PS4 PRO SSD Upgrade Guide – The Best Options
PlayStation 4 Pro is undoubtedly a very powerful game console that stands out in many aspects in the video game space. It boasts some of real solid features that unarguably make it a mighty high-end game console designed for professional gamers. With PS4 Pro SSD upgrade it’s possible now to make this game console even more powerful than ever.
According to the modern standards, PS4 Pro is impressive in everything except that related to storage. In fact, this is almost the only weak side in this mighty game console. To professionals, it’s a major drawback indeed.
Certainly, Solid State Drive (SSD) is the best storage upgrade for PS4 Pro in terms of performance. It offers up to 50% performance boost. And now, especially after Sony added a new feature to the PS4 System Software called Boost Mode, which is designed solely for PS4 Pro model, users can take more advantages of the power of SSD with their console.
Best SSD for PS4 Pro
The standards for choosing the best SSD for PS4 Pro differ from those for PC or MAC. That’s due to the fact that game consoles in general (and PS4 Pro is NOT an exception) are not as powerful as computers that are designed for more than just gaming. But, the good news here is that there’s a trend by Sony to broadly support PS4 Pro with the upcoming firmware updates, and the Boost Mode is just the beginning for this wide-range support.
Moreover, game makers will develop/update their games to become fully compatible with the enhanced features of PS4 Pro. That includes its support for SATA III, which allows SATA III storage devices, such as an SSD, to have a remarkable effect on the overall performance of the game.
In a nutshell, that means PS4-Pro-optimized games will function better on PS4 Pro in some major aspects. It will take gaming experience to the next level.
We will lay out below the best SSDs we recommend for PS4 Pro console. If you wish to read further on this topic, you can skip this section to the next one.
Best 1tb SSD for PS4 Pro
This is the most popular PS4 Pro SSD size, and it’s suitable for the overwhelming majority of users. It comes with almost the same size of the stock hard drive, and as long as you are the only user for your game console, or you have an additional partner on the same console, this 1tb SSD storage capacity will probably suffice.
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Crucial MX500 1tb SSD has a lot to offer if you are still looking for a SATA SSD for your next PS4 Pro storage upgrade. The MX500 is one of the cheapest SSDs on the market at the moment. Additionally, it offers real-world performance very close to the Samsung 850 EVO. Therefore, the MX500 is an almost perfect combination of performance and price for PS4 console. And with the 5-year lengthy warranty, I don’t hesitate to place this drive on the top position as the best SSD for PS4 Pro. |
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Samsung 860 EVO 1tb SSD has not been placed in the second position due to a performance issue. Rather, it’s a matter of price. Otherwise, it has almost an identical performance grade to Crucial MX500. The price difference between the two drives is almost USD30 and I don’t see it justified to pay that amount just for the brand name. This drive comes with a 5-year limited warranty as well. |
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Alternatives
The following drives feature good alternatives to the above one. They offer 1tb of storage capacity and high data transfer rate, with the same price range (under $300) as our top recommendation.
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SanDisk Ultra II 1TB SSD SDSSDHII-1T00-G25 |
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ADATA Ultimate Su800 1TB SSD ASU800SS-1TT-C |
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Best 2tb SSD for PS4 Pro
The 2tb capacity SSD is best suited for enthusiasts with exceptional storage needs. Most enthusiasts are content with 1tb though. But when they need an additional storage space, they use an external hard drive for this purpose.
This PS4 Pro SSD size comes with a high price tag that most users cannot afford. But if your budget is fine with that, here we list below the best 2tb SSDs for PS4 Pro:
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SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD is a very solid choice for PS4 Pro in the 2tb storage capacity. Not because it outranks its competitors in terms of performance, NO. Rather because it offers real solid performance and high reliability for the cheapest price a 2tb SSD can ever be tagged. This drive costs less than USD 260. This is the cheapest, high-quality 2tb SSD I have ever seen in the market as of today. |
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Alternatives
There’s only one 2tb SSD that can compete with the above drive in terms of price and performance. Other SSDs with the same capacities are too expensive and we won’t be recommending them.
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Crucial MX300 2TB SSD CT2050MX300SSD1 |
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Choosing the Right PS4 Pro SSD
When comparing the performance of PS4 Pro CPU and the performance of SSD, we can easily tell there’s a big gap between the two in the favor of SSD. This results in a bottleneck in the data transfer rate between the CPU and SSD. That consequently constrains SSD from operating at its peak performance level. This explains why the benchmark numbers of SSDs inside PS4 Pro barely reach the half of the same SSD inside a computer with a powerful CPU.
