Experience lightning-fast loading screens with the best M.2 SSD for gaming. This reliable upgrade enhances your day-to-day PC usage, as not only does an M.2 NVMe SSD provide a much faster overall experience than other types of drive, but it's also one of the most affordable upgrades you can make for your PC.
The best M.2 SSD for gaming is the WD Black SN850X. It manages to balance performance with very reasonable pricing, making it a great shout for any modern gaming rig. If you're looking for something cheaper, however, then the Lexar NM970 is the best budget M.2 SSD by far, thanks to its blistering performance for a surprisingly low price.
We're constantly testing the very latest drives to identify the top NVMe SSDs for PC gaming. 512 GB used to be enough, but these days we consider 1 TB to be a more realistic minimum, and if you can stretch to a 2 TB or 4 TB drive, all the better. We still think you should be buying Gen 4 drives over Gen 5, as when it comes to real-world performance a Gen 4 drive is still all you really need in 99% of scenarios. Still, if you have your heart set on a Gen 5 drive and don't mind the cost, we do recommend the Team Group T-Force Z540.
Jeremy likes CPUs. And GPUs. And SSDs. A lot. Which is just as well, since he's been writing about them since the early Mesozoic period. Or at least since Intel released those early stuttering SSDs. Remember them? Good times.
The quick list
Best overall
The WD Black SN850X is a fantastic all-rounder when it comes to gaming SSDs, and even though it's been around for a while it's still the best overall NVMe drive out there right now.
Best budget
The Lexar NM790 is a great performing Gen 4 SSD from a respected manufacturer that costs a lot less than you might expect, while making very few real-world compromises.
Best high capacity
If you want masses of high-speed NVMe storage for a not-so-massive price, then Team Group's MP44 is the obvious choice. It's very similar to the NM790 and there's nothing wrong with that SSD.
Best 2230 SSD
Need more storage in your Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally etc? Well, this 1 TB 2230 from Lexar is the one to get. Fast, cool, and great value for money. Shame there isn't a bigger version at the moment.
Best for PS5
The latest Phison controller in combination with some high-performance NAND flash memory makes the Silicon Power XS70 an extremely fast drive for Sony's PlayStation 5.
Best PCIe 5 SSD
If you really must have the fastest SSD possible in your gaming PC, then don't spend any more than you need to. The T-Force Z540 is the best Gen 5 SSD because it's super fast but not super expensive.
Recent updates
Updated 20 December 2024 to change our recommendation for best high capacity SSD to the Team Group MP44 as the previous pick, Nextorage's NEM-PA, is difficult to find in stores. Our other recommendations have all been checked to ensure they're still the best picks for each category, which they are!
The best gaming SSD
Our favorite WD Black SN850X config:
✅ If you want a great all-rounder: The SN850X has a winning combination of great speeds, cool running and affordability that's difficult to beat.
✅ If you don't want to worry about temps: Whether you go for the heatsink model or not, the WD Black SN850X stays chilled out.
❌ You want absolute cutting-edge performance: There are slightly faster drives, or much faster if you go for Gen 5, but realistically this is all the real-world speed you're going to need for the time being.
The best SSD for gaming is currently the WD Black SN850X, and while it might have been on this list for a while, it's still the one we'd pick for the best combination of all the things you might want from a gaming solid state drive.
PCIe Gen 5 is now a thing on both AMD and Intel platforms. But let’s be real. Your current PC almost certainly doesn’t have a PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot, and even if it does, Gen 5 drives run hot and cost a pretty penny. The WD Black SN850X might be something of a last hurrah for Gen 4 SSDs, but it's still the best one out there for an overall balance of cost, speed and efficiency.
The 1 TB model we reviewed is the entry-level option, which makes sense given the size of modern game installs. WD’s in-house controller chip, provided by compatriot SanDisk, has been revised, and we found that this—in addition to some higher-density NAND—means that the WD Black SN850X truly flies.
This WD drive makes use of the latest 2.0 version of the company's Game Mode drive management software. WD claims it improves game loading times courtesy of a so-called "read look-ahead" algorithm, which predictively caches game data. It now runs automatically, detecting when games are loaded. How much that kind of feature actually makes a difference in the real world is difficult to pin down.
What we do know is that, as a gaming drive, it puts on an excellent showing. With read speeds of 7,300 MB/s and 6,300 MB/s writes for the 1 TB model (6,600 MB/s for the others), it's a real performer and it stays cool, calm and collected while it does it.
