Best SSD for gaming 2025

The WD Black SN850X is one of the best SSD for many players because it’s one of many quickest PCIe 4.0 SSDs you should purchase, with quick sequential learn and write speeds of seven,300MB/s and 6,600MB/s, respectively. Extra importantly, it presents this efficiency for a really cheap worth.

This degree of efficiency not solely improves recreation loading occasions in comparison with laborious drives and older SSDs, however your gaming PC can even boot rapidly and deal with massive file transfers with ease. Crucially, whereas PCIe 5 drives are a lot quicker – greater than twice as quick – their additional pace is sort of utterly wasted on a typical gaming PC, so that you’re higher off saving your cash and getting this drive as an alternative.

Should you’re apprehensive about potential thermal throttling impacting the WD Black SN850X, you possibly can decide it up with an non-obligatory heatsink for peace of thoughts. Higher nonetheless, the heatsink comes with a splash of RGB, so it could look cool whereas staying cool.

Learn our WD Black SN850X overview.

Constructing on the reasonably priced SN570, Western Digital’s Blue SN580 NVMe SSD is a succesful gaming SSD with as much as 2TB of storage and a strong 900TBW endurance. It presents you respectable learn and write speeds for one of many lowest costs available on the market.

Throughout testing, we discovered that the random 4K efficiency of the SN580 was a good bit slower than the quickest PCIe 4.0 SSDs we examined. But it surely’s one of the best you may get below $100 with out sacrificing capability, pace, or each. It is the highest possibility for constructing a gaming PC on a funds. Should you can afford a bit additional, although, it is nicely value stepping as much as the Samsung 980 Professional or WD Black SN850X.

Learn our WD Blue SN580 overview.

Now a long-standing veteran of the SSD market, the Samsung 980 Professional can typically be discovered at a discount worth, and it is nonetheless quick sufficient for most individuals’s wants. Making full use of the PCIe 4.0 interface, Samsung says this drive can learn at as much as 7,000MB/s, and it hit a strong 6,866MB/s in our exams.

The WD Black SN850X above is faster for write speeds and recreation loading occasions, however the 980 Professional is usually out there for a less expensive worth, and you will barely discover the distinction between the 2 drives in most real-world use. In addition to, the highest write pace of 5,000MB/s nonetheless places the Samsung 980 Professional nicely forward of older PCIe 3.0 SSDs. Samsung presents a helpful software program bundle, together with migration software program for straightforward transfers out of your present Home windows set up to your new drive.

This drive throttled and not using a heatsink in our exams, so be sure to both purchase a mannequin with a heatsink pre-fitted or use one in every of your motherboard’s M2 heatsinks if it has them. Keep watch over costs, although, as they typically fluctuate. If the WD Black SN850X is on provide and cheaper than the Samsung 980 Professional, it is the higher SSD to purchase.

Learn our Samsung 980 Professional overview.

If you do not have a PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot in your motherboard, and also you wish to push your PCIe 4.0 M.2 connector so far as it should go, then the Samsung 990 Professional is the drive for you. Whereas this drive could not meet Samsung’s 7,450MB/s claims in our exams, its prime pace of seven,198MB/s nonetheless makes it quicker than another PCIe 4.0 drive we have reviewed. If efficiency is your prime precedence, this can be a nice SSD.

After we first reviewed the 990 Professional, we gave it a little bit of a kicking for its excessive worth, however the price has since come crashing down, to the purpose the place it is typically going for below $100 for a 1TB capability. That is an excellent worth for the efficiency on provide.

Nevertheless, this drive does get scorching when it is working at full pace, so we advocate both shopping for the heatsink model or utilizing not less than a fundamental M.2 heatsink in your motherboard. By way of recreation load occasions, there’s additionally no profit to purchasing this drive over the WD Black SN850X, however in the event you frequently shift round massive quantities of information, that is now a quick drive for an affordable worth.

Learn our full Samsung 990 Professional overview.

The WD Black SN8100 is comfortably the quickest SSD we have ever examined, making it the go-to possibility for these in search of the final word in storage efficiency. What’s extra, it is already out there in as much as 4TB sizes and an 8TB model is about to reach this yr too.

The drive’s sequential write efficiency leads its spectacular efficiency figures nevertheless it’s quick throughout the board. What’s extra, its excessive benchmark outcomes translate to features in real-world exams too, although the true impression for many players is sort of small.

The primary draw back to this drive is that it runs scorching, so you may want to purchase both the heatsink-equipped model or guarantee your motherboard has an honest M.2 SSD heatsink and an affordable quantity of airflow directed in direction of that heatsink.

Then, in fact, there’s the truth that it is an costly drive, with it costing practically double the worth of slower PCIe 4 drives, for any given capability. For many players, the additional is not value spending, however in the event you push your SSDs laborious, that is the drive to get.

Learn our full WD Black SN8100 overview.

Let’s be clear, we do not now advocate anybody purchase a SATA SSD over an M.2 for constructing a contemporary gaming PC. M.2 drives are a lot quicker and infrequently cheaper for any given capability.

Nevertheless, there are just a few situations the place a SATA SSD improve remains to be the only option. Maybe you might have an older system that’s nonetheless utilizing an outdated laborious drive or SATA SSD and simply wants a light-weight improve to a bigger, quicker drive or you might have perhaps an outdated NAS that makes use of SATA drives and even an outdated video games console that may settle for SATA drives. For any of those, the Samsung 870 EVO must be your go-to improve. It is quick sufficient – SATA drives are restricted by their SATA interface anyway – and is reasonably priced.

