Does it have sense to buy a big SSD for games?

I do and it's wonderful. That being said I only play one game on my computer so my 256GB drive is plenty big.
 
You can get a good 500GB SSD for $150 (850 Evo regularly at that price). At that price, why not?
 
I just upgraded from a 500GB EVO To a 1TB 850 Pro and All I can say is WOW!!!

The price jump from 500 to 1TB is quite significant but still less than .50 cents a GB, well at least when I bought it on sale lol.

But yeah having a ssd for gaming is a no brainer if you are impatient like me. A game like neverwinter makes you wish you had one when you load forever during scene changes and map changes. No joke a minute would pass for a simple map load on a "Fast" 7200 rpm hard drive whereas now it takes seconds for it to load with an ssd. That being said, make sure your system can benefit from a fast ssd, like having a sata 6gb port or even a 3gb port would work but not at full potential. and make sure AHCI is enabled in bios for the drive.

Price being the limiting factor I would definitely say shop around but for the Samsung 250GB Evos they really can't be beat especially with the 3d VNAND inside its not only quick but is supposed to be more reliable too.

And that being said, even if you go with a cheapy ssd you will still benefit from the speed increase. Just don't be mad when it goes kaput and you lose your game files. But if you are using steam you shouldn't be too mad, just redownload everything when you rma the ssd lol:D
 
Some games benefit greatly on their loading time and when loading savegames as well.
How big a drive you will need depends on how many games you intend to be playing at any time.
Games you have finished or want to put on the back burner can be copied to a hard drive for later retrieval, this is what I do.

I wish I had a bigger SSD than 256GB (over-provisioned) because I'm struggling to fit my OS and the games I am playing.
512GB would be fine for me.
 
I think now it makes sense using an SSD for games because of the price point. You can get the 1 TB MX200 for sub 300 now! I am going to be buying 2 of them for a 2 TB RAID 0 for games and files.

I'll have 950 Pro as OS while I wait for XPoint.

I go overkill so take that into account.

Getting a 1 TB MX200 is a solid choice for games and data given how cheap they have become. I expect 1 TBs and 2 TBs to drop even more when the 3D NAND becomes really popular next year.
 
Really just depends on the games you play. Some games load times don't matter, especially multiplayer games like Starcraft 2 and League of Legends where you're waiting on the slowest person to load.

That said, unless you cannot afford two hard drives in your system and need lots of storage for movies or music or whatever junk you keep on your computer, it's better to have a smaller SSD for game storage overall.
 
Tsumi said:
Really just depends on the games you play. Some games load times don't matter, especially multiplayer games like Starcraft 2 and League of Legends where you're waiting on the slowest person to load.

That said, unless you cannot afford two hard drives in your system and need lots of storage for movies or music or whatever junk you keep on your computer, it's better to have a smaller SSD for game storage overall.
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maybe i am tired and misreading this but I am not tracking. Why is it better to have a smaller SSD overall? Save money?
 
In general a smaller SSD is better for gaming than a larger HDD, as long as you don't exceed the capacity of the SSD.
 
Now you won't get more fps playing the game but what you will notice is considerably faster loading times and starting the game will be much faster! If you have the money for it go for a really nice SSD and you will be set :)
 
Definitely made a huge difference for me. I'm planning on switching over all my drives at some point as the sound of a mechanical drive is really starting to annoy me now.
 
It's a huge difference in load time for most games, single and multi player. I have two 250gb SSD's, OS and Origin games on one (Dragon Age: Inquisition, BF4 and soon Star Wars Battlefront) and then my Steam collection on the other since it's bigger than Origin.

If I was buying new today I would get at least a 512gb if not 1TB for OS/games.
 
grambo said:
It's a huge difference in load time for most games, single and multi player. I have two 250gb SSD's, OS and Origin games on one (Dragon Age: Inquisition, BF4 and soon Star Wars Battlefront) and then my Steam collection on the other since it's bigger than Origin.

If I was buying new today I would get at least a 512gb if not 1TB for OS/games.
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That is the problem.
I bothered to have many unit. I would like to have one unit for all and the Samsung 950 PRO is available on 512gb size only.
 
Why limit yourself to the 950 Pro only? You don't need the fastest SSD unless you're benchmarking all day long.
 
sblantipodi said:
That is the problem.
I bothered to have many unit. I would like to have one unit for all and the Samsung 950 PRO is available on 512gb size only.
Click to expand...

