The Ultimate PS4 Pro: 8TB SSD Upgrade - Can We Fix Loading Times And Texture Pop-In?

Between The Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 we've seen some exceptional loading screens on PS4 owing to its mechanical HDD. Equally games like Final Fantasy 7 Remake have clear pop-in issues with Pro's default media. Enter the Samsung QVO 870 8TB SSD - a pricy solid state drive that far exceeds the cost of PS4 Pro, but gives it its most optimal chance of solving issues in loading and streaming. Swapped for the standard drive, can this SSD deliver a satisfying upgrade? And how about being used externally via USB? Rich finds out.
Buy the 8TB Samsung QVO SSD from Amazon UK: amzn.to/2DeSQpj.
Right now it seem that only the 4TB version is available in the US: amzn.to/3fkJuoR
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[@j.1985]

Finally a worthy contender for MW’s update sizes!

[@sebastiannienow6981]

"Our battle will be legendary!"

[@bossmicky9256]

😂😂😂😂

[@RelaxedKoi]

2tb is perfectly fine lol

[@erickh.r.9087]

Crappy overrated game

[@vitadude5004]

@@erickh.r.9087 are u Talking about Fortnite right ..

[@TypicallyUniqueOfficial]

When your SSD costs more than the console itself.

😂😂

[@mastermanio2]

this is precisely why I doubt sony's claims about the PS5 and its SSD I can buy a nvme drive for my PC that costs more than the entire PS5, and it's all connected over pci-e. storage of the type the PS5 uses is only a matter of software support on PCs

[@ashutoshmaraj4881]

@@mastermanio2 They sort of showed proof in the Ratchet and Clank gameplay I guess

[@stardustdragonx3612]

Mustafa Abbas Don’t waste your breath or uneducated

[@blueblur02]

@Mustafa Abbas Licensed proprietary SONY storage upgrades.... Time to take out another mortgage on the house 😥

[@Trickdogg7]

After upgrading my PS4 Pro with a Samsung 860 Evo SSD I noticed the most dramatic difference with the division 2. The loading times of the huge open world map are night and day, specifically noticeable in a game where fast travel between missions is so common.

[@tacticalpanda2881]

What is the difference between. The evo and qvo for gaming consoles? Besides the price?

[@Trickdogg7]

@@tacticalpanda2881 Samsung QVO SSDs use 4-bit QLC technology while EVO SSDs use 3-bit TLC technology. Due to this difference, QVO SSDs are cheaper and slower than EVO SSDs. In addition, the lifespan of QVO SSDs is also shorter than EVO SSDs. Never use MD QVO so I don't know how drastic the difference would be between console performance.

[@tacticalpanda2881]

@@Trickdogg7 thank you for the information. I'm stuck between the EVO and QVO for my upgrade. I guess I'll spend the extra $50 for the EVO. Thanks again.

[@TheRealJohnHooper]

PS4 pro has SATA 3, so SSDs so you get the max performance increase (PS4 has SATA2, and PS3 has Sata1) you still get improvements for all these consoles..

[@youamazing41]

Is the ssd improve fps or graphics?

[@papicholo623]

The moment when you realize your storage is more expensive than your console.

[@Dennis-mf5xv]

Console users can’t afford nice things otherwise they would’ve went with a PC

[@ManBearPig617x]

Dennis you can easily buy a PC for the same price as a console. You sound stupid

[@BlackParade01]

@@Dennis-mf5xv that's not true at all. Console players aren't any less "rich" than PC gamers, they just don't want to spend thousands just to play some games.

[@Dennis-mf5xv]

JF Yeah, you can but it’s going to be a cheap one. I have money so I buy the high end shit. Go ahead and buy a cheap used AMD cpu kid.

[@Dennis-mf5xv]

Black Parade Smell like broke to me kid

[@viniciuscoxoba3842]

When you play Modern Warfare this is not an upgrade, it’s a requirement....

[@bossmicky9256]

😂😂😭

[@steveozone4910]

That's one patch taken care of 🤣

[@GuyGamer1]

Modern Warfare is so large because it's optimized for Hard Drives, not Solid State. Plenty of repeat assets in there that make it easy for a hard drive to access them quickly. There is no benefit to running MW on an SSD. Once we have games that are exclusive to next-gen, file sizes will drop.

[@Burpingwaffles]

@@GuyGamer1 citation needed

[@FeeLtheHertZ]

So you upgrade for the requirement.

[@rafgp]

These are all the important timestamps I could find (will update it if needed) *Game loading:* 5:53 - Witcher 3 7:27 - Battlefield V 14:35 - Final Fantasy 7 15:10 - Bloodborne 15:30 - Fallout 4 *Texture loading/pop-in:* 9:30 - Final Fantasy 7 11:11 - Witcher 3 12:09 - Days Gone 12:27 - Fallout 4 13:26 - PS4 Menus lag/stutter comparison 15:47 - Internal vs. External 16:29 - Conclusion

[@blackmambagyn]

Thanks bro.

[@pietroscarpa2384]

You are phenomenal 👍🏻

[@Ikigai1991]

👏👏

[@josephhuerell5246]

You're champion!

[@Sammie_Topsky]

The hero we need

[@AFourEyedGeek]

Had an SSD since your last PS4 Pro SSD upgrade video, I've been enjoying those reduced load times for years. It isn't just about saving time, but it turns dying or fast travelling from a frustation to acceptance. When dying in Dishonored in a HDD I felt like quiting, but with an SSD I would experiment to see how my character could die, it changed my play experience.

