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