Support NeoGAF

[GymWolf]

most of pc gamers are cheap fucks, so a very long time.

only console exclusive are gonna take full advantage from this ssd sauce (if it really exist to begin with)

just imagine ubisoft, ea or activision loosing to sell milions of copies because their games can only run on a beast ssd or even better spending money to develop 2 completely different version of every game

(again, if this difference really exist and it's that big as some devs say on twitter)

 

[Self]

Tell that to CDPR, The Witcher 3 has sold 12M copies on PC alone...and that's actually the leading platform,

Very impressive numbers indeed.
I wonder how many copies of Cyberpunk would move if SSD was a requirement on PC.

Old engine I know, but would be cool to determine the success of such an approach. I guess Star Citizen is not the appropriate title to make a meaningful change.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Very impressive numbers indeed.
I wonder how many copies of Cyberpunk would move if SSD was a requirement on PC.

Old engine I know, but would be cool to determine the success of such an approach. I guess Star Citizen is not the appropriate title to make a meaningful change.

According to past history, people would just buy SSDs en masse if that were to happen (assuming they don't have any already).
I mean, people bought VR en masse after Half Life Alyx got announced, and we're talking about a much more expensive device that takes space and is technically useless outside very specific games

 

[Helios]

Yes the 12 million people who bought witcher 3 on PC don't buy any other games total fluke....

Any proof?

I wonder how many copies of Cyberpunk would move if SSD was a requirement on PC.

Is an SSD required? Seems like the game will run just fine off an HDD. What is the point of all these hypotheses when no one knows anything about how this will work out. Just to fuel the hype machine ?

 

[Jayjayhd34]

Any proof?

Is an SSD required? Seems like the game will run just fine off an HDD. What is the point of all these hypotheses when no one knows anything about how this will work out. Just to fuel the hype machine ?

Proof of what ?

 

[Self]

According to past history, people would just buy SSDs en masse if that were to happen (assuming they don't have any already).

Yeah, right. People playing Witcher 3 are somewhat up to date anyways. My bad.

Is an SSD required? Seems like the game will run just fine off an HDD.

Not the point.

 

[Shmunter]

Every empire must crumble eventually. Rome, British empire, and in 2020, PC.

 

[Helios]

Proof of what ?

Nevermind, I misread your comment.

Not the point.

What is the point, then? It's clear a lot of the games right now and in the future don't and won't require SSDs and it's only speculation on how much this is going to change the industry.

 

[Paracelsus]

Nevermind, I misread your comment.

What is the point, then? It's clear a lot of the games right now and in the future don't and won't require SSDs and it's only speculation on how much this is going to change the industry.

"the" vs "a". DX12, any card that supports DX12.
You need any ssd = ok. You're still on DDR3, stick in SATA III, move on.
You need that ssd, as in some optane nvme DDR4/5 = good luck with that ever becoming the standard.

Either they dump all platforms except PS5 or the requirements are blown out of proportion.

 

[Shmunter]

Nevermind, I misread your comment.

What is the point, then? It's clear a lot of the games right now and in the future don't and won't require SSDs and it's only speculation on how much this is going to change the industry.

Well, the hardware is there. If they build it, they will come?

If genuine leaps in tech are ignored when they arrive, then there is no point ever going further.

What will help adoption in the end is not just the onscreen results, it’s that it makes achieving results by devs simpler. It’s not more work, it’s less. Highly attractive for programmers, artists and business bean counters alike.

This gen there may actually be less console specific games brought to pc. Won’t be worth the re-engineering.

 

[LazyParrot]

10-15 years ago the publishers were lucky if their game sold 1M copies, now they are lucky if it's 100k

Where'd you get those numbers from? Niche titles like Dark Souls comfortably sell several million copies on Steam, and even Yakuza 0 has more than 200k owners according to Steamspy. I doubt any of the big AAA titles did worse than that.

 

[lukilladog]

We already have games that only needed an update to make them unbearable on HDD, like Wreck Fest. I´d say day 1.

