External SSD performance is plenty
The reason why external storage has only become a viable option for direct gaming in recent years is because performance has only just caught up. Older drives weren’t fast enough, nor were the hardware interfaces. But with USB4 and Thunderbolt 4/5 now increasingly common on laptops and desktops, we now have real options for external SSDs that have the potential to play games directly.
Today, mainstream external SSDs can support data transfer rates up to 20 Gbps, with some even capable of up to 40 Gbps. With these SSDs built using PCIe 3.0 and 4.0 technology, we can now get upwards of 4,000 MB/s speeds, which is plenty for loading the latest triple-A games almost as quickly as top desktop drives can. (For options, check out our picks for the best external SSDs for gaming!)
By raw numbers, these kinds of drives are well behind the 64 Gbps theoretical max of PCIe 4.0 internal SSDs, and even more so behind the top PCIe 5.0 SSDs that theoretically cap out at 112 Gbps. But when it comes to gaming, you won’t find much practical benefit with those faster drives. When loading apps or game files, you just don’t move enough data to fully take advantage of that greater performance.
The only downside to using an external SSD for gaming is the availability of the fastest ports. Although USB-C ports are everywhere now, not all USB-C ports are the same. Some are based on older USB standards like USB 3.2 2×2, particularly in older and budget-focused laptops. That’s plenty fast, but not quite as fast as USB4 or Thunderbolt 5. Is it the end of the world? No. You can absolutely play games from an external SSD at these slower speeds, but your game load times will be slower for it (enough to be noticeable, even if it isn’t entirely unplayable).
In my book, the benefits of an external SSD for gaming outweigh the potential drawbacks. It’s worth having the extra space, and the convenience factor makes up for it. (Even lots of techies don’t want to go through the hassle of installing internal SSDs.) Just be sure to check the speed of the available USB ports before buying an external SSD—don’t overpay for performance you can’t use.
