Best SSD for gaming in 2023 – budget & M.2s included

Choosing the best SSD can be difficult, however, with this comprehensive guide, you'll be equipped with the knowledge to make the most informed decision on your next SSD purchase

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As you’re looking to improve the speed of your storage, then one of the main ways to do so is the including an SSD. So looking at the best SSD for gaming in 2023 is the way to go. Using one of those will certainly speed up your loading speeds especially when it comes to upgrading over a hard drive spinning disk.

Best SSD for gaming in 2023: our top picks

SSDs, not to be confused with some of the best external SSDs, can increase your storage but also drastically cut down your loading and program launch times when it comes to gaming. And fairly recently, they gained even more popularity as there are now some excellent SSD for PS5 which act similarly to the SSD solution for Xbox Series X (the Seagate expansion card).

So if you’re looking to optimize your storage and get the most out of your PC or console – you’re in the right place. Let’s dive and take a look at what we think are some of the best SSDs for gaming out there today.

Best SSD for gaming in 2023: reviews

The Best SSD For Gaming

Editor’s Pick

Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB

Read/Write

3,500 / 3,300 MB/s

Capacity

500GB

Interface

NVMe 1.3

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Pros

• One of the quickest available
• Improved longevity

Cons

• Doesn’t have a huge capacity
• Fairly expensive

Samsungs 970 EVO plus was released earlier this year and likely marks the last PCIe 3.0 version before we move onto the higher performance PCIe 4.0 which will coincide with the release of AMD’s 3rd Gen Ryzen chips, due out later this summer. The new 970 Evo Plus came to shelves at almost half the price of the 970 EVO’s release price which arrived a little less than a year ago making this SSD extremely good value for money. You can thank the dramatic drop in memory prices for this.

So what we have here is an extremely efficient SSD which, from a consumer point of view, is much more powerful than the majority of the SSDs in its price range. For this reason, we have given the Evo Plus the crown for best NVME performer this 2019 and it’s hard to argue against it. If you have room for it in your budget we definitely recommend spending the extra over the 860 EVO which is currently in our $1000 build.

Second best SSD for gaming

The Next Best SSD For Gaming

WD Black SN750 NVMe PCIe

Read/Write

Up to 3430/ 2900 MB/s

Capacity

1TB

Interface

NVME PCIe 3.0

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Pros

• Excellent performance
• 6x faster than their fastest SATA
• Well trusted brand

Cons

• Can be considered expensive

Western Digital is closing the gap rapidly between themselves and top-tier SSD developers giving consumers, even more, to think about in today’s market. Their most recent addition comes in the shape of the SN750 and it comes to the table boasting speeds similar to that of the 970 Evo Plus. Western Digital has been quoted saying the SN750 has their fastest ever NVME interface making it 6X faster than their best SATA SSD providing performance stats similar to that of the 970 range from Samsung. Very impressive considering its price tag.

The WD Black SN750 secures our runner-up position for best SSD for gaming this time round, however, if they keep making huge leaps forward we may see them surpass Samsung someday soon.

Best top end SSD for gaming

Best High-end SSD For Gaming

Sabrent 2TB Rocket

Read/Write

5000 / 4400MB/s

Capacity

2TB

Interface

NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen4 x4 Interface

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Pros

• Significantly faster speeds than PCIe 3.0
• 5000 MB/s (read) / 4400 MB/s (write)
• 2TB Capacity

Cons

• Very Expensive

In theory, the Sabrent Rocket 4.0 is one of the best SSD M.2’s we have ever used and this 2TB version is a great option for those looking to finish off their high-end build with some premium storage. This thing is fast, efficient, and actually well-priced when you compare its specs to the competition.

The only reason this doesn’t sit at the top is due to the rather large price tag but for all intents and purposes, it is top drawer in terms of quality and speed. This Gen4 PCIe M.2 is available in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB, boasting read and write speeds of 5000MB/s and 4400MB/s respectively. Now that’s quick.

Ultimately, until the next iteration of these hits the shelves and doubles the Gen3 speeds, consumers may want to hold back investment but rest assured, this is a high-quality piece of kit.

