Question Is there a difference of Windows performance with different M.2 NVMe SSDs?

[DavidLejdar]

Hello,

I was wondering whether or how much the performance of Windows 11 differs based on the M.2 NVMe SSD it is on?

Specifically, on one hand Kingston SNV2S1000G and on the other hand Samsung 990 PRO 2TB.

I am aware that some software, including a number of games, will benefit from being installed on the 990 PRO (assuming no RAM bottleneck and similar). But what about Windows itself, aside from perhaps a second or two faster boot? Does Windows have a process, which would benefit from a faster SSD at these speed levels? Or may Windows performance actually benefit from being on this slower SSD, when it is a sort of dedicated OS drive and when some other software may top out the faster SSD?

Would someone here know about this?

 

[Colif]

if they both nvme, its likely the difference wouldn't be noticeable.

the only significant difference might be boot times, everything else is pretty much the same.

 

[kerberos_20]

you can have windows installed on SATA SSD and not notice any diff (few seconds boot time diff), some games on the other hand can stutter on SATA (high CPU usage with loop waiting for SSD to finish reading), there seems to be more games poping with nvme in mind which have stutter fest on SATA while on nvme they run smooth
older games will just produce with skipping drive reading to next frames which causes texture/objects poping

 

[DavidLejdar]

Alright, thanks!

Yeah, they are both NVMe. One of them doesn't have DRAM, but apparently that shouldn't matter (much) in a scenario of burst performance reads, such as during booting. And the DRAM-less SSD has HMB, and it should use a bit less power it seems. So I'll just keep the OS on the slower NVMe, with the booting fast enough as is.

And thanks kerberos for pointing out that even a SATA SSD may be good enough as OS drive. In my case, I don't plan on getting a SATA SSD for my new rig, as they are price-wise so similar to NVMe that I may as well make use of M.2 slots on the MB. And it sure shows that newer games perform better even on a "budget" NVMe without DRAM, and it should be another boost on the faster NVMe with DRAM, in regard to loading in general, use of high-res textures, and also other cases, such as in a RTS.

 

[USAFRet]

Here ya go:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YoRKQy-UO4

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DKLA7w9eeA

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ9LyNXpsOo

 

[DavidLejdar]

Thank you for posting the video links. The videos are a bit dated though, not accounting for new-gen CPU (not being a bottleneck during loading, or not as much). See that the CPU they used in the first video is a Ryzen 5 3600, which may have meant that the NVMe/s were waiting for the CPU to do its thing. Additionally there is DirectStorage coming now.

Also, e.g. in the first video, the Gen3 NVMe they use has sequential read speed of 3500 MB/s, and the Gen4 5000 MB/s - which isn't that a high jump comparing top-tier Gen3 with one of the first Gen4 at that time. And the Gen4 used has a random read IOPS of up to 750k, and the Gen3 up to 600k. Which again is not that a huge difference as when one would use e.g. the 990 PRO, with random read IOPS of up to 1200k.

And none of the videos talk about what I was wondering about specifically, whether Windows as such has a running (system) process, which would benefit from top-tier NVMe. Nice to see how it was back then in the old days though... that is about 2 years ago.

 

[USAFRet]

Eventually, someone will create some vids with newer drives and equipment.

But....those show the total non-difference between Gen 3 and Gen 4 drives.
I expect Gen 5 wouldn't be any different.

In my personal use, I see basically zero user facing difference between a "slow" Gen 3 Intel 660p and a Gen 4 980 Pro.

We are deep into diminishing returns.
The jump from HDD to SSD, even SATA III, was huge.
Between different flavors of SSD, not so much.

 

[johnbl]

I would just put the pagefile.sys on the fastest drive. The windows memory manager will load the game from whatever drive it is stored on, then it will put it into virtual memory and save it to pagefile.sys. The next time it runs it will run from pagefile.sys (virtual memory)

you can use the tool rammap64.exe to see what is loaded and empty the saved list that the memory manager uses to preload programs.
(it is interesting to see what gets preloaded into standby memory.)

most people will not notice the difference between two SSD.
just some people will put the program on the fast SSD but the pagefile.sys on the slower device and it runs slower