PlayStation 4 Performance – OCZ Trion 150 480GB SSD vs. HGST Travelstar Z5K500 500GB HDD

Most reviews will only go to the extent of measuring drive performance within a standard PC environment. We decided to go against the status quo and attempt to answer what has long been a question for many gamers – whether replacing a console’s default hard disk drive (HDD) with a solid state disk (SSD) will net any performance benefit in game loading times and level loading times. Here are the results.

Fallout 4 (v1.03)

Fallout 4 is one of the most storage-intense games currently on PC and eighth-generation consoles. The game uses around 37GB on the PlayStation 4 and takes over 1 minute to load a save point with a conventional SATA II hard drive. With the Trion 150 480GB SSD, it takes less than 30 seconds. We have found actual game loading times to fluctuate between 15 and 20 seconds for both HDD and SSD, so we will consider them around the same for this review.

Super Time Force Ultra (v1.02)

Super Time Force Ultra is a side-scrolling action and shooter game where players have 30 lives to run through “bullet hell” levels. Players can choose from over 16 different characters across 6 different stages with a variety of weapons and powers exclusive to each one. For this test, we are showing identical game loading speeds on both the Trion 150 480GB SSD and HGST Travelstar 500GB HDD.

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege (v1.08)

Rainbox Six Siege is the December 2015 installment in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six series, which first released in August 1998 and has now amassed more than 17 titles (not including the cancelled Rainbow 6: Patriots). In this tactical first-person shooter, players identify as an operator from the counter-terrorist Rainbow team unit and are not allowed to change operators during a round. When a round begins, attackers choose one of many spawn points from which to launch an attack, many of which feature a heavy emphasis on [procedural] environmental destruction. Over the course of the round, players gain tactical advantages through environmental destruction, and this ultimately gives allows them to be more creative in their gameplay strategies.

The PlayStation 4 version of the game installs just under 21GB and the game loads in just 43 seconds on the OCZ Trion 150 480GB compared to 51 seconds on the HGST Travelstar 500GB HDD. Load times for the CQB Basics level are down to just 33 seconds on the SSD compared to 43 seconds on the SSD, and casual multiplayer loading times are within 2 seconds between the SSD (26 seconds) and the HDD (24 seconds).

Killzone: Shadow Fall (v1.70)

Killzone: Shadow Fall (2013) is a PlayStation 4 launch title and was published Sony Computer Entertainment with development from Guerrilla Games. It is the sixth game in the science-fiction franchise and was made exclusively for Sony’s next-generation console.

The game installs at around 37GB on the PS4 before additional content packs and updates. Game loading times were not applicable for this test because it loads relatively quickly regardless of storage device. We decided to pick a more texture-heavy level for this performance test and ended up choosing Level 2 – The Shadow, in the Section titled, “You Have the Intel?” This particular checkpoint loads in just 18 seconds on the Trion 150 480GB SSD compared to 30 seconds on the HGST Travelstar 500GB HDD, and in a game with many checkpoints these loading times can add up quickly over the span of single player gameplay.

Mortal Combat X (v1.09)

Mortal Combat X (2015) is the tenth installment of the Mortal Combat video game series and was developed by NetherRealm Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The console versions received mostly positive reviews from critics upon release, and it is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Android and iOS. The game is based on Unreal Engine 3 and installs at around 45GB on the PlayStation 4.

In this test, the game loads in 14 seconds on the OCZ Trion 150 480GB SSD compared to 27 seconds on the HGST Travelstar 500GB HDD that comes standard with the PlayStation 4. Single player load times also shave off a few seconds with the SSD (11 seconds) compared to the HDD (16 seconds), and Training (Practice) load times are identical on both drives.