Best value SSD for gaming

Best Value SSD For Gaming

Adata SX8200 NAND NVMe M.2

Read/Write

3200/1700MB/s

Capacity

1TB

Interface

PCIe 3.0

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Pros

• Extremely good value for money
• 1TB Capacity
• Excellent performance

Cons

• Not the most trusted brand
• Varying performance under different hardware setups

Adata isn’t usually the first on our list when recommending, well anything, but after extensive research and testing, we were seriously surprised with what Adata had managed to produce with their SX8200 M.2 SSD.

First and foremost, Adata isn’t the most trusted of brands, however, they are growing within the community and are starting to provide consumers with solid options for hardware. So, let’s talk about performance. The SX8200 currently sits in the 99th percentile for performance, it falls just short of the 970 EVO plus in this regard but comes to shelves at a fraction of the price making it incredible value for money.

We are yet to discover how this SSD handles itself over time but one thing is for sure. If you can get a year out of this product then you’ve got yourself a serious bargain.

Best budget SSD for gaming

Best Budget SSD For Gaming

Intel 660p NVME M.2 1TB

Read/Write

1800/1800MBs

Capacity

1TB

Interface

NVME M.2

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Pros

• Great budget selection
• Fairly decent performance stats

Cons

• Not the fastest out there

The Intel 660p gets our top budget 1TB SSD solution and for good reason, it is truly incredible value for money. Intel has designed this SSD to specifically target budget consumers and why not!? it’s a great idea and one many will take advantage of. As far as 1TB SSD goes, you simply can not get anything close to this for price/performance standards. Not to mention the peace of mind you get when purchasing Intel products.

Many of the drives on this list are 500GB or below due to the expense of SSDs these days, however, our budget pick comes with a huge 1TB storage capacity. This means you not only have enough space to accommodate your OS and primary game titles, you’ll also be able to store your additional media library here as well. No need for additional HDD capacity.

A truly fantastic cheap SSD that has all the features and tech you’d expect but at a much more affordable price tag.

Best budget 2.5″ SSD for gaming

Best Budget 2.5″ SSD For Gaming

Crucial MX500 500GB

Read/Write

560/ 510MB/s

Capacity

500GB

Interface

SATA 2.5

Dimensions

4.06 x 0.28 x 2.76 inches

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Pros

• Very affordable
• Good starter size SSD

Cons

• SATA
• Much slower than NVME

In case you forgot, there are SATA SSD’s out there, unfortunately, however, only one features in our best-of list and that’s purely down to NVME PCIe SSDs becoming much more affordable. The difference in speed between the 2 is pretty exponential with the NVME boasting over 6x the speed of a SATA SSD. This being said, there is still a market for SATA SSD and that market is predominantly people on a budget.

The Crucial MX500 is way slower than everything else on the list, but in the same breath, it’s much cheaper. We’d always recommend going for an NVME-type SSD but if you can’t quite stomach the cost, 500GB of SATA is a great place to start.

Just be aware, if you only have this as your primary and backup hard drive, keep in mind that it will fill up quickly… especially with games and 4k media being much more space-demanding.

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How we choose

All of the SSDs on this list have been hand-selected for a reason. First and foremost, we conducted a search to discover which SSDs gamers tend to prefer while trying to balance those with the highest reviews against those with the lowest price tags.

Reviews from various manufacturers were taken into account, as well as reviews from others in the PC gaming industry. Next, we get our hands on as many of our recommendations as possible so we can see the build quality up close and test how they perform.

How we test

From graphics cards to SSDs, we like to get hands-on with all the hardware we recommend. Testing the products is a huge part of our overall selection process and it is a way we can be sure that a specific option is the best for the job. Products must pass our testing which is largely a lot of gaming, with some other boring stuff but most if not every recommendation will have gone through a strict testing process.

With an SSD, especially the ones we list as the best for gaming, we need to assess build quality, performance, and finally, value. This process enables us to provide you with an accurate take on how well individual SSDs perform and, ultimately, if they are worth your hard-earned cash.