We won’t be too technical here, but we have to enlighten you about this matter. That’s in order to understand on what basis we picked the SSDs in our recommendation list above.
Therefore, getting an expensive high-end SSD with a transfer rate above 550 MB/s is just a waste of money. Particularly if you get to know that this high-end SSD will have a transfer rate of almost 220 MB/s inside PS4 Pro.
Even a mainstream SSD is a waste of money for the same reason. In fact, the best SSD type you can get for PS4 Pro is the entry-level. The entry-level SSD offers the maximum data transfer rate that the CPU of PS4 Pro can handle. That’s with almost a difference of $100 in price between it and a mainstream SSD, like Samsung 850 EVO SSD.
SSD Features to Look for
The SSDs we have recommended for PS4 Pro share the following common features:
- All SSDs are configured with SATA III interface.
- Year of manufacture is not less than 2016. That way we make sure these SSDs implement the latest storage technologies.
- Sequential read speed is not less than 450 MB/s.
- All recommended SSDs come with minimum 3-year limited warranty
Other features, such as encryption and NAND-memory type are not important in the game console environment. That’s because they won’t add any noticeable improvement in performance.
Why Upgrade PS4 Pro HDD
To better illustrate why you have to upgrade the internal hard drive of PS4 Pro to an SSD, you need to know what kind of storage device PS4 Pro employs for its storage works. It’s simply a mechanical hard disk drive (hdd) in 2.5-inch form factor. It’s configured with SATA II interface and spins at 5400 RPM.
We have made a detailed article studying and investigating PS4 Pro stock hard drive. Click here to visit it.
Such a mighty game console designed for professionals having such a storage device is, indeed, a big shame. Sony was aware of this already, but it’s main goal was to reduce the price of PS4 Pro to the lowest possible level. That’s to gain extra marketing points against its competitors.
On the other hand, it’s ridiculous to know that PS4 Pro supports the 3rd generation of Serial-ATA (i.e. SATA III). Whereas its hard drive only supports the older generation SATA-II. That indicates that this drive isn’t really intended to be a permanent storage solution for PS4 Pro. It’s a clear hint that PS4 Pro is worth a better storage upgrade than the stock hard drive.
To read more about PS4 Pro hard drive and its specifications, please visit this article.
Only PS4 Pro Model is worth an SSD
We have stated earlier that PS4 Pro comes with enhanced features and advanced support. That makes an SSD an inevitable storage upgrade to power users. It offers to them the best gaming experience with their game console.
There’re several reasons why PS4 Standard cannot take the full advantages of the performance optimization an SSD offers. The most important ones are:
- PS4 processor is not as powerful as computers to decompress files in a large pace. This intuitively has a strong impact on the performance and loading times.
- PS4 System Software was not coded to conform to the SSD standards.
- Games are coded according to PS4 standards, and the loading time was set with these standards in mind, and the increase in speed you notice while using an SSD is basically due to the fast loading of the media files of the particular game. Therefore, theoretically, the more media files in a game, the faster loading process is.
For these three major reasons you won’t observe any big performance difference when using an SSD on either PS4 or PS4 PRO with the same version of the game.
More Advantages For PS4 PRO Systems
But now, the situation is changing in the favor of PS4 PRO. Many games now are being optimized to meet PS4 PRO standards. So if you’re a PS4 PRO user, expect a tangible performance gain once your favorite game is updated.
Moreover, Sony is constantly updating PS4 System Software and adding a new features to it. That’s to help PS4 Pro users in specific to get more power from their mighty game console, and the Boost Mode feature that was designed only for PS4 Pro is an indicator of Sony’s trend in this matter.
So, with SATA 3.0 interface, powerful processor, and the new Boost Mode feature, PS4 PRO’s performance can be go to higher levels. In fact, a professional game console like PS4 PRO with its premium features you can equip with an SSD instead of a classical hard drive in order to acquire the utmost advantages out of it.
Our Criteria for PS4 Pro SSD Upgrade
Based on the fact that a high-end SSD is basically designed to undergo very difficult situations of data processing dealing with huge heaps of heavyweight, multitask workloads, which can happen only in advanced computer systems, and no matter how frequently or extremely you use your game console, the data workloads are considered minimal compared to that advanced computers are made to handle.
