SATA SSD vs NVME M.2 SSD in Blender

[Ilya Landshut]

Hi, I have a question regarding Nvme ssd performance for blender.

I have two 1tb ssds. An nvme and a sata.

I installed Windows on my Nvme Ssd M.2 ssd and my programs as well. Which setup will give me the best performance? I read in an article on cgdirector, that Blender performed best, when the project files are on the nvme but windows and blender itself are on the normal sata ssd. Should I reinstall windows to the sata or can I keep everything the way it is?

Thanks very much.
Ilya Landshut from Hamburg, Germany
3d Artist

 

[Alex Glawion]

The performance difference will be marginal. It's usually better to have the OS and Programs on the slower drive and your project files (that usually take up more room) on the fastest drive though.

This is especially true for Video Editing when you're working with huge footage files. Depending on your scenes (large textures, caches?) the nvme might get you slightly better performance.

 

[Ronin]

So on my Dark hero I have 2 x M.2 slots. The one nearer to the CPU has the direct link to the CPU, I assume that will be the Windows boot drive. I am about to order 2 M.2 drives. Shall I pony up for two PCI Gen 4 or is Gen 3 good enough for our line of work?

 

[Alex Glawion]

This depends a bit on what you mainly use Blender for. If you're also doing Video Editing or Compositing in Blender, the pcie4 discs might get you slightly higher performance if you work with heavy footage. For Modeling, Rendering, pcie3 will be more than enough.

 

[BLAZER]

i am looking to buy a sata ssd does the brand name effect the performance of the SSD, if it does which one should i chose -
ADATA SU650
CRUCIAL BX500
WD GREEN

 

[Alex Glawion]

You'll see the highest performance with the Crucial BX500, followed by the Adata SU600. WD Green, although just marginally slower, performs worst of the three.