Gaming & DirectStorage Performance
On this page, we will examine the game load time performance of the SSD, using 2 games that support DirectStorage as well as 2 games that do not.
Horizon Forbidden West (DirectStorage Support)
We are using the full retail game Horizon Forbidden West. This game supports DirectStorage for saved game load times. We are using an AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT 16GB video card for testing, and all components are shown to support DirectStorage. We enable the highest graphics settings in the game at 4K for testing. We will show loading a saved game file and how long it takes to load into the game from the main menu, waiting for the game to auto-load through the continue screen. All results are performed manually with a stopwatch.
We have re-vamped our Horizon: Forbidden West testing, and thus, at this time, this is the current, new data with SSDs that we have for testing and comparing SSDs at the moment. As we test more, we will add them back into the graphs.
The Lexar PLAY 2280 SE 4TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD has very tight load times compared to the other two SSDs on this graph. However, it was technically the slowest time to load, but if we look at the percentages, that means it is just 0.29% slower than the fastest drive, the Acer FA200. In essence, all three drives are extremely fast and have around the same load times, using DirectStorage. This is good news, since the Lexar PLAY 2280 SE 4TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD is meant to be a gaming drive.
Forspoken (DirectStorage Support)
We are using the full retail game Forspoken, which supports DirectStorage to test game loading time. Forspoken was released on January 24th, 2023, on the PC and uses the Luminous Engine. We are using an AMD Radeon RX 6800 16GB video card. We enable the highest graphics settings, including Ultra High Texture Memory, and run at 4K. We use the built-in benchmark and report the scene load times. We add the sum of all seven scene load times and run the benchmark three times. We then take the average of the three sums from each run. We graph the average result.
In Forspoken, the Lexar PLAY 2280 SE 4TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD does extremely well loading the game scenes of the benchmark. It performed at the top, with the fastest overall load time average of 8.903 seconds. This puts it faster than the Lexar Professional NM800 PRO by 4.3% and 3.6% faster than the Netac NV7000. Once again, good news for DirectStorage performance with this drive.
Starfield
We are using the full game of Starfield, patched to the latest version. Starfield does not support DirectStorage, so this is the raw load time of a game without DirectStorage as a factor on the SSD. Starfield typically has longer load times, and thus is a great test to see how long it takes to load a saved game. We are using an AMD Radeon RX 6800 16GB video card, and we enable the highest graphics settings at 4K. We will show loading a saved game file and how long it takes to load into the game. All results are performed manually with a stopwatch.
Starfield does not use DirectStorage, but once again, the Lexar PLAY 2280 SE 4TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD does very well, again topping the charts on game load times. The Lexar PLAY 2280 SE 4TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD beats all the SSDs here with the load times; it is 4% faster than the Lexar Professional NM800 PRO and even edges out the Acer FA200.
Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Benchmark
We are now including the Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Benchmark as well, which benchmarks the load times of several game scenes. This new and updated benchmark utilizes a new updated engine with updated and improved graphics textures and fidelity. The benchmark calculates the sum load time of the scenes and reports the number. We run the benchmark three times and take the average of the load times. This provides consistent, objective game load testing data we can use for comparison in a game scenario outside of DirectStorage. This benchmark uses DX11.
In Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail benchmark, for some reason, the Lexar PLAY 2280 SE 4TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD did not do as well, with the third slowest drive in the game load times. It was faster than the Netac NV7000 by 4%, but the Lexar Professional NM800 PRO edged it out just slightly on performance; still, it isn’t too far off from the Lexar Professional NM800 PRO performance here. It was surpassed, though, by many other SSDs on this graph.