For this reason we can confidently say that an enthusiast (high-end) SSD is not for game consoles. You’ll just waste your money with it.
You have then two choices here, either go for a mainstream SSD or entry-level SSD. The mainstream SSD comes below the high-end SSD in terms of performance and speed. It’s still a pretty good product for the overwhelming majority of computer users. But still.. we don’t recommend it for any game console, including PS4 Pro.
We only recommend entry-level SSD, and it can easily drive PS4 Pro to the maximum level of performance. That’s because, as has been stated above, PS4 Pro processor is not designed to handle multitasks or instant heavy workloads that an SSD can handle. Just imagine it. The maximum data transfer rate PS4 Pro processor can handle is around 250 MB/s, and modern entry-level SSDs offer up to 500 MB/s sequential read and around 250 MB/s sequential write. (Note that write speed is only important when installing games, so it’s not a big deal here).
All that impels us to confidently say that entry-level SSD is the best SSD class you can get for PS4 Pro.
So, based on this perspective, we have made our own criteria with varied factors for picking the best SSDs for PS4 PRO:
- The compatibility with the standards of PS4 PRO storage upgrade. We make sure the SSD is a SATA-based drive (only SATA III are picked) and not thicker than 9.5mm (as the PS4 PRO drive bay doesn’t accept bigger ones).
- The SSD manufacturer must be highly reputable in the industry. We only listed the trusted SSD brands in the market to reassure the quality of the drive.
- Reasonable price below $300. PS4 PRO console costs currently almost $400, and it doesn’t seem reasonable to many that an SSD is at a closer price tag than the console itself. Therefore we tried our best to select the cheapest SSDs without compromising the quality.
- The item’s model is not more than 3 years old. This to ensure that the SSD is meeting the latest performance specifications.
- Not less than 1TB of storage capacity. It doesn’t make since if the drive is less than that whereas the factory hard drive of PS4 PRO is already 1TB.
- Not less than 3-year limited warranty. This is to guarantee the peace of mind of the user, bearing in consideration that the standard life of a game console is 3-4 years only.
PS4 Pro SSD, Cons and Pros
Like what’s said previously, an SSD is the best storage upgrade for PS4 Pro in terms of performance, but that doesn’t mean it’s free of disadvantages/drawbacks, just like anything else in this life.
Let’s start first with listing the advantages of SSDs inside PS4 Pro console, compared to the stock hard drive:
SSD Advantages
There are a few major advantages an SSD offers to PS4 Pro, that are:
- Less boot-up time and much better game/movie loading speed. An SSD can simply improve the loading speed of games and movies by 40-50% or even more.
- Enhanced online gaming experience and faster game installation due to the high write speed of SSD, where regular hard drives are slow and not impressive at all.
- Faster data transfer between the internal and external storage devices. This can be clearly observed when using an external SSD as an external storage device with PS4 Pro.
- High reliability is one of the major aspects SSDs boasts of. Many PS4 users complained that the stock hard drive has failed and stopped working and their data has been lost. SSDs last more than 3-5 times longer than a regular hard drive.
- Long Endurance. An SSD can last more than 10 years without undergoing any failure/defect, due to the solid architecture SSDs boast. That’s why you can easily find a mainstream-class SSD with a standard 5-year limited warranty.
PS4 Pro SSD Performance Benchmarks
After running a bunch of heavy games on PS4 PRO with the stock hard drive in the first round then with an SSD in the second round, the performance benchmarks showed up as seen below:
| ↓↓ Game Title ↓↓ | PS4 PRO Stock HDD | PS4 PRO Replacement SSD | |
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| 1. | Battlefield 1: Through Mud and Blood | 95.3 sec. | 41.2 sec. |
| 2. | Battlefield 1: The Runner | 60.0 sec. | 27.8 sec. |
| 3. | Fallout 4: Exiting Vault 101 | 24.2 sec. | 15.9 sec. |
| 4. | Fallout 4: Concord Town (Initial Load) | 48.9 sec. | 26.6 sec. |
| 5. | Just Cause 3: New Game | 76.6 sec. | 42.4 sec. |
| 6. | Just Cause 3: Mission Respawn | 33.4 sec. | 17.8 sec. |
The benchmark numbers are very impressive. The game load time can be minimized to the half of that on the stock hard drive, which is quite appealing.
