Are PCIe 4.0 SSDs Worth It For GAMING? – Gen 4 vs Gen 3 vs SATA vs HDD Gaming PC Load Speed Test!

Are PCIe 4.0 SSDs Worth It For GAMING? – Gen 4 vs Gen 3 vs SATA vs HDD Gaming PC Load Speed Test!

Are PCIe 4.0 SSDs Worth It For GAMING? Here’s your load speed comparison of Gen 4 vs Gen 3 Vs Sata vs hard drive! Should you use a NVMe PCIE 4.0 SSD in your next RTX 3080 gaming PC build 2021? Sponsor: OMEN 15 & Nvidia https://locally.link/VZ3Z (Amazon aff)
*Models vary, for the latest Gen GPUs and CPUs, please confirm before purchase.
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Disclosure: Each SSD was provided by the manufacturer

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50 Comments

  1. Mike on March 23, 2022 at 5:24 pm

    The helped tremendously thank you so very much my dude =D



  2. McFly OrDie on March 23, 2022 at 5:24 pm

    When it comes to Gen 3 and Gen 4 nvme, how big of a part does the whole, SLC, TLC and MLC, have?



  3. Little King Gaming on March 23, 2022 at 5:26 pm

    Sata ssd is the real MVP 😂



  4. red and pig radio shows on March 23, 2022 at 5:29 pm

    The real test is if it will load Subnautica in under a minute



  5. Jiko's Stuff on March 23, 2022 at 5:30 pm

    I just bought a new HDD (which is also faster than this old 1TB drive). 😀 It’s just lots bigger and much cheaper than a SSD. Yeah, it’s not loading as fast as the SSD but I can install my whole library and don’t need to wait for the whole download if I want to start another game, which I had not installed because there was no space for it. And ingame there’s nothing to worry about. The HDD won’t make the game stutter. Don’t worry though: My most-used games are sitting on a NVMe drive and so does my OS. It was more like "F*ck it – I want my WHOLE library to be installed!"
    But yeah, we’ll see how prices develop. Like 6 years ago I paid more for the cheapest 256GB SATA SSD than a 1TB NVMe Gen 3 SSD can be found for today. If that trend goes on you might actually be able to afford 4TB SSDs in a not so distant future.



  6. Lewis on March 23, 2022 at 5:31 pm

    Yeh ima just get 2 SATA SSDs and put them in Raid 0



  7. Rendomize on March 23, 2022 at 5:31 pm

    do you recommend using a heatsink with these nvme ssds?



  8. Nivla Gatdula on March 23, 2022 at 5:33 pm

    I build 2nd PC today base on available parts available in my storage and luckily i was able to build one (complete parts). I have no extra ssd so i used 2.5" hdd, i feel the pain watching the boot time (too damn slow). Then mouse scrolling its damn slow even right click the item i want to check not pop immediately (took 1 to 2 secs). Then i installed forza horizon 5 and it took me 1hr and 30mins to install it. Wow, what a waste of time waiting. Now im searching the store for atleast 240 to 500GB SSD. I feel like im back 10 to 12 years when waiting time is just normal thing to me.. Lol, now i cant take it seriously. I cant go back to HDD. Will use only for file storage.



  9. Urza26 on March 23, 2022 at 5:35 pm

    You should work at an auction house.



  10. Stonecypher Gaming on March 23, 2022 at 5:35 pm

    I wanna make my pc all m.2 with ssd



  11. EpicAmateur on March 23, 2022 at 5:36 pm

    Talk about an HDD …this video is an HDD………………………………………………………………………………10 minutes too long,just do the intro show the numbers and .
    Even if yo showed the testes (without🙉 ….)you still finish in two minutes! i’m trying to stay awake and focused here help a brother out.



  12. boye33 on March 23, 2022 at 5:37 pm

    Is it possible to run a Z590I Rog Strix, 10700K and a Samsung Pro 960 ? 🙂



  13. Jason Donnell on March 23, 2022 at 5:38 pm

    You said you were testing loading time if games, from what I saw,
    No you weren’t. You were testing loading a save file. Do it from desktop, that’s grant loading



  14. C N on March 23, 2022 at 5:38 pm

    Lesson from the PS5 is that games have to be coded to take advantage of SSDs. Otherwise there’s little to no difference in load times. The difference between loading old PS4 games and the new ones with patches or the PS5 version is night and day. Direct storage is what will help Gen4 SSDs shine but again, games have to be coded for it, it’s not just a magical thing that will happen for every game.



  15. Breitling5150 on March 23, 2022 at 5:38 pm

    Most relevant HDD vs SSD vs NVMe 3.0 vs NVMe 4.0 video on the planet. The big use for the 4.0 is if you use/write/move lots of bites! Gaming = Gen 3 = Save your $$$



  16. AmeliaBuns on March 23, 2022 at 5:40 pm

    i wonder how this’ll be when storageapi arrives!



  17. Chris Todd on March 23, 2022 at 5:41 pm

    I would be interested to see how these perform against each other loading windows 11, timed from the moment you press power button, until the password/pin screen



  18. jepunx on March 23, 2022 at 5:44 pm

    is it worth to upgrade my 500GB 970 Evo Plus to a 980 Pro 1TB?



  19. Matt Wrixon on March 23, 2022 at 5:46 pm

    well damn, my load time for cyberpunk off a sata ssd is 5.07s. why is it half the amount of your test result?



  20. Artha _R on March 23, 2022 at 5:49 pm

    can we use gen3 ssd on gen4 slot?



