Report: SSD Hard Drive Improves Loading in Gran Turismo 5; SSD Mandatory for Next-Gen?

By Brian Leahy, Dec 13, 2010 4:00pm PST It appears that installing a solid-state hard drive in a PlayStation 3 can halve load times for Polyphony Digital's Gran Turismo 5, reports Digital Foundry citing data from the Beyond3D forums.

The two systems being compared are an old-body PS3 with a Corsair F120 SSD HDD and a stock slim PS3 with the Sony-installed HDD. According to the user doing the testing, the initial loading of time of 55 seconds can be reduced to 29 seconds. The user also hints that the menu navigation is faster, but does not provide concrete data.

Similarly, track load times between 30 and 50 seconds are reduced to around 20 to 25 seconds. Now, throwing an SSD in your PS3 requires a significant money investment, but it brings up the issue of what should go into next-generation consoles. If developers are going to continue to use local storage for caching and quicker loading, when compared to optical drives, I think solid-state drives are mandatory for any next-gen console.

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17 Threads* | 47 Comments

#2

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By: Evil Bones x Show Full Post

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People would want to buy a system with a hard drive that's gauranteed to die?

Dec 13, 2010 4:27pm PST

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People would want to buy a system with a hard drive that's gauranteed to die? : Evil Bones
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#29

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By: Turin Turambar x Show Full Post

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"Report: SSD Hard Drive Improves Loading in Gran Turismo 5"

You mean: "SSD Hard drive improves loading in every game".

Doh.

Dec 14, 2010 1:29am PST

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"Report: SSD Hard Drive Improves Loading in Gran Turismo 5" You mean: "SSD Hard drive improves loading... : Turin Turambar
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  Except it does not improve the loading for every game. : pimpium
  - With awesome read/write times, why wouldn't it? Serious question. : Topsiderover
  - Sure about that? I don't know many games with loading times limited by CPU, GPU, or even memory speed. ... : Freon
- Why, no, I had no idea!? Who woulda thunk? Stop the presses! ShackNews et al. really hit that one out ... : hurda7

#8

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By: chickdigger802 x Show Full Post

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sigh. That's why I don't get console gaming.

Only consoles I've ever bought are the ones with barely any loading.

nes, snes, n64, gamecube, gbc, gba, ds.

wait. I got a psp. Only use it for emulation though.

Was watching my friend play ME2 on 360 the other day, the loading are horrendous. ME2 had like seconds of loading on my pc and my pc ain't that great.

sigh...

Dec 13, 2010 4:47pm PST

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sigh. That's why I don't get console gaming. Only consoles I've ever bought are the ones with barely ... : chickdigger802
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  Oh bull. Lots of games have long load times on pc. It's not a console only thing. : phil_mckraken
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    True, but PC's have more control over their load time whether it be up the processor or SSD consoles... : sasquatchxing
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      Plus hard drive speeds on the PC get faster with each generation, whereas most consoles are locked into w... : the archvile
      
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      Are you seriously arguing that load times are only a problem on a console because you can spend extra mon... : UberKalden
      
      Technology is now! OnLive is your (kinda) answer. : Topsiderover
- there are a few games with crappy load times, GT5 being one of them, but most games that are made correct... : hillemania

#47

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By: vx2o x Show Full Post

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"Corsair F120 SSD HDD"

Remove the "HDD", then OK sentence is a OK. Thanks.

Dec 14, 2010 10:07am PST

"Corsair F120 SSD HDD" Remove the "HDD", then OK sentence is a OK. Thanks. : vx2o

#3

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By: pyide x Show Full Post

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I don't think SSDs are necessary. I'd rather have more storage space out of the box. Like 1-2 TB, especially if Microsoft and Sony clue into the digital distro aspect and start selling every game day & date online direct to the console.

What the PS3 really needs is faster optical disc reading, it's why all these games need to have some installed to the hard drive in the first place. Since don't install everything on the HDD so they still have to rely on the BD for lots of stuff and it can be slow.

GT5 is the first game I've seen where a SSD makes any difference. Usually people test each new release with no significant results.

Dec 13, 2010 4:28pm PST

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I don't think SSDs are necessary. I'd rather have more storage space out of the box. Like 1-2 TB, especia... : pyide
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#41

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By: daggot x Show Full Post

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I'd be really interested to know if he was able to maintain that speed after heavy use of the HDD. I'm guessing there's no TRIM support in the PS3 OS. Not to mention if you're not able to turn off any background defraging then you're burning the drive even faster.

Dec 14, 2010 7:56am PST

I'd be really interested to know if he was able to maintain that speed after heavy use of the HDD. I'm g... : daggot

#39

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By: el0j x Show Full Post

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I hope next-gen hw will have some sort of flash storage, maybe not 100% SSD as we know it, but either a hybrid-drive or separate flash for caching (say for instance your last save state or some other hot resource).

Dec 14, 2010 7:48am PST

I hope next-gen hw will have some sort of flash storage, maybe not 100% SSD as we know it, but either a h... : el0j

#30

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By: crummynz x Show Full Post

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As someone that welcomes the advent of digital distribution, I say stick with traditional HDDs for the next gen consoles.

Dec 14, 2010 1:48am PST

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As someone that welcomes the advent of digital distribution, I say stick with traditional HDDs for the ne... : crummynz
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- Another reason that, frankly, calling SSD "mandatory" is pretty silly. Expensive, fast but small. How exa... : node

#31

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By: Dr_Cube x Show Full Post

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SSDs should be mandatory but emphasis on cost will keep them being so. We're going to need a lot of hard drive space next gen so I say next gen consoles will come with mechanical hard drives. The hard drive had better be user upgradeable.

Dec 14, 2010 2:43am PST

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SSDs should be mandatory but emphasis on cost will keep them being so. We're going to need a lot of hard ... : Dr_Cube
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- Absolutely. This is such a non-news item, yet I've seen it everywhere. a) There's no way they'll add S... : node

#16

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By: molaughlen x Show Full Post

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In other news, cats hate dogs.

Dec 13, 2010 7:17pm PST

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In other news, cats hate dogs. : molaughlen
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- But not all! : alexpr

#23

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By: eorlas x Show Full Post

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For the current gen, SSDs probably wont be mainstream.

If another round of the major consoles come out, there's a solid chance we might see it.

Dec 13, 2010 9:23pm PST

For the current gen, SSDs probably wont be mainstream. If another round of the major consoles come out... : eorlas

#11

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By: packav x Show Full Post

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should just go back to carts amirite?

Dec 13, 2010 5:53pm PST

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should just go back to carts amirite? : packav
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- We already tried that back in the 90's; it was called "NEOGEO" and the games cost around $400 each becaus... : satsun

#6

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By: Jobos x Show Full Post

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I'm surprised it only halved the time. I guess the rest of the bottleneck comes from the memory and processor speed.

Dec 13, 2010 4:40pm PST

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I'm surprised it only halved the time. I guess the rest of the bottleneck comes from the memory and proc... : Jobos
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- I'm surprised it halved it. Ssds on the console generally don't give much speed improvement to be worth i... : rjklevels

#1

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By: EnderWigginDA x Show Full Post

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55 seconds to load a game? Bejesus.

Dec 13, 2010 4:05pm PST

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55 seconds to load a game? Bejesus. : EnderWigginDA
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  the load times, if you add them all up, DRIVE ME INSANE GURRRRAHRFQAWRQ#!@#$ : Machlol
  - Hah, I get it. Gran Turismo, drive insane. : Memphis-Ahn

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Report: SSD Hard Drive Improves Loading in Gran Turismo 5; SSD Mandatory for Next-Gen?

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