What Size SSD should Be Used for Gaming?

What is an SSD?

An SSD (Solid State Drive) is a form of storage that uses non-volatile (flash) memory to hold and access data. This means that (unlike HDD’s) there are no moving mechanical parts, which means that an SSD is better suited to handle shocks and drops and less prone to data loss. 

SSD’s can be up to 100 times faster than a regular HDD, which means that it’s going to benefit from faster PC boot times, game load times, data movement, and will generally have higher bandwidth. 

These types of drives have become much more affordable nowadays, meaning that there really isn’t a reason to not have an SSD as your primary drive in your PC. 

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What is the difference between SATA SSD’s, SATA M.2 SSD’s & NVMe M.2 SSD’s?

There are 3 different types of SSDs, with their own type of form factor, connectivity and performance speeds. 

SSDs will come in a form factor of a 2.5” drive or an M.2 expansion card, either use SATA as the method for communicating with a PC. SATA is slower than NVMe, but an M.2 SSD can also use NVMe for connectivity. 

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What does an SSD do for gaming?

Having a game installed on an SSD helps remove stuttering that happens in large areas of the map or when large amounts of new enemies appear out of nowhere. The main improvement will be loading times across the board, as many games have long loading times. 

SSDs won’t really improve your frame rate, other than smoothing out those stutters which bring down average framerate. 

Also, in some games you may not notice difference, as it depends on how optimized the game is at loading assets and textures into memory. Some games are efficient with their loading so you will almost never notice. 

Still, in some games that extra second of difference and the load time determines how quickly you spawn in, and that can make a difference in some competitive games. 

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How much SSD storage do I need for gaming?

This can vary depending on what sort of games you are looking to play, but since triple-A games are nowadays coming in at over 100GB of storage space, we would say that 1TB of SSD storage is a good balance between cost and storage amount. This should suit you well for allowing you to install a large number of games without the need to uninstall games to make room for others. 

Your motherboard may also support multiple M.2 slots, so refer to your motherboard manual if you are unsure if you must remove and replace your SSD for more storage, or if you can simply add an additional drive. 

Something to also consider is that you could have a larger secondary HDD in your system for your game installations, which will allow you to move games between your SSD & HDD, without the need to download them again. 

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Can I put a PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD in a PCIe 3.0 slot?

Yes, you can. PCIe 4.0 is backwards compatible, so you can physically install a PCIe 4.0 drive into a M.2 slot that only supports up to PCIe 3.0. 

However, the maximum read / write speed that the PCIe 4.0 SSD will be running at will be capped at the maximum speed of PCIe 3.0, which is 3,500Mbps read and 3,000Mbps write. 

You may not notice any difference in PCIe Gen 3 speed during any general PC use or gaming, but more so when transferring large amount of data. 

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What PCIe generation should I look for?

With current motherboards supporting PCIe generation 4.0 M.2 SSD slots and with PCIe 4.0 SSDs becoming more affordable, there isn’t really a reason not to go for a gen 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD. 

For everyday use and gaming, you may not notice that much difference using a PCIe 4.0 SSD when compared to PCIe 3.0. but it can be a benefit when working on video editing, as well as transferring data to and from the drive. 

Still, if you can find a PCIe 3.0 SSD at a good price or on a deal compared to it’s PCIe 4.0 counterpart, then it could be worth having a PCIe 3.0 SSD as a secondary drive, providing your motherboard has an additional NVMe M.2 slot. 

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How to manage storage space on a Gaming PC

Ensuring that you have enough room on your PCs storage device is going to be important. This ensures you don’t run into issues such as your system running slow and even programs failing to open. 

First, checking your downloads folder is a good place to start to remove any unwanted files and any duplicate files. 

Using Windows’s Disk Cleanup function is a good way to remove any temporary files that are no longer required by your operating system. 

Standard programs and applications will only take up a small amount of your storage space, whereas games and media files will take up most of your storage. 

To manage this accordingly, applications and games can be uninstalled via Windows’s Settings > Apps > Installed Apps. This will let you see what programs and games you have installed and uninstall any that you wish to no longer keep on your PC. 

Games can also be uninstalled via their appropriate launcher such as: Steam, Epic Games Launcher, Etc. 

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What are the storage requirements of some popular games?

Current modern games will have various installation sizes, due to several factors such as: assets, textures, downloadable content, as well how well the game is optimized. 

We have included various games below and their rough installation sizes, so you can get an idea of how much storage space a particular game will use up on your SSD. However, this may vary in the future due to updates, additional game content, and optimizations. 

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