[SOLVED] Does NVMe SSD offer any real benefits over SATA SSD?

[rohitgangal80]

Hi,
SATA III SSD supports upto I think 600 MB/s. NVMe SSD almost trice of that.
However does NVMe SSD offer any real benefits when it comes to performance or are these numbers more or less theoretical?

When I was using SATA HDD and then shifted to SATA SSD I could feel the improvement. Does something similar expected if I switch from SATA SSD to NVMe?
Thanks

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

NVME is much faster than standard SATA SSD's , that's all I use now as a boot device for my OS's.

 

[feelinfroggy777]

NVME drives are faster than SATA drives, but nothing like the difference from going from a HDD to a SSD. Your system may boot up a couple of seconds faster with a NVMe drive. If you are moving large files you will feel a difference. But for the most part for general computer uses, I cant tell much of a difference.

 

[geofelt]

The difference between NVME and SATA on a ssd is nowhere as great as your experience with HDD to sata ssd.

The difference is in sequential access speed, as defined using synthetic benchmarks.
Small random I/O is little changed.
Windows does mostly small random I/O so your experience will not be changed much.

That said, there is no downside from a performance point of view, only the higher cost of NVME vs. the sata equivalent.
You will definitely notice the performance in sequential operations such as a virus scan.

 

[seagate_surfer]

Usually, it depends on the use case. For a gaming rig, the difference isn't going to be very noticeable. Think of it this way in regards to performance:

HDD: +++
SATA SSD: ++++++++++
NVMe SSD: +++++++++++

Now, where NVMe really excels, is in use cases where large files are regularly moved around, like video editing, for example. For those kind of workloads, it makes a lot more sense. For stuff that doesn't require regularly moving of large files, then sometimes a good SATA SSD will allow you more capacity for the budget or the same capacity at a reduced cost.

 

[Sxino]

When comes to performance you have to consider not only the device, you also need to consider the INTERACTION with other components.

SATA SSD uses de same channel of SATA HDD (SATA CABLE) to communicate with MOTHERBOARD (6Gb/s). The speed that is described (Read and Write) are performed inside the SSD, not the entire process. (From the CPU, buses in Motherboard and to SATA port)

NVMe devices instead, are connected directly to the MOTHERBOARD via M.2 port or PCI-e slots, which communication speed is higher.

If you use PCI-e slots, it usually referred to the PCI-e 3.0 (X4) lanes. Each LANE can transmit 7,9 Gb/s, so if we are using the X4 LANE we multiply 7,9 by 4 = 31,6 Gb/s.

For M.2 ports are almost same as using PCI- e slots

This is an increase of almost 5 times the speed of COMMUNICATION from storage device through other components (CPU, MOTHERBOARD).

SSD = 6 Gb/s
NVMe ~ 31,6 Gb/s

 

[Claude Smith]

When comes to performance you have to consider not only the device, you also need to consider the INTERACTION with other components.

SATA SSD uses de same channel of SATA HDD (SATA CABLE) to communicate with MOTHERBOARD (6Gb/s). The speed that is described (Read and Write) are performed inside the SSD, not the entire process. (From the CPU, buses in Motherboard and to SATA port)

NVMe devices instead, are connected directly to the MOTHERBOARD via M.2 port or PCI-e slots, which communication speed is higher.

If you use PCI-e slots, it usually referred to the PCI-e 3.0 (X4) lanes. Each LANE can transmit 7,9 Gb/s, so if we are using the X4 LANE we multiply 7,9 by 4 = 31,6 Gb/s.

For M.2 ports are almost same as using PCI- e slots

This is an increase of almost 5 times the speed of COMMUNICATION from storage device through other components (CPU, MOTHERBOARD).

SSD = 6 Gb/s
NVMe ~ 31,6 Gb/s

Great Explanation! One important thing to keep in mind is the NVME M.2 PCIE cards are hugely fluctual in W/R speeds as well. To get the most out of your PCI-E M.2- make sure your MOBO has adequate PCI E lanes and that you are getting the M.2 with the best bandwidth. Especially if you are gaming. I went from an I5-4th gen with PCI-E on card to AMD R5 2600 w/m.2 and I increased my W/R from 720/420 to 2400/1800 MBS. Crazy performance improvement.

 

[Claude Smith]

My RIG
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