Solid state drives were introduced in 1991 but had been around for longer than that. SSDs are faster than their hard disk counterparts because they’re operated by electrical circuitry while HDDs have moving mechanical parts.
Not having to wait for a moving component to do its job shortens the loading times substantially, which is very noticeable for the user. This has made SSDs very attractive, especially for those who regularly play games or use demanding software. But what is it that SSDs do? Do they increase the computer’s framerate?
An SSD will not increase your frame per second (FPS) but it will improve loading times and reduce stuttering when rendering open-world games, for instance. The primary benefit of SSDs is that they can access and load games installed on the drive faster. Your FPS is mainly determined by the graphics card, which is affected by the computer’s CPU and RAM.
There’s more to understanding the true value of upgrading to a solid state drive than this though. We’ll go through the benefits, and how they will affect your computer’s performance when gaming.
How an SSD Can Impact Gaming
When you upgrade from an HDD to an SSD; the differences in performance will be apparent right away. Solid state drives are designed differently than hard disk drives, which rely upon moving parts to store and access data.
Instead of moving mechanical parts, SSDs use an electronic memory storage medium known as NAND Flash Memory. While all SSDs aren’t built the same, many of them use this technology to access and store data at a faster rate.
The average solid state drive can boot Windows in 20 seconds, whereas it takes approximately 45 seconds for a hard disk drive to do the same. While 45 seconds isn’t a long time, it’s more than double the time it takes an SSD to do the same job.
Whether you’re gaming, running demanding software, or just browsing on your computer, you will notice a significant difference. You can expect an overall improvement in performance, but the primary benefits are going to be the following:
Your computer will boot much faster than it previously did, games and applications will launch within seconds, in-game loading times and rendering will be reduced, and stuttering caused by the game retrieving data from your drive will be minimized, or removed.
However, upgrading to an SSD will not have a direct impact on your frames per second. Your framerate is primarily determined by your graphics card, but also indirectly affected by your CPU and RAM. This doesn’t mean upgrading to an SSD isn’t important if you seek performance and seamless transitions.
Having a high framerate in-game will impact the overall experience as much as fast loading times and reduced stuttering will. Therefore, I dare to say they’re equally important.
Finally, let’s take a look at the studies that have been done on SSDs versus HDDs when it comes to in-game performance.
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Loading times were cut down from 35 to 24 seconds. Framerate was reduced by 1 or 2. Nothing noticeable.
- Counter-Strike: Go – Loading times were cut down from 42 to 26 seconds but framerate wasn’t affected.
- GTA V – Loading times were reduced from 54 to 27 seconds and FPS was increased by 5.
Each and every game will run better with a solid state drive, regardless of how little it impacts the frames per second.
What Drive Is Best For Gaming?
I think we’ve come to the conclusion that an SSD is the superior choice for anyone who intends to run heavy applications or games on their computer. However, as you dig deeper you will find out that not all SSDs are equal. Understanding the product will aid you in picking the right one for your needs.
It will also ensure that you find a drive that’s compatible with your current motherboard. Counting all types of drives that you might find in a gaming computer shows us that there are 3 primary types of drives.
- HDD
- SATA SSD
- PCIe NVMe SSDs
The transfer speed varies between these drives. By looking at the table below you can easily tell that there’s a huge difference in transfer speed between the average HDD and SSD, and a colossal difference between the average SATA SSD and 4th Gen NVMe SSD.
| Type of Drive | Transfer Speed |
| HDD | 200 MB/s |
| SATA SSD | 500-600 MB/s |
| NVMe SSD | 3000-3500 MB/s |
While SATA SSDs are fast, they’re nowhere near NVMe SSDs, which truly tells you how strong NVMe drives are. It should be mentioned that an NVMe SSD isn’t required in order to run a game seamlessly. You can improve your gaming experience tremendously with a regular SATA SSD.
If you’re a hardcore gamer who’s looking to invest in top-tier gaming components, then you should be looking at an NVMe drive. If not, you’ll most likely do fine with a high-quality SATA SSD.
The WD Black SN850 is an incredible NVMe SSD capable of reaching reading speeds of 7000 MB/s and writing speeds of 5300 MB/s. For the performance it provides, I consider the drive quite affordable.
The SN850 has been sitting in my gaming computer for a few months and it truly makes a difference. If your computer doesn’t support NVMe’s interface, either purchase an adapter or go for a SATA SSD.
If you are limited to SATA SSDs, the best option when it comes to performance is going to be the Samsung 860 Evo, but it is a rather expensive storage drive. For those on a budget, the Kingston KC600 offers a lot of bang for your buck.
