Video games are getting larger. And that implies that storage is changing into a key component for tomorrow’s digital worlds. Pink Useless Redemption II has a completely gorgeous world to discover, but it surely rolls in at 116GB. DCS World in the meantime can max out at over 250GB, gulp, and there are many different examples of video games that suck up your storage prefer it’s going out of vogue—try PC gaming’s biggest storage hogs for extra. Don’t fret although, PC storage is greater than maintaining with this demand, and together with SSDs getting larger, they’ve gotten quite a bit quicker and cheaper this 12 months too.
Issues truly kicked off in direction of the top of final 12 months, when the Samsung 980 Pro was let unfastened on the world. This was a brand new breed of PCIe 4.0 drives that scoffed within the common path of the first-gen SSDs and managed peak learn speeds of seven,000MB/s and writes at as much as 5,000MB/s. It was a lot, a lot faster than anything on the market.
It did not maintain that successful mantle for lengthy although, and simply earlier than 2021 bought going we noticed the WD_Black SN850 launched, which immediately leapfrogged the efficiency good points of the Samsung drive and turn out to be our favourite gaming SSD just about immediately. As 2021 bought began correctly, we have seen loads of speedy drives launched which have stored the market aggressive.
Importantly, this has helped drive costs down, and meaning you’ll be able to choose up a speedy next-gen drive in larger capacities than you could possibly beforehand. To the purpose the place we see 1TB NVMe SSDs because the defacto entry-level dimension for any mainstream system and 2TB drives are not the reserve of the insanely well-heeled. 512GB SSDs aren’t a nasty possibility for funds methods nonetheless, however you will see that your self operating out of house in a short time.
Now you’ve got bought some background of how we bought right here, we will spotlight essentially the most thrilling SSDs to be launched over the past twelve months.
The very best SSD of 2021: the nominees
The winner of the PC Gamer {Hardware} Award for the very best SSD shall be introduced on New Yr’s Eve. It is all to play for, and any one among these three is totally deserving of the crown.