  21. BotDamian on March 23, 2022 at 5:50 pm

    Pen Notebook Stopwatch Pen 🤓



  22. Kamote Tops on March 23, 2022 at 5:50 pm

    HDD for Homework
    SSD for Games
    Gen 3/4 for OS/Editing



  23. Rhys Murphy on March 23, 2022 at 5:51 pm

    Hi, I’ve been watching a lot of videos like this recently because I’ve just ordered a new gaming PC. Just wanted to say that I’ve subscribed to your channel because you’re one of the only channels that I have seen use Civilization 6 as a test in their videos; it’s very refreshing and it’s a game I’ll be playing! Good work.



  24. Syphex on March 23, 2022 at 5:51 pm

    I did gain a few fps Gain when i went from a HDD to a NVME M.2, same went for upgrading to faster ram and same story goes for everything else on my pc.

    Everything has a tiny increase of FPS, if you get the fastest RAM, CPU & GPU then sit on a HDD ur gonna lose performance.

    If you want FPS boost everything has to be on the same level.

    As for loading speeds, it takes me barley 2 seconds to to load in new maps no matter the game.

    When i sat on a HDD it could take 23-30 seconds to load a map in, now it takes me 1–2 seconds with 3 seconds being super rare.

    So you make the choice.



  25. Josh Levinson on March 23, 2022 at 5:53 pm

    Is it really true that hard drive speed doesn’t affect game performance other than load times? I’ve heard some say that faster drives can result in less stuttering in games, for example.



  26. Claudiu Lucian on March 23, 2022 at 5:54 pm

    It’s worth it to upgrade an entry level dramless nvme SSD (2200/1100 read/write 80k/120k iops) to an top of the range dram gen 3 ssd like 3500/3000 read/write 450k+ iops?



  27. Eat a chick Ya wont get fat on March 23, 2022 at 5:54 pm

    ya need boot times as well. not just loading times.



  28. ChartaBona on March 23, 2022 at 5:54 pm

    Just bought a 2TB Gen 3 NVMe for only $122 off Newegg. Gen 4 NVMe is just not worth the money right now. And by the time it does start to make a meaningful difference, it’ll be significantly cheaper anyway.



  29. Rob Overholt on March 23, 2022 at 5:55 pm

    When you don’t feel so bad about not having the latest and greatest.. Cheers from Regina Canada! 🙂



  30. Trenaur on March 23, 2022 at 5:55 pm

    You have to update the firmware to get the gen 4 speeds up.



  31. oNeHanDGuN on March 23, 2022 at 5:59 pm

    Wow im amazed with sata results..was thinking to buy another gen 3 for my secondary storage..but i think sata is not too bad either



  32. willy657 on March 23, 2022 at 6:00 pm

    I bought 2 Samsung 980 pros each 1 TB but one comes with a heat sink (intended for ps5). Can I use both in my pc build? Can I put the MB heat sink right over the ssd m.2 with its own heat sink? Thanks!



  33. HandyMan on March 23, 2022 at 6:01 pm

    I thought it was Linus and I wondered how he picked up British accent. Than I grabbed my glasses and noticed the difference.



  34. Dark Code on March 23, 2022 at 6:02 pm

    so i can use a 10850k and a z590 with pcie 4 for m.2s and gpu?



  35. craigcreationz on March 23, 2022 at 6:03 pm

    Great Video. So does it make sense for me to use 2 Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB SSD in my GIGABYTE B550 AORUS PRO AC? Or should I use a different SSD for the 2nd slot. Would really appreciate your reply. Thanks



  36. eschreck814 on March 23, 2022 at 6:05 pm

    Needed this video 👍 thanks



  37. 45eno on March 23, 2022 at 6:06 pm

    Hurry up DirectStorage. All these NVMe drives in my rigs behaving like SSD’s for game loading…



  38. JG on March 23, 2022 at 6:06 pm

    The Omen laptops are actually great. Temps are rough, but that’s true for most laptops.



  39. Pro Vax on March 23, 2022 at 6:07 pm

    You could have just put it all at once…. Zzzz



  40. Bob on March 23, 2022 at 6:08 pm

    HDD isn’t bad. it’s the failing HDD that’s bad. i would rather use the extra money for actual increase in performance.



  41. Danish Butter on March 23, 2022 at 6:09 pm

    i will just stick to a sata ssd for now due to better storage size value and many options on the market like Crucial, Kingston, and TeamGroup.



  42. Robert Smith on March 23, 2022 at 6:14 pm

    Worth going for m.2 drives just to avoid using extra power and sata leads



  43. Peter Mui on March 23, 2022 at 6:14 pm

    Skip to 4:00



  44. JG on March 23, 2022 at 6:16 pm

    Yeah, but you didn’t test Optane accelerated HDD. Lol. Don’t worry no one uses it.



  45. pacman on March 23, 2022 at 6:16 pm

    I was watching this because my pre-built pc came with a gen 3 nvme ssd and downloading patches for games on steam take like 20 minutes so I was going to get gen 4 ssd but I don’t think it will make much of a difference. I also have gigabyte internet so I have no idea why it takes so long anyone know the reason for this taking forever?



  46. Mr Bardel on March 23, 2022 at 6:17 pm

    gen 2 sata ssd are the best . i do not care what the rest of people say .

    i prefer to wait 10 seconds more and save hundreds of dollar .



  47. Ahsan Farooq on March 23, 2022 at 6:19 pm

    Thanks for the video



  48. Juan Gonzalez on March 23, 2022 at 6:21 pm

    You are definitely the best pc building channel out here! I’ve been binge watching all your videos and getting allllllll the information i need to get just what i need!!



  49. Mohammad Reza Mahmoudi on March 23, 2022 at 6:21 pm

    Thanks for great info.
    What about speed of softwares like zbrush or maya or any heavy software?



  50. Fieros Ajua on March 23, 2022 at 6:22 pm

    Youre the best! Subbd