May 2, 2020
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About 6 months ago I built myself a new computer with a 5700xt and a b550 motherboard. At the time I didn't want to spend much money on storage until I needed it. So as of now, I have a 1TB HDD and a 256GB SATA SSD. I am planning on upgrading my SSD to an NVME drive, and I'm wondering should I get a 1TB PCIe 4 drive, or a 2TB PCIe 3 drive. They are about the same prices and I primarily use my computer for gaming and school. So is PCIe gen 4 worth it?
 
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right now the speed gains are not worth it. i'd stick with the larger 3.0 drive for now.

give it time and we'll start seeing real performance differences between the 2. but like anything else, the price jump will be large for that increase. over time the price will drop and we'll all be buying 4.0 drives in a couple years. but honestly except under a few commercial uses, those fast drives are not worth the cash for the average user.

it was the same as 3.0 drives. they used to be 2x the cost of sata ssd's. now they are pretty much the same price as they dropped steadily the last 6 months. when the new controllers are ready to get massive speeds from these 4.0 drives, the first gen ones will drop to match the price as well. then...

kanewolf

Titan
Moderator
About 6 months ago I built myself a new computer with a 5700xt and a b550 motherboard. At the time I didn't want to spend much money on storage until I needed it. So as of now, I have a 1TB HDD and a 256GB SATA SSD. I am planning on upgrading my SSD to an NVME drive, and I'm wondering should I get a 1TB PCIe 4 drive, or a 2TB PCIe 3 drive. They are about the same prices and I primarily use my computer for gaming and school. So is PCIe gen 4 worth it?
Real world performance differences between the two will be negligible. Get the larger drive.
Actually, real world differences between SATA SSDs and PCIe are minimal for most users. Once you jump from HDD to SSD, the gains diminish quickly.
 

Math Geek

Titan
Ambassador
right now the speed gains are not worth it. i'd stick with the larger 3.0 drive for now.

give it time and we'll start seeing real performance differences between the 2. but like anything else, the price jump will be large for that increase. over time the price will drop and we'll all be buying 4.0 drives in a couple years. but honestly except under a few commercial uses, those fast drives are not worth the cash for the average user.

it was the same as 3.0 drives. they used to be 2x the cost of sata ssd's. now they are pretty much the same price as they dropped steadily the last 6 months. when the new controllers are ready to get massive speeds from these 4.0 drives, the first gen ones will drop to match the price as well. then finally we'll see the true 4.0 speed demons drop. my guess is at least a couple years for it to be worth it for us average users. heck i'm plenty happy with my sata ssd for the OS and spinning hdd's for data storage . i know the minimal real world gain to buy into nvme is not worth it until i actually NEED a new drive. :)
 
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