SSD Drawbacks
SSDs have their own drawbacks as well. When you decide to pick one for your PS4 Pro, you have to balance between the cons and pros before making any step forward.
Honestly, we couldn’t find other than three drawbacks with SSDs on PS4 Pro, which are:
- SSD is way too expensive compared to the classical mechanical hard drive. Just imagine how it is when you know that 1tb of SSD costs you more than $250. Whereas the same storage capacity of classical hard drive costs you less than $50.
- Not all games are optimized for SSDs. For that reason some games don’t really benefit from the existence of SSDs inside PS4 Pro. But this is supposed to change. Sony is giving broader support for its flagship game console (i.e. PS4 Pro) that helps taking more advantages of SSDs. Additionally, the game designers are just following the same footsteps of Sony in this regard. So you can say it’s a temporary situation for the majority of games.
- Just like any game console, no matter how mighty it is, PS4 Pro cannot benefit from many powerful features of SSDs that only high-end computers make use of. So you have to bear in mind that an SSD in PS4 Pro won’t perform, by any means, the same as if it is inside a high-end computer. That makes an SSHD (Solid State Hybrid Drive) like Seagate Firecuda 2tb Gaming SSHD a better solution for PS4 Pro in terms of price and storage capacity. But if your main concern is performance, and you’re not ready to lose the few seconds cut-down an SSD offers over an SSHD in favor of price and capacity, then ignore this point.
That’s it. An SSD, despite its drawbacks, still justifies its use in game consoles. With the appealing features it offers, it leave all other storage devices unable to be a real challenger.
Conclusion
The SSD is undoubtedly a great storage devices. It offers outstanding features to PS4 Pro console that you won’t get from any other storage device. But this doesn’t come without an extra expense. If price is a marginal issue to you, and your main concern is performance, then rest assured that an SSD is ultimately the right storage upgrade solution for your PS4 Pro. You’ll see then how it takes the gaming experience to the next level.
And just remember, PS4 Pro SSD upgrade is not mandatory. You can still get a remarkable performance boost with an SSHD. We suggest to have a look at Seagate FireCuda 2tb Gaming SSHD before making up your mind.
Hi,decided to install the Crucial BX500 SSD drive(240GB),all went smoothly until the re-initialisation process came to a halt at 52% and stayed there.Have re-tried twice and the same thing always happens,it sticks at 52…..have tried letting it sit for 3-4 hours,nothing happens,there are no fault errors or codes
You have chosen the wrong size. 240 GB of SSD space is too small for PS4, especially with the latest software update that requires huge storage space.
Why this is happening to you is because the game cannot find enough space to install because the SSD prevents it. Try installing smaller games and you’ll see what I mean.
P.S. We don’t recommend less than 500gb storage space for PS4 internal storage upgrade.
Instead of telling me what to buy is there anyway you can help me fix my storage not connecting problem?
You can check this post which has different solutions for this problem.
I change my mind. What’s the best SSD for the PS4 Pro as of right now or this year? I don’t mind the price.
In terms of performance and reliability, the best to go for is Samsung 860 EVO SSD.
Thank you. I was thinking the same. Honestly, that is going to be my first SSD so hopefully I see improvements.
You’re welcome and good luck.
Does it really matter what I choose from the two 2TB SSD for the Pro? Will there be any difference?
no, it doesn’t matter. Just choose any and you’ll be fine. You’ll get the same performance scores.
Will the Crucial MX500 will perform slightly faster than the MX300 or should I stay the recommend SSD list that you recommended?
In PS4 platform, both will perform the same.
Hey, i was wondering if you have any suggestions on formatting the drive before installing it into the ps4. like do we need to change it to fat32, ntfs or exFat? what about the allocation unit size? would the ps4 handle the formating during the os installation?
Appreciate the help!
With the latest versions of PS4 system software you don’t have to worry about that as there’s a built-in feature that allows you to format the external hard drive in order to work properly on PS4. So, just connect it and let PS4 system guide you.
i checked and yes people are complaining and solution is to update firmware, i havent tested it yet but updated the firmware.
I installed Kingston A400 SSD 480GB SATA 3 2.5” Solid State Drive SA400S37/480G – performance boost was obvious, but games are freezing i tried on external drive and there were no freezing, now i rebuild database and will check. Are SSD having bad sectors as well ?