It is not a high-end drive so would not have significantly excessive write endurance or sustained write pace however neither of those issues for the use such a drive ought to get. Should you’re trying to construct a system that hammers your SSD laborious with plenty of fixed writing and rewriting to the drive, you should not be utilizing outdated SATA drives for this function anyway.

The Samsung 870 EVO is on the market in as much as 4TB capacities so will get you a probably large improve in storage over an outdated SATA drive and its efficiency remains to be quick sufficient that you will discover an evening and day distinction in comparison with a tough drive and it will be a lot quicker than some older SSDs too.

PCIe 5.0 SSDs just like the MP700 Professional push storage speeds nicely above PCIe 4.0 however, for the second, their efficiency typically comes with added price and thermal issues. Corsair’s MP700 Professional makes coping with these difficulties the best of any drive we have examined, with its built-in fan offering constant cooling, plus its worth would not break the financial institution.

That includes respective learn and write speeds of as much as 12,400MB/s (12.4GB/s) and 11,800MB/s (11.8GB/s), the MP700 Professional is not the very quickest PCIe 5 SSD nevertheless it’s nonetheless very speedy. These specs naturally make the drive a wonderful selection for gaming, however enhancements in comparison with cheaper, competing PCIe 4.0 drives are minimal in terms of Home windows boot and game-load occasions.

For people who require a dual-purpose drive, although, significantly for situations the place extended learn and write speeds are a precedence, the MP700 Professional emerges a reduce above all different PCIe 5.0 SSDs due to its energetic heatsink. Whereas its fan curve sadly cannot be configured, the out-of-the-box efficiency ensured the temperature of Corsair’s drive peaked at simply 65°C in our testing.

Corsair additionally presents the MP700 Professional with a Hydro X Sequence water block, for fanatic builders rocking a customized water-cooling loop. Whereas there may be sadly no passive heatsink out there for the SSD, you possibly can seize it with none heatsink by any means and place your speeds on the mercy of your motherboard heatsinks if you want. Nevertheless, given how scorching PCIe 5.0 storage will get, we strongly advocate choosing the mannequin with the energetic cooler, particularly because it solely prices $10-20 additional.

Learn our Corsair MP700 Professional overview.

Once you’re trying to improve to the SSD in your laptop computer, you wish to hit a stability between thermals and efficiency. You don’t need a drive that can find yourself throttling its pace as a result of it is getting too scorching contained in the tight confines of your laptop computer, however you additionally do not wish to be caught with gradual speeds. That is the place the Samsung 990 Evo hits simply the best stability.

Do not be fooled by the PCIe 5.0 claims Samsung makes about this drive, because it solely makes use of two PCIe 5.0 lanes, which successfully halves its efficiency. Nevertheless, it does work nicely as a power-efficient 4x PCIe 4.0 SSD that does not want a heatsink, making it perfect for putting in in a laptop computer. It could possibly learn at as much as 5,000MB/s, which is quicker than any PCIe 3.0 SSD, and its 4,200MB/s write pace is strong too.

What’s extra, this drive is usually closely discounted, which means you possibly can typically decide up a 2TB drive for below $120, which is a discount for that degree of capability. Add the truth that would not want a heatsink to stop it from throttling, and you’ve got a perfect laptop computer SSD improve.

Normal 2280 M.2 SSDs will not match inside your Steam Deck or Steam Deck OLED, so not one of the above drives can be utilized with this handheld (and a number of other different handhelds have this limitation too). As a substitute, to get a Steam Deck storage improve, you possibly can seize a 2230 M.2 SSD, like the superb TeamGroup MP44S.

This drive’s 4x PCIe 4.0 interface means its efficiency is faster than you’d anticipate for such a small drive. In our exams, it fortunately reads at 5,089MB/s and writes at 3,702MB/s, which is even faster than TeamGroup’s claims, and that is and not using a heatsink too. What’s extra, you should purchase this drive in an enormous 2TB capability, providing you with a great deal of house to put in one of the best Steam Deck video games.

The one downside is that the Steam Deck’s PCIe 3.0 interface means you possibly can’t run this drive at its full pace within the deck, nevertheless it nonetheless runs as quick as another top-end PCIe 3.0 drive. What’s extra, its PCIe 4.0 assist offers it some potential future proofing for the Steam Deck 2 if it finally ends up utilizing a PCIe 4.0 interface, whereas additionally making it a perfect improve for the Asus ROG Ally X and different handhelds. This drive offers you a great deal of high-speed handheld storage and at $134.99 it is also moderately priced for a large 2TB of capability.

Learn our full TeamGoup MP44S overview.

The Samsung T9 Moveable SSD is the corporate’s present top-tier exterior SSD that packs in peak efficiency of as much as 2,000MB/s – quick sufficient to switch 2GB in a single second. This makes it excellent for anybody needing to sling large information forwards and backwards to their exterior storage. All that efficiency additionally ensures you possibly can very safely use this drive as an exterior Steam or different recreation library drive.

It is also out there in capacities or 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB whereas being very small and difficult due to a rubberized casing. It additionally presents {hardware} encryption for peace of thoughts.

Its pace is overkill for many consumers wants, with slower drives nonetheless in a position to ship quick recreation load occasions and fairly quick file transfers – and you might be paying a premium for that additional pace – however in the event you completely want one of the best, the T9 delivers.

Get the total image in our Samsung T9 overview.