 

[Great Hair]

Seagate’s new 60TB SSD is world’s largest

Seagate's 60TB SSD comes a year after Samsung's 15TB SSD.

arstechnica.com

60TB by Seagate for $30,000 to $50,000 (2016)
30TB by Samsung for $10,000 (2018)
100TB SSD (by 2020 hopefully)

This 100TB drive is the largest capacity SSD ever made

It hasn't even been a month since Samsung unveiled the world's largest capacity SSD at 30TB, and it's already been ousted from the top spot by Nimbus Data, a flash memory hardware company from Irvine, California.

thenextweb.com

 

[diffusionx]

I don't have the statistics obviously, but I firmly believe those people are actually responsible for the most revenues on the PC marked, exactly because of their potato PCs - Sims, LoL, WoW, Minecraft, Fortnite, etc. those are the people who play those games, while AA/AAA market on PC is a fucking Joke, 10-15 years ago the publishers were lucky if their game sold 1M copies, now they are lucky if it's 100k, so I don't know, on one hand forcing people to switch to SSDs will cut you from already tiny audience, but on the other those few people actually might be willing to do the change. Time will tell as always.

This is objectively wrong - game market on PC is enormous, look at any company's financial results, for example Ubisoft makes more money on PC than they do on Xbox. If the "AA/AAA market on PC is a fucking joke", then nobody would be putting the games on the platform. The PC market is as healthy as it has ever been and only getting stronger, which is why even Sony is putting their exclusives on it.

That said, the potato PCs are simply a way for people to play games they like, if you only need a potato then no need to spend money on a high powered rig. That's the good thing about PC gaming, although console fanboys take it as a negative for some reason.

 

[CuteFaceJay]

They've been standard since like 2014 right?

 

[Self]

The PC market is as healthy as it has ever been and only getting stronger, which is why even Sony is putting their exclusives on it.

Yes, otherwise Death Stranding, Horizon etc on PC wouldn't make any sense.

if you only need a potato then no need to spend money on a high powered rig. That's the good thing about PC gaming, although console fanboys take it as a negative for some reason.

Actually that's a pretty cool thing.
Don't think that anybody is arguing that. What isn't cool though is the potato crowd holding back radical advancements on console and high end PC.

Nevertheless, there are quite interesting insights which I wasn't aware of. Hope this turns out to be just a intermediary step to take.

 

[cerealbuster]

Well pc is never the lowest common. Not because a pc is weaker than the console. But because, devs don't care about the pc at all. You either have the required specs or not. The lowest common is always the weaker console of those two. Maybe because how well the switch is selling the switch will be it, but the wii wasn't so I guess that's out of the question. E.g. You bought a 1080ti/1180ti, which handles everything pretty fine and next gen games (early on) will definitely not look like something you wouldn't be able to play with it. But it doesn't have feature xyz e.g. 18gb vram instead of 14gb. They won't care. (Sure it's not the perfect example, but my point should be clear I hope).

 

[ZywyPL]

Yes the 12 million people who bought witcher 3 on PC don't buy any other games total fluke....

That's exception not the rule and you know it.

 

[Fahdis]

Name a plethora of PC games that look better than some Sony Exclusives running on 7 year old junk hardware? They are far and few between.

I guess what matters is who makes the game. PC is platform agnostic so eventually it is the winner. Tech will catch up sooner or later. People focused on the hardware to save a few seconds but end up playing shit like Fortnite at 2000 FPS 28K or use it as a glorified Chrome device.

 

[GHG]

Yes, that could be an alternative. But expect games demanding 32GB-up beginning to appear some time after these consoles release.

Not seeing the logic here. Consoles have a 16gb shared ram pool.

16GB of PC system ram + the GPU ram typically comes out north of 22GB these days and in a year or two that figure will rise further.

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

Name a plethora of PC games that look better than some Sony Exclusives running on 7 year old junk hardware? They are far and few between.

That's why a lot of people want Sony exclusives ported to PC, though. Considering how clearly PC leads every multi-plat (that I know of, anyway), in some cases looking VASTLY superior to console versions, a lot of people would love to see these excellent Sony exclusives running on PC hardware. Imagine how crisp God of War would look at 4k on a 2080 Ti, for example.

But I guess that's the point. Games like HZD, God of War, Spider-Man, Days Gone are some of the best looking games this gen. There are multi-plats that, on PC, can compare (especially with 4k texture packs and/or mods and/or reshade filters) but hard to argue with Sony's games' visual fidelity on even base PS4 hardware.

Next-gen should be pretty awesome.

