[SOLVED] Question about M.2 NVMe Interface SSDs.

[JerrWolf]

I've done a little research on my mobo and realised that it has an m.2 slot, originally I didn't know.
I know there is a lot of hype around m.2 NVMe SSDs for "amazing load times" and what not.

My current system has all SSDs currently in there, 2 from Samsung and 2 from Corsair (these are the two I'd most likely replace).

My PC is mostly used for gaming, playing MMORPGs, FFXIV specifically.
I've looked up some info about M.2 SSDs but the info ranged from 2014 to 2019 so I'm not sure how relevant or factual any of that information is in 2021.

1. They're too expensive (referring to using a single m.2 1tb SSD for your only drive)
2. Games do not benefit from M.2 NMVe drives if you are already using SSDs (the performance is the same)
3. The only benefit of M.2 is load times, once a game loads the data it needs from the SSD it no longer needs the SSD.

I'd like some more recent and professional information on the last 2 parts.

If I were to buy an m.2 NVMe drive, I'd probably buy a 500gb or 1tb drive and load my OS and games onto that. 1tb is certainly enough and 500gb would be doable. It would be replacing 2 of my older SSDs. Would I see an actual difference? My OS is currently on a Samsung 850 EVO SSD, and my games on a partition made across the 850 PRO and 2 Corsair SSDs I have.

Another question is I understand that a game only takes from the SSD when it loads so "M.2 don't really give benefit to games" it's under my impression this kind of info usually refers to single player games, or multiplayer games, like Skyrim, or Battlefield.
I play MMORPG games though which tend to load things in and out very often. Loading between different zones in the game, loading in different players, different models, effects etc etc.
Does this make the above info irrelevant to MMORPG games or is it still the same principle?

For reference, my Motherboard is an Asus Maximus Hero VII.

 

[jay32267]

I've been playing on sata SSDs for years and last fall I got a new machine with an NVMe drive...and as far as gaming...the games load faster but that's about it....there's no added performance in game....but the games I play don't do a lot of loading when I'm playing them.

If this were the case....the loading would be faster....and I would imagine it would make a game like that better and quicker.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Would I see an actual difference?

Minimal difference.
M.2 slot on your operates at PCIE 2.0 x2 speed. It has 4 times less bandwidth than any modern PCIE 3.0 x4 M.2 slot.
On your system there's no point in upgrading from sata SSD to M.2 SSD.

 

[LinuxDevice]

a game only takes from the SSD when it loads so "M.2 don't really give benefit to games"

I don't know if the different forms of SSD you are looking at will matter, but many games load only for a given level, and as you cross levels (or trigger new content to be visible), you may see yet another load. Much depends on the game you are speaking of. If you look at the game "Star Citizen", then this is very heavily dependent upon a fast disk...it isn't using this for swap if you have enough RAM, but it does use a finer grained "level" mechanism, e.g., individual objects might trigger use of the SSD even if you have a lot of RAM. In cases where an SSD matters it is a "night and day" comparison (versus using old style hard drives), but whether or not your particular option would be a big difference I don't know.

 

[JerrWolf]

I've been playing on sata SSDs for years and last fall I got a new machine with an NVMe drive...and as far as gaming...the games load faster but that's about it....there's no added performance in game....but the games I play don't do a lot of loading when I'm playing them.

If this were the case....the loading would be faster....and I would imagine it would make a game like that better and quicker.

Yeah that seems to be the consensus but I wasn't sure if that also included MMORPGs where the game is constantly loading in information.

Minimal difference.
M.2 slot on your operates at PCIE 2.0 x2 speed. It has 4 times less bandwidth than any modern PCIE 3.0 x4 M.2 slot.
On your system there's no point in upgrading from sata SSD to M.2 SSD.

I see, so while my mother board does have an m.2 slot, it's rather outdated, like the rest of my system lol. I see, I'll just skip the m.2 until the money to build my system from scratch.

I don't know if the different forms of SSD you are looking at will matter, but many games load only for a given level, and as you cross levels (or trigger new content to be visible), you may see yet another load. Much depends on the game you are speaking of. If you look at the game "Star Citizen", then this is very heavily dependent upon a fast disk...it isn't using this for swap if you have enough RAM, but it does use a finer grained "level" mechanism, e.g., individual objects might trigger use of the SSD even if you have a lot of RAM. In cases where an SSD matters it is a "night and day" comparison (versus using old style hard drives), but whether or not your particular option would be a big difference I don't know.

I see, Star Citizen would be a modern example of the type of games I play (I say modern because the ones I play are 5-10ish years old lol)
So in theory, it would help because the game loads a lot more often than the typical game. And I assume outside of gaming, it would also be a benefit.
Provided my Motherboard was no so old and had an actual good PCIE slot.

The drive I was looking to get was; SAMSUNG 970 EVO Plus SSD - M.2 NVMe from Amazon.
But I won't waste my money on it if my board won't really utilize it, based on what SkyNet brought up.