Sony PS5 And Microsoft Xbox Project Scarlett Rumored To Use Samsung NVMe SSDs
However, according to a presentation at the Samsung SSD forum last week in Tokyo, we're learning that Samsung is likely the vendor that has been selected. During a presentation on SSDs, Samsung presented a slide dedicated to gaming SSDs for consoles. The performance for the so-called "Optimized NVMe" SSD show it providing a substantial decrease in system boot and game launch time compared to a SATA HDD, or even a SATA SSD. In fact, Samsung is showing its new SSD cutting boot and game launch times by roughly 50 percent compared to a SATA SSD.
Samsung isn't specific about what interface it's using for the SSD -- PCIe 3.0 or PCIe 4.0 -- but given past statements from Sony that it's SSD would be faster than anything we've seen on the market to-date, we're assuming it will be PCIe 4.0-based. The fact that both the Xbox Project Scarlett and PlayStation 5 will be using an AMD Ryzen 3000-based platform -- which supports PCIe 4.0 -- leads credence to this idea.
With that being said, Samsung says that this new "SSD era" will take place in 2020, which of course is when the next-generation consoles will launch. Both the Xbox Project Scarlett and PlayStation 5 are pegged for a "Holiday 2020" launch, but recent rumors have suggested that the latter's launch date has been pinpointed to November 20th with a launch price of $499.