[@gustavogil228]

Hey.. im planing to put an ssd on my ps4 pro 😅 is true the ssd have a low life expectative??

[@AFourEyedGeek]

​@@gustavogil228 Do SSDs have a lower life expectancy? Extreme long term yes, normal life span no. The average modern SSDs fail less than modern HDDs is use, so typically a SSD is more reliable day to day. If a HDD doesn’t fail though, and they of course can and do, they can apparently store data on their platters significantly longer than solid state storage can. There is an issue that data can be lost over time if an SSD doesn't receive power, talking several years here, though the time frame varies depending on who you ask. If the data is corrupted, the SSD will still work, the data will just not be accessible. However, in real life practise, it isn’t an issue. You will want to place a SSD in a PS4, or in other devices you use and enjoy the significant speed enhancements. Perhaps use a large HDD for important back ups of photos and documents.

[@interpol007]

I bought a 2tb internal ssd for my ps4 pro a little over 2 years ago. Totally worth it (If you can stomach the cost) everything you do on the console is significantly faster and smoother, not just game load times.

[@hayman75]

Play Assassins Creed Valhalla , u will see that loading is not fast LOL

[@OwlCapone8630]

I got 3tb and only 100 something gb left.

[@soyborne.bornmadeandundone1342]

@@OwlCapone8630 I'ma get the 4tb model. Hope it's enough lolz.

[@OwlCapone8630]

@@soyborne.bornmadeandundone1342 I'm getting 8tb.

[@romxxii]

2TB SATAs are much cheaper these days. I remember buying a 1TB SATA around 2014-2015, and it cost me about $300 US. 5 years later, I got a 2TB drive from the same manufacturer for $220 US. With how stupidly rare PS5's are, I'll probably just splurge on a 4TB drive (they cost around $400 right now), install _that_ on my PC and then move the 2TB one to the PS4 Pro.

[@Jacobstoddy]

ONLY $900?! What a steal lol.

[@ZacDonald]

Not a bad price at all, most 1 TB SSDs are around $80-$120. 8 times the space at 8 times the price.

[@MsToshi1990]

True. Its quite cheap in fact!

[@MindaugasSnegirevas]

@@ZacDonald Not good price at all.

[@netwatch7261]

@@ZacDonald yeah they're pretty pricey :/ I've been wanting to upgrade my ass on my PC. I have 256gb SSD, or something like that... It's a sad sight.

[@narcspector]

For $900 being able to store a bunch of games and have them load slightly faster is not worth it, I would rather just wait for the PS5, with that much money you could buy both new consoles or just a high-powered PC

[@drmoreno98]

Congrats! You can finally install Modern Warfare.

[@ReLapseJunkie]

🤣🤣🤣

[@Cfreezy12]

Not even worth it,the game sucks

[@supertrendymoneymaker0722]

The way the developers want you to play Modern Warfare! Get a free copy of Modern Warfare 2 today with your 8TB SSD!!!

[@johnladen9988]

But I did install Bloodborne years ago 😝

[@pegasusdrive12]

The real improvement would be the copying times after downloading an update.

[@CarterDarter]

What if you wanted to go to heaven, but God said "Copying 79%"

[@jasonlisonbee]

@@CarterDarter Must have been shadow copying during his life. Still must have an amazing system though with all of the souls being backed up live in the background; even with that lag.

[@borntorazehell777]

That may not even exist on the PS5.

[@michelkoopman4368]

Is it copyong is a pain in the ass My segate sshd died today got this in 2 tb hope copying thing is better

[@borntorazehell777]

@@michelkoopman4368 If it's a 2TB SSD, then copying will be a breeze.

[@projectikaruga]

I really want more of this. It's crazy fun what you guys do on this kind of tests.

[@alex1212456]

Can confirm putting an ssd in pro felt like a tangible upgrade to me. That fallen order pop in pushed me to get one. And yep solved it completely

[@thenestfall1991]

If they don't do the X1X, it'll appear pretty biased.

[@stephenvalente3296]

Still can't decided if it's worth putting a 2Tb Crucial SSD into my PS4 Pro, or better off using for something else?

[@Jayjayxxx007]

I’m waiting too play it on the ps5 for that reason

[@stephenvalente3296]

@@superfurryjelly I've already got the Crucial 2Tb part, and only cost me £130, so may as well stick with that rather than spending a great deal more on my current hardware that could be invested in the next generation. Although, given there's already rumours based on a patent for what might become a PS5 Pro, biding my time to see how the hardware pans out.

[@JaronActual]

@@thenestfall1991 You can't swap out the main drive on the X1X like you can the PS4, and game load times are similar same, if not the same, on shared titles between the two. Unless you want to see whether the Pro or X has superior external storage subsystems, I think that would be redundant.

[@Shezmen88]

That call to action at the end felt like a speech from Braveheart XD amazing

[@distortion1582]

Hello Mr Shezmen.

[@distortion1582]

@ Hello Friend.

[@ARIXANDRE]

The SSD in the video is currently priced at US$899,99.

[@thewanderingartists]

Then make it double for indian version of pricing.

