SSD vs M.2 vs NVMD( not sure if that's right)

The Allfather · July 13, 2019

Right so what are the pros and cons of each memory option?

Is an SSD good for stable gaming frame rates with the right hardware around 120?

Would a M.2 be better or does the hard drive matter?

Any video suggestions on the above topic?

AndersT2 · July 13, 2019

SSD is storage, not memory.

M.2 is a port type that supports S-ATA and PCIe (NVMe) signals.

With newer hardware you can use a NVMe SSD which has faster speeds than the S-ATA (4 to 8 times faster).

In game it won't matter that much, because the game uses RAM for resources for the most things, but it will helt with load times (but not in all game)

T-Paste · July 13, 2019

M.2 is simply a connector standard, NVMe is a storage technology. SSD and NVMe can both be SATA or M.2. Generally, M.2 is going to be better as it is closer to the bus. Fast drives is important regardless as your system is always switching data between the Page file and memory. It will still load data in and out of memory for any process you have open, including your game. Whether that is negligibly noticeable or not is another question.

jj9987 · July 13, 2019

1 hour ago, T-Paste said:

Generally, M.2 is going to be better as it is closer to the bus.

Umm, true and not true. M.2 is using either SATA lanes from PCH or PCI Express lanes from the CPU or the PCH. Not because it is closer to the bus (not sure what you even mean by "the bus").

To OP: Purely for gaming, M.2 NVMe SSDs do not bring any noticeable improvement, apart from maybe slightly lower loading times. I tested loading GTA:V from HDD and a SATA SSD 1-2 years ago and I only won about 40 seconds in loading times.

If you are looking to store a lot of games, go SATA SSD or HDD if you are very budget limited. You can throw the OS on a NVMe SSD, but storing games on it... not worth the price at this moment IMO.