The PS5 SSD fixed my biggest gripe with console gaming

techradar.com:

For the longest time, I resisted upgrading my trusty PS4 for a PS5, though admittedly this was not entirely by choice, given the ongoing global chip shortage. 

However, now that I’ve finally managed to beat the PS5 restock game thanks to a great bundle deal from mobile provider EE, I can confidently say that the console’s best feature isn’t the DualSense controller or 3D audio – it’s the PS5’s 825GB solid-state drive (SSD). 

Despite the obvious leap in graphics and performance compared to the PS4, the PS5’s SSD fixed my biggest problem with console gaming by practically eliminating the time spent waiting for games to load and software updates to install. I’ve found that to be invaluable. As visually impressive as some of the best PS5 games may be – namely recent releases such as Gran Turismo 7 – my time is simply more precious.

Many things make the PS5 such a sought-after product: armed with an eight-core Zen 2-based CPU and RDNA 2 GPU, Sony’s new-gen hardware can make every fresh gaming release look impressive and, in some cases, even difficult to distinguish from real life. However, the PS5 SSD is a significant technological advancement in itself.

To put this in perspective, the PS5 comes equipped with a custom PCIe 4.0 SSD capable of delivering uncompressed data to the CPU and GPU with a speed of up to 5.5GB per second. This is roughly 100 times faster than what the PS4 could output at a mere 50-100MB per second. 

These technical specifications make the PS5 SSD the biggest quality of life improvement the console has to offer. Even with graphically intensive Triple-A titles such Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, boot speeds are so blazingly fast that it takes mere seconds to go from your PS5 menu to web-slinging across