Hey everyone! I've been using a PCIe 3.0 NVMe drive as my boot and game drive for a few years now, and it seems to work well. I'm planning a significant upgrade to my setup, including a new CPU platform, but I want to keep my current drive for a spare setup. As I look for a new NVMe drive, I'm curious about the difference between PCIe 3.0 and 4.0. For someone who mainly plays games, is there any noticeable performance difference? Also, will DirectStorage really take off soon? Should I save some cash and stick with a 3.0 drive, or go with 4.0? I'm hesitant to manage SATA cables since I have a few SATA drives for extra storage already.
2 Answers
Nah, honestly, you won't notice a difference for gaming. PCIe 4.0 might offer slightly faster load times in heavy games, but we're talking just a second, maybe. If gaming is your main focus, don't waste your money on a PCIe 4.0 drive; it's just not worth it.
For gaming, there’s not much of a difference between PCIe 3.0 and 4.0. Some tests show that even PCIe 3.0 drives perform quite well in games. If you're buying new, the price gap is small enough that going with Gen 4 makes sense if you want a bit more future-proofing.
Yeah, that’s what I’m leaning towards too. If it’s only a few bucks more and I might use it for something else later, it seems worth it!