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Kotaku | PS5 And Xbox Series X Loading Times, Compared on DMCVSE and NB2K21 (They’re Close)

Uzupedro

Uzupedro

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And here it is, the first next-gen loading times face-off!
Source: https://kotaku.com/ps5-and-xbox-series-x-loading-times-compared-they-re-1845638380
DMCVSE:
Though I plan on upgrading to a faster monitor soon, the Xbox Series X and PS5 times below are running at 4K resolution and 60 fps. I measured the loading times between hitting "continue" and gaining control of your character. Thanks to Stephen Totilo and his little white box, we also have times for the Xbox Series S (though not at 4K, of course).
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  • PlayStation 5: 4.01 seconds
  • Xbox Series X: 5.59 seconds
  • Xbox Series S: 6.95 seconds
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and

For another test, we also measured the time to get from the launch icon on the consoles' respective dashboards to the start menu, hitting start to bypass the opening cinematic.
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"The hell? Double the load time? It seems the Xbox Series X took a little longer checking my network environment than the PS5 (it visibly lingered on the checking network screen), and there's an extra prompt (press A on your controller) to go through."
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  • PlayStation 5: 19.52 seconds
  • Xbox Series X: 41.98 seconds
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NBA2K21:

Here's hitting the button to launch a Play Now game, mashing through the prompts:

  • PlayStation 5: 6.92 seconds
  • Xbox Series X: 5.19 seconds
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That's fast. Almost too fast, as I like to use the loading times in sports games to convince myself that I suck at sports and should be playing some fluffy anime junk instead. Here are times from the consoles' UI icons to the main menu:

  • PlayStation 5: 14.43 seconds
  • Xbox Series X: 22.81 seconds
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Ovvv

Ovvv

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Wtf is going on with DMC5SE on the Series X? Is that a typo??

Both are fast as hell but that number sticks out a ton compared to the others
 
Dolce

Dolce

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Oct 25, 2017
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When you're reaching such low numbers, I don't think it's going to end up being that big of a deal that the Series X has a slower SSD. Like yeah, it'll be slower, but there's a big difference being slower loading when it's a minute+ versus in the seconds.
 
PlanetSmasher

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Am I crazy, or does it seem like the PS5 is just markedly faster at actually booting games and doesn't really have much of an advantage during gameplay?
 
Geode

Geode

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Oct 27, 2017
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Yeah, it seems that the PS5 will only be a second or two faster than the Series X. Microsoft has a pretty powerful box this time around, not bad for $500. Hopefully they'll get some nice exclusive games soon to utilize all that power.
 
ghostcrew

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Hybrid Rainbow said:
Good good. This stuck out though?

Why such a discrepancy?
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Isn't the PS5 SSD twice as fast as the Series X one? That's almost exactly double the time. 40 seconds and 20 seconds.

Edit: or this I guess...

From the article: "The hell? Double the load time? It seems the Xbox Series X took a little longer checking my network environment than the PS5 (it visibly lingered on the checking network screen), and there's an extra prompt (press A on your controller) to go through."
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PlanetSmasher

PlanetSmasher

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bbq of doom said:
Seems like the result of brute forcing and a lack of optimization, which hopefully comes as the generation goes on?
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Perhaps. At this point I'm kind of questioning what the point of putting such an expensive SSD in the PS5 even was if it's not going to produce markedly better results in minute-to-minute gameplay. Like this was supposed to be their secret sauce, and...meh.

Maybe we need to see how it handles games built specifically and unquestionably around next-gen hardware vs. ports, because this is a pretty rough first showing.
 
ThereAreFourNaan

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Nov 8, 2017
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I can't imagine anyone would be upset by these times - nice and fast. I do expect PS5 advantage to become a little clearer over time. Then again, it's also conceivable that such an advantage will never materialize in the form of "everything is >2x faster" like people assumed since all we ever had for each system was one or two numbers and not the full specs of each with benchmarks or anything like that.
 
bbq of doom

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Oct 25, 2017
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PlanetSmasher said:
Perhaps. At this point I'm kind of questioning what the point of putting such an expensive SSD in the PS5 even was if it's not going to produce markedly better results in minute-to-minute gameplay. Like this was supposed to be their secret sauce, and...meh.

Maybe we need to see how it handles games built specifically and unquestionably around next-gen hardware vs. ports, because this is a pretty rough first showing.
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I think you answered your own question/expectation--the Sony games are gonna be what shows this off.

mugurumakensei said:
As the generation drags on, Xbox games will also start taking better advantage of SFS.
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What is SFS?
 
