So what actually is happening when I am playing a video game and I die, and I am loading a new save. What’s actually happening inside the console?
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Your console has multiple types of storage. There’s your RAM, which is blazing fast and which the CPU can directly access. Then there’s your internal storage like an SSD or HDD, which is slower than your RAM; and finally, there might be a disc drive or a cartridge slot, which is the slowest on most modern consoles.
The CPU can only directly access what’s in the RAM, not what’s anywhere else. Even if it *could* access the other stuff directly, your game would run *super* slowly because of the amount of time it takes to access the data.
Whenever a game is loading, the console is copying all the data that’s immediately needed — textures, sounds, code, etc. — into RAM so that you can actually play the game.
This is also why most games need to load several times throughout the game. Your RAM is too small to hold the entire game at once, so only small chunks of the game are loaded at a time.
To expand on what’s already been said, one additional thing that games do is store files on the disk in a compressed manor in order to reduce disk usage. This might be ideal for saving space, but those files aren’t necessarily in a format that can immediately be used. Before they’re loaded into RAM, they might be decompressed using the CPU, which can take additional time.
Think of it like having an air mattress instead of a guest bedroom. It takes up less space, but it takes more time to setup and use.
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