I currently have a Kingston A400 SATA SSD, a Ryzen 7 5700X3D, an RTX 5070, and 32 GB of DDR4-3733 memory. An AI recommendation claimed that upgrading to an NVMe SSD would dramatically improve my 1% lows, but I'm not convinced. While playing Hogwarts Legacy, SSD activity usually stays low, although it sometimes spikes to around 50–90% when new assets load. At 1080p with a 60 FPS cap, I'm seeing about 50 FPS for my 1% lows in Hogsmeade. Could an NVMe drive realistically bring that up to 60 FPS, or are the stutters more likely caused by the CPU, game engine, or something else? My second system has a much faster Samsung 9100 Pro but still experiences some stuttering, although its 1% lows are better, possibly because it has a stronger CPU. NVMe drives are extremely expensive where I live—around $250 for 1 TB—so I want to know whether this upgrade would actually be worthwhile before spending that much.
4 Answers
The 200–250 MB/s disk activity you’re seeing doesn’t automatically mean the SATA SSD is holding back performance. It may simply be reading data as the game streams new areas, while the actual hitch comes from CPU processing, shader compilation, or the game engine. A good SATA SSD is already fast enough for most games, and a PCIe NVMe upgrade would be a poor value at that price if your goal is only better 1% lows.
Using G-Sync and a frame-generation mode can make motion feel smoother, but they don’t necessarily improve the game’s native 1% lows. Frame generation creates additional displayed frames; it doesn’t remove the CPU, engine, or asset-streaming pauses that cause the original frames to arrive late. I’d troubleshoot those causes first rather than taking out a loan for an NVMe drive.
The drive probably isn’t the main limitation here. Your 5700X3D or the game’s CPU and streaming behavior is a more likely cause of the dips, especially if a few CPU cores are reaching high utilization. Check per-core usage rather than only total CPU usage, and verify that your memory is stable at DDR4-3733. If the GPU isn’t close to full utilization during the dips, increasing graphics settings won’t fix the problem, but it can help confirm whether you’re CPU-limited.
A faster SSD might reduce loading times, but it generally won’t produce a dramatic improvement in 1% lows once the game is already installed on an SSD. Most frequently used assets are loaded into system memory or VRAM during gameplay. Hogwarts Legacy can stream assets while you move through the world, so an NVMe drive could help in a very specific situation, but it’s unlikely to turn 50 FPS 1% lows into a steady 60.
So overall, I shouldn’t expect a meaningful 1% low improvement just from changing from SATA SSD to NVMe?
At DDR4-3600, the results were nearly identical, and during gameplay the first few CPU cores can reach roughly 90% utilization.