Question Can a faulty SSD cause FPS drops?

[NovemberRaiN404]

Hello everyone!

So recently I've had issues with fps drops with my 3060, and no matter how much troubleshooting I've done, I can't fix it.

Even more recently, I noticed that games I have installed on my C: drive (M.2 SSD on the Mobo) are running perfectly fine, however, games installed on my external SSD (D: drive) are laggy, especially after a power cut, which sadly happens frequently. And I mean going from 200 to around 80-90, on games that aren't even that demanding, like Dota 2.

On top of that, my D: drive has been disappearing (not detectable at all in Disk manager, all data becomes unavailable) and reappearing randomly.

Can the whole fps drops be because of this, a faulty SSD? The D drive is on a Samsung Evo 860 500GB.

My C: drive is on a Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVMe PCIe M.2 500GB.

Note: Samsung Magician does not detect any problems during diagnostics and all benchmarking is fine.

Thank you kindly in advance.

 

[SkyNetRising]

games installed on my external SSD (D: drive) are laggy, especially after a power cut, which sadly happens frequently. And I mean going from 200 to around 80-90, on games that aren't even that demanding, like Dota 2.
On top of that, my D: drive has been disappearing (not detectable at all in Disk manager, all data becomes unavailable) and reappearing randomly.

Why do you need the drive to be external?
Can't you install it into your pc internally?

Probably USB/SATA adapter (built into external drive enclosure) is failing.

 

[NovemberRaiN404]

Why do you need the drive to be external?
Can't you install it into your pc internally?

Probably USB/SATA adapter (built into external drive enclosure) is failing.

Sorry maybe I misspoke - it's inside the case, connected to the motherboard via the SATA cable and also to the PSU.

 

[SkyNetRising]

it's inside the case, connected to the motherboard via the SATA cable and also to the PSU.

Then you should not call your drive - external.
This is, what external drives look like

 

[SkyNetRising]

Anyway - if it is an internal drive, then from those symptoms - it seems to be failing.
Try with a different sata cable first.
If that doesn't help it, then replace.

 

[NovemberRaiN404]

Anyway - if it is an internal drive, then from those symptoms - it seems to be failing.
Try with a different sata cable first.
If that doesn't help it, then replace.

Thank you i will look into replacing the cable.


Can a Drive however, influece FPS? I've not heard of that, its usually GPU or CPU related.

 

[Rogue Leader]

Games many times are pulling data from the SSD, if there is a delay or error in pulling from that SSD it will cause a frame drop. I mean you proved it out by saying there are no problems when using your other SSD. The weird behavior in that it disappears randomly seals the deal. If the cable doesn't solve it, your drive is shot.

 

[NovemberRaiN404]

So I tried to do a Driver Uninstall with the DDU program, I tried swapping out the discs - reinstalled the game im having issues with on the C: disc, and unfortunately still the same issues. The 3dMark benchmark was pretty worrying - scoring around 8k total (less than a gaming laptop with worse specs) when I have a 3060. Oh well. My final solution is to reset Windows and hope that works.

 

[General_Cool]

Have you tried checking the SMART status? You can download CrystalDiskInfo from the official website and it will tell you the status of your drive.

 

[Rogue Leader]

So I tried to do a Driver Uninstall with the DDU program, I tried swapping out the discs - reinstalled the game im having issues with on the C: disc, and unfortunately still the same issues. The 3dMark benchmark was pretty worrying - scoring around 8k total (less than a gaming laptop with worse specs) when I have a 3060. Oh well. My final solution is to reset Windows and hope that works.

So, you are having lag issues now with games installed on C (your m.2) and D (your other SSD that you had problems with before)?

Ignore the comparison systems in 3D Mark and look where your system scores compared to others with the same hardware. Which specifc test did you score 8k. Share the link to your results.