 

[Neo Blaster]

Not seeing the logic here. Consoles have a 16gb shared ram pool.

16GB of PC system ram + the GPU ram typically comes out north of 22GB these days and in a year or two that figure will rise further.

I was referring to total memory(RAM+VRAM). Without a M.2 NVME SSD, PCs will need to store more seconds of gameplay on memory than consoles, so they will need more memory, mainly VRAM.

 

[Arun1910]

If 3rd party developers don't design their games around using the PS5 SSD but instead just utilise what it can do for small benefits as an extra, I don't see the problem. It will have no knock on effect for PC ports or the XBox Series X port.

I think we will see true benefits of the PS5 SSD for 1st Party Titles only.

 

[Optimistic Gamer]

Ask "how long until SSD is the standard for PC" and you'll have a decent thread.
Ask "PS5 has an SSD; how long until SSD is the standard for PC" and this thread happens.

Shame.

 

[V2Tommy]

I don’t know a single person that has a mechanical drive in their computer.

Anecdote: I don’t know any poor people.

 

[Neo Blaster]

If 3rd party developers don't design their games around using the PS5 SSD but instead just utilise what it can do for small benefits as an extra, I don't see the problem. It will have no knock on effect for PC ports or the XBox Series X port.

I think we will see true benefits of the PS5 SSD for 1st Party Titles only.

Does not change the fact that PCs without at least a M.2 NVME SSD(XSX) will be the lowest common denominator.

 

[kuncol02]

Where'd you get those numbers from? Niche titles like Dark Souls comfortably sell several million copies on Steam, and even Yakuza 0 has more than 200k owners according to Steamspy. I doubt any of the big AAA titles did worse than that.

Now. You guys seriously don't remember in how terrible shape PC gaming was before Steam and standardization of controllers forced by Microsoft with XInput.

 

[LazyParrot]

Now. You guys seriously don't remember in how terrible shape PC gaming was before Steam and standardization of controllers forced by Microsoft with XInput.

But the poster I was responding to claimed the exact opposite. They said that PC games sold better 15 years ago than they do now.

 

[Kenpachii]

"the" vs "a". DX12, any card that supports DX12.
You need any ssd = ok. You're still on DDR3, stick in SATA III, move on.
You need that ssd, as in some optane nvme DDR4/5 = good luck with that ever becoming the standard.

Either they dump all platforms except PS5 or the requirements are blown out of proportion.

Epic on the matter.

the UE5 demo running on PlayStation 5 mostly uses full fidelity assets taken from the Quixel Megascans library

Now lets take a look

2k =

4k =

8k =

9x more streaming speed needed from 2k > 8k.

5,5 / 9 = 0,61.

Anyway with a cheap SSD will probably be fine if they sit on 1080p.

 

[Knitted Knight]

TL;DR > You decided to cut off stuff with slightly worse performance than the consoles that haven't even launched yet, is completely ignoring the obvious fact that very few people will buy the absolutely most powerful hardware when that really isn't used yet for the any of the games we have today, is ignoring the alternatives that exist to compensate for slower SSDs and is still considering the survey unreliable because you decided you knew better than the tech people at valve on how statistics work. And lets not forget we're still basing ourselves on imaginary requirements for imaginary games that we still have no clue about.

But hey, if you need to write an entire essay to justify getting a PS5 for yourself go ahead, whatever makes you feel more confortable. Personally, i'm more than happy with my modest non-master, non-RTX ready PC since most AAA games are a borefest to me anyway.

First off you decided to jump into the conversation when I made a still correct comment that we lack conclusive and representative data about what a mainstream rig looks like – because when talking about which platform is holding back who that is important to know. Because you assumed I was a dumb console peasant you brought up that limited, opt-in only survey to the conversation as a “got-cha, mic-drop” comment – “see there’s data”. Then when I clearly pointed out that the data you posted was inconclusive and improper you read my comments as a sign of weakness or backtracking, and threw shade as if you “ had me” instead of reading the comment for what it was. At that point I called you out because even in that survey the numbers are horrible and don’t paint at all a good picture (aka I’m not dealing with a bright chap here). You quickly realized you were in a big fat bind and made up a half assed response, full of poor spins and dismissals, just like you’re doing know, trying to puff up numbers (that still come up horrible) with underperforming hardware in comparison to the baseline (XSX) and you clearly know it. Admitting you’re wrong on a forum is impossible, it’s all spins, pride before the fall.