Things to consider

PC components are considered an investment, so regardless of what the piece of hardware is, there are always going to be a few key things to consider before making that final purchase. In this section, we are going to go over why you should buy an SSD, talk you through storage capacity, and briefly explain the different interfaces, to ensure you walk away with the right product for your individual needs.

Storage capacity

Due to their faster speeds and more expensive manufacturing methods, SSDs are much more expensive per gigabyte than HDDs. Because of this, most enthusiasts prefer to have an SSD in their system alongside an HDD, so they aren’t losing out on either performance or storage space. When selecting your SSD, you’ll want to figure out how much of it you actually intend to use. If you already have an HDD to use alongside it, use the HDD to store most of your media and games.

Your operating system and your most-played games should be stored on your SSD. Modern games come in at anywhere from 10-50GB, so keep this in mind when comparing the SSDs that we’ve provided. If you aren’t going to supplement your SSD with an HDD, you’ll want to spend more on your storage to compensate. You should also get used to managing your existing storage space more carefully.

Interface

There are three main interfaces for SSDs: SATA 3, M.2, and PCI-E.

SATA 3 is an interface shared by standard HDDs and has limited speeds when compared to M.2 or PCIe. However, even with the SATA speed penalty, SSDS go far beyond an HDD’s speed capabilities.

M.2 is both an interface and a form factor, designed for tiny SSDs and tiny slots for them to plug into. These slots can run a SATA or PCIe signal for the same or better performance, all while saving significantly on space for installation.

The PCI-E SSD is mounted in the same way as a desktop GPU: in a PCI-E slot. PCI-E SSDs have world-class performance and are most often used in enterprise environments, thanks to the memory bandwidth and speed offered by a PCI-E slot over alternatives.

	SATA 3	M.2	PCIe
Speed	6 GB/s	7.8 (PCIe 4 x4)/15.75 (PCIe 5 x4) GB/s	7.8 (PCIe 4 x4)/15.75 (PCIe 5 x4) GB/s

Why buy an SSD for gaming?

Roundup aside, some of you may be left wondering why to use an SSD for gaming, or what performance benefits it actually offers. We’re going to hop into that now. If you’re buying an SSD expecting it to boost your in-game FPS, it won’t. Unless the game has issues loading in assets during gameplay that hurt its FPS, your performance won’t see a boost from investing in an SSD.

Where an SSD will make a difference on the gaming front is in loading times. Loading times, especially loading screens between maps, will plummet significantly on an SSD versus any hard drive. SSDs will also improve your experience outside of games. Transferring large games or large files will become much quicker on an SSD when compared to an HDD.

Additionally, if you install your OS and your programs on your SSD, everything will run much faster. Even on systems with weak CPUs, the drive is the main bottleneck behind operating system boot times and program launch times. This is why many people buy SSDs to revive old computers. It’s one of the best user-experience upgrades that a user can buy for their system.

SSDs, as a whole, do come with one key downside: price-per-GB. Because of this, people generally supplement an SSD with a larger, cheaper HDD.

Final Word

There we have it, the best SSDs for gaming all in one place. Now, this may seem a little M.2 heavy but they are the fastest and require nothing more than being plugged in, with no cable management required. There is still plenty of use for the 2,5″ SSDs but they just lose out across the board. Finally, that brings us to the end, our personal favorite SSD would be the Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB, thanks to its fair pricing and great performance.

In truth, a SATA SSD over a PCI-E SSD won’t result in much of a difference in gaming. However what you will see is huge improvements in overall, general system usage. We can not recommend an SSD enough, it is truly one of the greatest system improvements you can buy.

Best SSD for gaming FAQs

Which brand SSD is best?

There are plenty of SSD brands to choose from. However, one stands out as a fan favorite and the best choice is Samsung. Its Evo range of NVMe’s is a great pick for the range of options.

What are the 3 types of SSDs?

There are three main types of SSDs to consider. One of which is a SATA SSD that connects to your motherboard with a SATA cable and is mounted elsewhere in the PC. Whilst the other two mount to the motherboard directly, which are NVMe and SATA M.2s. Although both connect to the M.2 mount, they don’t have the same speed. As the SATA  one will still use the older, slower controller as the SATA SSD. So NVMe will excel in terms of speed but at a price.