Back in 2020 when the next-gen consoles launched, there were many comparisons made between the PS5 and the Xbox Series X|S. From teraflops, to specs, to games, and so on. But one of the bigger discussion points that emerged after Sony's Road to PS5 presentation was the storage solution for each console. Sony had the faster SSD, but both companies announced IO architectures that would allow their NVMe SSDs to be fully saturated and for assets to be decompressed at blazing fast speeds. Sony uses Oodle Kraken and Oodle Texture to supercharge its IO, and Microsoft has DirectStorage. While there are software differences between the two implementations, at their core, they use the exact same workload at the storage device level to saturate these devices - that is, random reads of block sizes of at least 32-64k and a very high queue depth.
One of the differences, however, is that Sony allows PS5 owners to use any compatible PCIe 4.0 SSD they want inside of their PS5 to expand the storage capacity of the console. Today, we take a look at a new SSD that is specifically optimized for fast storage technology: the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus-G.
The Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus-G uses Phison's E18 controller with Phison IO+ Firmware and Micron's fast 176-layer TLC flash. This SSD was built from the ground up for fast storage technology. While the drive is mainly targeted towards PC users, and thus, the focus has been on its benefits in DirectStorage workloads, the I/O workload in games remains the same, regardless of what storage API is used. The Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus-G is optimized for random reads with block sizes of 32-64k or greater and very high queue depths. Not only is it built to reach a high bandwidth in these workloads, but it is built to ensure that it will sustain that bandwidth for hours on end.
In the bulk load demo tested in the video above, the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus-G reaches a total bandwidth of over 18 GB/s with GPU decompression, while the Gen3 drive is only around 8 GB/s. NVMe SSDs within the same generation perform roughly the same in this demo, but it's interesting to see the difference between a Gen4 and a Gen3 drive.
The PS5's approach will be different here, as it uses a dedicated decompression block, and instead of GDeflate, it uses Kraken decompression. But this illustrates what the drive is capable of when paired with hardware decompression.
The more interesting results come when running the Expanse demo. This demo was developed by Intel as an asynchronous texture streaming solution. It is continuously streaming assets, and as such, it is a great benchmark for a drive's sustained bandwidth in a next-gen gaming workload.
As you can see in the video, the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus-G maintains a higher bandwidth than the WD SN850X (around 6.9 GB/s vs 6 GB/s.) This is very impressive, but it may also be surprising for many readers. The WD SN850 was regarded by many as the best gaming SSD. Mark Cerny famously endorsed it as the best expansion SSD for the PS5. The SN850X is a newer and upgraded version of the SN850 that features Game Mode 2.0, which aims to provide the same benefits as the Phison IO+ Firmware. That is, high bandwidth and improved sustained performance with smart scheduling. Yet, it still falls short of what Sabrent's new gaming SSD can deliver.
Expanse is designed to stream in higher quality textures based on the capabilities of your SSD. Sabrent's new drive is able to load higher quality textures as a result of its superior performance, and so the frame rate will naturally be lower, as the higher quality assets are more demanding to render by the GPU. In games, where you manually set your desired level of detail, if you set it higher than what your drive can handle, you may experience stuttering or a general degradation in next-gen games.
High bandwidth is important, but so is the ability for a drive to maintain that bandwidth. As you see from the graph towards the end of our video (courtesy of Tweaktown) the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus-G not only has the highest bandwidth in Phison's in-house synthetic DirectStorage benchmark, but it also has the best sustained performance. It even outperforms the Optane P5800X, a drive that costs anywhere from $1000-3000!
This level of performance is unlocked by Phison IO+ Firmware, which was specifically designed for fast storage technology. It optimizes performance for random reads with block sizes of 32-64k or greater, and ensures that the drive will be able to sustain that performance by eliminating block level read disturb through smart scheduling and adaptive wear algorithms. Constant read requests can lead to bit errors over time, which can result in a momentary but significant drop in bandwidth. With fast storage APIs constantly hammering the drive with read requests, it will be more important than ever that your drive can avoid such bit errors, and this is exactly what Phison IO+ Firmware was designed. At present, there is no consumer NAND Flash based drive that can match the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus-G when it comes to the combination of high bandwidth and sustained performance.
Intel, who developed the aforementioned Expanse demo, shares their vision for a new game design paradigm:
Intel envisions a future where fast storage is valued for more than its non-volatility, and is reckoned as the last level of a memory hierarchy, to be exploited through emerging game-design technologies that stream assets in steady state. This vision of steady state data-transport from storage to GPU local memory, while rendering, is in contrast to the traditional burst of data transport at the beginning of game levels today.
In benchmark mode, Expanse acts as a proxy of future, demanding asset-streaming applications.
They go on to say:
Loading all the assets of a game level with DirectStorage is simple enough, but emerging graphics workloads load assets constantly, treating high-speed storage as a massive read-only, last-level cache.
If SSDs will be used as a massive, read-only cache that delivers data to the GPU as requested, then it is easy to see why a high level of bandwidth, and the ability to sustain that bandwidth for long periods of time without suffering from block level read disturb, will be of the utmost importance in next-gen titles.
Phison has the same expectations, which is why they have invested so much time and money into their IO+ Firmware. Phison has been working with Microsoft on DirectStorage for many years. The Seagate expansion SSD for the Xbox Series X|S utilizes a Phison controller. They have been working alongside other partners and game developers to understand how it will be used and what they need to develop the most robust controller and firmware for this new game design paradigm. So far, it is fair to say that they are a step above the competition in this regard.
While many NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSDs will work with the PS5, it looks like a high performance storage device will be very beneficial for high detail settings and high performance in future next-gen titles, and the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus-G delivers the best performance in this workload.
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