I'm building my first PC, mainly for AAA gaming, and current SSD prices mean I can't afford a 2TB PCIe 4.0 drive. A 2TB PCIe 3.0 SSD and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD cost about the same. The PCIe 3.0 option is a Gigabyte 2500E NVMe drive. How noticeable would the speed difference be in real-world gaming, and is the extra capacity more valuable than the newer interface?
3 Answers
For normal gaming, the practical difference will usually be tiny—often just a small difference in loading times, not anything that affects gameplay. DirectStorage may eventually make faster drives more relevant, but PCIe 3.0 is still sufficient for current games. Unless you regularly move huge files, the 2TB model is the better value.
Go with the 2TB drive. For gaming, PCIe 3.0 NVMe performance is already plenty fast, and moving to PCIe 4.0 usually won’t improve frame rates or loading times by much. The extra space is more useful for a large AAA library, since modern games can take up a lot of room.
The interface generation isn’t the only thing that matters. Check whether each SSD uses TLC or QLC NAND, whether it has DRAM, and how it performs once the drive is fairly full. A good PCIe 3.0 model can be a better purchase than a low-end PCIe 4.0 drive, so compare the exact models rather than choosing based only on the generation number.
The Gigabyte 2500E is the PCIe 3.0 option, while the PCIe 4.0 alternatives are similarly priced. I’d still compare endurance, sustained write performance, and reviews before deciding.