I'm looking for a new SSD (for gaming), and so far I'm leaning to the Samsung 960, although still not sure about either the Pro or the EVO version.
My motherboard is a P8Z68-V Pro, so I'm limited to PCIe 2.0 speeds (running the SSD over a M.2 to PCIe adapter).
I'm aware that I will not get the full benefits of the 960 until I move it to a newer system, which I intend to do later.
For an idea about the type of load that I'm going to put it through, I intend to spend less time staring at the screen while loading each new map on Battlefield 1 (I always finish loading the map only after everyone else took all the vehicles), or while starting up Cities: Skylines with thousands of custom mods and assets (currently takes me a good 10 minutes of load time).
Questions:
Running the 960 on a PCIe x4 2.0 will limit me to a bandwidth of 2.0GB/s. Although both 960 models are rated to a theoretical upper limit of over 3GB/s for sequential read/write, most trusted reviews (example) put them around the 2GB/s ballpark for real-use scenarios in sequential read/write situations, and much, much lower numbers when it comes to random/4k read/write situations. So, in a real world scenario (read, gaming), am I actually going to be bottlenecked by my PCIe 2.0 speeds, and if so, to what real extent?
Is anyone here in the same boat as me? Maybe you migrated from a SATA SSD to a PCIe/M.2 SSD on a PCIe 2.0 capable M/B, and maybe later to a PCIe 3.0 capable M/B. Your input would be most enlightening! I'd just like to have a realistic opinion of what to expect in terms of performance, according to your experience.
Last but not least, it has been quite a while since I've adventured with new hardware, and some things I'm completely out of touch with. So, what is this NVMe thing all about, and does it matter for me at all, with my motherboard? I don't intend to boot from the new SSD, just to put my games in it.
Thank you
My motherboard is a P8Z68-V Pro, so I'm limited to PCIe 2.0 speeds (running the SSD over a M.2 to PCIe adapter).
I'm aware that I will not get the full benefits of the 960 until I move it to a newer system, which I intend to do later.
For an idea about the type of load that I'm going to put it through, I intend to spend less time staring at the screen while loading each new map on Battlefield 1 (I always finish loading the map only after everyone else took all the vehicles), or while starting up Cities: Skylines with thousands of custom mods and assets (currently takes me a good 10 minutes of load time).
Questions:
Running the 960 on a PCIe x4 2.0 will limit me to a bandwidth of 2.0GB/s. Although both 960 models are rated to a theoretical upper limit of over 3GB/s for sequential read/write, most trusted reviews (example) put them around the 2GB/s ballpark for real-use scenarios in sequential read/write situations, and much, much lower numbers when it comes to random/4k read/write situations. So, in a real world scenario (read, gaming), am I actually going to be bottlenecked by my PCIe 2.0 speeds, and if so, to what real extent?
Is anyone here in the same boat as me? Maybe you migrated from a SATA SSD to a PCIe/M.2 SSD on a PCIe 2.0 capable M/B, and maybe later to a PCIe 3.0 capable M/B. Your input would be most enlightening! I'd just like to have a realistic opinion of what to expect in terms of performance, according to your experience.
Last but not least, it has been quite a while since I've adventured with new hardware, and some things I'm completely out of touch with. So, what is this NVMe thing all about, and does it matter for me at all, with my motherboard? I don't intend to boot from the new SSD, just to put my games in it.
Thank you
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