SSD vs HDD – Which Is Best For Gaming? Update 05/2024

With read/write speeds that shattered previous records set by hard disk drives, solid state drives have become the new standard in computer storage.

Solid-state drives (SSDs) are the better choice for gamers throughout the world because of the greater performance they provide hands-down.

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But how much better are solid-state drives (SSDs)?

As part of this article, we’ll be analyzing the various advantages and downsides that each type of hard drive has, as well as selecting which is best for gaming PCs.

The Showdown

Speed

There is no doubt that SSDs outperform HDDs when it comes to speed, as we have already established. The data transfer speed of an SSD can outperform that of an HDD by a factor of ten or more, however this will depend on the application.

SSDs are better for gaming since they have faster loading times, but the PC will also run smoother and boot up faster, making it a better investment overall.

Longevity

HDDs tend to last longer than SSDs in terms of overall lifespan. Most users won’t be bothered by the small “gap,” because it would take writing hundreds of gigabytes to the SSD to “break” it in this way. In most cases, consumers will upgrade far before they ever come close to that threshold.

Durability

SSDs are also superior in terms of long-term usability. Because they don’t have any moving parts, SSDs are extremely unlikely to malfunction as a result of damage from the outside.

HDDs, on the other hand, have a moving read/write head and a rotating disk. As a result, external shocks are considerably more likely to damage an HDD.

Capacity and Pricing

The capacity of a storage device is usually the most essential entry on its specification sheet.

Some of the most cutting-edge SSDs will be able to store up to 7.6 TB of data in 2022, but the vast majority of them will be in the 120 GB – 4 TB range. HDDs typically have capacities ranging from 500 GB to 8 TB, but devices with up to 16 TB of storage are frequently available.

However, pricing is just as important as capacity. To be more precise, the price per gigabyte. As a result, HDD is the clear winner here.

While a 500GB HDD will cost $20 in 2022, a 500GB SSD will start at roughly $60 in the same year. An SSD with 2TB of storage costs $200, whereas an HDD with 4TB of storage can cost as much as $80. The price difference widens more as storage capacity increases.

However, if you require a lot of storage, HDDs are a superior option.

Noise

A solid-state drive (SSD) does not have any moving parts, as we’ve already established. Because of this, it is absolutely unobtrusive. Contrast this to an HDD that’s always going to make some noise, but not every HDD is going to be as noisy as the next.

In the end, the following elements determine how loud an HDD is:

• An HDD’s revolutions per minute (RPM) can range from as low as 5400 to as high as 15000, depending on the model. The louder an HDD rotates, the more likely it is that it will make a noise.
• Because HDDs have moving parts, they may get noisier over time as their mechanisms wear out or if they have been damaged.

SSDs Don’t Deliver Higher Framerates

Choosing an SSD over a standard mechanical hard drive has many advantages in terms of performance. An SSD’s quicker read and write speeds allow it to load huge files more quickly and reduce the time it takes to boot into both your operating system and the apps and applications on your computer.

When it comes to in-game performance, an SSD will not provide any substantial advantage. There is no discernible performance difference between a hard drive and a solid state drive in games, according to my testing and the benchmarks I’ve seen. All other things being equal, if you install a game on an SSD, it won’t provide you a better frame rate than if you installed the same game on a hard drive.

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That means that instead of spending the money you were going to spend on an SSD on a new graphics card, if you have an older gaming PC, you’d be better off spending the money you were going to spend on an SSD updating your graphics card.

That doesn’t mean, though, that SSDs are a waste of money for gamers…

Where SSDs Can Help Gamers

An SSD will not provide you a greater framerate in your favorite games, but it will give players a significant edge over standard hard drives. Those are boot times, by the way.

The boot time of games placed on an SSD is often faster than that of games installed on a regular hard disk. While this boot time can vary greatly from one PC to another and from game to game, it can take less than half the time to boot up a game on an SSD than it would on a hard drive.

In addition, loading times from a game’s menu into the game itself are quicker on an SSD than they are on a hard drive when the game is installed on the former. Even if the difference in the boot times of a game on an SSD and an HDD isn’t as noticeable, there is a little advantage to using an SSD in this scenario.

