What actually speeds up load times — SSD or RAM?

SSD, not RAM. Load times depend on read speed: an SSD reads at 500 MB/s or faster, while a hard drive struggles at 150 MB/s. Adding more RAM only helps if you’re running out of memory and hitting the slow page file. If you already have an SSD, upgrading from 8GB to 16GB won’t noticeably reduce load times. Spend on the SSD first.