Remember: Ensure that your motherboard supports the connector/interface the drive uses. SATA HDDs have a 3.5″ form factor, SATA SSDs have a 2.5″ form factor, and NVMe/M.2 SSDs have their own interface.
Is an SSD Worth It For Gaming?
You will benefit from an SSD in all aspects of computing, be it gaming or not. With an HDD, you won’t get the same quick feedback, and that’s just facts. Considering the amount of time you can shave off the computer’s loading times by upgrading to an SSD, it’s going to be one of the most lucrative upgrades one can make.
Even a low-tier SSD will boost performance when compared to an HDD, and the ones we’ve mentioned earlier in the article will boost performance even more than that.
One can argue that the money could be spent on a GPU, CPU, or RAM as well, but you’re going to need an SSD eventually to get the most out of those components. Upgrading all of them is the best option, without a doubt, but that’s not easy if you’re on a tight budget.
You can expect to pay around 80-150$ for a solid state drive. The more storage you need, the more you will have to pay for the drive. Our recommendation is to use your SSD for games and your operating system and your HDD to store images, videos, less demanding games, and other files.
This way you won’t fill your SSD with data that an HDD can handle with ease and instead use it where it’s most needed. Because filling a drive isn’t difficult when you’re a gamer. Today’s games can be enormous and sometimes require 60-115GB of free disk space.
How To Increase Your FPS When Gaming
We’ve stated that the purchase of an SSD will have next to no effect on the computer’s framerate, but what can you do to increase your fps in games?
- Update your graphics card
- Update your graphics card driver
- Update your BIOS
- Adjust your in-game settings to optimize your FPS
- Limit the number of background applications
- Upgrade your RAM
- Overclock your RAM
- Defragment your hard drive
- Change the computer’s power options
- Clean up your disk
- Lower the resolution in-game
Above is a list of various things you can do to increase your frames per second when gaming. Some of the things can be done immediately and might net minor to medium results, while others require you to purchase new components – but may result in larger improvements.
Does an External SSD Increase Performance When Gaming?
Yes, but how much it improves performance depends on a few factors. Generally speaking, you can expect the same benefits that you would from an internal SSD. There won’t be a noticeable difference in framerate, just as with an internal drive.
Compared to an HDD, the applications on the external SSD will launch and run faster, and smoother. The thing that can hinder external SSDs from being as effective as internal SSDs is that they’re connected through USB.
Storing and loading data through USB is generally slower than SATA and NVMe connections. The USB uses some CPU resources and can bottleneck more than your regular SATA connection would. The NVMe connection is the fastest of them all and uses the least resources to access and store data.
However, if your computer has USB3.1 or Thunderbolt 3 connections you can surpass the speed of an internal drive connected through SATA. Most drives will have a hard time maxing out the speed of a USB 3.1 or Thunderbolt 3 connection.
The external drive is still connected through USB and will, regardless of the connection, use a bit more resources from the CPU in order to read and write than an internal drive would.
But still, you will notice an increase in performance when playing games stored on an external SSD.
Does an M.2 SSD Improve FPS?
You shouldn’t expect an increase in frames per second when upgrading to an M.2 SSD. Regardless of how powerful of an SSD it is, it shouldn’t affect the framerate that much. So whether it’s a powerful M.2 or a mediocre SATA SSD, you will most likely only notice minuscule changes in in-game fps.
It will reduce stuttering and loading times, just like all other SSDs when compared to HDDs.
Are SATA or NVMe SSDs Better For Gaming?
If you remember the table we looked at earlier, you probably noticed that the jump from a SATA SSD to an NVMe SSD was rather large – somewhere between 5-7 times faster. In practice, this translates to a substantial improvement and an ability to run the most taxing applications quickly.
While you will experience a heap in gaming performance when upgrading from an HDD to a SATA SSD, purchasing an NVMe SSD is going to further increase the boost in performance. You can expect a SATA SSD to reach transfer speeds of 500-600 MB/s while an NVMe SSD is likely to reach 3000MB/s.
So, what does this mean?
Well, any application, operating system, or other data stored on the NVMe SSD will load faster – and anything stored on it will be stored (written) faster. You can expect to reduce stuttering, loading times, launch times, and so forth by quite a lot.
It’s important to remember that the jump from an HDD to an SSD is going to be more important than upgrading from a SATA SSD to an NVMe SSD. Simply getting an SSD is the best bang for your buck, the rest is definitely a sweet bonus if you can justify spending the money on it.