I'm running a Ryzen 7 5700X3D, RTX 5070, and 32 GB of DDR4-3733 with a Kingston A400 SATA SSD. In Hogwarts Legacy at 1080p with a 60 FPS cap, my 1% lows drop to around 50 FPS in Hogsmeade. An AI recommendation claimed that moving the game to an NVMe SSD could dramatically improve those lows, supposedly because the game streams new assets from storage.
However, my SSD usage usually stays fairly low, although it sometimes spikes to around 50–90% while roughly 250 MB of new data is loaded. I also have another system with a Samsung 9100 Pro that still experiences some stuttering, though its 1% lows are better, possibly because it has a faster CPU.
Would switching from SATA to NVMe realistically bring my 1% lows from about 50 FPS to a steady 60 FPS? NVMe drives are extremely expensive where I live—around $250 for a basic 1 TB model—so I want to know whether this upgrade is actually worthwhile.
5 Answers
The SSD utilization percentage in Task Manager does not automatically mean the drive is too slow. A brief read spike while a 250 MB asset bundle is loaded can still be completed quickly, and the game may stutter because of CPU processing, shader compilation, or asset-streaming behavior rather than because the SATA bandwidth is exhausted. A good SATA SSD is already fast enough for most games.
Do not rely on the AI recommendation without benchmarks or a reproducible test. NVMe is worthwhile for faster transfers and loading, but moving an already-installed game from SATA to NVMe normally produces little or no improvement in average FPS or 1% lows. Given the price, keep the SATA SSD and investigate CPU limits, game patches, drivers, settings, and shader stutter first.
Frame generation and a frame-rate cap can make motion feel smoother, but they do not fix the underlying frame-time spikes. G-Sync or a suitable VRR cap may improve perceived smoothness, yet the real cause of the dips still needs to be identified. Try monitoring frametimes, CPU core usage, GPU usage, VRAM, and shader-compilation stutter before buying anything.
Probably not. Once a game is installed on a functioning SSD, changing from SATA to NVMe usually improves loading times more than in-game frame rates or 1% lows. Hogwarts Legacy can stream assets while you move through the world, but most frequently used data is already cached in system RAM or VRAM. At most, an NVMe drive might help in a few specific streaming situations, and a dramatic improvement is very unlikely.
So the realistic expectation is no meaningful improvement to the 1% lows, even if the drive occasionally spikes while loading assets?
Your CPU is a more likely limitation than the SATA interface. Hogwarts Legacy is known for inconsistent CPU usage, and 1% lows often reflect CPU-side frame delivery or game-engine stutter rather than storage speed. Check per-core CPU usage, GPU utilization, frametime graphs, and whether your memory is stable at 3733 MT/s. If one or more CPU cores are close to maxed while the GPU is not fully utilized, replacing the SSD will not solve the problem.
I tested DDR4-3600 as well and saw roughly the same result. During gameplay, the first few CPU cores reach around 90%, so the processor or the game engine may be the main constraint.
An NVMe drive could reduce level-loading or file-copy times, but that is different from guaranteeing smoother gameplay. I would not borrow money for this upgrade based on 1% lows alone.