While an SSD won’t increase your frame rate, it will drastically reduce the time it takes to go from the time you start your game to when you can start playing it.

Other Advantages of SSDs that Gamers Will Want to Take Note Of

If you want to play the most popular games today, an SSD is not going to make your PC run any quicker. With its longer boot times, your games will load more quickly. As a result, the time it takes to play your game will be reduced.

Additionally, SSDs might assist speed up the boot process of your computer. In the same way that an SSD speeds up game loading, it also hastens the startup of your computer (as long as your operating system is installed on your SSD.)

As a result, you’ll be able to play games and utilize your computer more quickly if you go with an SSD instead of a hard disk.

Additionally, as most gamers use their computers for more than just gaming, an SSD will improve the speed at which files can be transferred and apps can be opened. SSDs provide a big benefit for video editors since they can transport large video files much faster than video files.

In the end, SSDs aren’t exactly a lifesaver for gamers with low framerates, but they do give a significant performance gain in all apps and usage scenarios.

SSDs & HDDs Aren’t Enemies

SSDs and HDDs each have their own shortcomings, and it’s easy to compare them. SSDs are quick, but their price per GB is much more than that of hard disks. Hard disks are less expensive than SSDs, but they are more slower.

A combination of an SSD and HDD is the most cost-effective option in terms of performance and storage capacity because both can be used in a single system.

Choosing a 250-500GB SSD plus a bigger 1TB+ hard drive maximizes your budget for both performance and storage space, allowing you to enjoy the best of both worlds. The SSD can be used to store your most critical games and applications, while the hard drive can be utilized to store large amounts of files and less-frequently used software.

HDD vs SSD: SSD performance gains in games aren’t that staggering

Some games operate differently than others when it comes to Windows boot timings. In most cases, you aren’t running a lot of other things in the background that are hitting your storage while reading all of this sequential data. The gap in performance between SSDs and HDDs for gamers isn’t as dramatic as manufacturers’ marketing text would lead you to believe. Even though it’s not inconspicuous, we’re talking seconds rather than minutes here instead.

The greatest 7200 RPM HDDs in Metro Exodus were pitted against a variety of top SSDs, including add-in cards, NVMe, and SATA drives. The slowest HDD (a Western Digital Blue 1TB) took just over 48 seconds to get us in-game, while the fastest HDD (a Western Digital 2TB Black) loaded gaming in 40 seconds using the RDY ELIBG205 as a testbed (equipped with a powerful Geforce RTX 2080 Ti and Core i9-9900K). Intel Optane 910P’s fastest 480GB add-in card delivered Taiga in little over 22 seconds while Western Digital Blue 3D SATA’s 500GB model took just over 33 seconds.

If you’re comparing the best effect to the worst, those results could appear quite stark. The XPG SX8200 Pro is nearly as fast as a high-end Optane AIC, yet it costs a fraction of the price of an Optane AIC. The WD Black 2TB is a stark contrast to that:. Metro Exodus takes 16 seconds longer to load, but it has twice the storage and costs half as much.

Testing shows a lower gap when indie titles are included. Even the fastest of our SSDs roundup trimmed just about 5 seconds offloads compared to the slowest HDD in our test of a light indie game, Life: Strange 2, to gather some data. If you’re mostly playing smaller independent or “double-A” games, switching to an SSD will not have a significant influence on your gameplay.

Even if you’re on a tight budget and don’t want to keep your buddies waiting for hours in the lobby, SSDs are always the best option. HDDs, on the other hand, are a good bargain, even in light of the continued price declines in TLC and QLC flash storage.

HDD vs SSD: Network considerations

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Decisions about how much data you can use are made for you by a data cap. When you’re working with limited bandwidth, the value of large HDDs increases dramatically when you have to frequently redownload games due to the shuffle. If you reside in an area with bad internet service, the same holds true. A single AAA title can be a major impediment to revisiting old favorites or taking a risk on new ones if it requires clearing space on your hard disk..

