Quick Answer

For most SA gamers, a 1TB Gen4 NVMe SSD is the value sweet spot ahead of the sales, with quality drives around R1,200-R1,800 hitting 5,000-7,000MB/s reads. Skip Gen5 unless you have a specific workload; the real-world game-load difference over a good Gen4 drive is small.

Gen4 vs Gen5 And Capacity

A Gen4 NVMe drive reads at 5,000-7,000MB/s, which loads games and Windows fast and costs far less than Gen5's 10,000MB/s-plus headline figures. For gaming, that extra bandwidth rarely shows on screen. Prioritise 1TB or 2TB capacity with DRAM and a heatsink over chasing sequential numbers.

Picking The Right Drive In SA

Aim for a DRAM-equipped Gen4 drive from an established brand: 1TB around R1,200-R1,800, 2TB around R2,200-R3,200. Confirm your motherboard has a free M.2 slot at the right PCIe generation, and add a heatsink if the board does not include one to avoid thermal throttling on long transfers.

Installation And Real-World Speed

Slot the drive into an M.2 socket wired to the CPU rather than the chipset for the fastest path, and fit the board's heatsink so long transfers do not throttle. In practice, modern games load within a second or two of each other on any Gen4 drive, so capacity and reliability matter more than peak sequential speed. A 1TB drive fills quickly with large modern titles, so a 2TB unit around R2,200-R3,200 is worth considering if you keep many installed at once.

FAQ

What size NVMe SSD should I buy in SA?

1TB is the value pick at R1,200-R1,800 for a game library plus Windows. Step to 2TB if you install many large titles. Check current Evetech stock for live pricing.

Is Gen5 worth it over Gen4 for gaming?

Rarely. Gen5's 10,000MB/s-plus speeds barely change game-load times over a fast Gen4 drive, while costing more and running hotter. Gen4 is the smarter gaming buy.

Do I need DRAM on the SSD?

For a primary drive, yes. DRAM-equipped NVMe SSDs hold performance under sustained writes better than DRAM-less budget drives, which matters when moving large game files.

TIP

Builder Tip

pick a DRAM-equipped Gen4 1TB drive; it beats a DRAM-less Gen5 unit for real-world game loads at lower cost.