We tested a version with WD's armour-style cooler, but in all honesty, it doesn't need one. It runs cool regardless of the heatsink, and even cooler than the WD Black SN850 that came before it. The old SN850 hit a rather toasty 77°C, whereas this new drive hits just 58°C under sustained load, which is quite an improvement.
The 4K random access results were maybe a little bit disappointing, showing little to no improvement over the previous drive. But other than that, this is a fantastic all-round drive and improves on its predecessor enough that we think it deserves to sit at the tippy-top of this list for the best gaming SSD. Fast gaming speeds, cool running, great pricing, and a software suite that finishes off a very attractive package—whether you go for that aggressive heatsink or not.
Read our full WD Black SN850X SSD review.
The best budget gaming SSD
Our favorite Lexar NM790 config:
✅ If you want top-end performance for less: The Lexar NM790 is damn near as fast as the top Gen 4 performers, but regularly comes in significantly cheaper
✅ If you don't want a heatsink: We tested the heatsink-less model and found its thermal performance to be great, making it a very good laptop or small form factor solution.
❌ You'd prefer some more known components: The controller and flash combination here is a bit of an anomaly, but we've had no problem with the drives we tested and are still using long term. Still, if cheaper components bother you, you might want to look elsewhere.
NVMe drives, especially some of the faster ones, used to be a bit of an expensive proposition. But thanks to some clever usage of components you might not be as familiar with, it's now possible to buy a really, really fast drive for less than you might expect. Enter, the Lexar NM790, an SSD that delivers as much meaningful performance as you could want while still remaining affordable. That makes it the best budget gaming SSD we've tested, and if you read on, I'll tell you exactly why.
While other gaming SSDs make use of known entities like the Phison E18 for a controller chip, the Lexar instead uses a lesser-known model, the MaxioTech MAP1602A, alongside some YMTC 232-layer TLC memory. If those sorts of unfamiliar names make you nervous, there's no need to worry. These components might make the drive cheaper overall, but when it comes to performance, they've really got the gaming goods.
Sequential read and write times? 7,400 MB/s and 6,500 MB/s respectively, putting the Lexar NM790 up there with some of the very fastest Gen 4 drives we've tested. With a 3,000 TBW rated endurance there's very little to worry about reliability-wise either, especially as the Lexar likes to run relatively cool.
We tested the heatsink-less 4 TB model and found that under moderate load, copying a 30 GB test folder, the Lexar managed a peak temperature of 57°C. That's surprisingly chilled out for such a fast drive with no heatsink, although if you're the sort of person that likes to wear braces with your belt just in case, a heatsink-equipped version is available for a little bit more, although in all honesty, it's not necessary to make sure the NM790 delivers its maximum performance.
In real-world usage, the NM790 makes use of some clever SLC caching to reach its top speeds with a large cache buffer, and we found this solution delivered excellent performance. While it is possible to push this system to its limits and find the cracks, if you're going to be gaming on this drive—and let's face it, that's probably why you're here—be rest assured that its gaming performance is superb.
You can even find one on discount fairly often if you're prepared to keep an eye on our cheap gaming SSD page, which of course we highly recommend. Still, even at full price this drive is a stormer for less, and easily our top pick for the best budget gaming SSD. Simple as that, folks. Simple as that.
Read our full Lexar NM790 4 TB review.
The best high capacity SSD
✅ You want an SSD with masses of space: 4 TB is as big as it gets right now, unless you want to spend an equally huge amount of money.
❌ Your PC doesn't have great cooling: The low thermal limit means you really need to ensure that the MP44 is covered by a good heatsink with lots of air flowing over it, if you want to avoid performance throttling.
With game install sizes just getting bigger and bigger (120 GB+ isn't unusual at all), 1 TB drives just aren't big enough. Even 2 TB might be a bit slim if you're using it to host the operating system, apps, and games. Fortunately, 4 TB SSDs are really dropping in price and the best high capacity gaming SSD right now is the Team Group MP44.
It's important to first note that Team Group has multiple 'MP44' SSDs available, such as the MP44Q, MP44S, and so on. The one you want is just the plain ol' MP44 but thanks to sharing the same hardware as the fantastic Lexar NM790, there's nothing plain about its performance.
There are some differences, though. While the Team Group MP44 has a larger dynamic pseudo-SLC cache than the NM790 (which is used to keep write speed as high as possible), once the drive fills up a bit, the data transfer rate drops lower than it does on the Lexar SSD.
