In the last couple of days, two top-tier titles have come out and kicked off a revolution against hard drives, opting instead to put full support into backing the rise of the SSD. Well, we say ‘rise’, but let’s be honest – if you’re using an HDD in your PC in 2023, something is probably wrong somewhere.
It started with Starfield, with Bethesda Game Studios publishing the required specification for the game and subsequently revealing that having an SSD isn’t just recommended – it’s mandatory. This was then followed by CD Projekt Red confirming that support for hard drives will be dropped when Phantom Liberty launches on September 26th.
If you’re still using a seemingly archaic HDD in your PC setup, you may find yourself increasingly pushed out into the cold in the coming months.
As Fast As You Can Get
For non-tech-savvy individuals, installing a hard drive in your brand-spanking-new PC may seem like the right thing to do. It has been the standard for decades, right?
Wrong.
These days, laser-sharp, hyper-fast storage is what’s needed to deliver the best performance in games, and that’s why almost every gaming device on the market uses a Solid-State Drive in place of a Hard Disk Drive. With upgraded read and write times, things can be installed and booted faster, and they’ll load things more efficiently and smoothly in-game, rendering maps and larger, more detailed environments with ease.
It’s not the newest concept on the market – solid-state drives have been enjoying a popularisation trend in the world of gaming for years.
It’s not all you need, of course – but let’s not get into GPUs, RAM, CPUs, and everything in between.
Times Are Changing
Starfield has essentially made history by stating that players on PC must have an SSD for the game to run. It’s a remarkable game that boasts one of the largest open-world environments we’ve ever seen, so it almost makes sense that this requirement exists. Someone had to be the first to do it.
Read More: Everything Revealed During the Starfield Direct Showcase
Well, Starfield may have been first, but CD Projekt bursts into second place just days later, confirming that Cyberpunk’s impending expansion, Phantom Liberty, will bring about a huge change. With the release of Phantom Liberty, hard drive support will end – meaning any future updates, including Phantom Liberty itself, may not run properly on an HDD-based build, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Well – you can go out and buy an SSD. They’re not expensive and they’re not hard to install, so it’s the right decision for any PC gamer to make.
If you want the fastest and most capable storage possible, then be on the lookout for an NVMe M.2 SSD like the Samsung 990 PRO. It’s literally the best you can get.
For more Insider Gaming news, check out our coverage of the Dead Island 2 roadmap
Not expensive my fucking ass. So what are they going to do when people have to get 8+ tb ssd. That shit isn’t cheap or all that easy to get atm.
Yes, but price per TB is still very high for nVME SSDs, and with Steam Libraries reaching insane sizes, I’ll keep my 8tb HDD until SSD prices come way down.
Agreed.. And ssds and nvmes don’t improve performance even then its like not even noticible not even compared to a hdd. They won’t increase fps.. Just load times.
I have 8 and 10 and 14tb hdds top. Of the line western digital blacks and seagate barricuda pros.
I can install so many games with so many mods and never worry about anything.
Most top tier games these days almost take up 100GB 10 games at that size is 1tb heck a few even go over 100GB
I have an ssd only used for like fallout, new vegas, nms, Skype couple others. I install all other games on hdds.
Nvme for my os and other operating stuff.
You say ssds are not that expensive or hard to find but I have yet to see one that can hold all 350 games (and growing) in ky syeam library – let alone any non steam games.
Getting the 20 to 30 TB I have as todays functional minimum (let alone havih enough space for the next 10 to 15 years) in ssds is not cheap and means vuting many deives to replace my current HDDs.
This article is the very reason no one trusts journos. Your opinions suck. Keep them to yourself.