When choosing computer hardware, it’s natural to opt for the latest and fastest components. However, it might be time to reconsider this logic when it comes to SSD speed. Today, SSDs that offer high speeds like PCIe 5.0 are becoming an unnecessary luxury for the average user. No matter which SSD you choose, you’ll get almost the same performance in everyday use.

Here are 3 important reasons why SSD speed is no longer that important

SSD speed only matters so much for games

Nowadays, using SSDs for games makes a big difference, especially for those switching from older HDDs. However, SSD speed doesn’t have a huge impact on gaming performance beyond a certain point. While faster game loading is one of the biggest advantages of SSDs, the difference between PCIe 5.0 and PCIe 4.0 SSDs is limited to a few seconds of load time.

This difference is usually not enough to transform your gaming experience. Plus, even technologies like DirectStorage don’t fully utilize SSD speed. So investing in the latest SSD technology for gaming may be unnecessary for most users.

In this case, you’re unlikely to see a meaningful difference in your day-to-day gaming experience between PCIe Gen 3, Gen 4, or Gen 5 SSDs. On my own PC, I didn’t notice any difference between Gen 4 and Gen 5 SSDs, and there’s no significant difference in gaming performance between PCIe 3.0 devices like Steam Deck and PCIe 4.0 devices like Legion Go. So spending big bucks on faster SSDs will do little to improve your day-to-day gaming experience.

SSD speed is not noticeable in everyday use

In everyday use, the difference in SSD speed is usually not noticeable. For tasks like opening a browser, working on documents or preparing a presentation, you won’t notice a big difference between a SATA SSD and modern NVMe drives. The operating system and applications open quickly and searches are fast. While the 14,000MB/s speeds offered by the latest PCIe 5.0 SSDs may seem tempting, these speeds usually make a difference for large file transfers, not for everyday tasks.

There’s no denying that NVMe SSDs are faster than SATA SSDs. However, for everyday use, this speed difference is only a psychological advantage. If you can get an NVMe SSD in the same price range, by all means go for it. However, you don’t need to spend extra money on PCIe 5.0 SSDs. Gen 3 or Gen 4 SSDs are fast enough for everyday use and don’t justify the additional expense.

Even things like video editing can’t fully utilize SSD speed

For specialized tasks such as video editing, there are huge advantages to using an SSD. However, even the fastest SSD speed doesn’t really make a difference for these tasks. SATA SSDs with speeds of 500-550MB/s are usually sufficient for video editing. A higher capacity is more important here, because being able to store all your work files on an SSD is more important than high transfer speeds.

When importing video files or exporting the final product, SSD speed can be of some benefit. However, this difference may only matter for professionals who edit video on a regular basis. Everyday users can easily get by with slower SSDs.

The bottom line is that for everyday use, SSD speed doesn’t make as big a difference as it used to. Whether you’re gaming or editing videos, the speed differences between modern SSDs are generally not noticeable. So, without spending more money, you can easily improve your daily computing experience by choosing an SSD that fits your budget.