Please help I'm confused about NVMe M.2 SSDs

[killerabdb]

Hey does an M.2 NVMe SSD like the 970 evo slow down gaming performance compared to a normal SATA SSD? I was looking into this and I saw many websites saying that NVMe M.2 SSDs are bad for gaming, is this true?

 

[jay.wooster]

Its not that they are bad for gaming but bang for buck they are not worth the investment. A series of tests have shown that Nvme m.2 SSD's will load a game on average 1 second quicker than a standard Sata SSD drive and given they are approximately twice the price it is in no way worth it (i learnt this the hard way since i bought one !!!) Stick to the Sata SSD unless your moving alot of data around in your PC which is where the Nvme M.2 drives really show off their pace. Just not worth it for gaming.

 

[CrazyDingo]

Another consideration (might be more what you're reading about): on some motherboards, these drives can compete for pcie lanes with a graphics card.

 

[USAFRet]

Hey does an M.2 NVMe SSD like the 970 evo slow down gaming performance compared to a normal SATA SSD? I was looking into this and I saw many websites saying that NVMe M.2 SSDs are bad for gaming, is this true?

The jump from spinning HDD to SATA III SSD was huge.
The jump from SATA III SSD to NVMe, not so huge. And for twice the price per GB.

SSD's show a lot of their advantage over HDD in the access time. Near zero for both SATA III and NVMe.
The NVMe shines over SATA III SSD in continued throughput. And that is not what is happening in the gaming world.

The NVMe drives don't "slow down" gaming performance over a SATA III SSD. They just don't as much (if any) an improvement as people assume they would, given the large price differential.

 

[mundial]

Great answer USAFRet.

Do you think that queue depth of 64000 for PCI vs 32 for SATA makes a difference for gaming?

 

[USAFRet]

Great answer USAFRet.

Do you think that queue depth of 64000 for PCI vs 32 for SATA makes a difference for gaming?

No.
Beyond the initial loading of something, most gaming action happens in RAM and the CPU.
Not the drive.

At this point, we're chasing diminishing returns.

Imaginary numbers, but in the range...

To load a new level, for instance.
HDD = 5 seconds
SATA III SSD = 0.8 sec
NVMe = 0.4 sec

You absolutely see a difference between 5 sec and 0.8 sec. Would you really see the difference between 0.8 and 0.4?
Even thought the NVMe can be said to be "twice as fast"...it is an imperceptible "twice".

Also, the drive performance has to be taken in context with the whole rest of the system. The CPU, RAM, GPU are also doing things that take time.


Now...if we were talking about much longer operations...moving large blocks of data around, for instance.

HDD = 500 secs
SATA III SSD = 80 secs
NVMe = 40 secs.

Same ratio, and an obvious difference between the SATA SSD and the NVMe. The NVMe is a clear winner.
But that's not what happens in the context of gaming.

 

[killerabdb]

Great answer USAFRet.

Do you think that queue depth of 64000 for PCI vs 32 for SATA makes a difference for gaming?

No.
Beyond the initial loading of something, most gaming action happens in RAM and the CPU.
Not the drive.

At this point, we're chasing diminishing returns.

Imaginary numbers, but in the range...

To load a new level, for instance.
HDD = 5 seconds
SATA III SSD = 0.8 sec
NVMe = 0.4 sec

You absolutely see a difference between 5 sec and 0.8 sec. Would you really see the difference between 0.8 and 0.4?
Even thought the NVMe can be said to be "twice as fast"...it is an imperceptible "twice".

Also, the drive performance has to be taken in context with the whole rest of the system. The CPU, RAM, GPU are also doing things that take time.


Now...if we were talking about much longer operations...moving large blocks of data around, for instance.

HDD = 500 secs
SATA III SSD = 80 secs
NVMe = 40 secs.

Same ratio, and an obvious difference between the SATA SSD and the NVMe. The NVMe is a clear winner.
But that's not what happens in the context of gaming.

Wow, this world needs more people like you!

 

[mundial]

Agree. Excellent answer from USAFRet! - thanks.