So please, keep that sobbing to yourself. The whole argument from the very beginning was: are PC gamers’s going into next gen the lowest common denominators and will they be holding back developers in taking maximum advantage of console hardware advancements? The answer to that, according to that very data you posted, is absolutely YES. Don’t take my word for it. 90-94% of PC gamers (according to that survey) going into next gen will need to upgrade at least one, but more likely several parts (in essence, new from the ground up rigs) just to reach parity with an Xbox Series X in performance (and you know damn well anything else is underperforming). Ohh and it will be extremely costly. And using that data also tells us that PC gamers do not upgrade hardware (even if available on the market) at a fast space, but instead at a snail-like pace of 0.3-2%. Even in the event that such percentage were to double, triple or quadruple at a console’s launch in November 2020 they would still be outpaced, comfortably, by console adoption (roughly 10 million by the end of 2021) – and thus reinforce the argument that, YES, the “hardcore” PC gamers will be holding back consoles next-gen by owning underperforming hardware – for all of 2021 and well into 2022. You can’t escape that with spin.

One of the many funny things this new generation is bringing up is reading PC elitists asking for a crutch in arguments (the mighty have truly fallen). Behaving all of the sudden technically dumb (Linus) and trying to reduce arguments and equate next gen as if it all just boils down to an SSD (any SSD). But we know for a big fat fact that not all components perform equally, that be true for a CPU, a GPU, RAM or yes an SSD. This is where the whole argument originates from - of consoles holding back PC gaming – because for the last two generations that has been more or less the case when looking at the performance in hardware. But not on this one - and thus the whole dance. So when you beg me take into consideration hardware that is underperforming compared to the baseline (Xbox Series X) I say NEIN. By definition you're holding console gaming back. We don’t just change the rules when it’s convenient, or in this case a pressing matter.

Your whole augments destroyed by one simple fact. Majority of pc gamers are not aiming for 4k...

Case in point this post (but many others out there in this thread). Nintendo fanboys have finally, at long last, some company. All of the sudden the performance of hardware does not matter because… duh duh… 1080p.

This is only going to get worse from here on out as Sony and MS show off. Buckle up.

 

[Paracelsus]

Epic on the matter.



Now lets take a look


2k =

4k =

8k =

9x more streaming speed needed from 2k > 8k.

5,5 / 9 = 0,61.

Anyway with a cheap SSD will probably be fine if they sit on 1080p.

Unless Ampere/RDNA2 is a major breakthrough, the Sandy Bridge/Zen 2 of GPUs, nobody is going to take 4k seriously let alone 8k. People will squeeze 1440p as much as they can.
It's commonly agreed upon 1440p 144hz is the best spot to be in terms of IQ and framerate.

 

[GHG]

I don’t know a single person that has a mechanical drive in their computer.

Anecdote: I don’t know any poor people.

I still have 2 mechanical drives but they are backups for backups of my work. They are basically 4th in the chain of command for my backups.

Wouldn't dream of gaming off them in this day and age though.

 

[Jayjayhd34]

First off you decided to jump into the conversation when I made a still correct comment that we lack conclusive and representative data about what a mainstream rig looks like – because when talking about which platform is holding back who that is important to know. Because you assumed I was a dumb console peasant you brought up that limited, opt-in only survey to the conversation as a “got-cha, mic-drop” comment – “see there’s data”. Then when I clearly pointed out that the data you posted was inconclusive and improper you read my comments as a sign of weakness or backtracking, and threw shade as if you “ had me” instead of reading the comment for what it was. At that point I called you out because even in that survey the numbers are horrible and don’t paint at all a good picture (aka I’m not dealing with a bright chap here). You quickly realized you were in a big fat bind and made up a half assed response, full of poor spins and dismissals, just like you’re doing know, trying to puff up numbers (that still come up horrible) with underperforming hardware in comparison to the baseline (XSX) and you clearly know it. Admitting you’re wrong on a forum is impossible, it’s all spins, pride before the fall.

