SSD vs HDD for games in 2018 and beyond

[evan1715]

Yeah, the all-too-common question of, "Which is better for games, SSD or HDD?" Of course, we all know the answer. We know that for in-game and active play, the SSD and HDD are the same. They do not provide any difference in performance or FPS, the results are the same FPS. However, that's not the perspective of why I'm bringing up this question again.

It's now 2018 and games are only going to get larger.
Rainbow 6 Siege is 62GB
Ghost Recon Wildlands is 64GB
Call of Duty World War II is 90GB
Warhammer Verminintide 2 is 50GB
Far Cry 5 is 50GB
Overwatch is 20GB
Fortnite is 20GB
etc.

Games may vary between 20 and 100GB nowadays. In the modern day, we deal with updates biweekly for most games and these updates can be an average of 2GB, ranging from merely 200mb to 10GB updates!

At the moment, I have an internet speed of around 135Mbps (17MB/s). This allows me to download updates very quickly. The problem is, it downloads so quickly but then has to pause the download and wait for my hard drive to get done with actually modifying and adding the files in order to continue the update. I don't get to utilize my internet's speed potential.

In this sense, the hard drive is my computer's strongest bottleneck when it comes to updating and loading these massive games.

Now here's the bottom-line question:
So, in this day and for the future of games, their size, their update sizes, the internet speed, and even the load times, would it now be a good idea to purchase a large sized SSD, like a terabyte, in order to accommodate for it all? Would it be worth it, the ~$250 for a TB SSD, over having a regular HDD with the same space?

*Side note: I have a build from 2012, so I do not have the M.2 option for SSD. Only SATA III.
**Edit: ^Consider the non-M.2 as well. If I do get a bigger SSD, would it be worth it for me to get the SATA option or just wait the at least five years until I get a new PC for the M.2 or whatever future option may bring for SSD speeds and stick with a HDD for now?

I welcome all opinions and perspectives! Please, the more responses, the better!

 

[WildCard999]

For me the only determining factor for when I decide to put a game on the SSD or HDD is loading times and how it affects gameplay. If I have a single player game with a longer load time I'll keep it on the HDD but on a game such as BF4 I'll place it on the SSD as you want to be loaded into the match and ready before it starts.

And yes there's updates here and there but how much are they really slowing you down from playing your game? If it's worth it is probably only something you can determine but for $250 I'd rather go with a 500gb SSD & a 2TB HDD over just a 1TB SSD.

 

[Dugimodo]

I was using a 500GB SSD for OS and some games & a second 500GB just for games for the last 2 years. The games drive ran out of space and was prone to occasionally disappearing from the system (known issue with that model I believe) so I replaced it with a 2TB hard drive. I'm reasonably happy with the change and most games run and load just fine. I do find load times on a few games to be a bit long though, particularly rise of the tomb raider which I just recently replayed.

 

[stdragon]

For the value, I'd recommend going with a 2TB Seagate FireCuda Gaming SSHD (Solid State Hybrid Drive). It functions just like a normal 3.5 SATA HDD (7.2K RPM), but comes with 8GB of NAND flash. Now, that doesn't seem like a lot, but it's caching at the block level, not file level. So it's more efficient at caching in flash for the games you run most often. It's intelligent enough to flush content to the cache as needed. They list under $100.

Alternatively, if you have a newer system, you can build your own SSHD solution with Intel Optane and a standard 1+ TB drive of your choice. The new RST drivers will allow you to create one as a secondary volume instead of it being required as the primary boot volume as before.

 

[norcalsc]

I've recently switched my games to ssd and while overall performance is the same I have noticed the ssd provides a somewhat smoother experience in open world games such as bf1 and battlefront 2. I see the slight hitching on occasion that the hdd would produce while the action was intense. While it is more expensive I find it was worth it and load times are noticeably fast when loading maps. When you are trying to get the most out of your gaming/overall experience I'd say it's a must

 

[cherry blossoms]

Considering a good HDD can achieve write speeds (sequential) well in excess of your DL speed, not sure why a mechanical drive is running so slow for you.

The value of an SSD for gaming is games that stream textures, and lots of random access to load lots of small files. Sequential access may be important depending on how games assets are packed.

For SATA drives, the Samsung 860 series is the fastest, but others can be considered as the above factors are much faster on Solid State than from a spinning drive.

If living in the U.S., the Micron 1100 in 2TB capacity is not as fast as the Samsung on benchmarks, but noteably faster than a spinner. It's an enterprise drive that can be found for approx. $322 on Amazon from several sellers (not Amazon itself) as I type this. Tradeoff is it's an OEM drive so your warranty is through whomever you buy it through.

 

[evan1715]

Thanks for the input! It's good to hear both sides of the spectrum.
Perhaps I should wait until my next build that'll support the latest SSD tech at that time, especially since I have SATA 3 and not NVMe format. My inner-PC builder conscious just wants an all SSD system! Ah! Haha.

cherry blossom, it could be because my hard drive is from ~2011 and it's aging. It could also be that updates aren't just sequential writes and may delete previous files, replace them, unpack/unzip, apply, etc. while downloading. I don't know, really.

I did try putting an older 32GB SSD I had lying around as a cache drive using Intel's Rapid Storage Technology. The write is seemingly faster, however the read is significantly less. I suppose it's a trade off but I don't know if I'll keep it. I'll see how it goes after a couple weeks.

Tbh, I just want like a 5TB SSD without paying for it lol.