Expert Consulted: Adrian Gardiner. Years of experience looking after my customer’s computers and keeping them in good running order has given me great knowledge to share. In this article, I’ll be sharing my knowledge with you to answer the question of whether SSDs are faster for your gaming PC.
The world of storage is fast moving these days, and I do get asked about SSD vs HDD Gaming comparisons and which really offers the best performance for your gaming computer.
As the price of SSD drives has now dropped considerably since they first started appearing over 30 years ago, and also with the increasing use of the latest M.2 NVMe format SSD drive, there has never been a better time to make the switch from old spinning disk drives (affectionately known as spinning rust drives).
When I build a new computer for a client, gaming or otherwise, I now always include an SSD drive and usually an M.2 drive NVMe format as it saves so much space and takes away the need for cabling, saving me time and making the inside of the case look much neater.
However, the main benefit of an SSD, of course, is the performance improvement, as you’ll see in the rest of my article.
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SSD vs HDD Gaming – Which is faster?
SSD drives have been slowly gaining popularity more and more as the price has come down.
Initially, I only fitted them in my high-end gaming computer builds, and this was also the case if you wanted to buy one from a store offering prebuilt gaming computers.
However, most gaming computers, both prebuilt and, of course, self-builds, now use SSD drives and usually the M.2 variety as they’re both faster in performance and quicker to install.
SSD vs HDD Gaming – An Overview of The Technology Involved
Before covering the performance variations between each type of drive, it’s worth quickly going over the main hardware differences between them.
HDD (Hard Disk Drive)
The mechanical hard drive as we know it today has been around for many years, dating back to the early 1960s.
These drives provide electro-magnetic storage through the use of one or more platters (disks) that rotate at high speed (7200 rpm for desktop 3.5″ hard drives and 5400 rpm for laptop 2.5″ hard drives).
Each platter stores your data, which is accessed by a small arm or magnetic head.
One of the biggest disadvantages of hard drives was their susceptibility to damage from knocks while running. This was more of an issue for laptops and portable hard drives. I’ve replaced many damaged laptop hard drives and portable hard drives over the years because of this sensitivity.
Hard Disk Drives Ditched by Formula 1
The sensitivity of mechanical hard drives is the number one reason why Formula 1 (and racing teams everywhere) all switched over to using Solid State Drives in their trackside computers as soon as they became available.
This became an essential move because of the severe vibration issues encountered and consequent laptop hard disk drive failures while running many sensitive and essential computers in such a harsh Formula 1 environment.
The second reason was, of course, the huge performance improvement, another essential characteristic necessary in the high-pressure, fast-moving Formula 1 environment.
SSD (Solid State Drive)
Solid state drives have also been around longer than we think, the first flash-based SSD becoming commercially available at great cost back in 1991 and supplied by SanDisk.
Solid state drives use flash memory chips to read and write data, have no moving parts, make no noise, are resistant to shock and vibration, have lower latency, and are considerably faster than conventional spinning disk hard drives.
SSDs also are much lighter than HDDs, and in the case of the very latest M.2, SSD drives are considerably smaller, about the size and thickness of a stick of chewing gum at around 80 mm long by 22 mm wide.
These newer M.2 NVMe SSD drives are also easier to install, with a simple connection to an M.2 slot on a motherboard, meaning no messy cabling is required.
Are SSDs Faster than HDDs?
In one word, YES!
Interestingly, I’ve seen research indicating that SSDs show negligible performance improvements over mechanical hard drives in terms of frame rates by testing both types of drive during gameplay.
This lack of performance improvement may be true; however, that’s definitely not a valid reason to discount an SSD upgrade from an old-fashioned hard disk drive (HDD).
In any case, the research that I’ve seen covered by other articles was using much slower 2.5″ format SSD drives and not the newer and much faster M.2 NVMe over PCIe SSD drives.
In every single respect, bar perhaps in-game frame rates (where the very latest M.2 NVMe SSDs will more than likely perform much better than an HDD), SSD drives are considerably faster than mechanical hard drives, bringing very noticeable improvements everywhere when using a computer.
Should You Speed Up Your Gaming PC with a New SSD Drive?
SSD drives are now so ridiculously cheap, especially around the 1 TB mark, that it’s a no-brainer to upgrade your hard drive first before blowing all your money elsewhere on other, more expensive components.
The cost of a new 1 TB SSD is not going to get you a new graphics card if you decide to go down this route to improve your system performance!
I’ve done this many times for my own customers, and they’ve been blown away by the improvements in speed from their trusty ‘old’ gaming computer.
Not just gaming computers, but any current computer, laptop, etc., using a hard drive will experience considerable speed improvements with an SSD upgrade – it’s definitely the way to go.
No Time for Coffee!
Sadly, the days of nipping into the kitchen to make a coffee while your trusty old mechanical hard drive-powered computer decides when it’s going to finally complete the bootup process and actually be ready to use are over!
Now, in about 5 – 10 seconds, you’ll be up and ready for gaming in no time. How are we supposed to make coffee in so little time?
HDD Pros and Cons Summary
Pros
- Currently better than SSD drives for long-term archival storage solutions
- Commercially available HDDs are available in much larger storage capacities
- Considerably cheaper pricing per GB of storage (the higher the amount of storage, the lower the price per GB, especially when compared with SSDs). Generally, HDDs start to make sense price-wise after 4 TB.
Cons
- Slower to boot up than SSD drives
- Slower in general operation than SSD drives
- Depending on the drive, they can be noisy in operation, especially as they get older.
- Prone to failure from knocks and vibration
- Consume more power, so they are less energy efficient.
- It can run hot, affecting cooling considerations in a PC
- Noted to run slower in the latest versions of Windows 10 and Windows 11 – only resolved by upgrading to SSD drives.
SSD Pros and Cons Summary
Pros
- No moving parts, so it is more reliable
- Make no noise, so no more annoying hard disk drive clicking noises.
- It is more resistant to shock and vibration, so is more reliable.
- Consume less power, so more energy efficient.
- Lower latency, so better performance
- Considerably faster boot-up times
- Considerably faster when running programs/applications.
Cons
- It can slow down as the drive becomes full – choosing the right size drive should help with this issue. I’ve not seen this issue yet personally, but I have heard it can be a thing.
- Newer M.2 NVMe SSDs can run hot, so a heatsink is a must for adequate case cooling.
- Limited lifetime number of writes, meaning not currently suitable for long-term archival storage, although new technologies to address this are currently in development
- Larger SSD drives over 4 TB are still very expensive when compared to HDDs (over twice the price for a 4 TB SSD drive). Prices will continue to come down though as more people use them.
Conclusion
So to conclude, for gaming computers, SSD drives are the way to go as they simply outgun a conventional HDD in every possible way bar the cost of storage over 4 TB where they’re still expensive.
I’ve had a 1 TB M.2 NVMe hard drive for my system drive and a second 2 TB 2.5″ SSD drive for data storage now for several years and the performance is very impressive, including game performance.
I would say you only need to consider an HDD if you need 4 TB of storage or more as the price is so much cheaper. If price is not an issue and you want a serious performance grunt, go for an SSD. You won’t regret it.