Is a NVME SSD worth it for Unreal Engine?

Hey guys,
I will soon buy a new computer because my PC just does not have enough power. But I’m not sure if I should buy a m.2 NVME ssd or a normal Sata SSD. According to the Internet, NVME SSD’s are only wet if you work with programs that load and save continuously from the data store and also consist of big data. Now my question: Do you notice when working with the Unreal Engine 4 and a strong processor a difference between an NVME and an SSD? Regards :slight_smile:

Hey,i know this post is too old but since
that was also my question i share this , maybe helps somebody.

this link can be helpful :

https://unrealcommunity.wiki/recommended-hardware-x1p9qyg0

i noticed 2 things reading that:

1 - Newer CPUs work better with nvme ssds…and since it offers at least a 16 threads cpu , i think nvme should be a choice.

2 - the main difference with nvme will be seen when working with big data like first time builds,shader compiling…

There should be badge for necroposting on forum. :smiley:

Amd yes SSD and nvme (As many as slots for it) it:

"this is the way."

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I got a NVMe SSD recently and it accelerated Unreal Engine by the factor of 10 for me. Everything is like almost in a few seconds, including building HLODs or shader compilation.

Only regret, I wish I had known this earlier. Using the NVMe SSD with a PCIe adapter on my 2018’ish motherboard

  • M.2 NVME SSD to PCI Express Adapter with Heatsink
  • Crucial P5 Plus 2TB M.2 PCIe Gen4 NVMe Internal Gaming SSD - Up to 6600MB/s

Since we all are necroposting, and this seems undying topic. :wink:

I want to add small warning about SSDs.:

1TB samsung evo PRO drive i bought around 2 years ago, just died.

So seemingly good reputable producer (I know linus tech tips dig out some bad stuff about ALL ssd’s), and EVO PRO should be better quality ones.

SSD drives use some buffer to spread out wear and tear from constantly saving and reading data, which unreal does all the time. As did my drive that i used for all unreal projects (luckily i have them all backed up on github). However i lost all my staging unreal projects used to import assets, convert them etc. One of which was whole “space creator pro” (which is great btw) and its 100 or so 16k textures that i spent 3 evenings converting and repacking.

So if you use SSD remember to do backups, they will fail just from saving stuff on them, moment you use up that buffer they will just die out, it is in ssd design, not some random hardware faliure. It will happen!

ps.
smaller, older tech and from first batch of product SSDs are better quality and last longer.

I’ve had plenty of spinny rust drives die, too!
Drives die. Backups are a must.

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I’ve just added a HDD with (slow) 5400rpm because I would increase some space on an not so important drive (it’s more storage than project workspace) and thought I would give it a try.

20GB UE5.3 Project around 6700files startup time:
SSD NVME M2 (Corsair MP510): 21 seconds
HDD 5400Rpm (WDRed 4TB): 21 seconds
Both are single drives (no raid).

Rest of the specs:
32GB Ram DDR4 (3200)
AMD 5600XCPU
4060ti 16GB
Whatever takes time here it seems its not the harddrive. At least not for the project files.

Note: In my last test the HDD was 0.3 faster. I did not really expect that. But I guess it was just my finger on the stopwatch. Note I’ve Windows and UE5 program folder on a SSD either so I’m not sure how the startup time looks like if UE5 program is on HDD as well. But as far I remember the startup time was pretty much the same as well in the past.

Unreal is quite sneaky, it loves to store all kinds of stuff on system drive.
So unless you forced it to store that on different drive, you basically always mostly start from system drive.