It also has a lower maximum operating temperature and while it doesn't run especially hot for such a speedy drive, you will want to make sure that the MP44 is kept cool under a motherboard M.2 heatsink to make sure it doesn't throttle performance.
If none of that is an issue and you just want a massive SSD for a not-massive price, then you really can't beat the Team Group MP44.
Read our full Team Group MP44 4 TB review.
The best 2230 SSD
✅ You're looking for a Steam Deck upgrade: With more capacity and way better performance, the Lexar Play 2230 is the perfect addition to any Deck.
✅ You want value for money: 2230-size SSDs tend to be quite a bit more expensive than 2280 ones, but this one is only a little extra. It's very reasonably priced.
❌ You want more than 1 TB: Until Lexar offers a bigger model, you're out of luck. Fortunately, 1TB is still a decent amount of storage.
Lexar is relatively new to the SSD scene but it has rapidly made a name for itself, by offering fast storage, with bags of capacity, and all with sensible prices. Its Play 2230 model is no exception and it's by far the best 2230 SSD we've had the pleasure of testing.
Underneath the label is 1 TB of Micron TLC NAND flash memory and a Silicon Motion SM2269XT controller. That's surprisingly decent stuff for a drive that's marketed at the handheld PC category, and they help the SSD's performance considerably. In our testing, we found that the claimed peak read/write figures of 5,400 and 4,700 MB/s were very accurate, so you're getting exactly what it says in the specs.
Better yet, the Lexar Play has a large SLC cache—this is the portion of the flash memory that acts as a buffer for data, helping it maintain performance when writing lots of information. In a sustained write test, we measured the cache to be around 240GB, which is pretty big for this type of SSD.
And the good news keeps on coming, as the Lexar Play doesn't get hot, even when pushed hard. With average operating temperatures around the 40°C mark and peaks of 53°C, your Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally, or similar won't get any toastier just because you've installed a fast SSD.
There's only one downside to the Lexar Play: the capacity range on offer. 1 TB is currently the largest model on offer, and there's plenty of competition with larger capacities, such as our previous recommendation for Steam Decks, the Sabrent Rocket 2230.
Still, 1 TB is a decent enough amount of storage, and when it's this fast, cool, and affordable, you really can't complain.
Read our full Lexar Play 2230 1 TB SSD review.
The best SSD for PS5
Our favorite Silicon Power XS70 SSD config:
✅ You're looking for the best drive for your PS5 : Several SSDs have been built to fit in a PlayStation 5, but this one stands out with its excellent thermals and speeds despite its small heatsink.
✅ If you want a set and forget solution: The Silicon Power XS70 is a no-fuss solution to a potentially fussy problem. It's an all-round great drive for the PS5 that fits in perfectly with no major caveats.
❌ You want included software for a PC install: The XS70 makes for an excellent PC SSD as well, but if you're looking for cloning software or indeed, any SSD software at all, you'll want to find a third-party solution.
Console gaming? On the PC Gamer website? Why absolutely. We're not total PC snobs here, we'll have you know, and even we enjoy the odd session on a PlayStation 5. The trouble is, the Gen 4 drive that's included as standard delivers good performance, but it isn't the fastest or the largest. So why not give it an SSD spruce up? Should that be your heart's desire, we can think of none better than the Silicon Power XS70 as our top pick for the best gaming SSD for the PS5.
With the release of the new PS5 Pro and its 2 TB SSD, you might be forgiven for feeling a little jealous looking at your old PS5 now, but sticking a new drive into your existing console is incredibly straightforward—and this Silicon Power SSD is a beaut.
Silicon Power is a brand that probably doesn’t get much attention compared to the likes of Samsung or WD, but when you look at its XS70 NVMe SSD with its high-end specifications, it's clear that the brand name isn't everything. Armed with the latest Phison controller and high-performance NAND flash memory, a drive like the Silicon Power XS70 has no problem competing with the best SSDs on the market.
The XS70 has a hardware combination that is common to many of the best SSDs, including the highly regarded Seagate FireCuda 530 and Kingston KC3000. That puts it in some fierce company, but we're happy to report this little drive more than holds its own, with blazing fast read/write speeds of 7,300 MB/s and 6,800 MB/s respectively.
It's fully designed with PS5 compatibility in mind so the heatsink isn’t as bulky as some others you might come across. In fact, it looks more like a flash drive, but don't let that put you off. When it comes to loading up your favourite PS5 drives in double quick time, this little wonder has you covered.
