Are read and write speeds important on games that runs on external storage?

[Newblesse Obblige]

I was wondering if read and write speeds matters on games as I would want to store my games in a microSD(because of Steam Deck) or my old 500GB hard drive.

I know SD cards are really slow compared to a laptop hard drive but I want to know if it is bearable. I don't have a lot of AAA games im my game library but Im curious if it is still ok or a hard drive is the minimum.

[Anghammarad]

yes loading and saving times are important for a good gaming experience... 

 

for example loading a multiplayer map, the game is over when your machine is done reading it from an sd card... 

[Xaring]

Depending on the games, yes, read speed is important. Multiplayer games generally will see a reduced experience (taking too long to load, late spawns, terribad object popping, etc)
On many single player games the issue won't be as bad, but some games will refuse to load and timeout if reading from a SDCard - games might crash etc.

[SavageNeo]

would nto play games with the SD cards. 

 

for games with a lot of loading screens you want a SSD. sata ssd is plenty, since not many games utilize the speed of faster m.2 drives