Theoretical question: Will the PS4 and Xbox One consoles be able to have faster load times than PC g
10 replies, posted
As you know the PS4 and Xbox One have mandatory full game installs and the consoles come with laptop sized HDD's. You can replace these HDD's with SSD's if you wish.
Now Windows' file system is NTFS, which is dated and slow. In fact if you run a Windows game on Linux via Wine you get faster load times (note Linux distros run EXT3 or EXT4 which are much much faster than lowly old NTFS). Basically NTFS is a bottleneck to PC gaming.
But consoles have software, device firmware, drivers, etc custom made just for the hardware. They are either using their own proprietary file system or a modified version of an already existing file system that is no doubt faster and more efficient than NTFS. Does this mean that that a console equipped with the same HDD or SSD as a high end PC will have faster load times?
Depends on what kind of PC we're talking about.
I could grab 4 SSDs and run them in RAID0, but am I going to do that? No.
[QUOTE=nikomo;42687033]Depends on what kind of PC we're talking about.
I could grab 4 SSDs and run them in RAID0, but am I going to do that? No.[/QUOTE]
not even your average PC gamer does any form of RAID.
This is honestly surprising since load times was one of the [B]huge[/B] noticeable things about playing the PC version of a title over the lowly console version. It's mind blowing watching my friend start up GTAV on his PS3 and we sit there for longer than it takes my for PC and OS to boot. This just goes to show how Windows reliance is harmful to PC gaming.
HDD technology in PCs is often times using higher-performance 3.5" drives and occasionally SSDs while console manufacturers are generally just going to spring with more economical drives (and sometimes 2.5" laptop drives to save space), though, because having a few extra seconds of loading time isn't as bad as tacking more dosh onto the price tag.
One could think that the raw read/write speed of the drive would matter more to those loading situations than file systems.
[QUOTE=The Baconator;42686878]
Now Windows' file system is NTFS, which is dated and slow. In fact if you run a Windows game on Linux via Wine you get faster load times (note Linux distros run EXT3 or EXT4 which are much much faster than lowly old NTFS). Basically NTFS is a bottleneck to PC gaming.[/quote]
This is situational and with proper defrag the difference is likely not more than a few percent
[QUOTE=The Baconator;42686878]
But consoles have software, device firmware, drivers, etc custom made just for the hardware. They are either using their own proprietary file system or a modified version of an already existing file system that is no doubt faster and more efficient than NTFS. Does this mean that that a console equipped with the same HDD or SSD as a high end PC will have faster load times?[/QUOTE]
If it's anything like the PS3, I highly doubt it. Full disk encryption doesn't come cheap
If it runs on optical, not at all. If it's a digital copy, and you put a ssd in there, I guess it could happen.
This purely depends.
What's in the PC tower and how well are games optimized?
how more easy is it to get better drives, Solid state and hard, for PC?
How much more space do PC games take?
What operating system does it have?
etcetc. This is the biggest issue with comparing Consoles and PC. They both are [B]very[/B] good for gaming, but can you truly compare the two? Desktops have pros and cons, but so do consoles. When it comes to load times, let the stop watch figure that out I guess?
This is something that I'd rather tested then Theorized. XBox and PC playing "Generic shooter 6" then a mix of everything for computers, SSD, HD, w8, w7, Mac, Linux, etc. What is best for the computer in load times? obviously SSD, but is it said to use a SSD if consoles don't use SSD?
I suppose the best way to test it would buy a PC with the exact same hardware and then test it on many ports, both consoles then for PC all main OS's.
If you built a PC with the exact same specs as the consoles, the consoles would perform better.
Consoles don't have to deal with a one size fits all operating system or drivers and the games are tailored to one specific set of hardware.
If you're just asking about loading times though, it depends on the game really.
[QUOTE='[EG] Pepper;42690771']If you built a PC with the exact same specs as the consoles, the consoles would perform better.
Consoles don't have to deal with a one size fits all operating system or drivers and the games are tailored to [B]one specific set of hardwar[/B][B]e[/B].
If you're just asking about loading times though, it depends on the game really.[/QUOTE]
but if you built it at the same price, especially years from now, there would be a very big improvement
GTA5 proves just how well consoles strive when they only use one set of hardware, too.
remember you can swap out the PS4 or Xbox One HDD for a PC SSD if you want, and it would be formatted to the whatever file system the console uses. I'd say this'd make load times on the console much faster.
[QUOTE=The Baconator;42694036]remember you can swap out the PS4 or Xbox One HDD for a PC SSD if you want, and it would be formatted to the whatever file system the console uses. I'd say this'd make load times on the console much faster.[/QUOTE]
Xbone HDD isn't removable without disassembling the entire console, or so I've heard.
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