Disclaimer: this is quite an old post. I do ‘t think there’s actually any difference in speed with the original 2005 PC version and the Steam version. The difference I thought that existed came from a lack of knowledge and misunderstandings. Additionally, the XBOX Series X is a similar speed to PC although zips are not possible. Other modern XBOXes are slightly slower than a Series X to my knowledge.

Loading differences for each version goes: PC (digital download)>PC (disc)>XBOX>PSN>GC>PS2 Just for a comparison, there are 24 levels and the first level takes less than 1 second to load on PC digital, 9 seconds on GC and 20 seconds on PS2. Downloading the PC version online (not the steam version) is beneficial as all of the pre rendered cutscenes are removed so you don't have to make an NG+ file. This also removes the amount of time it takes to load and skip the cutscenes.