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The truth about PC gaming on SSDs vs. HDDs, tested with real data

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58% Informative

An old-school hard drive that spins up before it can read or write data is 100 times faster.

The latest PCIe 5 SSDs are spitting out at 14,500MB/s , compared to 150MB /S.

Even the slowest hard drives were transformative, and the PC experience was more responsive.

Every second that passes is a second you won't ever get back.

Cyberpunk 2077 was over 10 times slower to load on an HDD versus an SSD.

Marvel Rivals was the slowest of all three games on an SSD, yet not that much slower on an HDD .

In our list of recommended SSDs, our favorite budget option is the 500 GB WD Blue SN5000.