[@controllex_]

1tb

[@CollectiveFury]

@@RJMStraya Scored a 2TB SSD from a Prime Day sale for 130 euros. Unbeatable.

[@1965peyton]

I did the 4tb Samsung ssd upgrade.very happy with the results thank for your info 👍

[@Lalesama1987]

Ghost of Tsushima loading times are a miracle.

[@daveys_gaming_corner]

Lale GI the devs did an excellent job

[@DEVILTAZ35]

You know what is funny is go back and play Halo 4 or 5 and they have incredibly fast level loading yet no-one seems to notice. I was shocked playing Halo 5 last night for just how fast that game loads on an Xbox One X. You don't need SSD you just need clever programmers. That's from having twin SSD's in my PC as well. It's not really worth all the fuss or money.

[@XanderCrease]

Every review and conversation on G'Tsushima I've seen never mentions the "under 4 seconds" load times. I don't know how they do it! They can't be pre-loading the area in the background as it's an open world game. Kudos to Sucker Punch!

[@marcinus2000]

Fast loading time, good graphics...and my PS4 Pro is quiet like it was in idle not under heavy load...

[@tommoex]

Sucker punch said they actually increased loading times just so you could read the hints and tips.

[@lorenzom2815]

Me: Enough messing around for today, it's time to be productive and get some stuff done. Digital Foundry: 8TB Samsung SSD running on a PS4 pro.

[@zZiL341yRj736]

Productivity for today: Pet fox in Tsushima.

[@mojoriot2293]

My productivity: Cross off another day before Cyberpunk on the calendar, then wait til tomorrow...repeat.

[@DEVILTAZ35]

@@zZiL341yRj736 God that game is boring. Yeah the fox was cute but after playing through the intense levels of The last of us 2 Ghosts is just so damn boring. If i want to look at pretty leaves blowing in the wind i can look out of the window. Whether or not you love or hate last of us 2 story the gameplay obliterates Ghosts and that is all i care about. Ghosts of Tsushima so far has been my most disappointing game of the year. I was hoping it was another Witcher 3 like experience. All that is left now is for Cyberpunk 2077 to suck and that's it it's game over for modern games lol.

[@norcodaev]

DEVILTAZ35 You know..unpopular opinion, but I agree with you. I’m half way through act 2 and theres no other way to say it, I’m kinda getting bored. Don’t get me wrong, its visually stunning, and the combat is excellent, its just like...I don’t know, this mission structure seems to always be the same. Meet a villager who tells you about mongols attacking a village, clear the village and meet another villager who tells you about mongols attacking a different village, clear the village and meet another villager who tells you about mongols attacking another village, and so on... Regardless of the story in TLOU2, which I actually thought wasn’t as bad a everyone says, I had a lot more fun playing those linear levels than this open world. I dont know, maybe Ghosts starts to pick up mid way through the second act and I just havent got there yet, who knows? Don’t get me wrong though, still very much enjoy the game and don’t regret buying it for a second, its just starting to get repetitive. Suckerpunch deserve all the kudos they’re getting though.

[@zZiL341yRj736]

DEVILTAZ35 The Last of Us Part 2 has like one boss, the environment is epic and beautiful. I find Abby’s quest a lot better because of that island. Yet the enemies all looked the same, the story is just crap, I find that game very disrespectful to it’s characters and fans. It’s a one time experience, I wouldn’t play it again.

[@abehaile2659]

Thank you for finally settling an SSD CAN impact gameplay

[@PistolPoet]

Years ago when I saw the benefits of an SSD on my PS4. I started preaching it to everyone of my friends to do the same.

[@Irrelevant_Interests]

Its crazy how much fast loading times can drastically improve the experience haven't noticed until ghost of tsushima every thing is almost instant while you still engaged and not distracted by thinking about countless things until you actually resume.

[@thelegendofstonecoldstevea3205]

GoT is so fast I can barely grab my phone and unlock it when fast travelling. Meanwhile AC games could have you going for a run in the same time😂

[@shadowreaver752]

Try playing monster hunter world. It's night and day

[@kreepyguy8489]

Ghost of Tsushima is fast on a HDD. SP did amazing work.

[@iHaveTheDocuments]

The best recent ps4 exclusive by far.

[@daviddamasceno6063]

@@shadowreaver752 I gave up Monster Hunter because of that. Everything you to takes so much time, and the game itself is already gigantic.

[@Yogarine]

What this video fails to mention is that an SSD also mitigates the slowdown caused by fragmentation, which is yet another very good reason to install an SSD. Fragmentation is a big issue on HDDs, especially once they start filling up. (Which is almost always on PS4 HDDs these days.) And it will increase the loading times way beyond the slowest times you see in this video. If your PS4 with stock HDD has obscenely slow loading times, just uninstalling all games and reinstalling them _one at a time(!)_ will somewhat improve performance. (But never faster than the HDD benchmarks show in this video. It's not a substitute to installing an SSD.)

[@lordeilluminati]

Yes. Many people like to mention the maintenance menu, but it actually doesnt defragment the hard drive. The Rebuild Database just reverts the customization and message inbox to stock values (so you lose the folder layout and saved messages). It doesnt optimize the files of the games.

[@lordeilluminati]

But it is not caused when the drive fills up, it happens because of too much data management back and forth. That is why it happens more on a 500GB than on a 2TB console, a person with a smaller drive has to constantly remove old data to add new games. Using a bigger hard drive you dont need to manage data as much, so the file structure stays contiguous for longer.