So please, keep that sobbing to yourself. The whole argument from the very beginning was: are PC gamers’s going into next gen the lowest common denominators and will they be holding back developers in taking maximum advantage of console hardware advancements? The answer to that, according to that very data you posted, is absolutely YES. Don’t take my word for it. 90-94% of PC gamers going into next gen will need to upgrade at least one, but more likely several parts (in essence, new from the ground up rigs) just to reach parity with an Xbox Series X in performance (and you know damn well anything else is underperforming). Ohh and it will be extremely costly. And using that data also tells us that PC gamers do not upgrade hardware (even if available on the market) at a fast space, but instead at a snail-like pace of 0.3-2%. Even in the event that such percentage were to double, triple or quadruple at a console’s launch in November 2020 they would still be outpaced, comfortably, by console adoption (roughly 10 million by the end of 2021) – and thus reinforce the argument that, YES, the “hardcore” PC gamers will be holding back consoles next-gen by owning underperforming hardware – for all of 2021 and well into 2022. You can’t escape that with spin.

One of the many funny things this new generation is bringing up is reading PC elitists asking for a crutch in arguments (the mighty have truly fallen). Behaving all of the sudden technically dumb (Linus) and trying to reduce arguments and equate next gen as if it all just boils down to an SSD (any SSD). But we know for a big fat fact that not all components perform equally, that be true for a CPU, a GPU, RAM or yes an SSD. This is where the whole argument originates from - of consoles holding back PC gaming – because for the last two generations that has been more or less the case when looking at the performance in hardware. But not on this one - and thus the whole dance. So when you beg me take into consideration hardware that is underperforming compared to the baseline (Xbox Series X) I say NEIN. By definition you're holding console gaming back. We don’t just change the rules when it’s convenient, or in this case a pressing matter.


Case in point this post (but many others out there in this thread). Nintendo fanboys have finally, at long last, some company. All of the sudden the performance of hardware does not matter because… duh duh… 1080p.

This is only going to get worse from here on out as Sony and MS show off. Buckle up.

Who said anything 1080p. The simple fact is PC user are not dicated by a set resoltion, so a PC gaming at 1080p 1440p etc wouldn't need the same specs as console aiming for 30fps 4k you aware of The massive performance need for 4k right ?

I myself enjoy the resolution bump but not everyone's the same, then theirs totally different aurgment of nessity on a smaller monitor, you act as if 1080p bad however that simply not true.

 

[Knitted Knight]

Who said anything 1080p. The simple fact is PC user are not dicated by a set resoltion, so a PC gaming at 1080p 1440p etc wouldn't need the same specs as console aiming for 30fps you aware of massive performance need for 4k right ?

Lol what are you talking about? It doesn't really matter whether you inferred 1080p, 720p or 1440p... you made a dismissal post using reductionism. "it doesn't matter how the hardware performs because insert crutch here ______________."

 

[Jayjayhd34]

Lol what are you talking about? It doesn't really matter whether you inferred 1080p, 720p or 1440p... you made a dismissal post using reductionism. "it doesn't matter how the hardware performs because insert crutch here ______________."

Now your trolling I say one MORE because you seem not like the idea someONE desrroyed your aurgment.

1080P DOES NOT REQURIE THE SAME HARDWARE AS 4K SO PC GAMERS CAN ENOJY NEXT GEN GAMES ON WEAKER HARDWARE AT LOWER RESOLUTION FACT

 

[Knitted Knight]

Now your trolling I say one MORE because you seem not like the idea someONE desrroyed your aurgment.

1080P DOES NOT REQURIE THE SAME HARDWARE AS 4K SO PC GAMERS CAN ENOJY NEXT GEN GAMES ON WEAKER HARDWARE AT LOWER RESOLUTION FACT

I think the more you post the more you hurt yourself but hey... you got it.

 

[Ascend]

I don't know how quickly 3rd party games will start requiring an SSD. And as long as they don't do that, the consoles will not leverage their SSDs as they could. Unless they program the PC version to use a bunch of RAM to compensate for the HDD by making the RAM requirements 32GB or something.

 

[Jayjayhd34]

I think the more you post the more you hurt yourself but hey... you got it.

So you are disputing my claims?

Your claim was that all pc gamers needed a rtx2070 super for next gen or it would be holding next gen back, I proofen that completely fales as its entirely dependent on the resoltion and fps desired.

 

[MeatSafeMurderer]

That's exception not the rule and you know it.

