I have a good friend Steve (not his genuine name) who still installs his PC video games on a big, sluggish, sound hard disk. You understand, the old-school kind that spins up before it can check out or compose information? I keep informing him to change over to an SSD, not simply for his own sake however for mine.
You see, Steve believes he’s great, that he’s hurting nobody by running his video games on an HDD. What he does not understand is that his sluggish video gaming times impact me and everybody else he plays with. Levels take minutes to load instead of seconds. Think who’s constantly last when we delve into a video game? His aged HDD makes our video gaming time such a task.
Please, Steve. I ask of you. Put your video games on an SSD! I do not care if your primary drive lacked area. Go purchase another one! They’re rather budget friendly nowadays, and they make such a huge distinction.
Do not think me? Believe it’s all overemphasized? That’s what Steve states, so I took it upon myself to run the numbers. Here’s the cold, tough evidence that reveals why you must constantly run your PC video games on SSDs.
Simply take a look at the numbers! It’s a no brainer
I can’t think I’m even needing to make this employ 2025. I’ve been video gaming off of SSDs solely given that 2010. At that time, it was a Mach Xtreme MX-DS 100GB SSD. (Technically a 128GB drive, however in truth just about 100GB of real functional storage area.) Want evidence? Here’s my evaluation of it that was conserved by the Wayback Machine
Even that relatively sluggish SSD was transformative. Not just did Windows boot up quicker and video games load even quicker, however the entire PC experience was more responsive. It’s simple to forget what it resembled to run an os on a hard disk– sluggish and stuttery, with stops briefly after nearly every action as the drive captured up.
Even thinking about the fastest video gaming disk drives (the Western Digital Raptor lineyou’re still taking a look at a number of milliseconds for random gain access to times versus the microseconds of tradition SATA SSDs. Continual read and compose speeds for HDDs can perhaps reach 150MB/s, compared to the 14,500 MB/s that the most recent PCIe 5 SSDs are spitting out. That’s 100 times much faster! And Steve’s still video gaming on disk drives? Why, Steve ?!
To be reasonable, I comprehend that this does not matter as much for a great deal of single-player experiences. You can strike play, leave and make a cup of tea, then return when it’s packed and all set to go. I endure one-minute-plus load times on my greatly modded Kerbal Space Program all the time (which’s set up on a quick SSD).
Why put yourself through that? Time is valuable. Every second that passes is a 2nd you will not ever return. Would not you rather invest that 2nd playing rather of waiting? And if you primarily play multiplayer online video games, it’s unfair to put everybody else through that, requiring them to await you to end up filling your properties.
Video gaming on SSD vs. HDD speeds, checked
If my impassioned plea versus hard disk drive video gaming in 2025 wasn’t enough by itself, how about some empirical proof? I did a bit of screening to support my ideas with raw numbers. Simply just how much quicker is an SSD over an HDD? Let’s see what the information states.
My drives and PC
I pitted my WD Black SN770 SSD versus my enormous Seagate BarraCuda HDDI understand, it isn’t a super-fast hard disk drive. I selected it since it’s agent of the kinds of tough drives still utilized by lots of to save images, files, and video games. It’s likewise truly affordable in regards to gigabytes-per-dollar, a lot of will be drawn to drives like this over even a few of the more budget-friendly SSDs out there.
Both of those drives were suited my PC with these specifications:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7950X3D
- GPU: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
- RAM: 32GB Kingston Fury Renegade 5200MHz
- Motherboard: Asus Crosshair X670E Hero
My method
What I wound up doing is running Marvel Rivals Cyberpunk 2077and Warhammer: Vermintide 2 on both drives. All of these video games have their own custom-made splash-screen loaders, so I timed Boot Time (from the minute I struck Play to when the logo design animations started) along with Load Time (for how long it required to pack up a video game). For Warhammer: Vermintide 2that was filling into the center in single-player mode. For Cyberpunk 2077it was filling my conserve at the start of the video game in the bar. For Marvel Rivalsit was for how long it required to get to character choice when packing the practice level from the primary menu.
The outcomes
| Boot Time (seconds) | Load time (seconds) | |||
| WD Black SN770 SSD | Seagate BarraCuda HDD | WD Black SN770 SSD | Seagate BarraCuda HDD | |
| Marvel Rivals | 10 | 49 | 8 | 67 |
| Warhammer: Vermintide 2 | 26 | 36 | 14 | 22 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 6 | 18 | 6 | 63 |
The outcomes are plain and apparent. The hard disk’s load time is over 7 times slower when it comes to Marvel Rivalsand Cyberpunk 2077 took nearly a minute longer on the HDD than the SSD (which, relatively, filled the level practically instantly).
Jon Martindale/ Foundry
Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is an intriguing case. The space in between boot time and load time on SSD versus HDD is quite little. It’s the slowest of all 3 video games on an SSD, yet not that much slower on an HDD. It significantly exceeds the other 2 video games on HDD. Possibly it has something to do with how the video game has actually enhanced (or not enhanced) its properties and how they’re streamed from storage.
Nevertheless, the information is clear in all 3 cases: filling video games from an SSD is considerably faster than packing from an HDD. The worst-case circumstance here was with Cyberpunk 2077which was over 10 times slower to fill on an HDD versus an SSD. If this does not persuade you to switch drives, I expect absolutely nothing will. For me, the wait simply isn’t worth it.
Do you think me now, Steve?
Begin, Steve. I’ve done all I can do. I’ve tutted whenever you made us endure that prolonged filling screen. I’ve made offhanded remarks about how inexpensive SSDs have actually gotten. I’ve even made “jokes” about caring just how much time we need to talk while waiting on you to load. Now I’ve penned this post, hoping it’ll lastly get you to see the light.
All sarcasm aside, it may seem like I’m drive-shaming here. I do not suggest any of this in a harmful or elitist method.
Yes, there’s an argument to be made that SSDs are more pricey than HDDs and for that reason beyond the reach of some players. That’s a completely legitimate factor to stick to what you have. I do not disparage anybody who can’t manage PC upgrades, and I acknowledge that I’m fortunate to have actually had the ability to video game on SSDs for many years now.
That stated, in 2025, SSDs are the most affordable they’ve ever been. In our list of advised SSDsour preferred spending plan alternative is the 500GB WD Blue SN5000 for simply $45Hell, let’s go even less expensive! You can purchase a 256GB Silicon Power SATA III SSD for simply $18Is it actually worth enduring all that additional video game load time for the sake of $18? C’mon!
Additional reading: The very best external SSDs for video gaming
Author: Jon Martindale
Contributor, PCWorld
Jon Martindale is a starved author and innovation fanboy who enjoys absolutely nothing more than digging into the specifications of the most recent graphics cards, processors, and display screens. He’s enthusiastic about whatever PC, however likewise takes pleasure in try out AIs, and covering brand-new standing desks that can assist prevent his worst posture practices.
