Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest maker of flash memory, this week said that solid-state drives (SSD) provide just what the doctor ordered for PCs designed for video games: extreme performance. Even though SSDs provide additional performance that computer games need, capacities of flash-based drives are still well below those of advanced hard drives, therefore, it is impossible to install tens of games onto an SSD.

Samsung’s 256GB multi-level cell (MLC) solid-state drive does provide blazing performance: its maximum sequential read speed is 220MB/s, whereas maximum sequential write speed is 200MB/s. Such performance is virtually unachievable by conventional hard disk drives. The direct result of such high read speed is very fast loading time for modern video games, which means exceptional end-user experience.

“In addition to processing power, advanced graphics cards and high-resolution monitors, gamers want a fast storage drive for reduced loading times and faster game performance. Our 256GB SSD provides much better overall performance than conventional HDDs, as well as longer battery life for the notebook gamer. Clearly, all PC gamers will benefit from the blistering speeds and dazzling photorealism enabled by the Samsung 256GB SSD,” said Jim Elliott, vice president of memory marketing at Samsung Semiconductor.

Unfortunately, 256GB may be not enough for modern gaming personal computers. There are many games that require more than 10GB of disk space, Windows Vista operating system also needs around 15GB or more. As a result, for hardcore gamers, SSD may not be the greatest option. Still, if someone wants to enjoy 3-5 games, but does not want to wait for each of them to load, solid-state drive is the best possible choice.

“The PC gaming market continues to evolve into a more mainstream segment, and should reach $30.7 billion by the end of 2012. PC gaming enthusiasts are at the forefront for demanding the latest high-powered hardware available, making the PC gaming industry an important innovation driver for adopting cutting-edge technology, like high-performance solid state drives. Using an SSD will give the gamer the extra edge that he or she is seeking,” said Jon Peddie, president of Jon Peddie Research.

Tags: Samsung, SSD