[@Yogarine]

Jeff Sousa While it’s true a full drive doesn’t directly cause fragmentation, it does make it more likely to happen because it reduces the number of free contiguous sectors, making it harder to write files together since the drive ends up having to fill up the empty holes across the drive. Ergo, file management on a fuller drive is much more likely to result in file fragmentation than file management on an empty drive. A larger drive is less likely to fragment only because it takes more time to fill up and makes it less necessary to manage files around. File management is only part of the problem: Once you reach the point your 2TB is constantly full and you’re constantly deleting random stuff to make room for updates, this ends up in just as much fragmentation as a 500GB HDD. (Assuming all the games on the drive get updates at a comparable rate) Especially on a PS4 because the “copying”-phase of patched files during an update will copy the whole game over the holes you just created by deleting other stuff to make space for the update in the first place... (which is why the PS4 “copying” phase is a dumb idea)

[@RickSuaz]

I got the 870 EVO 1tb and it's running smoothly. I did realise that the textures kind of load real quick and the navigation screen actually runs nice. It was so simple to do too.

[@danielfinkley8585]

This is why we Love DF. Thanks for the Test & Info.

[@revelator3665]

One of the greatest improvements with internal SSD is *swap Page file & partitions* for os and games,Much faster than slow mechanical drive.

[@NFiniteCombos]

It's actually astonishing how at the beginning of the video you stated that QVO is the fastest SSD because of 4 bit nand but its slower than the evo series. QVO is far from even close the fastest 2.5 SSD on the market

[@malamri424]

yeah clearly they lack storage knowledge... you don't have to be Allyn Malventano to know QLC SSDs are the slowest

[@brunotier7065]

Maybe it's the fastest 8tb ssd

[@claylomax]

I was confused why Richard said the fastest SSD, I thought they all maxed out at around 550 mb/s

[@Console_Gaming_Vids]

Yeah I feel like maybe he thinks the PS4 wouldn’t be able to utilize the EVO advantage in speed. Though I do feel like Witcher loads faster than his result with my EVO 860. I wish he fast traveled because the EVO makes that instant.

[@piobu5357]

There would be no benefit to higher speed SSDs due to PS4's SATA II interface. An SSD with 3Gbps transfer rate would probably maximize PS4's potential performance. Guess they went for the maximum storage they could throw at it, then, just to check how much the system will see, and how the PS4 would behave with that amount of memory.

[@qrsimon]

love the close up recording style

[@jasonbateman6222]

Thank you for the hard work always appreciate digital foundry hard work

[@SpencersStuff1777]

Just installed this ssd and it's night and day better. I'm happy these ssds have gotten better since your initial video 3 years ago

[@kaminobatto]

Don't you all just love how Rich gets super awkward around the "call to action" bit! 😂 You can clearly see how disinterested he is, and how he chooses the most sarcastic comments to call for action while literally giggling! Love this man!

[@borismuller86]

Honestly he probably knows it’s a waste of time. Everyone with half a brain is already subscribed and giving thumbs up.

[@iHaveTheDocuments]

He knows it's cringe to ask but it's kinda necessary.

[@zakariyyya]

19 mints video, & not a second of useless talk, its to the point, with facts, result oriented, What more could one ask. First video I watch from ur channel & I’m extremely satisfied with the content. God bless U & much success to U in future. Happily Subscribed.

[@neilb1540]

That is amazing, adding more life to current console, great presentation DF.

[@NonsensicalSpudz]

Would be great if they released a final update for both systems which adds stuff to make use of SSDs just so you can get a nice upgrade in speed

[@Lightmgl]

SSD in a PS4 Pro also fixes all of the issues with Jedi Fallen Order. I never even knew people had problems with that game on console and it loads super fast on SSD. Another remarkable example is Fast Travel in a number of games. For example in The Division and The Division 2 sometimes I would not even trigger load screens for fast travel while my friends were waiting tens of seconds.

[@DEVILTAZ35]

It doesn't fix the low resolution though. This generation is dead you would have to be mad to spend any more on them now when the new ones won't be able to load games from these drives other than old titles. You can use them for storage and swap it across but PS5 games won't work off this SSD so it's rather pointless worrying about it at this late stage.

[@Psych0technic]

Yeah, this game is such an obvious contender for an ssd testing, I wonder why they didn't include it in this video.

[@Psych0technic]

@@DEVILTAZ35 what low resolution? This generation is far from dead, it is in it's late stage where we get the games that truly push hardware limits. Every time the next gen launches there's pretty much always lack of good games for the first year or two not to mention hardware defects. So, current consoles still have a couple years left, and buying a sata ssd specifically for ps4 games to use it as an external drive in ps5 so you can keep the main storage free for new games is not the stupidest thing in the world.

[@Lightmgl]

@@Psych0technic Definitely. The IO issues around that game also are a good reminder of just how fine the line between "working" and "janky" is for these streaming systems on the hardware. When people talk about the potential of PS5 and XBSX eliminating these bottlenecks outright its great stuff.

[@Psych0technic]

@@Lightmgl honestly, I'm amazed that current gen consoles work at least as well as they are on those crappy laptop hdds. Trying to use windows on them is incredibly traumatic experience!