This happens usually when you move your data from the old hard drive to the SSD, is this your case?
I haven’t had any problems with freezing. I have a external HDD that I move between a standard slim and a Pro when I rent games. On some I buy I transfer the rented data to the SSD in the console to avoid reinstalls. My slim has a 250 Samsung EVO 860 and my Pro has a 500 EVO 860.
I haven’t had any problems with Samsung or transfers. It could be Kingston, though it is a reputable brand. I know some of the new Nve drives crash badly in laptops. I’ve had a handful of them die at work. But your Kingston isn’t using Nve. Point being it may just be that specific drive from that maker or you could have a defective drive.
Do some looking on Amazon on your drive. Search for PS4 in their Questions and Comments search. If people have problems they’re likely complaining there.
Yeah I saw that. That was part of what prompted the reply. I don’t have a Pro (though I’d love to have one) but have noticed a considerable decrease in load times on the standard console. The price reduction makes it a lot easier to upgrade and if you use an external drive the way I have it’s only $50-75 for a 250 or 500, which is plenty for games you’re constantly playing while everything else sits on the external device.
Yes, in the next articles on this website the top storage recommendation will be always an SSD. Now users suffer from some lag/halt on mechanical hard drives with new games. An SSD is their only solution.
It might be time to revisit this topic. In a standard PS4 there’s a big difference in load times from a 7200 rpm HDD (faster than stock 5400) and a Samsung EVO 860. At this point, price isn’t nearly as bad as a year ago. With the patch allowing external USB 3 hard drives I opted to pick up a discounted external 4TB USB 3 HDD drive and a Samsung EVO 860 250gb. I install games in actively playing on the SSD and when I’m done or play them less or need to make room for a new game I move them to the USB. I’m thinking about upgrading to a 500gb and moving the 250 to a laptop to gain a little space.
Thank you for the reminder. I will revise this article very soon. Actually, now I began to recommend SSDs for PS4 Pro. Have a look on this post.
I have read a lot of these PS4 HDD to SSD upgrade drive. First, there is more to it than just storage. Installing an SSD affects the performance on a PS4 system in other ways. One of the best benefits of an SSD is the use of the system software while playing a game at the same time. On the old traditional HDD it is very slow and almost non responsive at times. I hated playing a game and then trying to access the party chat or send a message menu only to wait what seemed like an eternity. In certain games you need to change from game chat to party chat or send a message quick due to something in game happening right at that moment. When I upgraded to a quality SSD that problem disappeared completely. Then there is heat issues too. SSDs will run a lot cooler than the old HDD. HDDs will never out perform an SSD. Even a 15000 rpm drive. Traditional HDDs have moving parts that must spin to a certain speed to transmit data. Quality more expensive technology usually always runs better than cheaper technology. You cannot expect to get the same results out of a cheap SSD/HDD. That has not changed since technology started being commonly available. Sony is using crap traditional HDDs in the PS4 in the first place.
Thank you very much for this informative comment that might help people make the right decision in this regard. Another point is that SSDs are much more reliable than traditional hard drive that they can last years without failure, unlike the case with HDDs.
You can read more on the benefits of SSDs on this article on this website. Surely, your comment has additional information that contributes to the topic and adds more value. Much appreciated.
I read your article. You have mentioned a lot of useful differences when upgrading from an HDD to an SSD. Speed, Reliability, Noise, to functionality.
Must of had a faulty My Book. Bought a Toshiba hard drive and works fine.
Would of the WD been reparable as what you said went over my head lol
So I tried it on someone else’s PS4 and had the same problem. Worked on usb 2 but not 3.
New lead arrived today. Tried it again on PS4. Same problem.
Gather WD My book (has separate power) isn’t compatible with ps4.
Only option is to sell it and buy a portable hard drive.
Thanks for the advice though.
That’s quite strange as WD My Book is compatible with PS4. Probably the deficiency comes from the USB bridge of the hard drive as it fails to support USB 3.0 connectivity.
I have a WD my book 3t external hard drive.
I can’t get it to formate and be recognised as game storage only as separate hard drive for pictures etc. Can’t transfer games etc.
When I try to format for games it says not compatible, needs to be plugged directly, be 3.0 and min 250gb.
