Is the WD SN850X causing frame drops in Star Wars Outlaws?
The difference is actually insane—my load times dropped from 18 seconds down to 7! I realized my WD SN850X was running in PCIe 3.0 compatibility mode, which capped my reads at 3400MB/s and caused those annoying hitches during complex scene transitions. I tried updating the storage drivers first, but that only shaved off a second, which was barely noticeable. I then flashed the latest firmware and went into the BIOS to force the PCIe slot to Gen4 instead of 'Auto'. CrystalDiskMark immediately showed sequential reads jumping to 7000-7300MB/s, and the game felt fluid for the first time. I did have a scare where the drive hit 72℃ right after the switch, but adding the OEM heatsink brought it back down to 45-52℃. There's a tiny bit of coil whine from the motherboard under full load, but it's not a dealbreaker. The system panel confirms the protocol is upgraded, and frame times are now a steady 5.1-6.4ms.