It's a highly competitive gaming SSD with great performance, an attractive design and it offers good value for money. It's not perfect, in that it lacks its own software and hardware encryption, but whether you're a PS5 or PC gamer, that won't matter. Load it up with your game library, whether that's console or otherwise, and we reckon you'll absolutely love it.
Read our full Silicon Power 2TB XS70 review.
The best PCIe 5 SSD
✅ You want ludicrous speed from your storage: Going down the RAID route is expensive and complicated, but a single PCIe 5 SSD will be just as good.
❌ You're expecting great things from Gen 5: You'll barely notice the difference between this and a decent Gen 4 SSD in games and general use.
❌ You don't like heat: All Gen 5 drives get hot so you'll need to ensure you have a proper SSD cooler or a motherboard with good M.2 heatsinks.
It might seem odd to say this but we don't really recommend PCIe 5.0 (also known as Gen 5) SSDs at the moment. They're too expensive and too hot, and the performance capability is wasted in today's gaming PCs. But if you really must have one, then the best PCIe 5 SSD to get is this Team Group T-Force Z540.
The performance is rated for up to 12,400 MB/s and 11,800 MB/s for sequential read/writes for the 2 TB and 4 TB versions, whereas the 1 TB model is a little slower, with figures of 11,700 MB/s and 9,500 MB/s respectively. Those data speeds are roughly 70 to 90% higher than the best Gen 4 drives you'll find, so you'd expect the Z540 to turn your PC into an absolute beast.
Except it won't in games because no game is held back by a Gen 4 drive, even if it's an average one. It'll be a good while yet before anything shows notably faster loading or higher fps, just because you have a PCIe 5.0 SSD. And don't expect Windows to be significantly better, either.
Gen 5 SSDs only make sense for those users who need to read and write lots of data very rapidly (e.g. 8K video editing), and would normally use a RAID setup to get the required performance. Swapping a pair of drives for a single SSD has the potential to be more cost-effective, though the average price of most Gen 5 drives counters that whole idea.
But that's the best part of Team Group's Z540—the 1 TB drive is quite sensibly priced, though as you go up in capacity, the price tag rapidly increases. It's still a lot more expensive than a good Gen 4 SSD but that's par course for all PCIe 5.0 drives at the moment.
If that doesn't put you off and you have the right level of cooling required to stop the SSD from thermal throttling (either a dedicated heatsink and fan, or a motherboard with good M.2 heatsinks), then the T-Force Z540 is the sensible choice for a PCIe 5 SSD.
Read our full Team Group T-Force Z540 2TB SSD review.
Also tested
How we test SSDs
We put every SSD we get in the PC Gamer labs through their paces in various benchmarks made up of a mix of synthetic tests and real-world applications. To ascertain a drives sequential throughput, we use ATTO SSD Benchmark for compressible data (a best-case scenario) and AS SSD for incompressible data (more realistic). We also test random throughput with AS SSD and a combination of CrystalDiskMark 7.0 and Anvil Pro.
When it comes to the real-world tests, we time how long it takes to copy a 30 GB game install across the drive and use PCMark10 and Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers, which includes a level load test.
We also check operating temperatures to ensure that the drive isn't getting too hot and throttling. That's becoming more of an issue with faster and faster drives. PCIe 5.0 drives appear to require a lot more cooling than previous generations, which does make you wonder if the extra speed is really worth it yet.
Where to buy the best SSDs
Where are the best gaming SSD deals?
In the US:
Amazon - Up to 50% off internal and external SSDs
Walmart - Deals on internal and external SSDs
B&H Photo - Save up to $50 on NVMe SSDs
Best Buy - Great prices on Samsung SSDs
Staples - Save up to 30% on a range of SSDs, USB sticks, and external SSDs
Newegg - Plenty of NVMe SSDs
In the UK:
Amazon UK - Save on HDDs, SDDs, and external drives
Scan - SATA drives as low as £21
Box - Save up to £82 on Western Digital SN750 NVMe SSDs
Ebuyer - 500GB SSDs starting from £34.98
Overclockers - Save up to £51 on Samsung SSDs
Currys - Save £32.00 on WD Black SN750
Laptops Direct - Save on SSDs for your laptop
M.2 SSD FAQ
Can I fit an M.2 SSD on my motherboard?
