Does PS5 disc have more storage than digital?
No difference! Both the standard PS5 with disc drive and the Digital Edition come equipped with the same 825GB of high-speed SSD storage. You get the identical ultra-fast loading, quick resume, and bandwidth for stunning graphics regardless of model. I‘ll elaborate below on their storage capabilities.
As a gaming enthusiast and content creator, when Sony first unveiled the PS5 consoles I was most curious about their storage space. Modern AAA blockbusters with 4K textures and expansive worlds now demand install sizes from 50GB upto a massive 150GB per game!
Even with 825GB onboard, the PS5 would definitely need storage expansion to house a decent library. But first, let‘s examine if the disc-based PS5 enjoys any storage advantage over its Digital sibling…
Hard Drive Heritage – What‘s Under the Hood
Popping off the faceplates reveals what really sets both PlayStation 5 models apart – the presence of an optical disc drive in one. This 4K Blu-ray player enables legacy PS4 game discs and movie watching. Otherwise, their computing guts match identically as seen below:
| Component | Details |
|---|---|
| CPU | 8-core AMD Zen 2 (3.5GHz) |
| GPU | 10.3 teraflop AMD RDNA 2 |
| Memory | 16GB GDDR6 |
| Storage | Custom 825GB SSD |
As you can clearly note from the table, the integrated 825GB of blazing fast solid state drive storage remains uniform. Its 5.5GB/s raw bandwidth when paired with the custom decompression tech allows insane data streaming speeds up to 22GB/s!
This enables revoutionary gameplay experiences like near instantaneous fast travel and level reloading in hits like Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and parallel game worlds loading instantly in Hellblade II. Truly next-gen!
Anyway, circling back – both PS5 editions ship with the very same capable 825GB SSD onboard. Absolutely no difference in their storage hardware capabilities straight out of the box.
Usable Space – Setting Proper Expectations
However, the PlayStation 5 doesn‘t grant full reign over those 825GB right away. Its operating system and pre-installed system files occupy a portion of space too. Subtracting this overhead leads to only 667GB actually free for installing your game library and apps.
PS5 SSD space eaten up by system files – Android Central
So that fancy 825GB SSD winds up providing slightly lesser usable storage real estate. But again – identically shortchanged irrespective of the disc or digital model!
Sony themselves acknowledge you‘re only left with 667GB usable on either PS5 console.
Anyway, how much gaming can you enjoy before hitting that ceiling? Let‘s math out some estimates:
- Average PS5 Game Install Size: 50GB
- 667GB รท 50GB per game = 13 next-gen titles
Filling your PS5 SSD with over a dozen AAA gems sounds decent for starters. However, that projection assumes average game install sizes. The storage demands of modern blockbusters continue ballooning over time as their graphics complexity and ambition expands.
Already we‘ve witnessed PS5 games eclipsing 100GB, even nearing 200GB!
| Game | Install Size |
|---|---|
| Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War | 133GB |
| NBA 2K23 | 121GB |
| Gran Turismo 7 | 110GB |
With such beefy modern games in mind, your PS5 storage would vanish quicker. Just 5-6 of these "slimmer" titles may surpass the 667GB usable capacity!
Suffice to say, investing in extended storage becomes essential pretty soon to keep enjoying AAA games on PS5 over its lifespan.
And again I reiterate – both console models face identical storage pressures. Neither the disc-packing nor digital edition PS5 enjoy any usable space advantage whatsoever!
Alright, that covers the native storage situation. Next let‘s explore expanding the PS5 SSD…do physical discs alter upgrade options and capacities here either? Let‘s find out!
Beefing Up: Expandable Storage Options
Say you‘ve managed to cram a dozen epic adventures onto your PS5‘s onboard SSD. But as you eye even more legendary PlayStation exclusives on the horizon, anxiety strikes about running out of drive space!
Well, upgrading the storage sits on the table for both PS5 editions via these methods:
External USB HDD
You can always connect an external USB hard disk drive to add more game storage, transferring titles back and forth as needed. While simple plug n play, USB HDDs fail matching the PS5 SSD‘s blistering speeds.
So you wouldn‘t enjoy next-gen benefits like instantaneous loading or quick resume on games stored there. Still, they work in a pinch for less frequently played PS4 games, especially with USB 3.2 HDDs pushing 500MB/s.
Verdict: Available for both PS5 models, but performance costs for newer titles.
Internal M.2 SSD Expansion
Now this marks the ultimate storage enhancement bringing phenomenally fast solid state goodness!
The PS5 incorporates an empty M.2 slot just begging for another SSD – simply unscrew the side panel, pop open the heatsink and slot in any compatible NVMe Gen4 M.2 SSD up to 4TB in size!
Once inserted and formatted as extended storage, it integrates seamlessly with the main SSD to massively boost capacity. We‘re talking adding high-speed space for 50+ extra AAA games based on a 2TB upgrade drive!
Best of all, M.2 SSD expansions deliver equally outrageous speeds and bandwidth matching the internal PS5 SSD. So next-gen benefits even apply to games stored on the expansion drive!
Verdict: Identical M.2 expansion capabilities and performance for both PS5 editions.
Clearly, the PS5 sets you up for storing a gigantic future game library spanning the onboard SSD + extendable M.2 SSD storage. Whether you picked the disc-equipped or Digital Edition console, their storage upgrade avenues remain equally strong.
But a key question still remains…
Do Discs or Digital Deliver Differently?
We‘ve determined the PS5 console hardware and storage itself operates identically regardless of built-in disc reader or not. But could the install sizes somehow differ between discs vs downloaded games?
Example – does buying Call of Duty on Blu-ray disc occupy lesser SSD space than grabbing it from the PlayStation Store? Intuitively it feels downloading gobbles more storage.
But turns out physical discs ultimately install game data identically to their downloaded versions! So again, no effective difference to storage capacity in the end.
See, the discs themselves function solely as a delivery mechanism thanks to the PS5‘s Blu-ray drive. But once inserted, their content still requires copying onto the high-speed SSD to harness its true power for transformative gameplay.
As Guerilla Games technical director Michiel van der Leeuw told Wired, "The Blu-ray drive is no longer the bottleneck…" since their "…storage architecture [leaves no need] to duplicate data to serve it to the hardware."
So popped-in discs don‘t directly run games – rather, the PS5 copies all its visual assets, levels, textures etc onto its SSD anyway. Resulting in install sizes again similar to downloading digitally.
Bottom line: physical discs ultimately occupy equivalent SSD real estate to digital downloads. So PS5 storage pressures remain reliably consistent irrespective of game format.
In closing, the PS5 arms PlayStation fans with bleeding edge storage technology delivering groundbreaking new gameplay possibilities. Its SSD capacities stay uniformly impressive between disc-based and digital editions. Both support identical expansion methods to massively stretch limits over their lifespans too!
With these insights, hopefully you feel empowered in deciding the PS5 model fitting your personal needs as the next console generation unfolds!
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! Do you lean disc or digital? What storage upgrades seem most enticing? I‘m eager to discuss all things PlayStation 5 storage and beyond with fellow gamers!
