Seagate Game Drive for PS5: The Ultimate Storage Solution Reviewed
Seagate Game Drive PS5: A Comparison
The Seagate Game Drive M.2 SSD for PS5, or Game Drive, doesn’t have as much competition as before. But now there are many drives that work well with the PS5. It’s safe from certain SSDs that don’t work well with the PS5, like the Gigabyte Aorus Gen5 12000. The PS5 needs a certain level of performance, so SSDs like the Samsung 980 won’t work.
Some good SSDs for desktops are the Solidigm P44 Pro or SK hynix Platinum P41, and the WD Black SN850X. The Samsung 980 Pro is getting old but is a good deal for its price. Similar SSDs to the Game Drive are the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus-G and the PNY XLR8 CS3140. The Sabrent is better for Windows gaming computers.
The Game Drive is tested with 3DMark’s Storage Benchmark, focusing on gaming performance. It's good for gaming on PC or PS5, with small differences in game load times. There are performance differences between drives, like the Legend 960 and Predator GM7 doing well, while the 250H falls behind.
Console Testing: PlayStation 5 Transfers
The PlayStation 5 can use an extra PCIe 4.0 or faster SSD for more game storage, with some rules. Older models couldn’t handle 8TB drives, but that’s changed now. Sony suggests SSDs with at least 5,500 MB/s of speed for best performance. The PS5 doesn’t support HMB, but drives without DRAM still work. PCIe 5.0 SSDs don’t work well and might need extra cooling.
Our tests use the PS5’s internal storage test and manual read/write tests with over 192GB of data. We avoid throttling to see how each drive does under good conditions.
Apart from slower Gen 4 drives like the WD Blue SN580, most SSDs perform similarly on the PS5. The Micron 3500 scores a bit lower, but Micron is working on improving performance with future updates.
We use DiskBench to test file transfer speed with a 50GB dataset. The Game Drive and FireCuda 530 have good results due to their cache design. The Aorus Gen5 12000 doesn’t perform much better, as Gen 5 drives need at least 2TB of flash for top speed. Many drives work best at 2TB, and older Gen 3 SSDs like the 980 struggle with newer tech and higher speeds.
Synthetic Testing: ATTO / CrystalDiskMark
ATTO and CrystalDiskMark (CDM) are tools used by SSD makers to measure performance. They help us see how well SSDs handle different file sizes and workloads.
The Game Drive performs well in sequential tasks, but its hardware is getting older. Many newer drives have better speeds for reading and writing files at different sizes and workloads. Even the GM7 with its MAP1602 controller shows good performance.
Most SSDs have a fast area called a write cache to handle incoming data. But when the cache fills up, write speeds can drop. We use Iometer to test sustained write performance and cache recovery. This tells us how well the drive performs over time.
The 1TB Game Drive writes at around 5.9 GB/s for about 20 seconds using its write cache, then drops to around 1.95 GB/s. It can keep up this speed for a while before dropping further. Overall, it’s a strong performer for PS5 gaming.
Power Consumption and Temperature
A tool called Quarch HD Programmable Power Module helps us understand how much power SSDs use. Knowing how much power a drive uses when it's not doing anything is important, especially if you're upgrading a laptop. Desktops are usually more focused on performance and may not care as much about saving power, so we test them in the worst-case scenario.
Some SSDs use a lot of power when they're not doing anything, while others use very little. We also look at how much power they use during normal use and when they're working hard. But what's really important is how efficiently they use power. A drive might use more power when it's working, but if it finishes the job faster, it can go back to using less power sooner, which saves energy.
For temperature, we test the drive in a controlled environment to see how hot it gets. The Game Drive is pretty efficient, but it's not as good as some other Gen 4 SSDs. It's also not as good as the MAP1602 on the GM7. The Lexar NM790 and Addlink A93 are similar to the Game Drive and have options for heatsinks to keep them cool, especially the 4TB versions. According to the datasheet, the 1TB Game Drive uses about 6.3W when it's working, 20-30mW when it's in low-power mode, and less than 5mW when it's idle. We didn't have any problems with overheating or throttling with this drive. It comes with a heatsink that works well, and it's meant for desktop PCs, where it should stay cool enough.