950 Pro is not worth it unless it fits your needs and its kinda a waste of money for you. Just get a 1 TB MX200 for 300 bucks! I am grabbing 2 on the next sale
 
it depends upon how much you are willing to pay :/ my steam collection easily takes up over half o my 1TB hdd and to get that in solid state would cost a pretty penny
 
I got a really good deal on the 950Pro 256gb a while back. When I changed over to Win10, I got a 2nd one, and did a RAID0. It's nice to have that much space, and it's quick.
I keep a 1TB drive for backup's/downloads/etc
 
YeuEmMaiMai said:
it depends upon how much you are willing to pay :/ my steam collection easily takes up over half o my 1TB hdd and to get that in solid state would cost a pretty penny
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see for games any SSD really works, which is why i think the BX/MX line is perfect. The OS and core programs is where the fastest drive possible is critical.

I can't even download my whole steam/GOG/Origin account because my ISP would ban me for life :/ I have well over 1k games :/

I remember when I was able to bit it on a single 1 TB drive...I doubt I could get it on a 3 TB drive maybe not even a 6 TB drive now :/
 
Yep...night and day difference in game launch and level loading speeds.

I am also testing out a RAM cache for SSDs (Romex PrimoCache). Currently have 8GB of my system memory utilized for my 1TB SSD being used only for games. I did notice a bit faster game launch times, but save game loads seem to take longer during the final stages when textures are being loaded. I'll give it another week for the cache to build up some more persistence and, if I don't have any noticeable save game load times, then I'll uninstall PrimoCache and revert back to direct read/write.

With some 480GB drives dipping to $130 and 1TB dropping to $270 in the recent past, it becomes hard to argue against the speed and capacities for the prices.
 
DejaWiz said:
Yep...night and day difference in game launch and level loading speeds.

I am also testing out a RAM cache for SSDs (Romex PrimoCache). Currently have 8GB of my system memory utilized for my 1TB SSD being used only for games. I did notice a bit faster game launch times, but save game loads seem to take longer during the final stages when textures are being loaded. I'll give it another week for the cache to build up some more persistence and, if I don't have any noticeable save game load times, then I'll uninstall PrimoCache and revert back to direct read/write.

With some 480GB drives dipping to $130 and 1TB dropping to $270 in the recent past, it becomes hard to argue against the speed and capacities for the prices.
Click to expand...

just remember you got no ECC protect on that.
 
SomeGuy133 said:
I think now it makes sense using an SSD for games because of the price point. You can get the 1 TB MX200 for sub 300 now! I am going to be buying 2 of them for a 2 TB RAID 0 for games and files.
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I'd be surprised, if your goal is gaming, if you noticed much difference going to a RAID0 SSD. If you're coming from having your games on a spinner, even a standard SSD will be significantly better on level loading for the games that rely heavily on reads like that. For my usage, the benefit of RAID0 does not outweigh the risk of data loss, even as a game drive (I play lots of single player with saves I'd hate to lose). Good luck with whatever you do though!
 
I need to get myself a 1TB SSD already. This thread is helping with all the options out there as I've been out of the loop on what's available other than the new 850 series Samsung SSD's
 
Delemon said:
I'd be surprised, if your goal is gaming, if you noticed much difference going to a RAID0 SSD. If you're coming from having your games on a spinner, even a standard SSD will be significantly better on level loading for the games that rely heavily on reads like that. For my usage, the benefit of RAID0 does not outweigh the risk of data loss, even as a game drive (I play lots of single player with saves I'd hate to lose). Good luck with whatever you do though!
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RAID0 is to have a larger drive and to load files to RAM/NVME drive faster and to allow AV/AM scans to scan faster since they are retarded and scan one drive letter at a time -_-
 
bizzmeister said:
I need to get myself a 1TB SSD already. This thread is helping with all the options out there as I've been out of the loop on what's available other than the new 850 series Samsung SSD's
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For a cheaper option, the Crucial MX200 1TB has a TBW endurance rating around the same as the Samsung 850 Pro. But a 3 year warranty vs 10, if the calendar period is important to you.

For the difference in price, it was an easy compromise for me since I was only considering the 850 Pro until the MX200 went down to $270 a couple weeks back.
 
DejaWiz said:
For a cheaper option, the Crucial MX200 1TB has a TBW endurance rating around the same as the Samsung 850 Pro. But a 3 year warranty vs 10, if the calendar period is important to you.

For the difference in price, it was an easy compromise for me since I was only considering the 850 Pro until the MX200 went down to $270 a couple weeks back.
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Looks like that's what I'll be going with, appreciate the tip. Gotta look into all this stuff but for that price and specs, really can't beat it.
 
