Intel Optane Memory can reduce loading time significantly in Sims 3. Also include high end NVME SSD result.
First I am sorry that I don't have regular SATA SSD to compare.
Side by side comparison. Left is HDD alone , Right is HDD accelerated by Intel Optane Memory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50QmSyQHBjc&t=510s
Test perform with i7-8700K @ 5Ghz , Sims 3 with all ep / sp and 6000+ CC.
It is 11.33 min loading times for normal HDD vs 4.15 min for HDD accelerated by Intel Optane Memory.
So what is Intel Optane Memory ?
The concept of Optane is like SSD caching back in Intel Z68 chipset / year 2011 era. Back in the day SSD was very expensive (128GB cost $250+). Intel release software called IRST (Intel Rapid Storage Technology) so user can buy cheap but small capacity SSD (32-64GB) to accelerate their HDD by way of caching. But as the time progress not many people use SSD caching anymore because SSD is cheaper and offer with more capacity.
Fast forward to 2017 Intel release Optane Memory. Although the concept is the same as SSD caching in 2011 but the Optane itself is different from normal SSD as it come with new technology called 3D XPoint (pronounce 3D crosspoint). It perform a lot better especially in random performance where it matter the most for consumer and it also offer much higher endurance than normal SSD. Optane is very expensive piece of hardware so Intel offer it in 2 forms. First is the real SSD called Optane 900P and 905P. Can you imagine about it's price ? Well the 960GB Intel Optane 905P cost 10 times !! higher than the cheapest 1TB NVME SSD name Crucial P1 ($1000 vs $100). So the price is far cry from most people's wallet. Intel solve the problem by releasing Intel Optane Memory for the mass instead. It come with 16GB and 32GB capacity at tiny price (as of 2019). It work by caching frequently used data to itself so normal HDD can feels fast like SSD.
Bonus. I later bought NVME SSD to test again. But this time I didn't record side by side and make a chart instead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k6kpvIEM8Q&t=40s
It is Transcend PCIE 220S 1TB (3500 MB/s read , 2800 MB/s write).
Surprise ? A thousands read and write megabyte per sec didn't help at all ?
Why ? Like I said before thing that matter the most for normal consumer is random performance NOT sequential performance. Those thousands MB/s is sequential.
So what is sequential workload and what is random workload ? For easy understanding sequential is a big file but small in numbers while random is small files but there are tons of it.
These highend NVME SSD have only 70 MB/s random read performance at queue depth 1. (Most consumer workload don't go beyond queue depth 8).
So in the end you don't really need highend NVME SSD for Sims 3. SATA SSD 500 MB/s will also get the job done.
Record since 2013 with Plextor M5P SATA SSD 128GB. But at that time I only have a few hundreds of CC and also use small house with single household to test.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2opucq6nF5w
Currently you can find 1TB SATA SSD under $100. Unlike in 2013 where you can only got 128GB for the same price !!