I recently bought a gaming PC with a 1TB NVMe M.2 drive, but I'm downloading more games than I expected and want to avoid buying another expensive internal SSD right now. I have a spare Samsung T7 external SSD, and the PC's USB ports support USB 3.2 Gen 1, roughly equivalent to USB 3.0 speeds. I tried running Forza Horizon 6 from the external drive and it seemed to perform just as well as the internal drive, with no obvious loading or gameplay problems. Is there any technical reason I should avoid installing or playing games from the external SSD, or are there particular types of games that should stay on the NVMe drive?
3 Answers
It should work perfectly well. The main downside is potentially longer loading times or occasional streaming stutters, depending on the game. You could keep especially demanding or competitive games on the NVMe drive and put less sensitive games on the external SSD. USB 3.0-class speeds are broadly comparable to SATA SSD performance, which is still fast enough for most games.
A Samsung T7 over USB 3.2 Gen 1 will be limited by the computer’s USB port, but it should still perform much closer to an internal SATA SSD than to a mechanical hard drive. For normal gaming, that’s generally fine. Just make sure the cable and connection are secure, and avoid disconnecting the drive while a game or launcher is using it.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with gaming from an external SSD. An internal NVMe drive can be faster in benchmarks, but that doesn’t always translate into noticeably better gameplay. Some newer open-world games may benefit from the faster drive and could show longer asset-loading pauses on USB storage, but if your current games run smoothly, you can keep using the T7 without rushing to buy another M.2 drive.
That makes sense. I mainly wanted to check that I wasn’t causing some hidden performance or reliability problem by using the external drive.