[@bryanfetner5997]

I have a 250GB drive in my PS4pro, and one of the benefits I noticed with FFVIIremake was opening the map. When I played the game, I never really noticed much load time on opening the map, but watching other people stream the game, it seems to take a good second or two to open up the map.

[@Uninfluenceable]

I've been using a 2TB SSD as my Xbox game drive for 3 years now. I play primarily Battlefield, and the SSD provide a massive advantage. I'm always the first one to load into a multiplayer game and I have first dibs on any vehicle or plane that I want before anyone else has a chance to take it. Did not realize they made an 8TB already, might need to upgrade...

[@David-Cope]

4 TB will probably be better and cheaper than 8TB SSD. £600+ is a lot to pay for an upgrade!! My 3.84TB SSD cost £200 new. BIG difference in price!

[@trblemayker5157]

6:39 For comparison, it took 28.6 seconds on my pc to load from the main menu into Novigrad with a 500 gb Samsung 850 Evo SSD I bought in mid 2017. Best investment I've ever made.

[@revelator3665]

850 evo Is Better than shitty QVO...

[@revelator3665]

@@sylvie9949 8tb marketing edition... GPU 8gb vram bus 64 bit lol

[@SkeleCrafteronYT]

@@sylvie9949 Higher capacity SSDs do generally have better reads and writes. I don't know the numbers however but that could be a factor why they chose it? Otherwise just KZbin SEO which is fine. Unless you can put NVMe SSDs into these consoles which you can't they are all bottlenecked anyways.

[@CoCo.-_-]

Mod out the loading cinematic, will be even shorter, the game loads really fast on an ssd that it's usually a cinematic that holds it back, I can tell you straight that it is the case for the witcher 3

[@serraxer]

Sylvie coz 8tb slc\mlc will cost around 3-4x more with exact same performance. Modern Sara qlc has same performance as slc.

[@PSYCHOV3N0M]

You forgot to mention that any SSD on PS4 also offers faster downloads of updates and purchases from the PlayStation Store. Downloading a large file size game or game update will be faster AND install faster than the stock mechanical hard drive because of the faster write speeds of SSDs compared to HDDs. It's ESPECIALLY perfect for people with very fast internet speeds.

[@AntonMatthews]

Thank you for this video. Very helpful with making my upgrade and being more conscious with how I spend my money on the next SSD I purchase. Cheers

[@lurkingfear2005]

Thank you so much for taking the time and effort in making this very useful video. I really appreciate it.

[@mrb411orgranpa9]

Good video, I am 61 years old and I didn`t get a PS4 Pro until 6 months ago. Before I used it I put in a Samsung 860 EVO 1 TB SSD. I am really satisfied with the Pro and the SSD I installed. I hope you do more videos when info on the PS5 is released.

[@leegsy]

What games are you playing?

[@mrb411orgranpa9]

@@leegsy Modern Warfare, Ghost of Tsushima, Also I was number 1 in the world on the PSN for Battlefield 1 for over a year. Been gaming 30+ years.

[@MrDaantjuh13]

Can't wait to see how fast PS4 games will be on the PS5

[@alihouadef5539]

I just enjoy DF videos

[@ifitaintbrokefixit3975]

Probably the most informative video on youtube

[@3jake5mee]

Hahaha I thought you were going to say “7.2 tb very respectful, in fact it’s enough to store modern warfare in its entirety” and then stop 😂

[@75slaine]

Cracked open my original PS4 a couple of months back. Gave the Fan and Heatsink a thorough clean as they were caked with dust. Took the opportunity to also swap the 1TB HDD for a 1TB SSD. Both jobs made a massive difference. Obvious speed improvements in loading times, transitions between in game segments and new applications. And it now takes longer for the fans to ramp up to turbo speeds and shorter amounts of time to spin back down.

[@nachoex]

What SSD did you buy? Are the differences still visible? Sorry for my English. Thanks!

[@75slaine]

@@nachoex iirc it was a Samsung Evo 820 or 840.

[@75slaine]

@@nachoex and yes they were right up to when I got my ps5.

[@whatspadethinks]

This is the reason why for ANY video game related news, tech insight, etc. I come to DF first. Excellent rundown on the pro's & con's of SSD's in the PS4/PS4Pro.

[@1c3manBG]

You sir, just won a new sub today.

[@Nazyairsengikar]

Kingdom come deliverance really improves with this SSD massive fps improvement. Just well done this is all 100% correct i have tested this myself.

[@chickendinner5572]

I'm going to have to play that again. Just got MX500 1tb ssd. Took me long enough lol. Doing this until ps5 comes out then ssd goes into PC or used as back up ps4 game for ps5

[@burnsyd17]

I replaced my Pro's HDD with a TLC NAND 1TB SSD about a year ago. And those can be found nowadays for under $90US. My use this past year echos DF's findings wrt load times, texture pop-in, etc. An additional benefit is the SSD is a) silent and b) much lower operating temp for the Pro to not have to spin up to cool. I also found in certain games like Destiny that bringing up the in-game menu feels "snappier", though can't measure it quantifiably like DF possibly could.

[@kilo11vip92]

DF I sub!! Love so much how you guys explain the tech. You are impartial. I WILL WAIT FOR ALL OF YOUR STREAM BEFORE BUYING A PS5 OR AN XBSX. You and your team will really see the the difference between xbsx (power) vs ps5 (ssd power).