Even if you reside in a place where the internet is dependable, stable, and quick, the amount of time it takes to download a title compared to the amount of time saved in loading times isn’t much different, especially in shorter or more streamlined games. The amount of time you spend doing something else while a game downloads may be less important to you than how much time you spend sitting impatiently with a controller or mouse in your hand. Even yet, there isn’t much of a difference in terms of actual time saved.

HDD vs SSD: The hybrid storage solution

With infinite discretionary income, SSDs are the obvious choice because they can be used in a variety of configurations and surrounded by the hardware to support them. Choosing whether or not to entirely switch to an SSD lifestyle will always depend on your personal financial situation. There is a place for HDDs in our lives, even if we’re just financial mortals.

When it comes to secondary or tertiary storage, an HDD may be the best option. Even if you want an SSD for your boot drive (and you should), an HDD is an excellent choice. Keep your whole library of video games, movies, and other media on it for easy access. Many files don’t require SSD speeds, even if you have a few games on your SSD. Solid-state drives are great, but it still makes sense to maintain a large HDD on hand.

Other storage options exist outside merely an HDD or SSD. A fast SSD cache is provided by Intel Optane Memory to complement your hard drive, and you don’t have to worry about which data is stored in the quicker cache because the software and drivers handle that for you. Emotus FuzeDrive is a branded version of AMD’s StoreMI, which has tiers of storage. You obtain the entire capacity of the HDD+SSD, which is managed by the drivers and software.

In other words, the HDD vs. SSD storage argument is far from being settled. Nowadays, a single SSD in a business system may hold up to 100TB of data. That’s five times as big as the largest HDDs on the market currently. It’s not even worth discussing how much these drives cost (*cough* $50,000). SSDs have a long way to go before they outperform HDDs in terms of cost per GB, thus HDDs will continue to be popular with consumers and companies alike.

FAQS:

Should You Put Your Games on Your SSD or HDD?

Games installed on an SSD or HDD are often the subject of debate among gamers who have both types of storage devices. Moreover, the answer to that issue is a complex one.

Your games will load faster if they are installed on your SSD rather than your HDD. So, installing your games on your SSD rather than on your HDD has a positive effect on your system.

When it comes to installing games on a solid-state drive (SSD), this is a no-brainer. It’s better to install your most frequently used games and apps first on your SSD, then move anything else to your backup hard drive if your SSD storage is running low.

Which is better for gaming SSD or HDD?

When it comes to gaming, especially loading times, an SSD is noticeably faster and more responsive than an HDD. Hard disk drives (HDDs) are more cost-effective and have a longer lifespan than optical disk drives (ODS).

Do you need HDD and SSD for gaming?

Gaming is a good fit for both HDDs and SSDs. If your HDD has enough storage space and is fast enough to handle the graphics, you shouldn’t have any issues. Loading times are where HDDs fall short of SDDs when it comes to gaming.

Are SSD games worth it?

If you don’t invest in the correct storage options, such as solid state drives (SSD), your gaming experience may suffer. While solid-state drives (SSDs) are more expensive than traditional spinning hard disk drives (HDDs), experts say the upgrade is still worthwhile, even with the additional expense.

Conclusion:

If you take everything into account, there is no doubt that the SSD/HDD fight has been won.

There is no question that an SSD is superior to an HDD when it comes to gaming.

Solid-state drives have surpassed traditional hard drives in terms of performance, and the gaming industry is ready to move forward.

SSDs will be significantly less expensive in 2022 than they were just a few years ago, and even the 9th generation consoles, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, will use SSDs for storage.

So, if you can afford it, an SSD should be your primary system disk. If you’re on a tight budget and need more capacity than what an SSD can provide, you may always use a smaller SSD as your primary drive and a larger HDD as a secondary storage device.

As a result, HDDs remain a cost-effective option when storage space is more important than speed. They’ll be useful for storing things for years to come. In reality, as previously said, they provide far more value in terms of storage.

As a last remark, portable external storage solutions have the same advantages and disadvantages. Consider that external HDDs will give more storage capacity at a cheaper price point than external SSDs, but the latter is a very significant consideration to bear in mind when it comes to external storage, especially in the case of SSDs.

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