[SSD] SLC vs MLC for gaming

Discussion in 'SSD and HDD storage' started by sverek, Oct 18, 2016.

  1. sverek

    sverek Guest

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    [SSD] TLC vs MLC for gaming

    With games getting bigger and bigger and require more data to be caches on RAM, it literally takes up a several minutes for some games to start. (BF4, KF2, etc...) So I been thinking to buy SSD for games.

    I bought my first and only SSD for system (Crucial M4 64GB), which is MLC and still going strong.
    With plenty of cheap TLC types SSD on market, they seem to gain lots of popularity. Are those TLC SSDs good for their price? Since most games have cloud backup, I don't need super reliability for gaming SSD. But I would love it to serve as long as possible.

    Do you recommend to get MLC for secondary SSD, or TLC are good enough for that task?

    Thank you.
     
    Last edited: Oct 18, 2016
  2. PhazeDelta1

    PhazeDelta1 Guest

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    It's not going to make a difference. Get whichever is cheaper.
     
    Last edited: Oct 18, 2016
  3. mbk1969

    mbk1969 Ancient Guru

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    Title of thread has "SLC" and "MLC". In the post you write "TLC" and "MLC".

    TLC has lower write cycles and lower performance than MLC. But TLC is cheaper. If games would not write their data into disk then TLC disk should survive long enough because game itself is written to disk once.
     
  4. sverek

    sverek Guest

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    Fixed title, thanks.

    Checked some other threads, seems TLC became more reliable lately.
    I plan to get 240GB version and delete/install games as run out of free space.
     

  5. Anarion

    Anarion Ancient Guru

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    Just get Samsung 850 EVO and all it good. Other TLC drivers are a bit meh. Actually, many MLC drives have hard time keeping up with it.
     
  6. jura11

    jura11 Guest

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    As above I would go with Samsung 850 EVO great SSD,have previously Crucial MX100 and 200 and I wouldn't recommend them as I've went via few issues on them

    In budget range,Mushkin or SK Hynix are good too,but this depends on workload there

    Hope this helps

    Thanks,Jura
     
  7. AsiJu

    AsiJu Ancient Guru

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    Have Crucial MX100 512 GB myself, no problems with it and for the price it's a steal.
     
  8. sverek

    sverek Guest

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    Thank you very much for replies.

    Samsung 750 Evo looks nicer pricewise. Is there much difference with 850 Evo beside performance?

    I wont be writing much to SSD and wouldnt mind slightly slower reading speed comparing to 850 Evo.
     
  9. GREGIX

    GREGIX Master Guru

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    I have mx200 500gb and evo 500gb.
    Evo is system and few games, some other stuff, crucial was bought as there was space shortage. No system on crucial, only data, games.
    Seems no difference to me on w10 or w7(have still dual bot due w10 incomparability with some games)
     
  10. zettajhony

    zettajhony Guest

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    Hi all,

    I'm using two ssd with two diferent variant os (samsung 850 evo with win 10 enterprise, adata 900 series with win 10 professional), can i run the game was installing in 850 evo ?, When i'm using win 10 professional on adata 900 series..

    I'm sorry for my badenglish language..
    Thank you...
     

  11. mbk1969

    mbk1969 Ancient Guru

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    Most probably not, because game should be installed in OS. But some games will launch.
     
  12. zettajhony

    zettajhony Guest

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    OK, thankyu mbk1969.., i'll try it soon..:)
     
  13. dom38fr

    dom38fr Guest

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    I didn't even know there were different SSD types.
     
  14. GREGIX

    GREGIX Master Guru

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    I almost always install games on diffrent disks than system...Is better to format/ reinstall system on 100gb partition/logic disk than on one big unpartioned disk. If something goes wrong u have at least data on other partitions...games, movies, pictures and u can keep there saves too or user profile as backup.

    U just need to learn magic trick-when game asks where to install, donT press next, pick custom or "advanced" an change path from c:/progsfiles64or so on d....or e...or whatever drive letter u have with enough space...
     
  15. jura11

    jura11 Guest

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    Hi there

    I've installed all my games on different HDD or SSD and no issues at all,Mafia 3 is installed on 3TB HDD,GTA V is instslled on extra SSD etc and all games just works as should

    But in yours case you have installed two installed OS there,which shouldn't make any difference,but I would at least to try to run games

    Hope this helps

    Thanks,Jura
     

  16. screwtech02

    screwtech02 Master Guru

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    I'm running 4 Adata SP550's in a raid 0 array for my games, no issues, and they are TLC drives.
     
  17. Anarion

    Anarion Ancient Guru

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    Technically 850 EVO is better in every way but obviously the difference is not humongous. In your case it doesn't really matter especially if the 750 EVO is noticeably cheaper. If they are close then I'd obviously pick 850 EVO.
     
  18. Agent-A01

    Agent-A01 Ancient Guru

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    No point in raiding SSDs for games because they use small file read/writes.
    Much smaller than a stripe size of a raid array.
    For any benefit, the file size would have to be equal to or greater than the stripe size, i.e. 16KB.

    If the file size is less than that, the file will only occupy one drive.

    I guess if you want the OS to see it as one drive but a single larger drive would have been better.
     
  19. thatguy91

    thatguy91 Guest

    I have a MLC based Transcend SSD370S and am very happy with it. When I bought it I considered several factors, not just outright read/write sequential speed which many people seem to do. It was cheaper than the 850 Evo at the time and I am aware there have been a few small issues with the 850 Evo. I guess you can google these, but I'm sure there has been some mentions of that on Guru3D forums. Another advantage is that although speed isn't outright fast, I can fill mine (if I wanted to) without affecting the speed much, something that many other SSD's cannot do. There is also the high amount of data that can be written over the lifespan of the drive. It also has fast access times.

    In some reviews the 'cons' are a high price tag. I guess that is region specific, because overall I think for cost/overall performance (all factors)/reliability, it is probably the best value drive currently. Note I did not simply just say best drive, because the Samsung 850 Pro (not Evo) for example might be better, but it also costs a lot more as a percentage.

    Pretty much the only reason to opt for TLC NAND at the moment is cost effectiveness. I believe I can make that statement since it is actually the whole point over MLC. Maybe one day TLC related tech could outperform MLC, in which case I guess the Evo would become the Pro and the Pro become the Evo :). When you take all things into consideration seeing as the SSD370S is a similar price to most TLC offerings, at least here, it makes for a good purchase :). I take it the main reason for your asking of MLC vs TLC is for price consideration?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 31, 2016

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