Md Ray
Member
Great questions, and it's time to give this matter more attention, let's forget 5.5GB/s vs 2.4GB/s or even 7GB/s max PCIe 4.0 for a moment now:
Current NVMe m.2 uses 4 channels vs 12 channels on PS5:
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PS5 has 6 priority levels vs 2 priority levels on NVMe m.2:
Why 6 priority levels is crucial for gaming and how 2 priority levels can be a massive downgrade to game design and logic:
On other platforms with a slower SSD speed/design that can't keep up they might cripple in framerates, especially when turning around or moving:
Now, the issue with traditional GPU caches is they all flush everything and bring new data everytime, that could damage the GPU performance no matter how powerful it is and cause stalls. The GPU cache scrubbers, first of their kind and exclusive to PS5, along with coherency engines help to only take out unwanted data and keep what's needed and replace the space with new data, helping it to produce a seamless transition and maximum utilization of GPU/CPU/RAM and less bandwidth used as well.
Now, the PS5 I/O itself is as powerful as 11.5 to 12 ZEN2 cores, meaning to compensate for it alone you might need Ryzen Threadripper 2970WX processor, 24 core and you'll still fall short when The Tempest 3D Audio engine thrown to the mix, a GPU-based, SPU-like. Let's not forget Windows OS compared to simple API's.
While the NVMe m.2 has 2 priority levels:
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PS5's custom SSD has 6 to make 6 different orders:
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And while PS5's SSD uses 12 channels to fully reach its optimal 5.5GB/s raw, XSX SSD cramps into 4 channels which could cause more heat, throttling, and latency. So the 5.5GB/s vs 2.4GB/s direct comparison is not viable, and the difference in hardware is quite big and can't be bridged through software or even make the starting point 5.5 vs 2.4 possible.
It's very, very complicated to try and replicate PS5's overall SSD and I/O performance on PC's, and yes it's currently impossible without major architectural change. We still need to see the placement of PS5's SSD, it can be extremely close, stacked, to even make us understand how insanely hard to beat it in the near future without assistance from massive RAM sizes.
Remember, 12 channels and 6 priority levels, and the later is crucial for game design and logic.
I believe Sony is working on a new architecture for m.2 drives along with other companies that's superior to current NVMe, and they just don't wanna spoil it right now.
More educated people in the matter may contribute or correct me here.
Thanks man, trying to gather as much information as possible. I've watched 'Road to PS5' nearly 10 times now and the topic about SSD priority levels always flies over my head, no matter how hard I try to understand. Really itching to see some comparisons between XSX/PS5 now, as well as on PC.
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