Ok, PC gamers, you're wondering which games that require SSD you should play? You nabbed a nice, crisp drive to store games on, and don't know what to do with it? The thing is, if you're upgrading from a fast 7200 RPM hard drive, and if you're playing games that normally load super-quickly, you might not notice that big of a difference. Thankfully, we're here to help in that regard! We've come up with a list of games that are most improved by an SSD. A number of genres and niches are covered here, and surely you'll find something to tickle your fancy. When you do, you'll be set to really push your new drive to its limits.
Generally speaking, the games you want to play on your SSD are going to be load-heavy games. Open-world titles immediately come to mind, especially titles with game engines that load in new areas and textures as you play. Of course, they'll be prominently featured in this article! However, hardware-intensive simulators and strategy games will show great improvements if installed on SSD, too. I mean, with PC gaming, you don't want your modern games to be held back by old hardware. Since space is often a constraint when it comes to gaming on SSD, you may have to pick and choose. Hopefully, our article will help with that.
Why playing games that require SSD is so much better than gaming on a normal hard drive?
Loading screens are a simple fact of life for gamers. Some games mask them better, while others make no such attempt at all. Any way you put it, there's hardly a chance for you to avoid them in your PC gaming unless you play only the most lightweight of titles. An SSD drive will drastically speed up your loading across the board. Sure, your operating system should be installed on your SSD first, but depending on how much space you've got left when that's done, you'll probably be able to fit a game or two on there, too!
The real question is - which games to play on SSD? What titles will profit the most out of insanely fast storage media? We did give you a hint earlier, but there's more to it than that. Installing games on SSDs will greatly improve texture load issues, pop-in, load-induced stutter, and general loading speed across the board. In some cases, your framerate will improve too. It is, however, worth pointing out that these FPS stats usually do fall in the margin of error. If you're wondering whether an SSD will resolve any and all loading problems you may have previously been seeing, the answer is a resounding yes.
How to choose the best games that require SSD?
It's actually rather simple! The bottom line is that you need to weigh how much you play a game with how often you see its loading screen. Loading and pop-in were the main considerations behind the list of games to play on SSD you're about to read. Of course, if there are other games you play often, you're going to want to have those on your SSD instead, but the titles we're about to show you will, without a doubt, profit the most out of this particular hardware upgrade.
In effect, you're going to see 30-50% faster loading screens across the board, drastically improving your PC gaming experience! The exact extent to which an SSD speeds up your game's loading will depend entirely on the game itself, however. You will see substantial improvements right off the bat, that's for sure. The only question is - how much faster will your stuff be compared to running it off a 7200 RPM HDD?
XCOM 2 on SSD
If you played XCOM 2 on a regular hard-drive, you know that its initial loading phase is downright awful. We're talking 3-4 minutes of loading into your first mission, easily. Even worse if your rig isn't exactly up-to-par. This game will profit from a fast SSD quite a lot! The caveat is that you're still likely to get loading screens that take over a minute when lots of stuff is about to happen. In our experience, though, XCOM 2 on SSD is as smooth of an experience as you'll get.
- improved loading times
- faster AI turn times
Civilization VI on SSD
Another awesome Firaxis title, Civilization VI has always been an SSD installation candidate in our book. Much like XCOM 2, the initial loading and subsequent waiting for AI to complete their turns can be a right bugger. Thankfully, putting Civilization VI on SSD will alleviate these concerns. To a point, mind. A powerful CPU will still help with turn times the most, but an SSD will streamline things as much as possible, and at a fraction of the price.
- improved loading times
- slightly improved AI turn times
- much faster initial map texture load
Bethesda Games on SSD
You had to know this was coming. If there ever was a mainstream RPG with lots of loading screens, it was a Bethesda game. Indeed, putting your Skyrim and Fallout 4 onto an SSD will help a whole lot. In fact, Skyrim Special Edition seems to load two-to-three times faster than it does on a regular hard drive! How about that. From what we've seen, Fallout 4 is not too different, either. With the number of loading screens you get in these titles, getting them onto your SSD is an absolute must.
- greatly improved loading times across the board
Cities: Skylines on SSD
This one shouldn't be surprising to anyone who's ever played Cities: Skylines, we feel. This incredible city-builder is a massive, humongous game, and its loading times are appropriately long. Here's the kicker, though: getting Cities: Skylines on SSD isn't necessary if you don't build truly large cities, and if you don't mod your game. Small towns on smaller levels will hardly benefit from the upgrade in our experience. Modded sandboxes that usually take over 10 minutes to load, though? Those will easily be cut in half, or more. Your mileage will vary with this one, we feel!
- improved loading (potentially massively)
PUBG on SSD
Expectedly, Player Unknown's Battlegrounds will be greatly improved by having it run off an SSD. We're talking substantially faster loading times, yes, but this doubles as a solution for the game's rather excessive texture pop-in problems. Those were minimized in our experience, which is a great boon if you, too, feel that the pop-in is one of the game's most jarring issues. We felt that way, and PUBG on SSD became a must in our book.
- doubles the load speed
- resolves the excessive pop-in issues
Grand Theft Auto V on SSD
It's hardly a secret that GTA V is quite a hefty load during the initial start-up. In fact, it wasn't rare that we'd experience loading times up to a full minute on HDD. After sending the game off to its new SSD home, though, we discovered that the loading times were essentially cut in half! GTA V on SSD is a huge win if you ask us, especially if it's Online you play most often. A small tip worth sharing: we suggest you load the game's singleplayer mode first, and then move onto Online. Otherwise, you'll first have to bear with the normal content loading, and only then will the game search for an available Online session. Going to singleplayer first will cut your Online loading times even further.
- eliminates texture pop-in
- greatly improves load times
Assassin's Creed Odyssey on SSD
Another game that shows huge improvements in load times is the latest Assassin's Creed title. Indeed, running Assassin's Creed Odyssey on SSD reduced our initial loading screen from over 50 seconds to 20-25, which is a massive boost on all accounts. SSD also helps with fast-travel, meaning you get to spend less time loading, and more time actually playing the game. Good stuff!
- improved load times
Project Cars 2 on SSD
The last thing you want, as a racing game fan, is to be stuck behind a loading screen most of the time. Of course, we're being a bit cheeky here, but this game sure does take a bit to load. Project Cars 2 on SSD alleviates whatever concerns you might have in this regard, taking off a lovely 10-15 seconds off any loading screen you m[]ight find here. No pop-in to worry about here, but the loading improvements alone are worth it if you ask us.
- hugely improved load times
Red Dead Redemption 2 on SSD
Rockstar is quite keen on large and sprawling games, and it just so happens that this necessarily brings with it long and cumbersome loading screens. Much like GTA V, Red Dead Redemption 2 on SSD is a massive improvement over having it load from an HDD. Not only will you get into the game at twice the speed, but you'll also solve pop-in problems and various level load stutter you may have otherwise had. A win-win!
- double the loading speed
- no distant terrain pop-in
- reduces stuttering in some cases
So these are the games to play on SSD?
That's exactly right. There are plenty more to consider, too, but these seem like the most prominent examples that you definitely want to run off your SSD. We'll keep updating this list as we go along, so check in every once in a while. You never know what idea we might give you next!
Ok, PC gamers, you’re wondering which games that require SSD you should play? You nabbed a nice, crisp drive to store games on, and don’t know what to do with it? The thing is, if you’re upgrading from a fast 7200 RPM hard drive, and if you’re playing games that normally load super-quickly, you might […]
English 
Portuguese 
Korean