SomeGuy133 said:
950 Pro is not worth it unless it fits your needs and its kinda a waste of money for you. Just get a 1 TB MX200 for 300 bucks! I am grabbing 2 on the next sale
Click to expand...

This is not a bad idea.

JeffBlair said:
I got a really good deal on the 950Pro 256gb a while back. When I changed over to Win10, I got a 2nd one, and did a RAID0. It's nice to have that much space, and it's quick.
I keep a 1TB drive for backup's/downloads/etc
Click to expand...

are you saying that you just own the 950 PRO?
950 PRO is available for preorder but as far as I know is not available yet.
 
every time I have done a X to make the game faster... I have been disappointed.

games that do a lot of data unpacking... like most of them... are not going to see much benefit
 
I can't imagine there's any perceivable real-world benefit for a gaming use case between any modern (last 3 years) SSD and a 950 Pro/Intel 750 high-end NVMe type solution? Has anyone done the benchmarks of game/level load times? I wouldn't spend the money on those unless it's for a workstation type use case with large files like high-res video editing.
 
SomeGuy133 said:
maybe i am tired and misreading this but I am not tracking. Why is it better to have a smaller SSD overall? Save money?
Click to expand...

If your budget is low, it is better to build a system with a 256gb ssd as your OS drive with some games on it than buying a HD and then an ssd later. It is far easier to add in a new ssd or HD to your system than it is to swap your OS drive. A 256gb ssd and a 1TB HD are about $130 total these days and make for a good start if on a tight budget.
 
I want to dismiss HDD if not for photo and video.

Suggest me what to do please.
I have two options:

1)
I buy the Samsung 850 EVO 1TB for games and a Samsung 950 PRO for OS and software

2)
I wait the Samsung 950 PRO 1TB and use it for everything.

The price of the two solutions should be equivalent.
 
sblantipodi said:
I want to dismiss HDD if not for photo and video.

Suggest me what to do please.
I have two options:

1)
I buy the Samsung 850 EVO 1TB for games and a Samsung 950 PRO for OS and software

2)
I wait the Samsung 950 PRO 1TB and use it for everything.

The price of the two solutions should be equivalent.
Click to expand...

Considering the pricing of the 950 Pro line, I'd recommend maybe waiting until the "omfg shiny new" appeal of them wears off and prices come down.

You may want to reconsider the 850 Evo because it utilizes TLC NAND since you'd be hammering it for photo/video editing/creation...you'll rip through the P/E cycle endurance much sooner than an MLC NAND offering with 3+ times the cycle count.

That being said, 1TB 850 Pro if you want the 10 year warranty or 1TB MX200 if you want similar TBW endurance but can settle for a 3 year warranty. And if you feel your uses would significantly benefit from the higher read/write throughput ratings of 950 Pro, then see what pricing does in the future (especially after more manufacturers release their own 3D NAND and NVMe options). We may even see 2TB models emerge sooner rather than later.
 
I use a btrfs raid1 of about 6 different ssd drives and it works great for steam :)
 
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DejaWiz said:
Considering the pricing of the 950 Pro line, I'd recommend maybe waiting until the "omfg shiny new" appeal of them wears off and prices come down.

You may want to reconsider the 850 Evo because it utilizes TLC NAND since you'd be hammering it for photo/video editing/creation...you'll rip through the P/E cycle endurance much sooner than an MLC NAND offering with 3+ times the cycle count.

That being said, 1TB 850 Pro if you want the 10 year warranty or 1TB MX200 if you want similar TBW endurance but can settle for a 3 year warranty. And if you feel your uses would significantly benefit from the higher read/write throughput ratings of 950 Pro, then see what pricing does in the future (especially after more manufacturers release their own 3D NAND and NVMe options). We may even see 2TB models emerge sooner rather than later.
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850 EVO 1TB has 150TB TBW, I will never write that data, at least if I will ever write that data I will change my SSD before :D
 
sblantipodi said:
850 EVO 1TB has 150TB TBW, I will never write that data, at least if I will ever write that data I will change my SSD before :D
Click to expand...

I'm not really talking about TBW here (although it's important)...I'm talking about P/E cycles of the TLC NAND. It's only about 2000 cycles vs typical MLC NAND of 3000-6000 (or more).
 
DejaWiz said:
I'm not really talking about TBW here (although it's important)...I'm talking about P/E cycles of the TLC NAND. It's only about 2000 cycles vs typical MLC NAND of 3000-6000 (or more).
Click to expand...

IMHO those numbers in a house only worth to push the sellings of more expensive units.
 
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