Written by
Yvonne Feng
Summary: This post from iBoysoft introduces HDD vs SSD for gaming from several aspects, including cost, capacity, and durability. From this article, you can learn which of the two is better for gaming, SSD or HDD.
As a gaming enthusiast, when deciding between using an SSD or HDD to store games and data, you need to consider various aspects. Such as differences in performance, cost, storage capacity, and user experience.
Choosing a suitable storage drive is crucial. This will improve your game loading speed, reduce stalling and latency, and improve the game's overall enjoyment.
HDD vs SSD for gaming is introduced in this article, designed to help you choose the proper hard disk for gaming. In addition, you can also learn more about SSDS and HDDS in this article.
What's the difference between HDDs and SSDs?
Hard drives and solid state drives both store data, such as operating systems, applications, documents, pictures, and videos. But the way they work, the speed of reading and writing, etc., are different. Before looking at HDD vs SSD for gaming, let's look at the difference between HDDs and SSDs.
HDDs read and write data based on mechanically rotating disks. The head moves to different areas on the disk to access different blocks of data, similar to an old record player.
However, SSDs have no mechanical parts and use NAND flash memory chips to store data, which is accessed electronically.
In terms of speed, due to the rotational speed of the disk and the physical movement of the magnetic head, the read and write speed of HDDs is relatively slow, generally ranging from 80MB/s to 160MB/s.
In contrast, SSDs rely on electrical signals to read data, which is much faster. SATA interface SSDs can reach around 500MB/s, while NVMe interface SSDs can exceed 3500MB/s in read and write speed.
In terms of data recovery difficulty, even if the HDDs are damaged, professional data recovery services still have the opportunity to recover data. Nevertheless, once SSDs are erased or damaged, data recovery is difficult. Especially when using the TRIM command, deleted data is nearly impossible to recover.
Which is better for gaming, SSD or HDD?
When deciding whether to use SSD or HDD for gaming, you can consider the following aspects.
Loading Speed
The read and write speed of SSD is significantly faster than that of HDD, especially for modern large-scale games, where the speed difference is obvious. Using an SSD can reduce the time it takes for a game to boot, but if you use an HDD, you may experience long screen loading times.
Game Performance
When games require frequent loading of large-scale maps or scenarios, SSDs maintain seamless gameplay fluency. In contrast, HDDs may delay scene loading, resulting in noticeable lag. Therefore, when you select SSD or HDD for gaming, if you engage in games with substantial loading requirements, SSDs are a superior choice.
Cost
In terms of price, HDDs are lower. Especially for large-capacity storage needs, the per GB of HDD is much lower than SSD. Therefore, for players with limited budgets, HDDs are more cost-effective in terms of storage. However, if the budget is adequate, using an SSD can significantly enhance the gaming experience.
Power Consumption and Heat
SSDs consume less power and generate less heat. Therefore, when playing games for a long time, especially when using a laptop, SSDs can more effectively extend battery life and reduce device overheating.
In contrast, HDDs consume higher power because they contain mechanically rotating parts. Noise and vibration can also accompany frequent processing of big data. Overall, if you play for a long time and are concerned about device heat dissipation and power consumption when selecting SSD or HDD for gaming, SSD is undoubtedly an ideal choice.
Storage Capacity
The advantage of HDDs is that they are large and inexpensive, often offering 1TB, 2TB, or more storage. The SSD capacity is relatively small, although there are 1TB, and 2TB options, but the price is higher.
Therefore, if you need to store numerous games, HDDs are a good choice. But you have to accept the other drawbacks of HDDs.
Does SSD improve gaming FPS?
SSDs do not directly improve gaming FPS. FPS is primarily determined by components like the graphics card (GPU), processor (CPU), and RAM.
However, SSDs can enhance the overall gaming experience in indirect ways. For example, SSDs can speed up load times, reduce resource load delays, and improve system response speed. Therefore, SSDs are the best when you perform HDD vs SSD for gaming.
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