Doom 2016 has sold atleast 2M on Steam, probably far more considering that number was confirmed 3 years ago. (Estimated 2M-5M on SteamSpy)
Doom Eternal has sold an estimated 1M-2M on Steam alone
Resident Evil 2 has sold an estimated 2M-5M
Resident Evil 3 has sold an estimated 1M-2M
Devil May Cry 5 has sold an estimated 2M-5M
Fallout 4 has sold an estimated 5M-10M
Skyrim has sold an estimated 5M-10M
Skyrim SE has sold an estimated 2M-5M
Grand Theft Auto 5 has sold an estimated 20M-50M on steam alone...a number so vast that the range is a vast chasm...fuck knows how many it has actually sold...a lot regardless...

Now...you were saying?

 

[ACESHIGH]

All those Doom and Gloomers of PC gaming seem to assume the following:

- COVID 19 won't have an impact and those 500 - 600 USD consoles with their 70 USD brand new games are going to fly off the shelves at an unprecedented rate. Not to mention additional controllers and online subscriptions. And those numbers exclude price gouging due to lack of inventory so I am being really generous with the prices above.

- Third party companies can easily live without sales from the PC platform and the Xbox with their inferior disk drive solutions. As they will cater to the almighty PS5... Even if budgets will keep increasing next gen and prices of AAA games will remain fixed at 60 - 70 USD. They won't need more units sold to cover those costs at all.

And the truth is:

- No one knows what's going to be revolutionary about SSDs from a gameplay perspective. Devs can hype next gen all they want but we still haven't seen any next gen only game showing what can be done. And I am not hyped at all from the things devs were saying: No LODs!! , Fast asset streaming!! Even Larger open worlds (as if we weren't suffering from open world fatigue these days) I still remember when Infamous Second Son came out, the narrative was pretty similar to what we see these days " This is not possible on PC" PC will struggle with open world games!

- With a depressed economy an a 170 M install base, we may be facing the longest cross gen period ever…. even if BC is a thing. Sony may want to release next gen only games on the PS5 but that's such as small subset of games that they will be irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

- The most popular PC configs are more powerful than an Xbox one X at the very least. Many of the PC gamers with weak PCs are just waiting because this generation you could get by with an FX 6300/ I5 2500k 8 GB DDR3 and a 7950 from 2011/2012. That was unprecedented. A lot of the PC gamers that built decent gaming machines (Ryzen 1600 - Intel i78xxx will be fine. At most they will need to upgrade their GPUs in a year and a half or 2.

I totally understand the doom and gloom scenarios from folks that experience their first transition to a next generation of consoles. But experienced players know that no console was more advanced than a Dreamcast for 1998 or an Xbox 360 for 2005.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Mate, if you think i'll read and interpret this wall of text thats probably just spouting the same nonsense as before, think again. I already concluded its impossible for you to bring anything worthwhile to the table. Move on to fight with the next guy please.

 

[Knitted Knight]

Mate, if you think i'll read and interpret this wall of text thats probably just spouting the same nonsense as before, think again. I already concluded its impossible for you to bring anything worthwhile to the table. Move on to fight with the next guy please.

Ohh you've read it - all of it. You just rather dismiss it as if it never happened. In passing, I think that's better for your mental well being.

 

[Mister Wolf]

Up until 2022. After that they will expect you to have at least a SATA SSD at minimum for AAA and AA multiplatform games.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Despite liking these types of game tech topics, i usually consider it very hard to talk about it online since the discussion always end up hijacked by hardware warriors. But since OP Self seems to be genuinely interested in the matter, i'll try to share my conclusions after doing some more research and reading some other opinions. Keep in mind that while i do have knowledge on the workings of hardware and low-level programming, i'm not some specialist or anything. The things i worked with weren't even gaming or graphics related. But lets go:

Are the new consoles going to be more powerful than the top gaming PCs out there?
Yes, on top of using the most powerful hardware available, they include a lot of technical advances to solve some previous existent issues bottlenecking hardware, most notably with the PS5's architecture.

Wow! So are PCs going to become obsolete and the ps5 will reign supreme!?
No. Even if the new consoles are advanced, its not to the point where absolutely everything else in existence with equal or slightly worse performance becomes automatically obsolete or unusable. The main aspects of next gen are: "Fast streaming of game assets" and "Ray tracing". Current PC hardware can already do both to a pretty good degree.

