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Sony open up M2 SSD port to beta testers of system software

That's definitely possible. Although I don't expect every developer to do that.
Me either, but some probably don't want people to trash their game because stuff pops in or stutters so they might warn you if you have it copied to a slow drive. I don't even know if that's possible to detect upon game boot.
 

Tripolygon

Banned
Just an FYI, The 1TB version only has a 5.5 GBps write speed which should be good enough for the PS5 and is stll higher than the 980 Pro.

They recommend you do not remove the heatsink or replace it because it might damage the chip. But other than that, it seems to be roughly on par with the 980 Pro despite the higher speeds. Still for $60 cheaper, this is a very good get.

And since its Walmart, if it doesnt fit in the PS5 you can always return it.
The write speed is not really the important metric for PS5. The read speed is which is beyond PS5 recommended 5.5GB/s.

As for the heat sink situation, it’s a double sided heat sink and the bottom part seem to use thermal glue which makes it hard to remove. But the top side is easily removable as it is screwed in. You can replace that top part with a shorter heat sink to make it fit with the cover.
 

Tripolygon

Banned
Me either, but some probably don't want people to trash their game because stuff pops in or stutters so they might warn you if you have it copied to a slow drive. I don't even know if that's possible to detect upon game boot.
There won’t be a noticeable difference unless you are doing a side by side comparison. Last gen games ran on 50MB/s HDD.
 
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There won’t be a noticeable difference unless you are doing a side by side comparison. Last gen games ran on 50MB/s HDD.
No difference RIGHT NOW, but if Ratchet and Clank isn't even utilizing the full 5.5GB/Sec speed of the internal drive, then who's to say another developer won't harness all of that speed?

This is the very first wave of games. Nothing is really taxing the system to the max yet. I wouldn't buy anything SLOWER than the internal drive. If anything, I'll buy something that's substantially faster than the internal drive just to make sure it's futureproof.
 

Tripolygon

Banned
No difference RIGHT NOW, but if Ratchet and Clank isn't even utilizing the full 5.5GB/Sec speed of the internal drive, then who's to say another developer won't harness all of that speed?

This is the very first wave of games. Nothing is really taxing the system to the max yet. I wouldn't buy anything SLOWER than the internal drive. If anything, I'll buy something that's substantially faster than the internal drive just to make sure it's futureproof.
Let’s say you put in a commercial SSD that is 4GB/s. What material difference do you think it would make compared to 5.5GB/s? Though majority of the newly released gen4 SSD are upwards of 5GB/s. This is a nonissue. There is no game that going to push the SSD to the point where it would be unplayable on a 4GB/s SSD. What’s important here is not the fact that you can transfer 5.5GB/s, the important bit is the random read and IOPS which is sufficient.
 

twilo99

Member
Y'all thought 3.8 GB/s was the slowest Gen4 SSD?

Some big outlet is about to test Xbox Series's 2.4 GB/s drive on PS5. Slowest of the slowest Gen4 drive currently on the market. Initial test suggests that PS5 at least accepts the drive (i.e. passes the PCIe check to begin formatting) since it's Gen4. They can't wait to test Ratchet now.

That's the ultimate test. Which outlet is doing the test?

The drives in the xbox are some weird mode/hack tho, they aren't really gen4, so let's hope they can make them work.
 
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IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
I guess GEN4 allows bandwidth to be higher per lane?

And obviously Microsoft went with only two lanes for some reason. My guess is cost.
Thats what all the PCIE Gen's do.. double the per-lane bandwidth.

And yeah I think it's a cost thing. But those 2230 drives in general are more expensive w/ worse specs.. I don't know why they didn't just design around a cheaper 2280 solution.
 

Tripolygon

Banned
Thats what all the PCIE Gen's do.. double the per-lane bandwidth.

And yeah I think it's a cost thing. But those 2230 drives in general are more expensive w/ worse specs.. I don't know why they didn't just design around a cheaper 2280 solution.
Look at the size of their motherboard and the length they went to, to keep the overall size of the console relatively small. Look at how Sony went about their design, a separate compartment and enough space to have a heatsink as well.
 
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Md Ray

Member
Ok that would explain why I can't find any Gen4 NVMEs in the market like that. Still surprised the PS5 accepts 2 lanes though.
I was surprised too. Can't wait for the test results.
That's the ultimate test. Which outlet is doing the test?

The drives in the xbox are some weird mode/hack tho, they aren't really gen4, so let's hope they can make them work.
Gosh, I don't know if I'm allowed to say who it is. They're quite famous on here though.

Expect a title like "We Ran Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart on Xbox Series SSD" or something similar to it lol. You guys will know soon enough.
 
I was surprised too. Can't wait for the test results.

Gosh, I don't know if I'm allowed to say who it is. They're quite famous on here though.

Expect a title like "We Ran Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart on Xbox Series SSD" or something similar to it lol. You guys will know soon enough.
So what happens if it works fine?
 

MScarpa

Member
These prices are INCREDIBLE. Almost 1,000$ for some. INSANE. Guess I will just wait a bit for prices to come down, Or just buy another PS5 and Series X for that price.
 

MScarpa

Member
Prices will go down relatively fast. That's the upside of accepting non proprietary SSDs.
Well of course they will go down. I don't think they will go down as fast as people think. With inflation and Covid affecting the ability to make all of these things. I think we will see prices like this for quite awhile.
 