My hard drive meets all those requirements but can’t get it to work.
I’ve formatted it on pc to make sure no partitions but still the same. Any ideas ?
Hi,
Please check this post for a fix.
That’s great thanks. Thank you for the great reply, link was very useful
Checked through all options. I’ve taped up the 2 and double checked on laptop. Works as usb 3.0
Went back to PS4 still taped up and not recognising anything. Guess it was on usb 2.0.
I’m taking hard drive around friends to check if it’s cable or my PS4 up the creak.
Thanks for your nice compliment. I hope you get that fixed soon. Please if you successfully fix it, come back and tell us your experience so that other users may benefit.
Hi there, will this Samsung 860 have benefits to release day ps4?
I play games such as battlefield V and fallout currently stored on an external seagate hdd.
I have not tried that game on an SSD. But in general, if you go for an internal SSD, you’ll notice an amazingly performance boost up to 60%.
Great update! Thanks!
You’re very welcome
Hello. Thanks for this handy guide. Do you know if this will be beneficial for games like FFXIV?
Hi. Most probably yes. As an SSD improves game performance in all aspects, especially with the new game update patches that were released to accommodate the new hardware enhancement of PS4 Pro.
So, if your game version is released in 2016 or later, its performance will most probably be boosted remarkably.
As for the game title mentioned in your comment, I haven’t personally tested it yet.
Ì was about to say that, 128 on amazon! 1tb 860EVO, i bought less than a month ago for 166!
Indeed, this is a big sigh! Good luck next time friend with PS5 maybe 🙂
Just looking at local SSD’s and wondering if the Samsung 860 EVO 2.5in SSD is ok for the PS$ Pro as a comparable upgrade to the ones you listed?
Hi Tory,
This list has been issued months ago when Samsung 860 EVO was still expensive. I have to update it within a few days and I will surely include it on the top of the list.
Thanks for the quick reply, I purchased the Samsung 1TB 2.5 SSD. Was a great deal at 179.00. Works perfect, my PS4 Pro is more responsive, games run faster (Red Dead Redemption 2 & Assassin Creed Odyssey) Machine is also running quieter and cooler! All bonuses as my stock drive seemed slow and my XMB wasn’t smooth and seemed to hang when exiting the PS Store!
Thanks for the feedback. Samsung 1tb SSD costs currently $128 on Amazon. The price on the site you provided is quite high in comparison ($50 difference!).
once you add shipping and duty fee’s plus waiting for a few days for the product to arrive, it was a great deal for a drive that I could get in a short drive to the store!
All these expenses don’t justify the extra $50. I can get that drive with 1-day shipping for additional $15 only on Amazon, not $50. Thanks anyway for your interaction. Much appreciated.
I have a question, so if I upgrade my internal PS4 pro HDD to a 2TB SSD and have a external Seagate Expansion 8TB Desktop External Hard Drive, will I see any improvements?
You will see a remarkable improvement with the games installed on the SSD, for sure. As for games installed externally, the improvement is marginal. As the game performance is mainly dependent on the performance of the storage device on which it’s installed.
Oh. I thought it was the other way around. Because I need more space since I have a 2TB SSD and only have 380GB left. I don’t want to buy myself a new SSD which is too expensive to get. I want to keep the speed and performance that already is and expand more space.
No my friend. Try to only install the most important games on your internal SSD. This is how things go with enthusiasts. The internal SSD can help improving the performance of the game installed externally only in terms of caching. As part of the game is being cached on the internal storage of PS4 while playing. Here an SSD can help, especially when you play VR games. But as I said, it’s marginal and it’s magnitudes far from the performance boost the games on the internal SSD receive.
I only see speed and throughput and loading times. What about noise? How does a SSD improve the noise level of a PS4 Pro?
It’s a very quiet device. No noise at all.
Hi, really loved the sole existence of this site, very informative.
Would like to see updated hdds and ssds lists, and more game datas like red dead redemption 2 ssd vs hdd.
I would like see more in depth explanation as well about ssd speed characteristics. You said that higher end ssds are not worth it in anyway, but i think you could go more in depth about specific parameters like 4k read and write speeds, random and sequential, what are the main important specs within those ssds?