Ok, but are PCs going to hold back the new consoles?
Also no. For starters, AAA companies always develop with consoles in mind since its where the largest player pool is. Anyone who has been on PC for long enough knows big publishers always treated PC players as second class citizens. They wouldn't care about slapping "Needs a SSD" on the minimum requirement list and calling it a day. And quite honestly, based on past experience, PC players would simply buy the new component in the end as it always been the case.
If anything current gen will be the thing holding back both new consoles and PC for at least the next 1 or 2 years, mainly because its where the largest population of gamers will be.

Fine, i understand. But its true consoles are finally owning all those annoying master race guys right!? Right!?
Yes but, also no. While its true at the moment these new consoles can be considered the most powerful gaming device, and probably will still be at the end of the year when they supposedly release, some of these technical achievments are going to make way to the PC platform, probably pretty soon. AMD, who worked with Sony in the PS5's architecture, for example, is already rumored to release new sets of hardware in the next year (or maybe even at the end of this year). It would be silly to think they won't apply what they learned working on the PS5.
There's also the matter of constant technological advance, as well as the way its possible to compensate the bottlenecks of a non-specialized machine with sheer power. Its also important to remember that, despite being general-purpose, a lot of PC hardware is still designed targeting the gamer public.
It wouldn't be weird to have a PC more powerful than consoles by the next year, and the general PC gamer population already owning equivalent or better hardware by the next 3 years or so.

Now, to answer OP's question:
How long will mechanical disks on PC be a bottleneck now consoles have SSD as standard?
If it dependend only on PCs, it'd be probably a day one change. What will bottleneck the new consoles for a while are the current-gen ones with their slow HDDs. After that, that bottleneck will probably only exist on certain types of games made for the masses, AKA F2P games.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Ohh you've read it - all of it. You just rather dismiss it as if it never happened. In passing, I think that's better for your mental well being.

Eh, i really didn't, sorry you had to waste your time writing it.
Lets do it like this, if you write an abridged version with max 280 characters i might consider reading it, how about it?

 

[Dibils2k]

for the sake of game design, PC will just need to make it so some games are SSD only

 

[Knitted Knight]

Eh, i really didn't, sorry you had to waste your time writing it.
Lets do it like this, if you write an abridged version with max 280 characters i might consider reading it, how about it?

I don't think trolling suits you as a way out. But then again its a venue. That's why this meme came about after all...

 

[Guilty_AI]

I don't think trolling suits you as a way out. But then again its a venue. That's why this meme came about after all...

I mean, i really do prefer serious discussions over trolling. But unfortunately is not always possible over the internet since people are usually just trying to validate their beliefs over and over, so i really have no choice but to stop taking the whole thing serious. Ever heard of pigeon chess? Its something like that.

 

[A.Romero]

Maybe I don't get the issue but wouldn't it be the same than when PS3 and 360 launched and multiplat games started to require a bigger amount of RAM on PC? If you didn't have the RAM you couldn't play the game or it would run really bad. What's the difference now?

As always, min requirements for games in PC need to be met or you just won't get a good experience. PC gamers know this. Right now there is a huge install base of gamers trying to play games on laptops and failing but still, developers are not aiming at those specs.

There are sites dedicated to know if the game will run on a particular configuration or not. Not everyone can play say the latest Tomb Raider on PC. I know this because when I was a student I had a mid end computer and many games wouldn't run the way one would expect. PS3 came out and it was a better deal for me at the time so I jumped into that and abandoned PC gaming for a while until I had the funds to come back at it. I don't remember any developer thinking how could they bring the latest AAA experience to my POS computer...

It's easy:

- Limited funds but still interested in playing the latest games at an OK condition? Go console.
- Have more financial freedom or willingness to invest in the best experience possible (tech wise)? Go PC

That won't change. Ever.

The only thing changing this time around is that gamers that can't/won't invest in a PC or a console have the option to play on a cloud based service (as long as they are willing to have a not so good experience).

TL;DR
PC's require a higher investment in hardware to provide a better technical experience. PC gamers will invest in whatever they need to play those games. If they can't but still want to play them, they will go to a console. When initial investment is an issue, there is the cloud.