So the 2TB is averaging approximately 440$. The 4TB is over 900$ Games are going to be even bigger this gen. Like I said I can buy a PS5 and Series X for the price of a 4TB drive. That is INSANE.

Those larger sizes are really expensive. However I've seen 1TBs for around 150$ with 512GBs around 100$.

I guess it all depends on how much space you really need. But at least you have options.
 
So the 2TB is averaging approximately 440$. The 4TB is over 900$ Games are going to be even bigger this gen. Like I said I can buy a PS5 and Series X for the price of a 4TB drive. That is INSANE.
Do you really need 4TB of space??? I got the 500GB WD 850 just to top up the space a tiny bit as thats all I want with my 5TB external holding lots more that I can transfer back and forth.
 

MScarpa

Member
Do you really need 4TB of space??? I got the 500GB WD 850 just to top up the space a tiny bit as thats all I want with my 5TB external holding lots more that I can transfer back and forth.
None of us NEED ANY OF THIS. For example on my last gen consoles I have 4Tb on the PS4 and 8TB on the Xbox One X. I don't WANT to move my shit back and forth. That is the point.
 

Gamerguy84

Member
I'm holding off for a couple reasons. It boils down to not needing it.

These drive prices will come down sooner than later. Drive manufacturers know the PS5 will sell millions of units and every one is a potential sale.

Previous gen NVMe drives are cheap.
 
None of us NEED ANY OF THIS. For example on my last gen consoles I have 4Tb on the PS4 and 8TB on the Xbox One X. I don't WANT to move my shit back and forth. That is the point.
I understand. Prices will go down fairly quick as if you look at the wd 750 compared to the 850 its just a bit less than 1/2 price after being out for 1.5 years.
 
At what point can we say Ratchet can work on other things?

When it comes to PC of course. Right now all se can confirm is that the slow SSD paired with the I/O complex is good enough to make the game work. It's not a confirmation that it will work just as well on systems without those I/O customizations.

I mean if the drive itself was all that mattered then there wouldn't be any room for debate.

Same but if it's 2 seconds to 2.4 seconds I don't think that really effects the end user.

Could be similar to RE8. But then again the custom I/O hardware could affect the difference.
 
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RafterXL

Member
I can't wait to hear the stories from people who do this and end up with melted faceplates.
I'll let you know, because it's exactly what I'm going to do. Between the thickness of the heatsink (on this drive) and the distance to the side panel, I'm not even slightly concerned.
 

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
OK Sony, everyone knows the m2 drive works fine, so release the update already. My 2TB is looking at me, begging to be used.
I’ve only seen (through choice) a couple of YouTube influencer types going on about it. I know nobody ‘on the ground’ so to speak that has the beta so no idea what the feedback has been like to Sony about the firmware.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
I honestly think this will be like a spiderman ps4 scenario where devs have to make every game with the slowest available drive in mind. We will probs see 3000 to 4000 mbps be the upper limit. Also, to cover for any potential pc port.
 

skit_data

Member
I honestly think this will be like a spiderman ps4 scenario where devs have to make every game with the slowest available drive in mind. We will probs see 3000 to 4000 mbps be the upper limit. Also, to cover for any potential pc port.
Why would 3000-4000 mbps be the upper limit when they recommend drives above 5500 mbps?
 
I honestly think this will be like a spiderman ps4 scenario where devs have to make every game with the slowest available drive in mind. We will probs see 3000 to 4000 mbps be the upper limit. Also, to cover for any potential pc port.

Everyone has a 5.5GB/s drive though. Plus Sony tells you to move the game to the faster drive if there's issues.

At the moment it's just a tin foil hat theory made to scare PS5 owners. At least that's what I've seen it used as. Just a desperate attempt to turn the upgrade into a negative.

Not thats what your doing but you really shouldn't believe the blue guy.
 
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DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
Everyone has a 5.5GB/s drive though. Plus Sony tells you to move the game to the faster drive if there's issues.

At the moment it's just a tin foil hat theory made to scare PS5 owners. At least that's what I've seen it used as. Just a desperate attempt to turn the upgrade into a negative.

4000 would still be like 40 times faster than a standard hdd though so I still think it would be amazing with the kraken decompress. Plus Sony are obviously very mindful of pc platform now. I think we will see more games on pc further down the line.

Have there been more tests with the slower drives on ratchet with the portal stuff?
 
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JaksGhost

Member
I honestly think this will be like a spiderman ps4 scenario where devs have to make every game with the slowest available drive in mind. We will probs see 3000 to 4000 mbps be the upper limit. Also, to cover for any potential pc port.
You’re expanding what’s already available not replacing it like on the PS3 and PS4. The internal SSD will always be the baseline. They’ve included a disclaimer saying if the games doesn’t work properly copy it back to the internal SSD.
 
4000 would still be like 40 times faster than a standard hdd though so I still think it would be amazing with the kraken decompress. Plus Sony are obviously very mindful of pc platform now. I think we will see more games on pc further down the line.

Have there been more tests with the slower drives on ratchet with the portal stuff?

You did mention 3000GB/s so you must have heard about the tests they are doing with the Series X drive.

Plus PCs already have drives that go over 5.5GB/s. There's no reason for Sony to abandon the PS5s SSD in favor of slower drives on PC.

But in the end the PS5 will be the main focus for Sony.
 
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Max_Po

Banned
Does anyone know if you can download and use the Beta Firmware... I remember on PS4 you could but it would block some online stuff...
 
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