However, whenever maximum and faster SSD models appear, we find that applications do not show this difference in speed. Why the speed from generation to generation is not as great as one might expect. Which brings us to the situation where between PCIe SSD 3 and 4 for practical purposes there is not much difference What are the limiting factors?
In the stores we can find a large number of PCIe 3 and 4 SSDs for PC that share the space in the inventory, whether it is an online store or a physical store. Everyone knows that in the specifications some double the bandwidth of others, however, the reality when interacting with the PC is different and at the moment this advantage is completely non-existent.
There are no “palpable” differences between PCIe 3 and 4 SSDs, yet
The first thing to remember about the practical differences between a PCIe 3 and 4 SSD is that despite the fact that some can go twice as fast as others, the big reality of it all is none other than the software, that is, the programs, those which control the flow of data from the storage unit to the RAM memory, as well as any corresponding movement of data.
In other words, it’s technology that’s there, waiting to be used, but no one is using it at any time. The reason is that games are always created with the hard drive in mind. And it is that the size of the data that is transferred from the storage unit, whether hard drive or SSD, is explicit in the game code, no one can make a game designed to transmit a few tens of megabytes per second of shot Increase your transfer ability by 10 to 100 times more automatically.
A small proof of what is said is seen in the loading screens of the games, if the transfer speed really adapted in all cases we would not see the loading screens nor the logos at the beginning. The fact that we keep seeing them indicates that often not even 5% of the transfer speed is used and the higher it is, the lower the percentage of bandwidth used.
Not only do these units live off games
We are therefore currently in a situation where the applications that run under our PC if they benefit from the SSD are not because of the transfer speed, that is, the bandwidth. But rather the ability to transmit various data in parallel and the lowest data access latency. Also, even though it is said that games will eventually normalize the use of SSDs, many of these systems are used as portable workstations for certain applications. In particular, when you have used your large files, as, for example, editors of videos or programs for graphic design, you will benefit from the use of this technology, you will only be able to save them by memorizing the visible part for the user in each moment.
Unfortunately, the core operating system is still intended for use with a hard drive, so it doesn’t have the ability to take advantage of hard drives, and usually while you’re using the system, you won’t notice the difference between use a PCIe 3 or 4 SSD. That is, on platforms like Apple’s Macintosh HDDs, HDDs haven’t been used in a long time and it’s something that graphic design programs and multimedia editors benefit very well for their performance.