zamardii12
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2014
- Messages
- 3,381
PS5 has a 2nd m.2 slot so you can install another internal SSD to play games off of, I would have loved it if Microsoft did the same. Of course the Xbox excels in a lot of areas, but this is the one area they are sorely lacking in and have been so since the 360.
The Seagate expansion card is expensive but it's not like it performs like an PCI-E 4.0 SSD either. It doesn't even perform like other CFExpress devices.
https://www.storagereview.com/review/seagate-storage-expansion-card-for-xbox-series-xs-review
Compared to something like Samsung 980 Pro which you can just pop in your PS5. If it had similar numbers, then they'd be justifying the price.
https://www.storagereview.com/review/samsung-980-pro-pcie-4-0-nvme-ssd-review
"The Seagate expansion card is expensive but it's not like it performs like an PCI-E 4.0 SSD either. It doesn't even perform like other CFExpress devices."
Right... because it uses Microsoft's Velocity Architecture which is unlike standard SSD storage technology and provides the Xbox specific abilities such as "Quick Resume" among other things. The read/write speeds from storage review don't tell the whole story being that they are trying to read a proprietary device with non-proprietary hardware and software to determine read/write speeds. You said it yourself it doesn't perform like other CFExpress devices or PCI-E 4.0 devices so the metrics for how you achieve the read/write speeds for the Microsoft expansion card can't be gauged in a traditional sense. Microsoft has stated that the expansion card which is built under the proprietary "Velocity Architecture" umbrella matches the internal SSD 1:1 in performance which is 2.4GB/s (Raw), 4.8GB/s (Compressed) according to Digital Foundry... Source.
And I'll say it again... yes you can expand the hard drive space on the PS5 but it's virtually price parity across Series and PS5 regardless of the performance. Also Sony recommends Gen 4 SSDs so I am pretty sure you can't just put in any SSD into a PS5 and play PS5 games from them which is why Sony has said you can't play PS5 games from external hard drives but only from the internal drive which has to meet certain specifications. You get more features with the Xbox solution that directly make it more "next-gen" than the Sony solution. The Verge have also said that it appears Sony throttles the write speed of even it's own internal SSD "It took only 2:26 to send both PS5 and PS4 copies of Final Fantasy VII Remake to the Sabrent SSD, for instance, but 12:47 to go back to the PS5 — over five times longer." Source Which like I mentioned before is a huge pain in the ass when you can't help but stare at the progress window of a game transfer on a PS5 and do nothing else until the transfer is done. Not very "next-gen" to me and with consoles just becoming glorified computers as more time goes on, there has to be more than just "better graphics" to get people excited for new hardware.
I am going to do some calculations myself this weekend of how long it takes to transfer games between the Series X and it's Expansion card and see what I come up with. I have bought the same games across Xbox Series X and PS5 and will test some transfers to see which is faster and times.
Last edited: