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Is a HDD still useful for gaming in 2025?
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 08 May 2025
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HDDs don't usually affect the performance of a game or how it operates so they're fine even for newer games, the only thing it'll change is that you'll have significantly slower loading times
That's not always the case. Some games stream in assets as you play so you might get bad pop-in or freezes. Forza Horizon 5 was nearly unplayable on an HDD for me, because the map couldn't load in fast enough while driving quickly. No issues after reinstalling it on an SSD.
Young me got that lesson when trying to play ARMA 2 on a 5400RPM HDD. It would run 60FPS if I didn't move but as soon as I started moving the game started stuttering. When I installed it on a 7200RPM HDD the game no longer had any performance issues.
It all comes down to what specs the game was designed for and I imagine most modern open world games are designed for SSD-s. Putting them on HDDs will absolutely have a negative effect.