console can bring more power to ensure that the system can support more demanding titles, but the biggest change it can bring is the adoption of NVme Gen 5.0 SSDs.
If you’re familiar with SSDs for the PS5, you know they’re currently NVMe Gen 4.0 and match the PS5’s internal drive itself. Even at the end of 2022, these drives are still very good and will not be replaced by the new Gen 5 SSDs that are expected to become mainstream in 2023 and beyond. That’s what makes the possibility of the PS5 Pro so exciting.
With the current Gen 4.0 standard, the maximum sequential read speed can reach 8000MB/s, and many high-performance models, such as the Samsung 990 Pro and Corsair MP600 Pro LPX, approach the performance ceiling this. In terms of actual usage within the console, you’ll notice almost non-existent load times depending on how PS5 games are optimized to take advantage of this.
But even though these discs are great for the PS5 console, there will come a time when PC games will load faster. In fact, the components of PCs evolve much faster than the more standardized consoles, changing only two or three times during their lifetime at most. Sony can effectively guarantee its console’s capabilities if it provides access to faster system storage by implementing a Gen 5 SSD in a future update.
How fast are NVMe Gen 5 SSDs?
Based on the ceiling of what’s possible with NVMe 2.0-ported Gen 5 SSDs, the new storage technology can achieve sequential speeds of up to 13,000MB/s. 60% faster than Gen 4, which rates very fast.
The PS5 Pro’s secret weapon may be the adoption of Gen 5 SSDs, as that means games will load faster than they currently do. This also means faster transfer times for large game transfers from internal storage to the internal drive as well. Plus, because Gen 5 SSDs with NVMe 2.0 ports are backwards compatible with Gen 4 SSDs, you can keep your existing drives until you’re ready to upgrade.
For its part, Xbox Series X uses the low-level DirectStorage API to reduce load times by compressing the available VRAM on the GPU, reducing the time it takes to get into the game. This feature will eventually be introduced to gaming PCs in early 2022, although support for it is not yet widespread.
Gen 5 SSDs are very fast, make no mistake. If the PS5 Pro uses them, we’ll see faster load times and better-looking games because they’ll be able to render Ultra HD textures in real time at a faster rate. Time will tell if that’s the case, but if Sony wants to extend the life of its latest game console, everyone will benefit from adopting the new storage standard.
What other improvements might the PS5 Pro bring?
Judging by the PS5’s current hardware, which relies on a custom AMD RDNA 2 GPU called Oberon, the next big step for Sony is to use the RDNA 3 microarchitecture which will be officially launched in December 2022. The current console is supported by 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM and a 256-bit memory bus. While the bus width is unlikely to change due to the console’s form factor, we may see an upgrade to faster GDDR6X memory in the implementation of next-generation computing technology.
We didn’t expect the PS5 Pro to be a huge upgrade over the original, like the jump between the PS4 and PS4 Pro before it, but this upgrade certainly is. welcome for those who want the latest equipment. Will this be the definitive console version? Well, we’ll have to wait for the price and details to be revealed when that happens, which probably won’t be until 2023.
