Nvme or SATA SSD

[pvupilot 104]

Hi guys,

I know the difference between the two, but I’m more interested in seeing what your guys thoughts are on whether there would be enough or any improvement picking up a Nvme drive for MSFS over a SATA SSD? I know load times are improved for other sims but how about actual in game performance/loading? 

Thanks!

[w6kd 3,649]

No difference in game performance--all the sims do lookahead scenery caching, so the scenery data is fetched from disk into RAM well in advance so that transfer speed is a non-issue.  The one exception is large photoscenery areas, where the the higher xfer speed can make a marginal difference.

Loading time isn't really better with NVME, either...the big bottleneck, at least in ESP sims (FSX/P3D), is processing the scenery layers during load.  SSDs are a big improvement over HDDs, but anything beyond a SATA III SSD's throughput is really of no significant benefit.

I like NVME mostly for the physical simplicity--no mounts or cable runs to mess with--they really clean up the case interior layout.

 

[pvupilot 104]

Good to know, thank you for the detailed response! I agree the NVME is an awesome form factor and *might* get one for the sim for that reason but with the cost of a 1tb NVME vs 1tb SATA SSD, I might try and save what I can. 

[Pilot53 180]

Just to clarify, nvme is not a form factor.  The form factor is m.2, and its available in nvme and sata ssd's.  Nvme means the drive runs using pci-e instead of the sata interface.  I like a smaller nvme m.2 for the boot drive, and a sata m.2 drive for capacity. Huge nvme drives are still very expensive.  But i agree, the m.2 form factor is awesome for a clean build with no cables or drive mounts.

[pvupilot 104]

Yeah I should’ve clarified. I have 2 m.2 slots and currently using only 1 for the boot drive, and just SATA SSDs for the other drives.