(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Can SSD's Help Speed Up Your PS3?
Sources: You must login or register to view this content., You must login or register to view this content. // By: Chaz-Angus // Date: February 20, 2012

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Nowadays, regular hard drives are old news. SSD's (Solid-State Drives) are in style, and in fashion.
That was the thought process of tech specialists, Digital Foundry, decided to try out
a series of tests with a standard PS3 hard drive, a hybrid drive, (half regular drive and
half SSD) and a Samsung SSD.

SSD's are exceptional performers and have notably better Read/Write speeds than regular
hard-drives. They are faster, and more efficient. This is achieved by SSD's lack of any moving parts.
Mind you, this isn't a bad thing, as it is what gives SSD's their enhanced performance. Without any moving
parts, they can access any file virtually instantly.

Through these tests, and depending on the game, Digital Foundry have found out that
there are some major improvements in a PS3 game's loading times and other associated
things.
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Two examples the company tried out were RAGE and Skyrim. Those who have played
RAGE are probably aware of its problem with texture pop-in and rendering. With the SSD,
these problems were resolved. And for the PS3 players of Skyrim, the game got a noticeable
boost in performance and reduction in the lag that plagues the game.

However, you won't be getting these major improvements across the board. Tests were also
done on Battlefield 3, which didn't see any enhancements in performance. The series of tests
reportedly only made slight improvements on a slew of other games as well.

Below you can find a couple videos that help portray the speed comparisons side by side.

You can skip to about 5:25 if you want to get past all the technical stuff they guy talks about.

Here's a video showing installation/load times of some games.



So, the question still lies if SSD's can help improve performance on your PS3.
I still feel some more research needs to be done before any conclusions are made.
Perhaps if the speed improvements can become universal across all games, Sony could
look into including Solid-State Drives in their next console. That is, You must login or register to view this content.

Thanks for reading and share your thoughts on this with me! I would love to discuss this with everyone.

Chaz-Angus :fa:

My friends boosts on BO and since they check the hard drive 5 times this helps out a lot

I remember this being posted last year on the GT5 forums, since GT5 is a massive game the optional 8GB install is a must. You should get hold of the benchmarks off their website.

Yeah I've heard of a bunch of people running benchmarks of GT5 because if its crazy load times.

i have thought about this awile ago, im just not sure where to find a ssd that will fit in my ps3.

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I'm pretty sure all SSD's will work, but this one I'm definite about because
GT5 tests were done with this exact model. Not the cheapest solution, but
its a start

The only problem is the price. SSD's are still new to the market so they can be anywhere from 3-5 times as expensive as regular HDD. So it would be best if we wait a few more years before the PS4 comes out because that way the SSDs will be at a much more reasonable price, making the PS4 that much more affordable. :y:

I don't feel upgrading would be worth it because of the current prices of SSD drives. Sony would be wise to include an SSD in the PS4 tho. Someone mentioned it could drive the cost of the console up, and another said they have 4 years to decide, to add to that, we also have 4 years for the prices of SSD drives to go down and at OEM prices it could really be feasable and affordable.

In my opinion, unless you get an SSD free, its not worth the upgrade. Shaving a few seconds off load time for those prices doesn't make sense to me.