Sony Interactive Entertainment has rolled out the start of the closed beta for its next major software update, version 4.54. There’s a variety of new features, but two in particular stand out from the rest. First, is support for external HDDs; while the other is a new boost mode for PS4 Pro owners.
External HDD support is something that console owners have been looking forward to for years. It does precisely what it says on the box, allowing PS4 owners to download games directly to external storage. According to the blog post, the PS4 will support drives up to 8TB in size. Although, it should be noted that while games can be stored externally, save files will still be located on the PS4’s internal storage.
Boost Mode for the PS4 Pro is meant to open up the additional processing power of the console to games that were created before it was announced. In theory, this should smooth out framerates for games that struggled on the original PS4 hardware; but SIE has also said that it will reduce loading times.
A number of beta testers have already been uploading gameplay footage of older games running in the boost mode. They certainly look to be running better, but SIE also warns that there could be some graphical problems that still need to be sorted out before the patch goes live.
[Source: PlayStation Blog, Polygon]
