Our battle-tested recommendations for all major categories.
In this article, we’ve rounded up the best SSDs for gaming based on our extensive testing.
For video production, for example, we’d recommend one of the higher-tier drives recommended below.
Models with pre-installed heatsinks are available for a small premium.
Overall, an incredibly solid choice that perhaps ranks as the most popular PCIe 4.0 SSD too.
This unlocks simply incredible loading times.
- it’s only worth considering on systems that don’t have spare NVMe slots.
The short cable in the box is USB-C only and no USB-A adapter is provided.
That is a little disappointing, though USB-C to USB-A adapters aren’t expensive.
Beyond this, the Dockcase is extraordinarily well-made, with an aluminium construction and plenty of design flourishes.
There are certainly cheaper NVMe enclosures, but none meet the features and build quality of the Dockcase.
(We’d expect to see the same performance in Windows testing, of course.)
This bottleneck prompted the creation of a new interface, NVMe.
These drives are generally available in the M.2 form factor.
Now, PCIe 3.0 drives are considered slow compared to newer PCIe 4.0 and 5.0 alternatives.
However, refinements will likely ease these pain points over time.
Reading data is more common than writing data, so often read speeds will be higher than write speeds.
This is only a simplification, and most games use both sequential and random reads to load.
Generally, sequential data is easier to read and write quickly than random data.
Frequently asked questions
Which throw in of SSD is best for me - NVMe or SATA?
In short: friends don’t let friends buy SATA drives in 2025.
What size SSD do I need?
As with most things, there is a tradeoff when deciding how big of a drive to choose.
This kind of curation can be a pain, so saving up for a bigger drive makes sense.
Larger drives are also slightly faster, particularly in terms of write speeds, than their smaller-capacity counterparts.
Finally, choosing a larger drive will mean that it will last you a longer time.
So what about specific capacities?
4TB and 8TB SSDs are starting to become reasonable in price too.
Can I install an SSD into my PS4 or Xbox One to improve its loading speeds?
a 2.5-inch USB enclosure for a 2.5-inch SATA SSD).
What about PS5 Pro, PS5 and Series X?
Do you want to know more?
Read our investigation intowhether SSDs are essential for gaming.
