PS5 Will Support Internal SSDs; Sony Tests New Firmware
PlayStation 5 will finally enable us to add an internal SSD. For now, it's only in beta of the console's new update, but Sony has already revealed what models we should be looking for.
It seems that the prayers of PS5 owners for more storage for games have been heard. Sony has begun testing a new firmware update in select regions. As reported by Munechika Nishida on Twitter (via Nibellion) and The Verge magazine, the firmware will enable us to connect an internal PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 NVMe SSD to the PS5. As we read on PlayStation's official website, Sony recommends models with read speeds of no less than 5500 MB per second with sizes ranging from 250 GB to 4 TB. It was noted, however, that not all components that meet the stated requirements will work with the PS5.
Along with Sony's announcement also came news of the first PS5 compatible internal drives from Seagate. The FireCuda 530 series is supposed to work "despite the lack of space" in the console thanks to its slim design, even in the version with a heatsink, and offers write speeds of up to 7300 MB/s. Depending on the model, we will pay for them from $150 (for the 500 GB variant) to nearly $1000 (4 TB model with heatsink). Detailed specs can be found on the official website of the manufacturer.
We've been waiting for this information for quite some time. The PlayStation 5's default drive effectively offers only 667GB of space for user content, which in the context of the growing size of video games (increasingly requiring even more than 100GB of space) is deemed insufficient. The fact that gamers couldn' t upgrade the console's storage themselves at launch was therefore very painful for many buyers.
In addition, the new firmware is expected to add support for three-dimensional sound for TV speakers, interface improvements and "customization options" for the control center. In addition, the console will finally differentiate between PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions of games, displaying them as separate items on the collection screen. We'll also get trophy tracking and a resolution selection option for the PS Now service. What's still missing is support for 2K resolution and VRR refresh rate technology, as confirmed by The Verge's Tom Warren.
