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Series X SSD is actually faster than advertised

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mod edit: being discussed here - https://www.neogaf.com/threads/xbox...town-corrects-pcie-3-0-claims.1575829/page-12

"According to Western Digital, the Xbox Series X's WD SN530 SSD isn't a stock OEM drive that's limited to PCIe Gen3 x4 performance. Instead, the drive has been outfitted with a special ASIC that enables both PCIe Gen3 x4 and Gen4 x2 performance, which allows for up to 3.938 GB of max throughput. For reference, the Series X targets 2.4GB/sec in uncompressed data transfers."


So is that why we are not actually seeing much different in loading times from Games for both PS5 & Series X cause turns out the SSD speed for the Series X is actually
3.9GB/sec which is a lot faster than the 2.4GB/sec they listed.
 
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3liteDragon

Member
If it was that much faster then MS would've definitely made sure to put that on their spec sheet, so unless MS themselves come out and say that's it's actually this much faster, I'm not buying it. Regarding the loading time differences, we've seen what the PS5's storage system is capable of doing. So I would wait for an actual next-gen game built to take full advantage of the SSD's inside these consoles to see if there's any notable difference, if there is a difference even then.
 
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01011001

Banned
Where on earth have you seen a spec sheet that lists their minimum speed :messenger_tears_of_joy:

Microsoft guarantees the speeds on their spec list to be 100% consistent no matter what.

which is also why I believe that it in fact doesn't run above the advertised raw speeds.
maybe we see their Velocity Architecture in play here, that 100GB of a game that can basically be used as virtual memory and stuff like that.

I bet they locked the SSD to read and write speeds that could be maintained at all times.
 

Lort

Banned
I would have though you would have you know read the actual description Microsoft gives...but hey make up something that tickles your fancy and say that as fact.


“ our custom, 1TB NVME SSD, delivering 2.4 GB/s of raw I/O throughput, more than 40x the throughput of Xbox One. Traditional SSDs used in PCs often reduce performance as thermals increase or while performing drive maintenance. The custom NVME SSD in Xbox Series X is designed for consistent, sustained performance as opposed to peak performance. Developers have a guaranteed level of I/O performance at all times and they can reliably design and optimize their games removing the barriers and constraints they have to work around today.”
 

FrankWza

Member
He is referring to compression speed, not the actual SSD speed, if they can compress the data even more, than yea, they can surpass 4.8GB per second, but the actual SSD speed will still be 2.4*

which means PS5s can hit double digits or close to it. That’s without oodle...
 

Lort

Banned
Btw dont you all love the banner they put on my account that basically says ... some snowflake forum posters cried so much that if i even once again point out truth bombs that hurt their feelings... i will be banned lol .. how rediculous especially given the endless “console waring posts” going on by those same sensitive little folk right now.
 

sendit

Member
It absolutely can ... its a guaranteed minimum. Why on earth did you think it was a peak speed?


DwMXqMR.jpg
 

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
3.9 GB/s is the max throughput allowed by the I/O arrangement done by Microsoft and Western Digital. That said the 2.4 GB/s raw speed given by Microsoft is a conservative number meant to represent "guaranteed speed"(that is it cant go lower than that).
The maximum raw speed allowed by the Phison E19T controller in the Xbox Series X is 3.75 GB/s and the I/O allows the system to attain that speed when needed. We may also see 2 TB expansion cards.
 
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ZehDon

Gold Member
The SSD is the same just the ASIC controller was customized to support PCI-E 4.0 bus.

The SSD itself is limited up to 2400MB/s in sequential reads... that is the best case scenario.
No, it's not the "best case scenario". It's the guaranteed speed provided to developers - or, to quote the specs verbatim, it's "the sustained performance of the device". Quoting Microsoft in an Article:
The custom SSD is designed around "sustained performance" and not "peak performance", according to Microsoft.
The Xbox Series X's is designed to deliver the 2.4gb/s of the SSD from power on to power off, with no fluctuations.
 

ZywyPL

Banned
So just like any SSD on the planet, it has a peak, best case performance, but after a while the thermals kick in and lower it down. So it might not be that noticable in single boots/loadings scenarios, but in a case where the data is being constantly streamed, eg. open-world games, that 2.4 figure is the more realistic one.

It absolutely can ... its a guaranteed minimum. Why on earth did you think it was a peak speed?

Playstation guys only know words like "variable", "up to", "dynamic" etc. they don't use the word "sustained", hence the misunderstanding.
 
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sendit

Member
lol i was proving how many posters have no idea what they are talking about... and havent even read the official specifications.

So once again i hit the mark on that ;)

Keep it sweaty mr rage face and hopefully your feelings wont be as hurt as everyone else who keeps trying to get me banned.


0RjkMp7.jpg
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
This shows that the OP has no fucking clue what PCIe 4.0 lane bandwidth is vs SSD speed.

source.gif


So should we say that PS5's raw speed is 7.9GB/s now? (4x4 Gen2 lanes)

Maybe time to close the thread?
 
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Bo_Hazem

Banned
He is referring to compression speed, not the actual SSD speed, if they can compress the data even more, than yea, they can surpass 4.8GB per second, but the actual SSD speed will still be 2.4*

I think this thread is meant to be a circus.

Both will be 2.4GB/s max on XSX, and 5.5GB/s max on PS5.

What does 4.8GB/s up to 6GB/s on XSX, and 9GB/s up to 22GB/s mean is the compressed data, that will still be sent as 2.4GB/s and 5.5GB/s compressed before it gets decompressed into those numbers in the I/O. PS5 could do that much easily as it has 12-channel per 12-chip so data doesn't get cramped for some milliseconds on limited channels (4-channel on XSX) before reaching the PCIe 4.0 lanes.
 
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Allandor

Member
It is not faster than advertised. The interface would just allow more.
MS committed to 2.4 GB/s so there is no reason why later iterations of the hardware should not be capable of more. It is just that developers can work with a number they can rely on.
 
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