Microsoft‘s internal emails show that the company’s executives acknowledge PS5‘s SSD advantage over Xbox Series X|S. This tidbit of information is part of a series of revelations brought to light by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) vs. Microsoft-Activision legal battle.
PS5 SSD’s raw throughput is “2x ours,” Microsoft admits
The emails in question shared by The Verge were exchanged in March 2020 when Sony first announced the PS5’s specs. Microsoft was understandably keeping a close eye on the announcement, with former executive Liz Hamren providing a rundown of PS5 architect Mark Cerny‘s presentation to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
“Cerny talked at length about the move to SSDs and the advantages for game developers and consumers,” Hamren wrote. “They have optimized for raw higher raw throughput (2x ours with slightly better hardware compression and associated performance improvements) as opposed to a more integrated streaming architecture enabled by Sampler Feedback Streaming.” There’s a good reason PS5’s SSD had its own song in Astro’s Playroom, then.
Hamren added that Xbox has a “clear performance advantage” over the PS5 when it comes to GPU teraflops (12 vs. 10). In a rather amusing line, she told Nadella that Cerny spent a “disproportionate” amount of time talking about the PS5’s audio innovations.
