Xbox Series X SSD is "ridiculously fast", says Dirt 5 developer

A new Dirt 5 interview has released that praises the speedy Xbox Series X SSD amid the console war arguments that its lower speeds compared to PlayStation 5 will be an issue next-gen. 

Speaking to the Microsoft owned Xbox Wire website, Dirt 5 Technical Director David Springate explained that the next-gen Xbox Series X SSD is more than a typical PC SSD.

“Obviously, that SSD drive is incredible. It’s not like a PC SSD, it’s more than that,” said Dirt 5 Technical Director David Springate. “Being able to load data so ridiculously fast is not only really impressive but as a developer, it’s very interesting. For Dirt 5, we’re going to be able to get into races super fast. It means no loading screens getting in the way, no dawdling, no looking at my phone, it means that the action will be non-stop.”

The technical director explained that the Xbox Series X internal SSD technology will allow developers to load important game data halfway through the rendering of a single frame, allowing loads, object culling and more to be imperceivable to the player.

“The drive is so fast that I can load data mid-frame, use it, consume it, unload and replace it with something else in the middle of a frame, treating GPU memory like a virtual disk,” says Springate.  “How much texture data can I now load? I’m looking forward to pushing this as far as I can to see what kind of beautiful experiences we can deliver.”

Despite Dirt 5 being a cross-gen game across Xbox One, Xbox One X and Xbox Series X, the upcoming simulation racer is hitting remarkable performance targets on Microsoft’s next-gen console with full 4K Ultra HD modes and an impressive 120fps mode.

While the Xbox Series X SSD (and even PlayStation 5’s SSD) won’t be fully utilized until years into their shelf dates, the sheer speed of Solid State Storage over the mechanical drives used in consoles today will surely be helpful for cross-gen titles.

For news on Xbox Series X SSDs for additional storage, check out the adorable Series X memory cards here.