[@usmantariq361]

Comprehensive review 👍.

[@wxrlord]

Use an SSD with Ghost Of Tsushima when fast travelling and the game would load the location before you even fast travel

[@gwcabral]

Yeah it's insane how fast the loading times at GoT are. Feels like a next gen kind of stuff.

[@JerryFlowersIII]

Reloading from death is actually artificially a longer wait to give players a chance to read the tips.

[@CaptainWumbo]

One of the things I find most confusing is how many games unload and reload all assets every death. Makes Sekiro or Witcher 3 kinda painful. I think ghost of tsushima's trick might be that it keeps a lot of assets loaded in memory, and different areas don't have very many unique assets. Still, it's nice to see them keep it fast (ps4 pro does sound like it's gonna take off most of the time tho) I think generally games programmers have this paranoia that if the game gets into a bad state, a death and reload is a good way to fix it. But to be honest this is the nuclear option and it kinda sucks. I guess that they are programming on very powerful computers, especially compared to consoles, makes that pain less visible to them but... kinda still sloppy.

[@zZiL341yRj736]

My 5200RpM SSHD drive can load this in secs. I have never seen open world games load so fast, this is sorcery.

[@rafgp]

It's honestly ridiculous how fast Ghost of Tsushima loads

[@KingxRay]

Best option is to get HDD store games while main SSD like 1TB is enough. When you want to play the game you wanted that have long loading time, just move them to SSD and play it. Will save you shit ton of money instead, since no one play all games at once anyway

[@Pumpkin-Link]

or you could just buy physical media...

[@juanitopower07]

@@Pumpkin-Link lol, this guy doesn't know that disk required installation as well. So the space is exactly the same..., 😄

[@Rudhir]

@@Pumpkin-Link we ain't in the ps2 days anymore, disk data gets copied to the PS4 and then the disk is only used to verify that you own the game.

[@GJxPoison]

I did the same about a couple years ago. WD Black 2TB exterrnal for catalog, and 500GB SSD on my base PS4. Just the menu speed uptick alone makes the purchase worth it. Games like Fallout 4 I found new enjoyment from having an internal SSD. Worth it people. Do not think it is only a single drive option. Just invest what you are willing to from $80-$120 on the internals and it will make a load of difference.

[@YaBoiShining]

1misanthropist I guarantee you are the minority.

[@jokerxd407]

Thanks very much for this video it helped me in deciding what SSD to buy for my PS4.

[@ivanjovanovic1858]

Thanks, bravooo about textures the most important, more important than loading motivation...

[@eastpetersen]

one comparison that would have been nice would be an external 3.5". When I was looking at the xbox one s load times, I found that in benchmarks the upgraded speed of a 3.5" external was pretty much the max for throughput of the system so other than drive life the extra cost of the ssd didn't seem justified.

[@Continus]

For those of you who don't know. The PS4 is capable of 8tb internal and 8tb external, for a total of 16 tb.

[@rmroeun]

Right now I am trying to figure out why my 8TB SSD is only reading at a max space of 4TB in my PS4 Pro. I wonder if it has something to do with me cloning everything over from my old 4TB HDD internal hardrive. Would you know?

[@duyle557]

Not sure where you heard it was capable of 8tb internal because all sources says it only supports 4tb.

[@codygrinnell8676]

already subbed, and can't wait for the ps5!!! I also have a 1tb ssd in my pro atm, and got my friend to upgrade his OG ps4 with a 1tb ssd!! As well as my 2 room-mates upgrading to 1tb drives in their pro's!! It makes a major difference!!

[@stefanjosefp.9118]

Watched the whole thing. Great comparison.

[@Zer01neBDTDev]

You should make an Ghost of Tsushima Resolution Mode HDD vs SSD.

[@HazyJ28]

Kingdom Come deliverance would have been a perfect showcase. Missed opportunity. Also, please do XbOne X

[@miggies8140]

I think doing internally with xbox one x os verry difficult

[@FeeLtheHertZ]

​@@miggies8140 Nah I've done it a thousand times - just download the XBOX1X Update files from MSFT's own website, internally install the SSD (which is VERY easy btw, seriously) - and the system will quite literally walk you through the rest. Huge noticeable difference, but not make-or-break-it for someone not wanting to do it - an external works just as well for pure game loading. But system response is improved, of course.

[@RandyAugustus]

Someone else made a video with this exact thing in mind. The difference was so minimal they said it wasn’t even worth it. We’re talking a savings of about 1 to 2 seconds internal versus external.

[@thepicard83]

@@FeeLtheHertZ I installed an SSD into my Xbox One X and it boots up twice as fast as before. It took about 90 seconds to boot up and now its about 40 seconds and also scrolling through the menu is flawless and not sluggish like before. its really a big difference especially if you are loading Microsoft store etc as the menus is loaded instantly.

[@DEVILTAZ35]

I doubt they will as Sony has no issue with not using their drive but Microsoft does.

[@TheFartsandCrapsShow]

I was actually just looking into the 1TB version of this drive for my PS4 Pro. This is absolutely perfectly relevant.

[@Pabula]

Great video, thanks for sharing. Never thought an ssd will get you better graphics... another gain.

[@Marc-master-of-the-reef]

I would like to suggest taking a look at FFXIV with a SSD in 1080p and as well as in 4k and make the comparison to a regular HDD. The difference was so huge that it made the game playable in 4k ps4.

