A Russian leak has seemingly revealed that the PlayStation 5 has 664GB of usable storage space for installing games and media from its marketed 825GB SSD.
This would logically make sense, with the marketed size of hard drives and SSDs calculated differently to how computers then view the same storage. 825GB actually equates to 768GB of space when formatted, and it then seems that around 100GB is taken up by the OS and reserved for system features.
Obviously, it’s a terribly blurry photo and there is a mouse cursor shown on screen, so if it’s to be believed then our theory would be that it’s running through a PC capture card of some sort. Either way, the figure it suggests is still relatively believable.
Comparing it to the PlayStation 4, Sony’s current gen console shipped with a 500GB HDD (465GB once formatted), but then presents 408GB to users for around 60GB of system and reserved space. Much more comparable is the Xbox Series X, which was revealed earlier this week to have 802GB available to users from its 1TB SSD (920GB when formatted as per the 1TB expansion card).
If this all pans out, then it indicates that Sony are increasing the amount of space reserved for system functions. The operating system itself obviously won’t be 100GB in size, and it could be that Sony are keeping space behind to act as a fast write buffer, for a system feature similar to Xbox Series X|S Quick Resume, and as a storage pool for the higher quality Create button gameplay captures that runs in the background.
Whatever its use, it means that PS5 buyers will find themselves struggling for storage space sooner than they might have expected, especially with the prospect that game install sizes will continue to balloon over the next generation, even as storage space is saved from the shift to SSDs. You won’t be able to simply plug in an external drive either, as PS5 games can only be run from the built in SSD or a pre-approved SSD from third parties that meet Sony’s exacting SSD speed requirements – there’s currently only one SSD on the market that would theoretically be fast enough.
This does at least answer one of the big questions we still have about the PlayStation 5 in the run up to launch, with Sony being particularly tight-lipped about the system and its new functions. We also still have no official word on what PlayStation Activities are, if there’s a Quick Resume feature, whether or not there’s Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support for films and TV, and there’s the emerging story about how several games with free PS5 upgrades will not be able to transfer single player saves from PS4 to PS5 versions of the game.
Source: Resetera