Higher end ssds have a more consistent speed on all types workloads and all types of read and writes, at queue depth, maybe there is a main queue depth used, not necessarily 4k, well, thank you for your extensive writing about the subject, bought the 1tb 860evo and will make the upgrade tomorrow, on amazon is quite “cheap” right now, and i rather buy samsung or intel over other brands in terms of reliability and overall package.
Hi there,
I appreciate your nice compliment and I admire also the useful suggestions you’ve offered. This article is more than one year old and it has to be updated with additional information. Although I still believe that entry-level SSDs are the best for PS4 Pro and the performance difference between entry-level and high-end SSD on PS4 Pro is marginal. The secret is in the CPU of PS4 Pro. It’s too far from accommodating the huge power of SSD. Anyway, I am working nowadays on updating the old articles on this website with more up-to-date information and this article will be one of my targets.
Thanks again for writing us.
That is exactly what I needed, thank you so much! I’m currently only using 70GB so I should be fine with 512GB but we’ll see how I feel when I get to the store this weekend. And I’ll be sure to get a drive with a solid write speed.
You’re most welcome. Hope you pick the right SSD that matches your needs.
Hi, hope you can answer my question, besides the loading time, are there other benefits you can get from SSD? Does it also improves the loading of texture pop-ins/draw distance?
An SSD, beside its high speed, offers consistent reliability of performance that’s much better than traditional hard drives.
Will this fix your problem entirely? I doubt it, although it can noticeably reduce it. That’s because your issue is not only related to the storage device, but also to the GPU, CPU and the game coding itself.
So in a big part, an SSD will help. But I cannot guarantee that it will totally eliminate the problem.
“Not less than 1TB of storage capacity. It doesn’t make since if the drive is less than that whereas the factory hard drive of PS4 PRO is already 1TB.” – Why? I’ve only used about 200GB on my stock drive, so why not save the money and get a 512GB SSD?
“The maximum data transfer rate PS4 Pro processor can handle is around 250 MB/s, and modern entry-level SSDs offer up to 500 MB/s sequential read and around 250 MB/s sequential write.” – If that’s the case, then why do you recommend “Sequential read speed is not less than 450 MB/s.”? Because something slower is likely old? But if that’s the case then that’s covered previously with recommending drives that are newer than 2015.
Just to confirm, is there an advantage in having a 500 MB/s driver over a 250 MB/s drive for the PS4 Pro?
Hi there,
It after all depends on the storage needs of users. Some users told me that even 8tb was not enough for them. So if you find 512gb SSD matches your requirements, then go for it.
As for the second question, the answer is in two points:
First: SSDs will degrade by time, and that mean they will lose performance scores and their speed will decline, unless you keep maintaining them on a PC using special utilities that keep your SSD working always on its peak performance level. But this process is troublesome to many users, as it requires them to remove their SSDs from PS4 and connect it to PC for maintenance then get it back to their PS4. So now, if you have got 450mb/s SSD, no matter how much it has degraded, it will not go below 300mb/s unless a serious deficiency/failure occurs.
Second: SSD with less than 450mb/s transfer rate mostly come with too low write speed (around 150mb/s) which is way less than what PS4 Pro CPU can handle, and that, intuitively, will cause slowness in installing games and transferring files to the SSD.
Hope I have sufficiently answered your questions.
I understand your point, but 450mb/s is not too much?
First gen SSD’s were known to degrade quickly, but modern ones have so many redundancies (hidden capacity to distribute) writes and software functions (TRIM, Firmware level garbage collection) to conserve its lifespan that it will be far outdated by the time it degrades. To seriously impact the lifespan of an SSD, you’d have to write hundreds of GB per day, every day, for years. SSDs are being used in enterprise environments reading and writing 24/7 and performing reliably.
In a PS4 Pro, with normal usage, since you don’t need the reliability and the speed of a top of the line SSD, a cheap chinese brand would not be the best “bang for the buck” option?
Like a Kingdian or Goldenfir, you can find 1tb for $80 and the benchmarks are not bad, average of 473mb/s Read and 354mb/s Write.
All modern SSDs come with at least 450mb/s. So, I wouldn’t be advising anyone to go for an old and cheap one with less speed. So, even if you find this condition not so reasonable, you cannot just neglect it, as modern SSDs all come with higher speed anyway.
As for the reliability issue, I don’t recommend cheap SSDs at all due to the fact that they have high failure rates. If it belongs to a renowned manufacturer, like Samsung, SanDisk, Corsair, Micron, and others, I recommend it even if it’s “cheap”.