[@kalark]

When Monster Hunter World Iceborne released I installed a samsung 850 and the load times were cut in half when loading the quest and into the quest itself. I was blown away with the difference lol

[@WillowEpp]

MHW is the entire reason I threw an SSD in mine. I never imagined I'd be so annoyed by loading times.

[@PanAmRhythmMan]

Excellent presentation / information ! I cant wait for your review of PS5 and X box X ! :)

[@doomy_doomy2225]

When I had a PS4 and used an SSD it was such an upgrade. The base hard drive is so slow and it helped with my games. Would be waiting for my friends to join games due to loading faster and it was a worth while upgrade.

[@Mith29]

I have a Samsung 860 evo 1tb in my pro and it really is worth the money, nearly twice as fast as my friends

[@SHIVAPLAYINGVIDEOGAMES]

hey Awesome will this one work as well ? Samsung 870 qvo - 1TB 2.5" SATA III interno Series SSD and why is it QVO instead of EVO ?

[@Mith29]

SHIVA PLAYING VIDEOGAMES ! HD That should work just fine, qvo are slightly slower than evo, the pro model is the fastest, you probably wouldn’t notice much on a console tho 😉

[@SHIVAPLAYINGVIDEOGAMES]

@@Mith29 Thanks a Lot Man :D !

[@Nero_PR]

I changed to an SSD a good 3 years ago. It makes wonders but I wouldn't recommend to anyone if you are going to jump in the next gen at launch.

[@AlexBell1991]

Agree. Worth doing if you're not planning to upgrade next gen straight away. If you are then don't bother!

[@kennylove5653]

Thanks bro bcus I was definitely thinking about buying the SSD!

[@Nero_PR]

@@sijedevos2376 yes, but the matter of discussion here is getting a SSD for the current one.

[@gonsoku5649]

Installed an 256 GB SSD years ago the very day i bought my PS4 Pro. I only realized how beneficial this was when i put back the original 1 TB HDD before selling it. That said I had one to spare. With PS5 around the corner rather investing your money in the new generation of console seems like a no-brainer to me

[@mrbushidon7140]

Good stuff appreciate your work guys

[@Kayareswon]

I subscribed on this video. Well done!

[@user-qc6pg6ef6h]

"QVO" and "fastest" don't belong in the same sentence unless there's "far from" in between. P.S. That's not a jab at Samsung specifically, it's just QLC drives are comparatively slow.

[@DeSinc]

I've read that newer models of QLC drives actually act as SLC nand by writing 1 bit per cell and getting expected SLC performance, and then filling the other 3 bits slowly in the background over time during idle cycles. this means for an 8TB QLC drive using this tech, you would essentially have a 2TB SLC drive, and only slows down upon writing a full 2TB where it's forced to use the QLC bits to continue writing. and runs idle calculations in the background to fill the other 3 bits in each cell so you always have some "SLC" performance ready to go

[@ethangroat8333]

I was thinking that too, but they mitigate that with a high DRAM cache, and DeSinc has a good point too. Very interesting. I'd like to see more data on this to compare different types of read and write ops

[@user-qc6pg6ef6h]

@@ethangroat8333 There are plenty of Samsung QVO drives reviews and they show their drawbacks prominently.

[@ethangroat8333]

@@user-qc6pg6ef6h I don't disagree! I'll look into it some more

[@JaronActual]

@@user-qc6pg6ef6h It's not that you can't overrun their write buffers and induce slow write performance, it just doesn't happen 99% of the time unless you specifically try to do it. Most people don't want to spend 3X the money on a SSD for performance they'll never notice.

[@kseries1981]

Any ssd will give massive improvements over the stock hdd.

[@coveyking]

most likely especially if it has dram. dramless ones could be even worse if downloading potentially.

[@sokar7664]

hello. I changed for SSD 870qvo 1tb my PS4 PRO 1TB WHITE. the loading time is much faster and loading texture as well. Highly recommended.Thanks

[@tjhrulz]

Great video I will say after moving to an SSD on my PC years ago I can't go back. Although when you talked about the potential being there for Sony to use the PS5 with an external SSD like this to further improve this impact on PS4 games made me wish that you had tested some of these games with the same settings on the same SSD for PC so you could show how having the system around it makes a difference.

[@hkoizumi3134]

This reminds me of a time when my uncle installed a spoiler on his pinto.

[@ufkrec]

Hahaha ha ah!

[@RonnyLive19881]

Or putting rims on anything.

[@RonnyLive19881]

I Have No Name an old Ford

[@Vinicius_Berger]

@I Have No Name Well, in Portuguese "pinto" means dick or cock (and I'm not even joking).

[@Magneasy93]

I've had a SSD in my PS4 for a long time. I can't remember the last time I saw these meaty loading screens.

[@campkira]

just ps4? what the point.. it never bother me or average player...

[@adamthompson6669]

Your the best DF and happy 2022 I’ve watched this video before but I’m doing a re watch as I ordered a Samsung 2tb ssd for my PS4 pro, I figured I don’t need a ps5 (I have a xbox series X) so I’ll upgrade my PS4 Pro, and GT7 this year plus I have some decent games on PS4 so I thought why not. I figure I’m kind of future proofing it plus better performance so why not. Thanks DF keep fighting the good fights legends. Edit 🤣 this is the ssd I bought but 2Tb 870 QVO Samsung 😜

[@Yn00ss]

Awesome work as always. Now where’s that PS5 SSD comparison video?

