SSD - Gen4 vs. Gen5 for Gaming PC
Posted by Intelligent_Shame611@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 22 comments
Hi guys,
I am in the process of building a new gaming PC mainly to play MSFS24. CPU 9800X3D, probably RTX5070ti, 64 GB ram bought before the craziness started. With prices for SSDs going crazy, I am wondering if it makes sense to pay almost 600 USD (I am not in US, these are the prices here) for 4TB 5 gen SSD (Crucial T710) or settle for a 4 gen which would cost 400USD for 4TB (Crucial P3 Plus).
Would the Gen 5 really have an impact on performance? Any help/suggestion is greatly appreciated as it is difficult to find it on this subject. Thx!
sleep_eat_recycle@reddit
I am using a gen 3 ssd from my laptop on a 5070 ti as well, no problem at all, I don't care about this part of my pc
Efficient_Guest_6593@reddit
This is the part that affects it the most. Before I got my NV7000-t 2TB TLC I had BF6 on my 8TB HDD... I thought similar, I had/have my of on a 500gb A2000 name with Dram. Thought I don't care about waiting a little longer for loading...
Nah always late if the multiplayer game is on it never get any vehicles match is already a minute in, then single player means a minute or 3 loading every time... Move it to NV7000-t, loading is near instant. Leave the HDD for unused games and move them to the SSD when I want them in rotation (12TB total storage, having 2TB of flash Vs 4TB now was a nightmare)
sleep_eat_recycle@reddit
But you are talking about HDD, I mean ssd can be anything
Efficient_Guest_6593@reddit
Talking about MLC, TLC and QLC, not all drives are the same, I refuse to purchase a QLC drive, half endurance and HDD speed once the cache is full
Flimsy_Complaint490@reddit
nope doesnt matter at all. gen 5 ssd's will reach impressive sequential speed, might have more TBW and random IO, but realistically, for a game drive, even a SATA SSD is perfectly adequate and upgrading to a gen 4 NVME SSD would lower your loading times by a whole 3 seconds, which you will never feel, gen 5 is even less noticable.
QLC vs TLC is a lot more interesting discussion. Both drives will degrade rapidly once the SLC cache is exhausted, but it is far more drastic for QLC drives. But with PCIe gen4 or gen 5 speeds, your 5000 or 7500 Mbit/s drive will now do... 1500 Mbit/s instead, which is still pretty fast and more than enough for any use case besides copying 200 GB files around. QLC drives also have far lower TBW, but again, unless you are writing 200 GB a day, its unlikely you will hit those limits. I've had a 1 TB SATA SSD since 2020 that is currently on 112 TB of written data and its been my OS drive. Got 20 more years until i reach the 600 TBW.
DRAM has become far less important ever since HBM has become a thing and very few workloads benefit from a DRAM in a meaningful way now.
Realistically, nearly any SSD that performs predictably is entirely sufficient for everybody who isn't a video editor or something. I specifically call predictably because there are some weird SSDs, that really do behave randomly once the SLC cache is exhausted, which is more infuriating than knowing you are now on a perma 2000 mbit/s sequential speed.
horizon936@reddit
Thanks for the extremely detailed informative response!
Microsoft has been making big promises for DirectStorage lately, so who knows... I also play D4 a lot and it feels nice to have. Also, the PS5 has something similar and it largely pushes the game industry in that direction as well.
That being said, I'd be very impressed if Gen5 offered any benefit over Gen4 for DirectStorage games in the next couple of years.
Efficient_Guest_6593@reddit
Incorrect. QLC without cache can crawl to 50-150mb/s TLC down to 300-600mb/s regardless of the pcei gen that is for the controller. Flash can't reach that fast and you won't find SLC or MLC anymore.
Still have a 1TB MLC Sata SSD (96layer)... Those are old and still at 100%... Won't find MLC on name now.
300-600mb/s once the cache is terminated is extremely decent. 50-150mb on the other hand (QLC), might as well get a 7200rpm drive
esw123@reddit
It may help you save 20-30 minutes per 24 hour work on heavy tasks like photogrammetry. Otherwise not worth it.
FloxaY@reddit
gen 4 is fine but dont get the p3 plus as it is a qlc drive..
Intelligent_Shame611@reddit (OP)
Thx for the feedback. Sorry for the stupid question, but what is a qlc drive? What would you recommend instead? Thx
Lt_Muffintoes@reddit
Quad layer
It degrades faster, because each read write cycle stresses the material more. It is cheaper to make because you get more storage per layer.
TLC is triple layer
Powerful-Ad2869@reddit
hey sorry but upon reading the comment i also want to ask, so the P3 Plus doesnt affect gaming performance but it degrades faster? I am also looking to get a new SSD myself
AtlQuon@reddit
Level, not layer. It is about the voltage steps internally that are possible. Triple = 8 voltages levels/states, quad = 16 levels/states. The closer the steps are the easier the cell misreads them and thus wears out.
SSDs are layered, but that is another design choice as my TLC SSDs are mostly 64, 92 or 176 layers. Irrelevant of being TLC or QLC for that matter.
Lt_Muffintoes@reddit
TIL, thank you
Funny-Carob-4572@reddit
Nope I kept my gen 4
Zero problems
Intelligent_Shame611@reddit (OP)
The cheapest 4TB Gen4 TLC drive I can find is a Lexar NM790. 476 USD. Thx everyone for the help
Efficient_Guest_6593@reddit
Look for Netac NV7000-t and fanxiang SS660 both 4TB, make sure it's from official stores and the VAT is removed anyways so it's like having 20% off on checkout.
Also make sure it's TLC drives not the QLC those have half the endurance and are slower
Efficient_Guest_6593@reddit
I would get the fanxiang S660 4TB or Netac NV7000-t from their official store in Ali. Got a 2TB NV7000-t (TLC 232layer) for 135£ in January, on sale etc you can still get the 4TB for like 275£
Didonko@reddit
I've got both a gen 4 and gen 5 (990 pro and 9100 pro) and so far haven't seen any observable performance difference between the two.
Correx96@reddit
Get a gen4 with tlc. More than enough
PembyVillageIdiot@reddit
You couldn’t even tell the difference in games with a 3.0 drive just get any reputable TLC nvme and not worry about it
118shadow118@reddit
it wouldn't, get the cheaper one