The M.2 socket has been included on motherboards of all kinds for many years now, so the chances are that there's a spare slot sitting inside your existing gaming PC. Check out your motherboard's specs page online before pulling the trigger on an NVMe SSD purchase, though, to be sure. Those harboring a board that's a few years old now, do yourself a favor and make sure it supports booting from an NVMe drive first. Not all older motherboards do, especially if you're going back multiple CPU generations (maybe a full upgrade's due, if so).
What is NVMe, exactly?
The NVMe, or Non-Volatile Memory Express interface, has been designed specifically with solid state drives in mind. In contrast, SATA, the previous interface in charge, was built to cater to most HDDs. The thought is, at the time, that no storage would ever need to exceed its lofty max bandwidth. To the surprise of a few, new storage mediums such as solid state absolutely blaze past SATA's max bandwidth, and so a new protocol in NVMe was born.
That makes NVMe SSDs the perfect storage tech for gaming.
Running on the same basic interface as your graphics card, NVMe SSDs deliver more raw bandwidth and performance than any SATA-based SSD could ever offer. They're also a lot smaller than any other hard drive or SSD too, which all means that the best NVMe SSDs are perfect for either that small form factor build you always wanted or a monstrous high-end gaming PC build.
What's so special about NVMe?
The old storage paradigm was built on the idea of spinning disks. When SSDs hit the mainstream consumer market back in 2007, they reset our expectations for storage. Moving from the mechanical world of hard drives to the silicon world of SSDs brought rapid improvements in performance, technology, capacities, and reliability. SSDs quickly saturated the various SATA connections, and so faster alternatives were needed, but the interface was only part of the problem.
The AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) command protocol was designed for much slower media (i.e., spinning magnetic disks). AHCI is inefficient with modern SSDs, so a new standard was developed: NVMHCI (Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller Interface). Combine NVMHCI with a fast PCIe interface, and you have NVMe, Non-Volatile Memory Express. It's a much-improved interface developed around the needs of flash memory rather than spinning disks.
What's NVMe performance like in the real world?
If you're copying a game from one drive to another or validating game files in Steam, faster NVMe drives make a difference. They can also shave off a second or two when it comes time to load a game level, but the more significant difference is against hard drives, where even a slower SATA SSD is much faster. Go beyond a certain point, and all SSDs start to feel similar.
In other words, while the speed freak in me loves what NVMe brings to the table, I recognize that in practice, it's sometimes not needed. If you're looking to build something on a very, very tight budget, good SATA SSDs remain a useable option, with prices now falling below 10 cents per GB.
NVMe drives, however, are now the default pick for a modern machine, and prices are still very affordable. With budget NVMe prices now matching SATA drives, most new builds should seriously consider whether the extra power and data cables of SATA are necessary.
Can you put a PCIe 4.0 SSD in a 3.0 slot?
Yes, you can. They M.2 socket is identical between the two generations of interface and so a PCIe 4.0 SSD will fit comfortably inside a PCIe 3.0 slot. They will also function perfectly well too, except the Gen4 drive will be limited by the speed of the older interface.
The same goes for PCIe 4.0 and PCIe 5.0 drives. You're just wasting the potential of the higher-speed drive by dropping it into a slower slot, is all, but it will work.
What PCIe generation should I look for?
Right now, PCIe 4.0 is the go-to PCIe generation. That's because it offers a high speed at a reasonable cost. The newest gaming SSDs on the market offer PCIe 5.0 capability, which doubles the theoretical bandwidth an SSD can run at. However, these are few and far between and awfully expensive. Also, the first drives of any PCIe generation tend to end up much slower than what that generation is truly capable of.
Here are the rough speeds (multiply by 1,000 to get MB/s) for each PCIe generation over x4 lanes:
PCIe 1.0 / Gen1: 1 GB/s
PCIe 2.0 / Gen2: 2 GB/s
PCIe 3.0 / Gen3: 4 GB/s
PCIe 4.0 / Gen4: 8 GB/s
PCIe 5.0 / Gen5: 16 GB/s
How big a gaming SSD should I buy?
The easy answer is: as big as you can afford. With SSDs, the higher capacity, often the quicker they are. That's because you end up with more memory dies plumbed into a multi-channel memory controller, and that extra parallelism leads to higher performance.
We would traditionally say that an entry-level SSD should be 1 TB in order to pack in your operating system, for slick general system speed, and your most regularly played games. But such is the increasing size of modern games that a 2 TB SSD is increasingly looking like the minimum recommendation, and a 4 TB drive or above will really give you some proper breathing room for lots of big game installs.
