The built-in PS5 SSD isn't super-great
The raw-performance is of course inferiour to top of the line PC SSD drives. A reddit user found out that the "time to move" (time it takes to move the game to that drive) is much shorter when moving to an NVME which isn't surprising.
DanCTapirson wrote:
Got invited to the Beta! I'm getting a Samsung 980 Pro Tomorrow. Also got a heatsink and infrared thermometer for measuring how hot it gets with and without a heatsink.
TL;DR at the bottom
UPDATE ON PS5 BENCHMARK:
Ok guys this was very interesting. I decided I would reformat the Samsung 980 Pro to see if the PS5 gave me another number on the benchmark it runs. Lo and behold it did! I don't know how this benchmark works, but it's definitely not consistent. I ran it 4 more times and these are the numbers I got:
- 6072.967 MB/s
- 5069.494 MB/s
- 5973.731 MB/s
- 6213.344 MB/s
UPDATE:
SSD: Samsung 980 Pro 250 GB
- Tested and works with PS5
- Read speed: 5751.242 MB/s according to PS5. (I got different results here as mentioned above)
- Games played with no issue or difference in speed, loading times, performance: Ratchet and Clank, Returnal, Rainbow Six Siege
Temperatures were taken in weather of 25°c (77°f), with infrared gun pointing directly at the hottest part of SSD as close as possible. I know the PS5 uses negative airflow to cool the SSD partition, so the enclosure plate was always on, except when I took temperatures and I removed it:
Without Heatsink
- Idle Temperature: 55°c - 59°c
- Highest Writing Temperature while transferring 5 games: 74°c
- Highest temperature while playing Ratchet and Clank and Returnal: 72°c
With Heatsink
This is the one I got. It comes with a Rubber mount and a screw mount. Just use the screw mount if you get this:
https://www.amazon.com/ELUTENG-Heatsink-Double-Sided-Aluminum-Conductivity/dp/B07PS9S2DZ/
IMPORTANT: Before going into the results, I've noticed the 2 'holes' Sony mentioned to allow for negative airflow are located on the higher part of the SSD partition to the side of the fan.
Image 1,
Image 2 As you can see, I took these photos after installing the heatsink. Seems that adding a heatsink makes the heat get closer to these holes, allowing for the air to suck it out of the partition faster. If there's no heatsink installed, the SSD is probably not being "cooled" as efficiently. Just what I think. Now for the results:
Note: The heatsink is spreading out the heat from the hottest area of the SSD to a bigger surface area. I highly recommend getting a heatsink.
- Idle Temperature: 43°c - 45°c
- Highest Writing Temperature while transferring 5 games: 50°c
- Highest temperature while playing Ratchet and Clank and Returnal: 50°c
Samsung rates the 980 pro at operational between 0-70°c and non operational at -40°c/85°c. I guess it will throttle if it goes higher than 70°c? Not sure as I was measuring ~72°c while playing and experimented no issues.
UPDATE ON SPEEDS:
ok so I timed some speeds on Ratchet and Clank and Returnal. Games load and perform identical as far as I can tell, but what I found interesting is the difference in time it take to move the games to the main SSD or to the Samsung Pro 980.
I don't know why, but moving to Samsung SSD was faster than moving back to main SSD. Does this mean the main SSD is reading faster, or that the Samsung SSD is writing faster? Or both? The games are loading almost identical, so I'm guessing both are reading equally fast. I guess DF will provide more insight into this.
Returnal
Ps5 main SSD:
- Time to game 13.45s
- Time to move 4min 4s
Samsung 980 Pro:
- Time to game 13.37s
- Time to move 2m 3s
Ratchet and Clank
Ps5 Main SSD:
- Time to menu 7.51s
- Time to game 1.79s
- Time to move 2m33s
Samsung:
- Time to menu 7.55s
- Time to game 1.86s
- Time to move 1m4s
TL;DR: Samsung Pro 980 works perfect with ps5. M.2 nvme SSDs run HOT! Get a heatsink to help dissipate the heat from the chips and maintain temperatures at around 50°c.
reddit.com/r/PS5/comments/ou5lam/ps5_internal_ssd_expansion_megathread/h7064vr/?context=3
