I'm putting together a midrange PC and keep seeing people argue that an SSD needs onboard DRAM, while others say modern DRAMless drives work perfectly well. My usage is mostly gaming, watching videos, browsing, and general desktop tasks after work. I won't be editing video or constantly moving huge files.
The price difference between budget DRAMless models and drives with DRAM is noticeable, but I don't want to save money by buying something that becomes frustrating or unreliable. Do the slowdowns people mention actually show up during normal day-to-day use, or are they mainly visible in benchmarks and large file transfers? I'd especially appreciate experiences from people using DRAMless NVMe drives in similar gaming systems.
4 Answers
One caveat is system memory. DRAMless NVMe drives use a small portion of your regular RAM through HMB, so extremely low-memory systems or a PC that is already swapping heavily may feel worse under load. With a normal amount of RAM, that generally isn't an issue. Also leave some free space on the SSD to help maintain performance.
I've used both kinds and haven't noticed a meaningful difference in ordinary desktop use or gaming. The situations where a DRAM-equipped drive earns its premium are usually repeated large transfers, heavy content creation, or workloads that write constantly. For a budget gaming build, putting the savings toward more capacity or another component makes sense.
Don't focus on the DRAM label alone. NAND type, controller quality, endurance, thermals, and how full the drive is can matter just as much or more. If possible, choose a reputable TLC-based model rather than the cheapest QLC option. A good modern DRAMless drive can outperform an older drive that happens to include DRAM.
For that workload, a decent DRAMless NVMe drive with Host Memory Buffer is completely fine. Gaming, browsing, and normal app use are mostly read-focused, so the difference from a drive with DRAM is usually hard to notice. The gap becomes more apparent during sustained writes, like copying hundreds of gigabytes or working with large media files.
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