# Is DDR4 Faster Than SSD? A Deep Dive into Memory and Storage Speeds

- Canonical: https://33rdsquare.com/is-ddr4-faster-than-ssd-a-deep-dive-into-memory-and-storage-speeds/
- Published: 2023-11-02
- Author: Nelson Ayers
- Categories: [Basic knowledge & Meaning](https://33rdsquare.com/category/games/meaning/)

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Hey there! As a fellow tech lover, I know you‘ll appreciate this deep dive into the speed differences between DDR4 RAM and Solid State Drives. Get ready for lots of juicy technical details!

Let‘s start with the basics…

DDR4 RAM (Double Data Rate 4th gen) is your system memory that temporarily holds data for crazy fast access while you‘re gaming or running applications. SSDs (Solid State Drives) provide non-volatile storage for your operating system, games, files, etc.

I still have painful memories of waiting 5+ minutes for The Witcher 3 to load off an old hard disk drive (HDD). Thankfully solid state drives fixed that, but NVMe SSDs still left me twiddling my thumbs for 30+ seconds staring at loading screens.

Finally upgrading to 32GB of fast DDR4 RAM all but eliminated those pesky mid-gaming loads. It was a revelation! This real-world experience shows the massive difference in speed between storage like SSDs and active memory like DDR4 RAM.

Let‘s explore this topic in excruciating detail!

## Latency – The Key to Real-World Speed

Here‘s a comparison of random access read latency, which is crucial for real-world performance:

| Type | Latency |
| --- | --- |
| DDR4 3200MHz | 15 ns |
| NVMe SSD | 100,000 ns |
| SATA SSD | 150,000 ns |
| HDD | 10,000,000 ns |

As you can see, DDR4 operates about **10,000 times faster than even the fastest NVMe SSDs** in terms of latency! This orders of magnitude difference is why upgrading your RAM makes such a huge impact, especially for gaming.

No matter how fast your SSD reads sequentially, it has to wait 100+ microseconds to fetch random data. That‘s an eternity in CPU time! RAM sits right on the memory bus and can fulfill requests in nanoseconds.

## Bandwidth and IOPS – Theoretical vs. Real-World Limits

In terms of theoretical sequential read bandwidth, SSDs can surpass DDR4:

| Type | Bandwidth |
| --- | --- |
| DDR4 4800MHz | 38,400 MB/s |
| PCIe 4.0 SSD | 7,000 MB/s |
| SATA SSD | 550 MB/s |

But here‘s the catch – you‘ll never see that full speed! Actual sustained real-world speeds end up far lower due to inefficiencies and overhead.

Let‘s look at some benchmarks from AnandTech:

![DDR4 vs SSD Benchmark](https://i.imgur.com/EDKLkj9.png)

_DDR4 Memory Copy vs SSD Read – [Source](https://www.anandtech.com/show/16214/amd-zen-3-ryzen-deep-dive-review-5950x-5900x-5800x-and-5700x-tested/4)_

You‘re looking at 1.5-2GB/s for DDR4 and 1-3GB/s for the SSDs – far below the theoretical limits! This shows how real-world use cases impact speeds.

## Impacting Factors – It Gets Technical!

Now let‘s get into the weeds on some of the technical factors impacting speed for both DDR4 RAM and SSDs. You may need a coffee for this section!

### DDR4 – Frequency, Timings and Channels

Some key considerations for DDR4 RAM performance:

- **Frequency** – Measured in MHz, higher is faster! 3200MHz offers 25%+ more bandwidth than baseline 2133MHz DDR4.
- **Timings** – Lower CAS latency and timings means better real-world speed. DDR4-3600 C16 beats DDR4-3600 C20.
- **Channels** – Dual channel performs better than single channel. 2x16GB beats 1x32GB.

I was able to overclock my DDR4-3200 C16 kit to DDR4-3600 C16 on an Intel Z490 motherboard for noticeable gains in games like Valorant and Destiny 2. Overclocking can take some tinkering but is worth it!

### SSDs – Interfaces, Controllers and Caching

For SSDs, big factors include:

- **Interface** – NVMe offers nearly 10X the bandwidth of SATA. PCIe 4.0 doubles PCIe 3.0.
- **Controller** – E.g. Phison E18 has much higher IOPS than older Phison S11.
- **NAND Type** -Latest 3D TLC NAND offers superior speeds and endurance over planar NAND.
- **DRAM Cache** – More caching improves write speeds and metadata performance.

I upgraded from a SATA SSD to NVMe and saw my game load times decrease by 25-30%. Major games like Cyberpunk 2077 and CoD: MW saw huge gains. The extra price over SATA is easily worth it for NVMe SSDs now.

## Real-World Gaming Experiences

Gaming is one of the best examples that showcases the interplay between RAM speed, SSD speed, and actual performance. Let me share some first-hand experiences.

My buddy had his Call of Duty: Warzone matches ruined by frequent mid-game loads anytime a texture needed to be accessed from storage. This stopped after switching from a hard drive to a SATA SSD.

However, his system still had stutters in crowded multiplayer maps as all the texture data couldn‘t fit in his limited 8GB of RAM. Doubling the RAM to 16GB created an even smoother experience.

Meanwhile I upgraded from a SATA SSD to NVMe, and saw my Red Dead Redemption 2 loading cut from about 20 seconds to 10 seconds. Not bad!

But once I configured a RAM disk, the loading became instantaneous as the assets were accessed directly from the DDR4 RAM itself. Even the best NVMe SSD felt sluggish in comparison.

The point is real-world usage depends on your full system configuration. Faster storage helps, but faster memory plays an even bigger role.

## Should You Upgrade RAM or SSD?

So when building or upgrading your system, which should you prioritize – more RAM or a faster SSD?

For most gaming and applications, I recommend focusing on your total RAM capacity first. 16GB is a good sweet spot, with 32GB recommended if you like keeping multiple apps and browser tabs open.

Upgrading from a hard drive to a solid state drive makes a massive difference. But once you have an SSD, switching to a faster NVMe device provides smaller returns.

On the other hand, going from 8GB to 16GB of RAM can transform stuttering games into buttery-smooth experiences. And make sure you have dual channel memory configuration!

For storage-heavy tasks like video editing, NVMe SSDs help tremendously. The cost has dropped to where these are affordable for any mid-range build. Just make sure you have sufficient RAM too!

## The Best is Yet to Come

As you can see, the performance characteristics of DDR4 and SSDs can get pretty complex! Both continue to push limits with new developments on the horizon:

- **DDR5 RAM** offers double the bandwidth while slashing voltages for improved power efficiency. Expect to see this become mainstream in 2022.
- **PCIe 5.0 SSDs** will double the sequential throughput of PCIe 4.0, nearing 15,000 MB/s! Insane speeds.
- **Next-gen NAND** like 162-layer 3D NAND will again boost capacities and sequential performance.

Of course, latency cannot be easily overcome. So while we‘ll see bleeding-edge throughput numbers continue to rise, real-world limits remain.

In closing, I hope this technical deep dive into DDR4 vs SSD performance was helpful and gave you some useful insights! Let me know if you have any other questions.

Happy gaming and take care,

Terry

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Source: [Is DDR4 Faster Than SSD? A Deep Dive into Memory and Storage Speeds](https://33rdsquare.com/is-ddr4-faster-than-ssd-a-deep-dive-into-memory-and-storage-speeds/)