[@xBlade173]

Can we get a similar video, but for Xbox one x please?! Excellent testing btw, doing both USB and internal is great to compare.

[@TeknoGecko]

I would like to see this comparison including a 8TB 7.200 rpm HDD to see what upgrade delivers more bang for buck.

[@FreakinTheComments]

I purchased a Samsung EVO 860 and omfg the UI is so much smoother

[@michael.d6451]

This was very informative 👍🏼. How about file transfer speeds, copying/moving files to the SSD as well as downloading and installing games (disc and digital)?

[@furonable]

Thank you, I just bought a 2tb SSD. I'm going to install it right now.

[@furonable]

I was able to install it and do notice the better load times.

[@Exmachinagamma]

@@furonable something to look forward to for me then😄

[@furonable]

@@Exmachinagamma I just bought an 8 TB external hard drive the other day lol

[@salttrader4113]

You guys didn't notice an important issue with the 870 8tb ssd. If you lose power or your console crashes you lose all your games and you need to reformat. This does not happen on 4tb ssd. There is an issue most likely with how big the 8tb cache and on the ps4 it messed the drive on power failure. This is not an issue on a pc. Have not tested other 8tb drives, but the 870 is not an option due to this malfunction. Update, tested with a micron 5300 pro 7.68tb and a crash force you to re-initialize the drive, looks like 4tb internal is the max usable size.

[@keygodkova7227]

This video was so informative! Told me everything I needed to know and was looking for. Great job 🤟🏾

[@jeffbatista]

in the tests that I saw crucial ssd's has had the best cost benefit

[@THE_TonyFielding]

For the price of the thing, I'll stick with the stock HDD. Halfing the loading time on many games is great, just not great enough to payout that much for it IMO.

[@LIG87]

Youd really be paying for that excess storage space (which I dont think ANY PS4 user needs), not so much the speed. You could get a 1TB SSD for less than $100 on amazon and still get similar performance upgrades. This 8TB SSD is way too fast for PS4's interface to handle so youre better off just getting a smaller, slower (but still fast) SSD.

[@friendsandneighbors]

The load improvements are the best aspect for me. I added SSD drives to my old PS3 systems, and they were greatly improved. I expect a lest drastic improvement when my ssd for the pro arrives tomorrow.

[@theorangesage1351]

It's good I also got the Samsung ssd 1tb, worth it imo

[@Esio_Sanson]

Which games you saw improvements in the ps3?

[@Exmachinagamma]

@@Esio_Sanson for me, textures popped in fast on The Punisher: No Mercy. Demon Souls seems pretty fast as well.

[@Exmachinagamma]

Same here😄

[@Esio_Sanson]

@@Exmachinagamma can you test Dark Souls?

[@dotty1774]

This has convinced me to play FF7 and newer Ps4 games when I get a Ps5.

[@MorbidThrasher666]

Glad i built a pc and dont have these loading issues anymore. Thanx for making this video. Cant wait to get my PS5 also

[@arturius9715]

Ive got the Evo 860 1tb in my Pro...and it cuts my load times down drastically. FFXIV went from 15-20 sec down to 3-5 sec....witcher 3 and RDR2 load times are also drastically cut..10/10 recommended for $140

[@revelator3665]

evo is much faster and better than this shitty QVO

[@PrimiusLovin]

I can't believe you people didn't take the chance to test game install times: from blu-ray disc to SSD vs HDD; and from PSN to SSD vs HDD!! 😲

[@jaz093]

The Blu-ray drive is slow.

[@N00B283]

j h I think 27 MB/s is faster than what many are able to get with their internet speeds. To achieve 27MB/s from the web would require that you had aleast 220 Mbit network connection..

[@Combat_Ineffective]

There would be very little difference unless you have 500 Mbps internet. Will a PS4 even download that fast? Bluray isn't even close to fast enough to outpace even the PS4's hard drive.

[@season6ixgaming198]

Seeing as though I usually wait a year or two before purchasing the next gen consoles, I currently still love playing my ps4. I have decided to purchase a 2TB for the internal SSD.

[@at-cj2iy]

I did this for my hacked PS3 slim it really does make a difference Max Payne 3 now runs better and loading times are insanely fast

[@ChuckieV79]

Would a fast ssd like this one help the pop in with Skyrim VR and the load times of iron man?

[@minners71]

Don't need it for ghost of Tsushima's fast travel. 5 seconds on average.

[@thelegendofstonecoldstevea3205]

Imagine loading times of 2.5 seconds then😂

[@bigslatt708]

Knack’s knapsnack 🤣

[@minners71]

@@thelegendofstonecoldstevea3205 They better not be that long on ps5.

[@ekopermana7150]

Seem like GoT on PS5 will have instant fast travel, you choose different spot and you just automatically jump there

[@heyguyslolGAMING]

Tyvm for the vid. If the PS5 wasn't around the corner I would consider opting for the same drive but at a lower size for cost savings and do this upgrade. I imagine that if I'm able to secure a PS5 pre-order I won't be using my PS4 Pro much longer and I might even just sell it.

[@carllavery4442]

I'm tempted to get an SSD but as an addition for extra storage. So would likely use it externally and just put those games that will benefit the most onto it