Kingdizzi

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Aug 11, 2019
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I really hate how short the load times are now, can't even go for a slash whilst waiting for a game to load or read any hints and tips. It's really turning into a huge dealbreaker the more I think about it and the devs need to implement something to change this, otherwise I'm sticking to PS4.
 
dragonbane

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Yeah the real advantage was always asset streaming. For general load times this reaches a point where the raw speed barely matters, as enough other bottlenecks during boot will make the results very similar across the 2 consoles. But those being a non factor now is fantastic.
 

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Uzuzu

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Nov 18, 2017
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FIREKNIGHT2029 said:
This stuck out to me. The rest of the times posted were negligible except for this.
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They said in the article

The hell? Double the load time? It seems the Xbox Series X took a little longer checking my network environment than the PS5 (it visibly lingered on the checking network screen), and there's an extra prompt (press A on your controller) to go through.
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xbox live was pretty bad today bc of launch which could have effected it
 
Delusibeta

Delusibeta

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Roughly in line with expectatuons: yes, the PS5 is generally faster, but the differences is ultimately negligible. (The DMCV cold boot times in the Xbox version might be related to the ongoing Xbox Live issues, as the article noted that the network connection screen took noticeably longer.) Frankly, only console warriors are going to be declaring one box loading NBA2k21 seven seconds slower than the other as a problem for anybody.
 
KAMI-SAMA

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Nice. I assume we may start to see a clearer difference between the 2 as games get more and more complex and asset heavy. Biggest difference will be exclusives. Not just due to load times but the how it comes into development.
 
FlanjeUK

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Apr 20, 2019
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Hybrid Rainbow said:
Good good. This stuck out though?

Why such a discrepancy?
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From the article: "The hell? Double the load time? It seems the Xbox Series X took a little longer checking my network environment than the PS5 (it visibly lingered on the checking network screen), and there's an extra prompt (press A on your controller) to go through."
 
Dolce

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FlanjeUK said:
From the article: "The hell? Double the load time? It seems the Xbox Series X took a little longer checking my network environment than the PS5 (it visibly lingered on the checking network screen), and there's an extra prompt (press A on your controller) to go through."
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Yeah I'd edit the OP to put some more context around each number.
 
spartan112g

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I'm thinking the Series X may take a little longer for first boot due to it setting up Quick Resume. This is only a hypothesis.
 
SilverX

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PlanetSmasher said:
Perhaps. At this point I'm kind of questioning what the point of putting such an expensive SSD in the PS5 even was if it's not going to produce markedly better results in minute-to-minute gameplay. Like this was supposed to be their secret sauce, and...meh.

Maybe we need to see how it handles games built specifically and unquestionably around next-gen hardware vs. ports, because this is a pretty rough first showing.
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These next gen versions are coming in hot. Expecting devs to make full use of either console's SSD optimizations is like expecting them to rebuild the games from scratch to get them onto the new consoles. They aren't designed around the SSD and these are the results
 
bsigg

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Seems like the Xbox time was a network issue per the article?

Other than that, the times are so much faster overall, it's great.
 
Pancracio17

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Ah, great to see the PS5 SSD in action with next gen optimized games. Its pretty damn fast.
FlanjeUK said:
From the article: "The hell? Double the load time? It seems the Xbox Series X took a little longer checking my network environment than the PS5 (it visibly lingered on the checking network screen), and there's an extra prompt (press A on your controller) to go through."
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Thats interesting, does the checking online load time vary each time?
 
get2sammyb

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When they're both this fast, any differences are pretty much negligible. A second is nothing.

The obvious upside to all this is the fact that on both consoles games are SUPER fast. What a refreshing improvement!
 
Scottoest

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In terms of just loading times, this is kinda what I expected. Super-fast vs. Super-duper fast.
 
mugurumakensei

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bbq of doom said:
Oh neat. Will be interesting to see how their first parties use it!
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It also helps reduce ram needs. It doesn't improve bandwidth just minimizes the amount of data you need to move in the first place.

negative side of Microsoft's solution is the SSD is more expensive due to not being a standard sized NVME and less bandwidth, but I think both will ultimately be good enough. Sony will figure out more ways to exploit their bandwidth advantage, and MS will pave the way for creative software solutions that will ultimately be used by everyone to further gain benefits from SSDs and lower ram requirements.
 
RedHeat

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Not a shocker, 3rd-parties aren't gonna come close to the optimization of 1st-parties.
 
WhtR88t

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I think a lot of the more obvious advantages of the PS5 will only show up in first party games that a designed around its insane SSD speeds. And now who knows how long until we see it's advantages with both Forbidden West and Ragnarok being cross gen. :(
 
KAMI-SAMA

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WhtR88t said:
I think a lot of the more obvious advantages of the PS5 will only show up in first party games that a designed around its insane SSD speeds. And now who knows how long until we see it's advantages with both Forbidden West and Ragnarok being cross gen. :(
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When did they say Ragnarok was cross gen?
 
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