As for degradation, you’re right here, but it is still a possibility that a serious gamer has to consider.
Thanks Dan! I will give your approach a shot. Thank you for educating me!
You’re always very welcome anytime.
So are you not allowing my posts to show up? I can see censoring some random jerk posting stuff but I am only offering an alternate solution that doesn’t deny internal SSD is absolute fasted(just not by much)
You do realize the difference between internal HDD and external SSD is a big jump and only a slight jump from external SSD to internal SSD. Game loading times are almost identical between internal/external SSD. Not only do people need not open up their PS4(which is easy and safe yes) but they get to use both HDD for mass storage of less played games and they can buy a budget SSD for their priority titles. You only lose about 6 seconds in boot up using the stock drive and you get almost exactly the same game loading speeds off an external SSD vs internal. The last reason I went back to HDD was the constant video caching to the internal drive. DVR type drives get tons of writes to them under standard usage, HDD are better suited for this task, using the SSD in an external role allows it to only be utilized when you are playing a game from it. Video recording cache is always on the internal never the external.
They might want to keep their original storage. I was totally sold on SSD as my boot drive but once I realized the caching(after I already installed a SSD internally) that is happening constantly I decided to re-purpose the SSD and like all the reviews show I lost barely any performance in the enclosure. I am a big drive performance person, my PS3 has a 120gb SSD even(for wipeout only) and all 7 desktops run SSD as their boot drive. If the PS4 fully utilized the SATA3 bus speeds and there was a big jump between external / internal (more than 1 or 2 seconds in most cases)then I would likely use the SSD as the internal but in reality there is VERY little difference in speed. People should be able to get all perspectives of information surrounding SSD usage with their PS4.
The summary of what I am saying is if you want more storage and don’t mind a slight performance drop simply use an external enclosure and decide what games go to the fast SSD and what stays on HDD. That way people can spend less and get more storage capacity and options all why maintain 95% of the internal install. Cheers.
I have allowed all your posts my friend. Check out that yourself and tell me which post I didn’t allow.
Anyway, thanks for this informative post. I extremely appreciate it. You have said some strong points that enriches this topic. May some readers benefit from it and pick the best for themselves.
Thanks again.
And I respectfully disagree with the recommendation to buy a 1TB or larger than stock drive. Those are expensive. On the cheap you can grab a smaller 240-500gb for $30-70 price range and keep your stock drive as main drive. Simply plug in the new SSD with external enclosure and select which games under the storage settings you want to move to the external. That way you can keep your large stock drive in place for all the extra games and the SSD for your current games you are playing the most. Only thing you lose is any speed benefits out of game in the PS menu system like about 6sec slower cold boot. I will give up that for the ability to maintain stock 1tb and SSD speed for my favs.
I respect your opinion, but using an external SSD won’t provide the same performance as using an internal SSD. Yes, it will be faster than before, but not that fast. Plus, getting rid of the stock internal hard drive is mandatory due to the low performance it offers (read more on the specifications of PS4 hard drive). You can read something I wrote about using an external SSD in the PS4 External SSD Guide.
Chris just buy a $10 external SSD USB 3.0 case and a cheap $40 240gb SSD. Plug it into the back. Go under storage settings and move your game to the new external SSD drive. Play the game now with fast loading times on your $50 and 20min tops upgrade.
He will not enjoy the speed that an internal SSD offers if he uses an external SSD. Yes, there will be an improvement, I don’t deny it. But he will miss more improvements if he doesn’t opt for an internal SSD.
Hello, great site. Very informative. I have a question I am hoping you can help with. Have you done any testing on PS4 PRO with an upgraded internal SSD on Destiny 2? I am desperate to improve the game performance as opening the character screen takes 15 to 20 seconds. Do you have any testing on this specific game to quantify the load time delta between the stock and an upgraded SSD drive in the PS4 PRO?
Hi, and thanks for this nice compliment.
No, I am sorry, I don’t have this game in my collection. But most probably, say 90-95% you’ll get remarkable performance increase if you move to an SSD. I cannot guarantee, but the latest PS4 system software, including the “Boost Mode” that was specially made for PS4 Pro users, all that makes the possibility very high that your game speed will be improved.
If you have ever taken this step, please come back and tell us about the result you’ve got. It will be very kind of you.